"Don’t Be So Afraid of Dying That You’re Afraid To Live"

 

When I moved from the beauty of East Texas 6 months ago to the busyness of the city, I felt as if I was that one car you see on the nightly news heading TOWARDS the storm before a hurricane hits. And on the opposite side of the highway, were the thousands fleeing.

I moved straight-up in the middle of a pandemic to a bustling city full of people, and the city people were moving as fast as they could to the less populated country town I just came from. I won't lie; It definitely gave me pause wondering if I had misunderstood God's voice.

But each time I drive down this unique little street of 33 homes I now live on, located smack dab in the middle of a town of 100,000 people, I smile. I smile because I feel like my sweet little street is in the eye of a hurricane. And I know, without a doubt, I heard God loud and clear six months ago when He had me move there.

Our little street is the still, calm and quiet part of a worldly storm where the universe is swirling all around us at massive speeds and we're standing still. A place where everyone wants to know each other....waves as you drive by....and walks their new neighbor's dog when they're not able to. The ladies meet with their lawn chairs on the cul-de-sac during a pandemic so they can keep their sanity during this earth's moments of insanity.

The center of the storm is the best place to be during a hurricane of this world.

And I've been thinking a lot about our time on this earth while parked in the eye of the storm. How to live when you've got no idea how much time you've got left. I lost a lot of people last year I never thought I'd lose. Passed away suddenly, unexpectedly....tragically. I thought I had more time with them....but truth is, none of us know how much time we have left. We get up, we grab our coffee, check our email, walk the dog, eat a bagel and then do it all over again tomorrow.

And how did we made a difference yesterday? How will we make a difference today?

I heard someone say the other day, "We have to be careful that we don't cause more harm to ourselves by avoiding living life during the virus, than the virus itself might cause."

Truth be told, we all only have so much sand in the top of the hourglass of our lives. What we do with that remaining sand is completely up to us. Do we sit by watching it slowly, grain after grain, falling into history? Or do we realize, "You don't know how much time you have to live - so you have to make time to make the life you want to live."

Live for what matters, friends. Because you already know the one sure thing: You will die.

So the one and only question that remains and matters is: Will you live?

The Way Out

 

THE WAY OUT

lizetheridge

A man was walking down the street when he fell into a hole. The walls were so steep he couldn't get out. The man in the hole began to cry out for help.

Soon, a doctor walked by, heard the man's cries for help, wrote him a prescription, tossed it down the hole, and walked away. Before long, a priest walked by and heard the man calling out, "Father, can you help me?" The priest wrote a prayer, threw it in the hole, and walked away.

Finally, a friend came along. And the man asked the friend for help. The friend then made a bold, brave move: He jumped into the hole. The man who had been trapped was shocked. "Are you stupid? Now we're both stuck down here." But the friend said, "Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out."

This is the gospel, folks. God stood at the edge of a hole, and He heard people crying for help. But He didn't write us a prescription and throw it down the hole. He didn't pray and then walk away. He jumped into the hole. He sent us a Rescuer who put on skin and lived on the inside of every hole, every mess, every valley you could imagine.

He lived your life here on earth. He knows what its like to be you. He knows its impossible for you to get out of that hole without His help...and He hears your cries. He WANTS to jump into that hole you're in and help you find your way out.

JESUS IS THE LADDER.

And He uses us to be Hole-Hunters....Cry-Hearers....Jumper-in-ers. And if you've ever been in a hole and are standing on the street, it means you know the way out. Right now, all of us are in one of two places; we are either stuck in a hole.....or we're walking along the street, seeing holes all around and hearing only cries for help.

I don't know where you're at today....whether you're inside the hole begging for help out with a pile of prescriptions and prayers at your feet.....or whether you're on the street safe, free and rescued. All I do know is that Jesus wants to rescue you....He wants a RELATIONSHIP with you....whether its building a ladder side-by-side or jumping down into that hole together..... It's just that simple.

 

*Thanks to Jennifer Dukes Lee for the story above"

"Feeling Discombobulated?"

  

 

“I am with you and for you, Liz”.....is the opening line to my Jesus Calling book this morning.

 

 And then I read this day last year’s prayer in my journal. I had just turned a page in my life...passed the 1-year mark as a widow...sold the lake house and felt a "rescue" I had prayed years for.  A rescue I had begged God many times for.  My lifeboat had arrived and had delivered me to dry ground and safety and I could breathe once again without fear. I no longer considered myself "Job-ette":

I wrote:

 “I feel somewhat like Job coming out of the destruction and heart ache of his own life....losing everything including his family.....and finally seeing light at the end of the horizon....knowing that this time was coming to an end.  The despair and heartache, for whatever reason required in our lives...and then we see Your light rising from the end of the earth for us.  I wonder how long Job waited before he saw Your light rising on the horizon?“ 

 

God's timing.  If we’ll just quit looking at the world around us and the timing it sets for everything and, instead, look at God's timing, then our anxiety’s would be replaced with Joy and Thankfulness.  Because we can trust His timing...we can trust His plans for our lives...we can depend on being rescued from what comes next.   

The world is changing so fast....the life we once knew and loved and yes, took for granted, is going away.  It’s so incredibly easy to feel hopeless amongst the rubble of just this past week.  

 

But lets not forget; we were promised struggles as we journey down this narrow road: 

"I've told you all this so that trust Me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace.  In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world."  John 16:33 (The Message Version)

  

Not trying to tell God how to write, but if I had transcribed that scripture above, I would most certainly have put several exclamation marks after "I have overcome the world" and then left a blank _____ for us to write our own name in.  It's that powerful....and it's that needed.  

 

Take heart, _____ (insert your name)......God has already conquered this world!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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