Happy Wednesday, church family!

In a crisis or moment of chaos, I tend to be the calm one. I’ve rocked individuals and talked them out of a panic attack. When my car spun out on the freeway and I ended up facing the wrong direction, I managed to calmly flip a quick U, and pull over to the side before tragedy struck (yes, my heart rate and blood pressure skyrocked shortly after). I have been called a human Xanax more than one time in my life. Yet there was a day this week that I was NOT the calm one. I wanted to just run away from all the things that were going on. I won’t bore you with the all gory details, but stressors were being thrown at me left and right. From my dad calling to say he split his head open and was driving himself to get a head scan, to having to interact with an individual that provokes all kinds of stress. Throw in a few other things like family visiting from out of town, and I was a mess. My usual “OK, I got this” mentality was gone. I felt like I was being torn in too many directions, and I was done.

After sitting on the couch staring at the wall for a few minutes, I had the most amazing realization. I should ask Jesus into that moment. (No, it wasn’t my initial gut reaction, and no, I’m not proud of that). But I did, and I even took it a step further. We have a message thread for staff and elders for prayer requests. I took a breath, and wrote all I was feeling, and asked for prayer. My friends, what happened next was absolutely nothing short of a miracle. I calmed down. Things started falling into place, and interaction with the difficult person went better than I could have ever imagined. That was 100% Jesus right there. 

I feel like my story this week is a culmination of the last several weeks. We’ve talked about vulnerability, doing things together, and sharing with safe people, and giving the bleh stuff to Jesus, by inviting Him into the mess. This week Andy talked about not giving away our peace. Before asking Jesus into the moment, I was letting both people and situations steal my peace. Actually, my peace wasn’t being stolen. I was handing it over, willingly. Ew. But I made the decision to invite Him in, I even said it out loud. Then I found my courage, and was vulnerable by asking for prayer. It was one of those things that I feel like I can’t stop talking or thinking about because it was so amazing. 

Jesus, THANK YOU. I don’t know why I’m so surprised when You do something amazing, yet here I stand, still in awe. Thank You for showing me so many things this week. I choose to let You to hold my peace, not myself, not others, not the situations around me. Bless and seal these good things in me, In Your name, amen. 

May your week be blessed,

Lisa