Beauty for Ashes

A very good friend of mine wrote this and shared it with me, and it opened up a different perspective for me on beauty for ashes... Thanks, Kelli :)



by Kelli W.

Today I was thinking about the Scripture where God promises to give His people “beauty for ashes” (Isaiah 61:3), which Jesus referenced when he stood up in the synagogue and read this very same passage, proclaiming his fulfillment of these verses (Luke 4:17-18). I have heard this verse many times and it has always seemed sweet but maybe somewhat distant from my heart personally and like it applied to others, but today it struck me in a new way. It was as if suddenly I was very aware of what ashes are. Profound, I know ;-). I mean I guess I never thought about it in context to this verse. What are ashes? NOTHING. They are the charred remnants of something that was, but really, what can you do with ashes? NOTHING. Ashes are worthless leftovers that only get stuff dirty by their presence. You can’t build anything with ashes… you can’t really do anything with ashes except put them on your head and go about mourning… And what does God give us for the ashes of our lives? BEAUTY. Oh, something of such substance. He gives us real, true, eternal beauty. He adorns our souls with something that is lasting. He gives us love…. Perfect Love… not just a love that toys with our hearts or makes empty promises. Not a love that manipulates or connives or takes advantage… He gives us PERFECT, FAITHFUL, ETERNAL, COVENANTAL LOVE. Wow. God takes the nothing of my life: my failures, my shortcomings, my vain attempts at reaching righteousness in my own effort, my broken heart, my tears, my lost hope… all of these ashes…and in His Divine Providence, in a way that only He can do, He gives me BEAUTY. He crowns me with His love. This is quite the exchange.

It strikes me that in this exchange, what He gives us has real substance. It is not just a nice idea, a nice thought or an encouraging word in the way people have sympathy and try to make you feel better when you had a really bad day or the girl or guy does not return your admiration or you didn’t get the job or make cheerleading tryouts or the first string of the basketball team or whatever it is. When God names you, when God defines you, He holds the Trump card. He has the absolute and final say about who you really are. And He says who you are is beautiful. He says you are perfect. He says you are worthy of His love because of His blood.

And there’s more! This beauty is not solely substantial, it is eternal. What He is doing in us will last forever. How true the verses Paul writes, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:17, I just liked the KJ version in that one☺, emphasis mine).
The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
The things which are not seen are ETERNAL. Did you hear that? He is giving you BEAUTY for your ASHES. All those shattered dreams, that rejection, that abandonment, that self hatred, those failures…. Ashes all of it… but ashes just blow away. And the Refiner of our hearts is creating a new thing. Like gold is refined through the fire, so our hearts are refined in this furnace of trials and tribulations (1 Pet. 4:12-14) if we but say YES to His Love in the middle of it. In the midst of the questions, as we journey on without knowing the way… as we come up leaning on His faithfulness rather than our own fleshly might our hearts are being refined and something beautiful is being formed… something of eternal value. We are being made into a Bride fit for a King. We are being given beauty for our ashes.

:: O God, I will receive this wonderful exchange. I will take Your Beauty for my ashes…. How can you be this good? ::

What Is Your Life Mission Statement?

Yesterday, a friend asked me what my life mission statement was, and although I have one, I took exceptionally long answering her question. I mean, I put together a pretty good life's mission statement a few years ago, tucked it away neatly into one of my journals and slowly... forgot about it. "What do you mean?" I asked my friend. Even though I asked, of course I knew what she meant; she wanted to know who Jesus is to me, what motivates me, what I live by, what my purpose is, what I'm called to do, what I'd like to do, my vision, my dream, values, passion, etc. about and through my life. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much my old life mission statement has changed.

I found that the older I get and the more I seek the Lord, my heart becomes more pliable and all I want to do is please my heavenly Father. I want to talk about Him and share Him with those who don't know Him like I do. I want to share my life experiences, my testimony because I know that "what is most personal is most universal." Meaning, there's probably nothing I've gone through and have been delivered from that someone else hasn't experienced. And the beauty in that is, the freedom I've found in my testimony and in Christ can always be used to heal other people.

