Asking for Help

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**
    It is so hard to ask for help. We’ll exhaust ourselves before we ask another for help. We’ll awkwardly carry a heavy load, bend with a child in one arm to pick up a paper clip and many times overexert ourselves then grumble under our breaths that no one is helping. So, why can’t we just ask for help??

    Asking for help means admitting that I cannot do it all on my own and that I might need others. Asking for help means I actually know what to ask for. So many times I am so overwhelmed and so accustomed to taking care of everything I don’t even know what help to ask for!

    I believe asking for help takes humility, it takes knowing yourself and it takes being realistic about life.

    How can you ask for help today?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Being a Learner

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Being a learner means we take the posture to receive, to grow and to acknowledge that we do not know all. It means we make mistakes and fail … and sometimes that means a public failure. Being a learner means admitting we need each other.

    Being a learner means I am willing to be corrected, edited and challenged. Being a learner means I need others to sharpen my mind, heart, body and faith. Being a learner means I admit that I do not have it all together - Jesus does.

    Jesus has it all together and He is the best Teacher, He leads and guides us in truth and grace. We also have another, the Holy Spirit, Who leads and guides us in truth and wisdom. We also have the community of believers, those who have gone before us and are with us now and in some mysterious way the ones to come. They sharpen and encourage us.

    What do you struggle with most being a learner? How can you take the posture of a learner today?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Wrestling With or Wrestling Against?

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    A natural wrestler (think non-physical here), when an instructor of mine directed me to consider whether I was wrestling with or against God, I paused. I had never considered there might be a difference between wrestling with and wrestling against.

    As a natural question asker, critical thinker, challenger of authority and question asker, God and I have had a few wrestling matches in our relationship. It was not until I was asked about wrestling with or against that I considered the difference in my posture and heart towards God.

    Wrestling with implies I want to learn, grow and am coming to the match with humility. Wrestling against implies I am here to compete, win and am coming to the match with pride.

    Wrestling with implies a vulnerability, an openness and courage to hear what I may not want to hear. Wrestling against implies self-protection, being closed off and unwilling to hear.

    As I reflect on these differences I am not so sure that most of my wrestling matches were not matches against God.

    How about you? Are you wrestling with God today? Are you wrestling with or against?

    Whether with or against my prayer is God’s grace would take over and lead you deeper into His heart.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Quiet Heroes

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

    Many live life as quiet heroes. Not many know of their sacrifices, pains and struggles to serve others. They receive no accolades or articles written about them. They do not receive compensation or even gifts for their daily sacrifices.

    These quiet heroes humble me as I enjoy hearing my own voice or seeing my words on paper. These quiet heroes humble me because they are content to serve with very little expected in return.

    Who in your life is a quiet hero? Will you thank God for them today?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Hindsight - Always 20/20?

**Sit quietly, eyes closed, in silence for one minute before reading.**

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” – Søren Kierkegaard

    Hindsight is not always 20/20. Things are not necessarily clearer because they have passed. Things cannot necessarily be understood after they have passed.
    Sometimes hindsight complicates things. Sometimes hindsight leads us to beat ourselves up, saying to ourselves, “I should have known” or “I should have seen that”. Hindsight can bring forth the mystery and murkiness of life, recognizing life is not as clean as we would hope. Hindsight often brings forth our imperfection and the fact that we cannot know all.
    Hindsight can lead us to greater dependence on God, a realization of our need for Him. God calls us to trust Him, whether He gives us explanations or not, whether hindsight is 20/20 or 20/80.
    Hindsight leads me to humility, recognizing I am highly dependent on God; God who sees all perfectly and makes all things new.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Strength In Surrender

**Sit quietly, eyes closed in silence for one minute before reading.**

    I am a fighter. I was taught to be a fighter and high value was placed on it. Surrender was never an option unless you were beat. You never gave up a fight. As I live life a little more each day I have realized there is great strength in choosing to surrender rather than being beat into it. There is also less pain in choosing to surrender!
    I am learning to pick my battles (I think). Not every battle is worth fighting, especially when we are going toe to toe with God.
    Surrender requires humility, it requires a reality check and it takes strength. Surrender is often not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength. If you are a fighter, you know it takes strength to surrender. It also takes a great swallow of pride.
    Often this strength does not come from me but from God. My nature is to battle, not surrender and so I ask God, “give me wisdom to discern what is worth the battle, give me humility and strength to surrender”. Ultimately I desire to surrender to God’s will – whatever that entails.
    Surrender requires many things and in and of ourselves we are incapable to fully surrender.
    My prayer today is this: “God grant us to see things as they are, the humility to trust You and the strength to surrender to Your call. Amen.”

**Sit again for as long as is available to you.**

Christmas Love

**Please take one minute to sit, breathe deeply and seek quiet.**

   Christmas love came innocent, vulnerable and as a servant. Christmas love came in humility, in downward mobility to meet us where we are. Christmas love came through a virgin-born, perfect baby so that we might live. Christmas love came as a subject and slave to anything and everything a human being might suffer.
    The vulnerability of a great God amazes me. He subjected Himself to a mother’s womb and human development, to a mother, father and human family to care for him, to dependence on others for food, clothing and a place to sleep. He put Himself in dependence on broken human beings. Not only did his love come in dependence, He knew he would be dependent on parents that made mistakes and were broken. The great God of the UNIVERSE put Himself in a place of utter dependence so that man could know him and live.
    Christmas love is Jesus. He is a God who placed himself in great dependence on men and women so that through Him men and women might live. A risky move if you ask me. A move He had to make for our lives.
    God’s love went to the greatest of lengths but it was not a risky move. He knew what He was doing and He knew it was worth it. He knew what would come from it and He came. This move of love brought light, hope and life to the world.  Praise be to God.

**Please take as much time as is possible to sit and reflect.**

Peace Needed Blood

**Before you being reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for one minute.**
"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." Colossians 1:19-20

    It seems odd that peace would come through blood. To think that peace needed blood. Many times I think of peace as merely the absence of pain, turmoil, hardship. Sometimes this is true. Peace with God came through death, it came through shed blood. Who would have thought that peace needed blood? The life of Jesus, lived perfectly, ended with a bloodshed death. The blood that dripped is the blood that has cleansed our lives and has reconciled us with God.
    Jesus is our only opportunity for peace with God. It started with the incarnation, the birth of Jesus when God was PLEASED to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus. He was pleased to become fully human. The humility of God is enormous and to take it even further, the humility goes even to death, to the shedding of blood.
    How has peace come into your life through hardship, through sacrifice?

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**