**Before we go into the second week of Can God, I wanted to follow up on my progress with my 7 loving close acts from the Love With No Regrets blog (read Love With No Regrets to learn more). I hope some of you who are new to the page will go back and read my previous post and comment on your 7 things . The more we share, the more we know, and the more we grow. My 7 are below....
Greeting ever cashier with a cheer and a good word and waiting for them to respond. (Well, I do talk to them, but with this mask on, I’m still not feeling fully engaged in the greeting process.)
Reaching out to someone I have not heard from in awhile. ✅
Reconnecting with the widows in our community. (Still in progress, but I have some fresh ideas on how to do this.)
Saying thank you again to those that have helped me since my Ben was rewarded with heaven. (Still in progress.)
Sending a gift to someone God puts on my heart. ✅
Mailing a handwritten card to 5 people, and express my heartfelt gratefulness for their friendship. ✅
Calling my immediate family and extended family to check in and say hello and I love you. (Still in progress, but some of them are in town this week who I haven’t seen for over a year. So, it’s going to be a good week of quality family time.)
I have to say that it felt good to give. I received texts from all the recipients with the hand written cards. It’s new for me to send cards, but it’s an art my grandmother was good at, and since she has passed away, I want to take it on.
My current read is Bob Goff’s new book Dream Big. Here is a quote from his book,
“Love's goal isn’t ever efficiency; it’s presence.”
I just wanted to leave you with that nugget. Now back to our regularly schedule program!**
Thank you for coming back to this 4-part series on Can God.
I’m here to unpack the next three questions with you. Again, I hope you find this site as a place to fill up and feel up, so you can go out and give up. When you give yourself away every day, it’s an act of worship and a sacrifice of praise unto our Heavenly Father. No matter the day, you can give yourself away as an act of praise. But remember, you must always come back to the Word of God to get another fill up. The more you fill up, the more you can give up.
Okay enough about that. Now, let’s unpack!
Can God Heal My Hurting Heart?
YES!! There are gifts to be captured in the messy seasons of your life. I received a gift I like to call an eternal perspective. This means my daily choices are weighed with eternity in mind. A hurting heart makes me think, I know Jesus felt this at times. The hurting has given me compassion, empathy, and a capacity to sit with those who have been through a painful season and love them while processing it with them. A hurting heart has to deal with the distance apart from a loved one. I have learned distance doesn’t affect the closeness unless you let it. It’s a choice.
Can God Bring Me a New Joy?
He did for me, and I believe He can and will do it for you. But, I do believe there were a few choices I made that made the difference. I chose every day to look for the gifts in the day. In the beginning, I needed to have something to grab ahold of because everything around me felt shaky. I believed I needed to log the goodness in my journal, because in trauma, your memories seem to go missing. And, I didn’t want to miss out on remembering the goodness.
Goodness became my obsession—to see it, taste it, smell it, and embrace it. Goodness is one of the character traits of God. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. But, do we actually believe this? When so many negative things are going on around us—within our own families, to us personally—it starts to feel personal. But, it’s not, it’s just the cycles of life. Life happens, however, it’s what we do with it that shows us what we believe. If you don’t believe He is good, you will not see anything good around you. If your inner narrative is always proving things as worse case scenarios, you might need a new perspective or a heart check. If you feel you see the worse, find some time to get quiet and ask your heart, Why am I worried? Why do I see worse case scenarios? What is the truth before me that I can’t see?
Have a pen and paper ready, because as you open your heart to hear, He will reveal. He wants to dialogue with you in every single thing you are going through. He longs to be with you. The more you feel Him, the more you need Him. The more you need Him, the more you will call on Him. The more you call on Him, the more you start to see Him. The more you start to see Him, the more you start to believe Him. The more you start to believe Him, the more you start to honor Him. The more you start to honor Him, the more you learn that you truly love Him.
Can God Really Bring Me More Joy?
I believe there is a stigma that after a loss, to see someone with Joy seems wrong or insensitive. Sadness tells people they really missed the person or thing they loss—that they really loved them deeply. A pastor friend of mine mentioned this to me recently after she lost her own father: Sadness is human, but it’s a carnal emotion. To feel closer to your loved ones, you have to rejoice because that’s what they are doing. This makes so much sense to me, because for me, Heaven is a happy place and my loved one is in that happy place. So, let’s be happy today, even if our loved ones are in a different realm and space. The scriptures reference Joy comes in the morning. Why? Because we awoke again! We are given the opportunity to rejoice.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”
-Philippians 4:4 NKJV
No matter your season, there is always something to rejoice about. Find the good, and soon you will feel and see the good. When you rejoice despite a tough season, it breaks the agreement that some kind of doom is looming. When the thoughts come, don’t beat yourself up. The thought isn’t the issue; it’s agreeing with the thought that’s the issue. When you know Whose you are, a son or daughter of the King, one thing is for sure, when He sees you, He sees you blameless in His sight.
So, please don’t stress. There is joy even in the distress. Find the joy!! Joy is an internal muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets, and the more you’ll have to give away in every day. Everyone has a joy muscle.
I hope these questions have encouraged you and that you will bring your cheer and always smile from ear to ear.