About a year ago, I wrote a poem called, "Whom Love Pursued." It's a poem about my testimony that I turned into a spoken word performance, and I use it as a tool for ministry. I expose the things that used to be hidden in my life, bringing EVERYTHING to light. A portion of that poem is below:

she sits in distress, concerned and under arrest
she sits in her pretty pink dress afraid to tell her mom
because she'd make a mess of things
she's six and he, he cornered her
she's not even old enough to write legible
his decibels rang in her ears, "Touch it!"
she sits in distress, concerned and under arrest
her heart beats out of her chest
she's too young to be shaken from the nest
but satan's jest, was to destroy her...

In conjunction with this poem, I had a conversation with a family member last night about generational issues. And, as painful as that conversation was, I recognized a line of generational issues running through my family that made me want to fight somebody. Seriously. I was so angry at how we can so easily allow, overlook, turn away from, deny, keep secret, lie, not recognize, close our eyes to or refuse to admit generational issues. It's a killer. Really. ...until someone decides to allow God to break every form of bondage, every form of secrecy, every form of generational baggage in their lives, and then refuse to carry it any further. By the end of the conversation, I was even more fired up about how I want to live this life.

So far, here are a few of my life mission sentences: to use my actions, speech and breath to expose darkness and bring it to the light by growing in Jesus and not being afraid to speak His name. i see poetry and media as a creative avenue for me to use my personality to spread the gospel. i dream of being an author, traveling the world speaking to and highlighting the lives of young adults...

What about you? Hope this helps:

• -What is your life's purpose? Why do you exist? What do you stand for?
• -What is your calling? Gifts, talents, abilities...
• -What is your vision, goal? It should be a big one. I once heard this quote, "Your dream should be so big that if God wasn't in it, it'd be doomed to fail."
• -What is your mission? How are you going to accomplish the above?
  

Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already - you can see it now. Isaiah 43:18, (The Living Bible)

I Know He's There

A few strands of her brown hair swayed back-and-forth as the wind blew, and Megan sat snug in her puffy white pamper, wading her hands through the sand. Her little legs looked like tiny pillows at the touch as they kicked every time she smiled. Megan seemed happy sitting in the sand; her tiny hands leaving prints and swirls in the space all around her. Every so often, I wondered what she thought when she lifted her head to stare at the ocean. For some reason, the waves crashing against the shore caught her attention a lot faster than the cute, bronze-haired little puppy with the pink collar, running aimlessly in front of her. She often looked back and smiled at whatever, but it was clear that her attention was focused on the sand.

"Ah, there you are, sweetheart!"

Megan kicked, giggled and grasped the sand with her tiny hands as her mom crawled toward her.

"Don't put the sand in your mouth," mom said as Megan began her routine of lifting her left thumb to her mouth. But when mom said ,"no," she started kicking and smiling but this time, funny faces followed. Her mom picked her up and walked toward the ocean. Megan kicked and screamed at first, reaching for the sand, but her sporadic tantrum ended quickly when she realized her mom was carrying her to the water.

I smiled as I watched her mom lift and partially submerge Megan's tiny body in and out of the water. So much joy radiated from her small, round, little face that it probably made others around wish they were playing in the water, too. After about ten minutes of playing at the water's edge, Megan was back on the beach, wading in the sand...

I smiled, plugged in my iPod, sunk deep into my beach chair and purposed to took a brief nap. When I awakened, a nice, golden dust color appeared above the horizon as the sun started to set behind the ocean. This day was moreorless picture-perfect as a full moon shined above. Megan was fast asleep in her mother's lap.

As I began packing away my books, beach chair and towel, I began thinking about the love of our heavenly Father. It made me smile to know that He precedes me and follows me. He knows my every move and He's strategic about my life. I enjoy being alone with Him because there's nothing else competing for my attention. And when he speaks, I may not always like it, but I know His words are life and are for my good. I'm His child and He is familiar with the intricate details of my life. He's even there to say, "Terri, don't put the sand in your mouth!" - like Megan's mom. He's my authority and Shepard. He carries my burdens and concerns. All-in-all, I know He's there.

