When Jesus' Living and Leading Looks So Different...

How Jesus lived and leads is so often different from the way I thought it would look.

And so it was with the disciples and people of the days He walked the earth-lands.

I'm seeing in a more real way the struggle and disappointment many faced as they walked with Jesus. The struggle to believe and the tension of the heartstrings to trust the heart of Jesus when life makes little or no sense.

The Romans were a people that were ruthless, hard, and had little to no mercy and many were waiting for someone stronger to subdue them.
The disciples often wanted Jesus to sweep in and take over.

What did He say?
Love your enemies.  Do good to them that hate you.  Go the second mile.  My kingdom is not of this world.
And on it goes...

Peter even went so far as to kill a man in the garden only to catch the ear.  Jesus wasn't doing anything...
Fear settles in the hearts of many as Jesus, their leader, is crucified.  Why?  What happens to us??

Disillusionment.  Anger.  Disappointment.  settles in.  Many walk away.  Others follow, with questions.  Still others trust Jesus knowing He is the Messiah, even though they did not understand...

And, I too, want Someone bigger and stronger to right the wrongs, to subdue evil, to sweep in and take over...
And it often doesn't happen...

Disillusionment, anger, frustration grips my heart just as it did the disciples and others.  I have, in that moment, the choice of those long ago --- Will I walk away,  or stay, or believe the heart of Jesus and His words and trust Him, in the middle of questions and even disappointment?

Jesus just did not come like they thought a King or Messiah would come.  He did not live like they expected Him to.  And He did not lead in a way that they wanted Him to.

He called that of His followers... to live differently.

And so, it is today.

Will you trust Him when life hurts and makes little sense?
Do you believe He is good and has your good in mind?

Hard questions.  Real stuff.

But there is a Greater Truth and that Truth is... JESUS LOVES US!  HIS LOVE IS DEEP.

Let that love go deep in your heart and take root, again.  Believe it until it creates a new groove of thinking in your heart.

It's a journey.  A lifetime of understanding and learning of God and His love and learning to trust His heart towards us.

But the more we choose to believe, the stronger the root.

Love to you, my friends, my readers as you walk with God in the hard and easy. Sometimes we lose our way in the hard, it's hard to believe...  May someone fight for you, believe for you, walk with you when you can't...

And remember when you feel as if you're alone.... you're not - there's a Greater Truth, God never leaves or forsakes us.

May you know and 'taste of' Him who loves us so much He stretched His arms and gave His life.

Let's give Him ours.

The Cost of Beauty

Have you thought about beauty and maybe how beauty really looks??
Is is merely taking what is already beautiful and creating beauty with that?
Or is it maybe seeing beyond...?
Beyond the present situation to what something could be?

Beauty.
Flowers. Diamonds. Candles. Love. Joy. Radiant faces.

That's fun.  That's easy.

But what about the hard times?  The person who is hard to love?  The person who struggles to rest?
Is there beauty in that?  What about seeing beyond and fighting for the deeper things of life?
What about rejection, loneliness; is there any beauty in that?

Maybe not.  Hard times are not fun or beautiful; it's the outcome.  It's what can be produced in our hearts or another's heart that becomes beautiful.

What about getting involved in someone's life?  Jesus did.  He became involved in our world.  Our lives...

Sometimes beauty costs.
And...
Sometimes the cost is high.  very high.

The cost to live selflessly, giving up dreams, wishes, and desires, at times.
The cost to follow the commands of Jesus, loving when it's not easy.  Forgiving.
The cost for beauty and refinement, having those rough edges, planed.
The cost to become involved, to fight for another's heart and soul.

Jesus gave His all.  His life.
It cost Him misunderstandings.  betrayal.  helping others when He wanted to be alone with His Father.
It cost Him His life.

This time of the year, we stop and celebrate the fact that Jesus came as a baby.  We put up a manger scene.  We rejoice that the Messiah came to set us free. We are comforted that Immanuel, God with us, came.

He got involved in our world.
And it cost.
His life.  The ultimate sacrifice, once and for all.

I am grateful Jesus came.

It cost Him all.
Now it costs me...

We don't do the physical, daily sacrifices of offering an animal; but we have many opportunities to daily sacrifice - AND IT COSTS.

AND IT HURTS.

You give yourself to helping another and you may hear words of criticism instead of encouragement.
You pour yourself out for the sake of loving another, and someone says in some way... "It's not enough..."
You're in a role of leadership and the many opinions and criticism seem to be a dagger...
You expose a struggle or dare to be vulnerable and another doesn't seem to get you...
You want a moment of quiet with your Heavenly Father and someone comes 'banging' on your door.

It hurts.  We get scratched.

I have a quote that reminds me what it means to be involved in other's lives...
Sara Hagerty penned these words "Little did I know that most of the treasures within a person lay hidden below the surface waiting for a voice to  call it out.  Beauty in another requires participation."

I recently took a walk down a road and up a bank to cut some greens for a friend to add touches in her house this winter season.  There were weeds, briars, and some slippery muddy spots.

I got scratched.  It was awkward at times to not slip.  I cut red berries and there were thorns that pricked...

I was helping to create beauty for another, and it didn't always feel good.  But it was so worth it.

Not all of life is that basic.  But the picture I got a glimpse of is... SOMETIMES TO CREATE BEAUTY OR TO CALL OUT BEAUTY IN ANOTHER HURTS.

Sometimes to have beauty refined in our souls, hurts.

The misunderstandings.  the betrayal.  the criticism has the potential to create a beauty in our souls that is beyond our understanding.  A beauty that others will benefit from.

The hard also has the potential to harden.  To harden our hearts and put up walls.

It is a beauty that we cannot create or handle on our own, we must take our pain to the Father.  We must hold out our hands... the one with the pain, the other with being reminded of who we are in Him, His Greater Truth.

He, too, has scars.  Nail-pierced hands and feet that mark His costs.

My scratches will fade, but some are indelibly marked in our hearts.
Jesus knows.

He has permanent marks, too.

He endured pain to set us free.
Now our pain can set us free.

Free from self and selfishness.
Free from bondage and lies.
Free to live.
Free to be in Jesus!

Jesus has said and promised, that He will create beauty out of ashes.  He can take what is hard and ugly and create beauty.

We are NOT ALONE in this quest for beauty.
Jesus has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
He has promised His grace IS SUFFICIENT.

He gives more grace when the trials are greater.  As deep as our hard is, so is the depth of His grace; if we choose to see Him and lean on His understanding and trust His heart when our way is blinded with pain and sorrow.

Hard is meant for us to find God.  To search for what is truly life-giving and eternal.  To remind us, we need God.  REDEMPTION...

That is another form of beauty.

Beauty of soul. Beauty that lasts.
Beauty that hurts.

But beauty that is LIFE-GIVING.

Keep your hand in His.  He has promised that He will finish the work that He started in you.

Cost it does... but it is and will be WORTH IT!
HEAVEN.  Glorious Heaven.  Eternal beauty and bliss.  Jesus!