Gina of Rubies

Gina is a lady from my church whose perspective on life is always bringing me back to God's heart. I recently went on a trip with her to a third world country. The morning were supposed to leave, she fell down a fight of stairs and was hurt but still able to travel.  She was telling me,

"Jen, it's ok this happened to me. It's a reminder that God sends us in our weakness."

Am I so aware of His strength that I do not fear my inadequacy at all, but all the more throw myself into His strong arms and trust that it is enough?   It is so easy to het caught up in this clay pot, the shape of the pot and smoothing out the cracks, that I forget it's not about this pot at all, it's about Christ in me.  He rescued me in my weakness. He sustains and indeed sends me in it as well. 

Oh Lord, Your praise and renown are the desire of our hearts... not ours but Yours. ..

Debbie the Valiant

Sometimes you just write so you won't forget the stones in the Jordan. And maybe this random blog should be just that, stones in the Jordan, making a pillar to look back on and remember what God has done.

Memory 1: Debbie.

Debbie went on a recent trip with me out of the country. She has an anxiety disorder and fibomylagia (a chronic pain disorder that might or might not be in your head but renders your body hypersensitive to pain and fatigue). She is usually the type of person who is a medical doctor’s worst nightmare.  But over the course of this last week I saw her exert a tremendous amount of Courage.  Now courage is not really about doing hard things, and it is not about be fearless. It is about seeing something and being afraid- but choosing to do it anyways.  She had more fear than all of us combined and she took amazing steps of faith each day. She cried and gripped my hand as the plane took off and landed (and knew she would since she has a fear of flying).  She worked harder than she had ever worked in her life and spoke more boldly than she had ever spoken before. And I saw her change before my eyes. She did not come back the same person. She was a valiant warrior and she was beautiful. When I think about Debbie, I have hope for difficult people...for those that the world would ordinarily give up on…for my patients who are paralyzed in a cycle of helplessness. I have hope for change for them. And then I can also look at my own life and have hope for change from the same Hands.