Sunday Sermon

I am not a die-hard Ann Voskamp fan. She can be a little too verbose for me sometimes. However, the nuggets of truth within her pages are so powerful. A good friend (Thanks Shelby!) sent me her most recent book: The Broken Way, and I've really been enjoying it. A few phrases in the early pages have really stood out to me. For my "Sunday Sermon" post, I wanted to share them with you today.

Like all of you, I am dealing with my demons. So many of you who read my Blog, I know on a personal level. Some of your issues I know. Some are hidden. I have some of my issues right out for everyone to see: my battle with depression and infertility has been quite prominent many times in the past.

Lately I've been battling a bit of "stress." I don't like to use the word "anxiety" because that doesn't quite describe it. But I am a people-pleaser, and I am finding more and more in my life that this need to see other people happy is leaving me with a churning stomach more often that not. An unsettled feeling that I can't seem to conquer. I have decided that I'm going to share about this more in the days/weeks/months/years to come. And I also want to share how I am working through what is plaguing me. I say that because we all have our thing. We all have our issues -- hidden or right out in front. And if we don't "keep it real" we feel like we are battling alone.

Here are some of the things that really jumped out at me this week:

"I do not know how deeper will this trial go -- how much pain and suffering it will bring to me. This does not worry me anymore. I leave this to Him as I leave everything else ... Let Him do with me whatever He wants as He wants for as long as He wants if my darkness is light to some soul." -- Mother Teresa (Page 22)

*****

"God has not forgotten you. God has not abandoned you. God's love is around you everywhere. When you feel in your marrow how you're His Beloved, you do more than look for signs of His love in the world, more than have a sign of His love; you actually become a sign of His love." (Page 23)

*****

"It's all okay." She finds the right first words. She holds the torn bit of her paper heart out to me. "Maybe the love gets in easier right where the heart's broke open?" (Page 24)

*****

"... maybe you can live a full and beautiful life in spite of the great and terrible moments that will happen right inside of you. Actually -- maybe you get to become more abundant because of those moments. Maybe -- I don't know how, but somehow? -- maybe out hearts are made to be broken. Broken open. Broken free. Maybe the deepest wounds birth deepest wisdom." (Page 24)

*****

"God does great things through the greatly wounded. God sees the broken as the best and He sees the best in the broken and He calls the wounded to be the world changers." (Page 24)

*****

"'You know -- everything all across this farm says the same thing, you know that right? ..... The seed breaks to give us the wheat. The soil breaks to give us the crop, the sky breaks to give us the rain, the wheat breaks to give us the bread. And the bread breaks to give us the feast. There was once even an alabaster jar that broke to give Him all the glory ... Never be afraid of being a broken thing.'" (Page 25)