Wanted dead or alive

I spent my morning writing an email message to a dear friend. She is currently overwhelmed with discouragement. So,  I pray and I try to speak words of encouragement but they all seem to fall short.  Why is that?

Today in my devotional book that I have been working through I received the answer.  Because it is God's job to rebuild, restore and rejuvenate souls ... not mine.

Our great and glorious God is in the business of rebuilding.  It is His finest work afterall.  Look what He did for His own Son.  It is not a difficult work for Him.  It is a great joy to Him.  It is us that have a problem with the whole process.  We want it now.  Or we want it to come in a different format.  Or we forget to even turn to Him for it in the first place.

The hardest part is ours ... trust.  We need to rest in a place of trusting God to finish what he started, bringing  us to completion and perfection.  Only it will take a long time. I know that hurts to hear.  Especially when you are struggling, barely surviving, and overwhelmed beneath the weight our of your circumstances. But may I offer this bit of encouragement to you today.  The Lord is faithful.  The Lord is continuously working on your behalf (and mine).  The Lord will not rest until it is complete.

Do you feel better now?

Something borrowed, something blue ... something new!

I need to lay a confession down for all to see.  My husband poked me with a comment that has unsettled me for weeks.  I told him I am entering a contest again but taking out the Christian elements this time.  His profound and puncturing words came out softly.

"Are you ashamed of the gospel?"

Ouch!  That hurt.  But a good hurt - the kind you feel when someone pours hydrogen peroxide over an open sore.  A cleansing 'ouch'.

Here is my official response.  No.  I am not ashamed.  I am afraid.

Oh I bet you all rolled off your chair and hit the floor, didn't you? She didn't use the 'f' word, again did she?  I heard you mutter that, by the way.

Or maybe its just me that is so tired of hearing myself say that word.  Okay.  Okay.  I admit it.  I'm afraid.

I need to know where I stand with my writing.  Do I really need validation?  From my frail human experience - YES.  From God's divine experience - no.  But I am human.  Forgive me.

So the age old question - as old as time itself - is asked again.  I will borrow the words from our Savior. "Who do the people say I am?"  Jesus warned us that the world would not accept him.  They would find him offensive.  That is nothing new.  I do not write novels for the ones who don't know Him.  I write for the ones