daily bread

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"Small gifts wait in quiet places.  They hide under piles of daily tasks, waiting to be discovered and celebrated.  That's why I think Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread -- not bread to las a life time, but bread to last this day.  It was a call to dependence, a call away from self-sufficiency, a call to turn to the Giver, a call to humbly and thankfully receive.  

I romanticize the past, longing for its fuzzy memories to rematerialize so I can hold them in my arms again.  I wish for the future to hurry up, certain that in its arrival will be peace and promise and finally, rest.  This is the day that the Lord has made, yet I long for another.  To find the lovely in the ordinary sometimes takes a bit of work, but the more i look for it, the more quickly it shows up."

-emily p. freeman, grace for the good girl

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It's not often I finish a book.  I love books.  I like to have them.  I like to get them as gifts.  I just never finish a book it seems -- no matter how much I enjoy it.  So usually, actually finishing a book takes a good couple/few years of picking it up and putting it down again etc. etc.  This is a book I am so glad to have read front to back in one season... in a season that I needed it.

I met Emily, our author, at the Influence Conference.  She was the first session I went to & sitting in the middle of her session I texted David that if all I had driven up to Indiana for was to hear what she had to say, then my time had already been well spent.   She made me, as one who was created in the image of God -- a divine image barer, feel like an artist with a voice.  Not just feel, but believe.  She said we should "Listen to our tears."  I turned to my blog friend Nat & asked jokingly, "what does it mean if i start crying when she says 'listen to your tears?'"  Oh boy.  She backed some heat.  I wish you had been there.  I walked away challenged and profoundly encouraged.  

I don't have a crazy story about coming to Jesus.  But my redemption is no less miraculous.  I didn't have to be saved from a deadly addiction or an abusive relationship, but I needed saving just the same.  I don't struggle with sins of murder or adultery, but I need grace no less and deserve it no more than those who do.  

Sometimes we don't believe that.  We take our role as whatever we perceive it to be and fall into the shadows of those with "bigger stories" to tell.  We fall into insecurity, jealousy, pride, shame, fear -- instead of standing in freedom.  Because God is graceful, I am free!  Free to be myself sans apologies, masks, or stipulations.  I have a God who finds pleasure in giving the exceedingly abundant!  Do not be afraid little flock, for the Father is pleased to grant you his Kingdom (luke 12:32)!

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