The Uncaged Roundup

Nov 25, 2012Find joy today, Heal from the past, Kingdom Uncaged

I’ve been doing a new thing lately here at Live Uncaged, where I round up all the posts that made me think, cry, grow, smile, or think of life differently. This week, here are my faves.

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The Girl Who Knew Everything by Jessica Bowman. Such a raw, honest, painful wowzer of a story. A drug addicted mom. A wayward child. And a marriage held in the balance.

When he opens the door I follow closely behind. As I walk down the center aisle of the church between the rows of pews, with my hatred still burning, I feel the force of an 118 lb woman between my shoulder blades. She’s mustered her anger into physical form and shoved me ahead as hard as her little frame will allow.

I’ll never forget it.

The pastor whirls to see what the commotion is now. But all he finds is me accusing and her denying.

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The Early Warning Signs of a Hard Heart by Carey Nieuwhof. Oh my. Wow. This was eye-popping to read, and it highlighted some areas of my life I’ve let my heart harden like stone.

You over-protect a broken heart. People promise and don’t deliver. Your hopes were bigger than what happened. You trusted someone and your trust was misplaced. Really, that’s just life. It happens to everyone. But how you respond is so critical. It’s easy to shield yourself from people. It’s easy to stop trusting, stop loving, stop believing. But that would be a mistake. It kills your heart.

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Light by Bridget Beth Collins. I’ve often wondered if I’d have seasonal affective disorder if I lived back in Seattle. With all this Texas sunshine, most likely. I’ve grown accustomed to it. So when my friend struggles with it, I empathize. But I also love her heart.

I’ve been thinking about this quite often. It’s a theme I’m working with in my book. It’s also what I used to tell myself before going to school as a child. “Shine like the sun” I’d sing as I walked into a school with no friends. It made perfect sense when faced with adversity and struggle, but It hadn’t occurred to me until now that I still need to do this as an adult, for myself and for my children. Even when there isn’t really anything hindering me. The old irritating saying, “Rise and shine!” makes so much sense now that I’m looking at it through a different prism.

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Bearchase 2012 Race Report by Corinne Baur. I’ve been using Corinne’s book, Running by the Book, as I train for my first ever (and most likely my last) half marathon. She’s amazing and sweet and fun. We even got to run together in California when we attended re:write. Here she writes about her TWO 50-mile races. Wow.

How often do I do that in my everyday life? Expect a certain outcome but sort of slide through the preparation? I fool myself into thinking I have prepared, when truth is I didn’t really do what I needed to do. I expect God’s grace but am not willing to take the time and effort to take care of those elemental things I do have control over. (Like prayer, spending time in His word, prioritizing my life towards Him…)

 

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