Jenn's Journey from Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

Yay! It's Monday again...time for a few moments to have coffee together while reflecting on some thought-provoking things.
A week ago we celebrated Easter, the event which changed human history forever. Jesus, brutally killed because of the hatred of mankind, came back to life as He said He would. He did this so that we would have hope, hope that this is not all there is. Life on earth brings us many things: struggles and difficulties, even joy. Jesus died so that in the midst of all we experience, a relationship with Him will help us live abundantly here on earth while we wait for Him to come back to get us.
Remember when Mary and the other women went to the tomb early Sunday morning to embalm Jesus’ body? Of course, they did not find Him there. What they found were two men in bright clothing who said to them "Why do you look for the living among the dead?" (Luke 24:5) I was sitting in church, listening to a sermon and this verse literally jumped out at me.
We as people will look to anything to fill the void and make us feel alive, won't we? Food, sex, career, exercise, spending money, relationships, entertainment; oh, we know the list could go on but I think you get my drift.
Isn't it also true that often, once we get something on that list, we still feel empty? I'd like to challenge you to think on the verse above and wonder with me...Why are WE looking for the living among the dead?
I am not suggesting that any of the things above are bad in and of themselves; they can certainly bring us temporary happiness. But, if they are the only things we use to fill our emptiness, then we will remain empty. We will keep repeating the same actions, hoping for different results. You've probably heard this is the definition of insanity!! Just a touch of humor. :) Looking to people, places or things to fulfill our lives will keep us stuck in places we don't want to be along with practicing habits we long to let go of.
In order to truly live, we need to be connected to a Source that is higher than us. That Source fills us with the comfort, the connection and the energy we need to live, to get up and over the circumstances we find ourselves in. Once we are filled in that way, we can go out to enjoy all the other aspects of life, including sharing what He has done with others.
Last week I referenced letting Him into your story so that He can make something beautiful of it. The fact that He died, and lives again, means He can do just that. Let His light into those lonely, disconnected places and see what He'll do!! Don't search among the dead... start living...in the way that only He can offer!
Until next week, be blessed

The Waiting Room … In the Hospital of Life March's WOW

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.: Phil. 1:6
Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to share Coffee Hour with me … and more of this month’s WOW, The Waiting Room in the Hospital of Life. I truly hope you are enjoying what we are discovering as we walk through the rooms in the Hospital of Life with our Great Physician. Grab your coffee and your Red Strand of Faith.
So I shared a couple of exam room experiences, experiences that truly changed my life and the direction of it. Let me return to that first example, because it was shortly after the exam where He told me He was going to be taking me off of work that He actually came and took me to the O.R. room!
The morning after the county’s doctor called in an off-work order, I remember being somewhat dazed and bewildered by the events leading up to that very moment. Memories of His words spoken to me in the exam room in the mornings preceding the actual work release came flooding back to me, offering me hope, peace, beckoning me to let go and take His hand, to let the deep work begin.
I sat in my big, comfy chair with my thermos of coffee, my journal and my Bible. I remember I literally cried out, “But I’m a court reporter,” and He countered with, “No, you’re not; that’s what you did for a living. Now you will become what I’ve created you to be.”
In the months that followed, through what I deemed a spiritual open-heart surgery, He peeled back many layers, revealing lies that I had bought into, removing them through extensive counseling therapy. While on that first operating table, He also cut away a lot of bitterness and un-forgiveness I had buried towards my abusers all the while exposing some of the many painful memories. These memories were what the bitterness and un-forgiveness were wrapped up in and bound by; but now that they were out in the open, no longer suffocated by life, they left me completely, now powerless over me.
Then my Great Surgeon closed me up, temporarily, and gave me glimpses of what He was preparing me for by sending me out to speak, transparently, about my open-heart surgery and my Great Physician. Those were some powerful, out-of-body experiences, kind of like being in a recovery room sort of dazed, but cognizant of what has just happened!
That was just the beginning! I can’t even count the number of open-heart surgeries that He’s performed since then, and promises to keep performing, that I may become more like the image that He created me to be: Like Himself. (Genesis 1:27)
And in between surgeries, I walk through the hallways of The Hospital of Life, and God introduces me to so many other patients, patients in so many different walks of life. When I am discouraged, He brings nurses into my life to encourage me to stay in The Hospital of Life.
Because of all my surgeries thus far, I am able to recognize those who are in pain, and I am able to encourage them as we pass each other in the hallways of The Hospital of Life. But there are those that He brings me to walk alongside of, those other patients that have consented to open-heart surgery, allowing the transformation process to begin in the Hospital of Life, that I may comfort them with the comfort I’ve been given after each surgery. (2^nd Corinthians 1:4)
Yes, knowing that He who began this work will be faithful to complete it until the time of Christ keeps me looking in all the rooms of The Hospital of Life, that I may be His heart, His hands, or His feet. I’ll see you in The Hospital of Life!
Love,

Evinda