Showing posts with label James. Show all posts

Pregnant with Impatience

By | Published Monday, February 24, 2014

Shelly Hendricks is a wife and mother of 2 amazing kids. She was a teacher and a librarian in another life. She also suffers from Intracranial Hypertension, Interstitial Cystitis, and Essential Tremor, among a myriad of other issues mostly stemming from these three. She had brain surgery in 2012, to install a VP Shunt, and now considers herself to be a ‘bionic woman’ who is learning to walk again. Disability has been hard to deal with, but she depends on God for all strength and hopes to encourage others on this journey, through her blog at http://reneweddaily.com


Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. - James 1:2-4

When I was pregnant with my second child, my beautiful girl, I was on bed rest for 2 months.  My daughter was so excited to greet the world that she decided she didn't need the 9 months required by other babies to fully develop in the womb.  Nope, she figured she only needed 7 months.  I and her doctors knew better, however, and so we did everything we could to keep her inside my body for the appropriate amount of time.

In this life of chronic... well, everything... it's so hard not to feel like my little baby daughter did while she shared my body.  I find myself fighting impatience.  Sometimes the impatience feels like it has a life of it's own, and it grows and grows until it becomes large and angry and destructive.  Destructive to my own good.
You see, just as my child needed time to develop what she would need to successfully greet the world and live the life she was meant to live, I need time for God's work in me to fully develop and equip me for the challenges to come.

It is so easy to forget that God is doing a work in me, that I am developing.  It mostly feels like I'm just sitting around and waiting.  Actually it mostly feels like I'm just sitting around.  Scratch the waiting.  I don't feel that useful most days.



But the beauty of God is that He is God.  He's not limited by my finite imagination, and He isn't spurred on by my growing sense of impatience.  Thankfully, He continues on at His pace with His plan.  And I am reassured to know that He knows what I need, His ways are higher than mine, and His will will be what prevails.

I need to think of my life as a precious pregnancy, something to be protected and appreciated.  I need to be patient and reassured, not rushing headlong into anything that could distract me.  I will try to recognize the importance of these years that feel like waiting.  I will trust that they are necessary and vital.



Trust, that's the ticket, isn't it?  I trust you, Lord.  Do Your work in me.


Heavenly Father, help me to be more aware of the work You are doing in me.  Grant me more patience in the waiting.  In Jesus' Name, Amen...

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You Are Not Alone

By | Published Monday, June 24, 2013

Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I am a hypochondriac.

Granted, I've never had a psychiatrist tell me that I am indeed a hypochondriac, but this one I believe is pretty easy to self-diagnose.

I've had these tendencies for the majority of my life, long before I even knew it was "something."

One of my most clear memories of my early childhood years was when I walked into the kitchen where my mom was washing dishes.  I pressed my hand against my chest and asked her, in all seriousness, "Is my heart still beating?"

My hypochondria has fluctuated over the years, with periods of freedom, periods of overwhelming fear and worry, but mostly it's been dwelling in a back corner of my mind, waiting for a random ache or twinge to send my thoughts racing.

In junior high and high school, the "solution" for these times was to start flipping pages in the encyclopedia.  It was a highly inefficient way to find information about a disease when you only know the symptoms.  

But now, every hypochondriac with a computer can self-diagnose to their heart's content.  Between WebMd, the Mayo Clinic, and glorious message boards and forums, every possible cause for a headache is there for the researching.

Honestly, though, the best part for me is not being able to recite every possible cause for heartburn, not including the pepperoni pizza I had for lunch.  The best part is meeting others like me.  Realizing that other people are similarly panicked by the small twinges and aches that most people easily dismiss, if they even notice them.  Sometimes we can even joke about it.

And now I'm finally going to get to my point.  Because this post isn't really about hypochondria.  

When we read the Bible, I think we tend to forget that these "heroes of the faith" were people just like us.

"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months."  James 5:17 (NASB).

David dealt with rebellious and really rather terrible children.  Before that, he had to deal with a moody father-in-law.  Joseph's brothers hated him.  Peter screwed up so many times he probably quit counting.  

Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, and Elizabeth suffered through infertility.  Mary was likely scorned for her untimely pregnancy.

The people of the Bible were people.  They are more than just stories on a page.  They were born.  They lived.  They died.  They had problems.  They struggled.  And they survived.

You are probably dealing with a similar issue as someone in the Bible.

Take a breath.

You are just like them.

You are not alone.

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Think About It Thursday

By | Published Wednesday, January 16, 2013




Please read the scripture below and consider it.  Write it down somewhere where you can see it all week.  Maybe even memorize it.  Over the week, if you have any thoughts about it, or if God says anything to you about it, please come by and let the rest of us know in the comments.
"But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves."  James 1:22 (NASB)



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