"Hey, That's You..."

Who do you want to see in your reflection?

A friend of mine just returned from a missions trip to Ghana. Over lunch today, she shared with me all that her trip entailed including something that tugged at my heart. During one of her days in Ghana, she and her team went to an orphanage to love on the kids there through games, special attention, prayer, song, etc. One of the activities they did with the kids in the orphanage was two-fold: 1. Take individual pictures of the kids and print them out, 2. Take those pictures and create fake passport posters for the kids. After team Ghana took pictures of the kids, they printed the photos and placed the pictures in a pile so the kids could pick their pictures and get started with the activity. Well, to their surprise, the kids did not move. In fact, the kids looked puzzled and began asking where their pictures were. Team Ghana and my friend quickly learned that the kids had NO IDEA what they looked like - what their face looked like. They had never seen their image in a mirror, piece of glass, reflection... nothing! After awhile, they began to figure it out because the kids would recognize the other kids and say, "That's you." Or, they'd recognize the shirt they were wearing... but they had no idea what their face looked like until someone told them by saying, "Hey, that's you."

Wow.

We have no idea how much God loves us. Sometimes we have issues seeing ourselves as God sees us. If God were to show us a picture of how He sees us, would you recognize yourself? If so, would you believe what you see? Our Father even declares who we truly are in the midst of our struggles and fears. Even in our insecurity, God is saying, "Hey, that's you. See, this is who you truly are. This is who I've created you to be. See?" Lately, I've spent a lot of time in prayer, crying (literally) about feeling inadequate in certain areas of my life. And, although I can hear the soft whisper of our Father speaking to my heart, often times what I see doesn't match up with what I hear. So, I've had to realign my thoughts with His thoughts and my eyes with His eyes by abiding in what His word says about me. That way, there will never be a time when I look at myself and not recognize who I am - or not recognize who I was created to be.

I want to see Christ in my reflection.

Burn

My deep thought for the day...

Ever see something burn? If it burns long enough, the things around it will also catch fire. And, when more than one thing burns, the fire becomes more intense and spreads faster. When fire spreads, it's harder to prohibit, interrupt...breakup. We should represent Christ in the manner of wild fire. We should burn for Him, His desires, His heart and ignite others. Be encouraged to get up every morning and put on Christ just like you take the time to put on your best outfit. †

In remembering to represent Christ with all I am, I read this quote earlier today...

"Catch on fire with enthusiasm for Christ and people will come from miles to watch you burn." ~John Wesley

I Will Follow You

John 10:27: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."

I was at lunch with a few friends this afternoon, and while they chatted about the present subject, I drifted off (which I often do) with my own thoughts and wondering eyes. As I sat against the wall, I noticed a father come into the restaurant with his son. The son could not have been more than 2 or 3 years-old, and he was clinging to his father's calf for dear life. It was funny. That little boy was so cute because he wore the coolest pair of neon green little-kid-shades I have ever seen, and his hair was light blond, spiked and looked like a Mohawk. So cute.

Anyway, as the father and son moved through the restaurant, the father began to pick up pace, and with each stride, his son lagged further and further behind. The father never looked back because I'm assuming he knew that his son followed close behind, and the son never lost sight of his father no matter how far ahead he was. What touched me in this moment was while the father was getting ready to take his seat, the son put his head down for a split second, looked up again and realized that he lost sight of his father. After realizing he was lost, the son stopped, started looking around and then began crying. Before the father took his seat, he quickly turned around at the sound of his son's voice, ran to where he was and picked him up - carrying him the rest of the way to the table. When the father picked his son up, he immediately stopped crying, and everything seemed to be back to normal. Why? The son saw his father again, and he was safe in his father's arms.

I don't ever want to lose sight of my heavenly father. I don't ever want to look away for a moment, get lost and then try to figure out how to get back on the right path. It's too costly. But, God loves us so much that even if we get lost, He'll come running to our rescue the minute we cry out to Him. He'll even carry us until we're able to walk ourselves.