Are you tired?

Matthew 11:28-30 (msg)

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me-watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

 Does just reading it reminded you to take a deep breath and be encouraged? It is true of how God, time and time again, has met me in this life journey. I am struggling to see Him right now through what feels like a storm that is unrelenting. A thunderstorm that makes me want to hide, but I know He wants me to come out in the open field throw my hands up and surrender. To allow His cleansing rain to wash over me and wash away the tears that have stained the inside of my eyes. I do not enjoy showing my emotion to the world but this blog has become a sort of therapy for me. 

Have you ever read someones blog and felt their words were what you have been trying to say and what is written in your heart. 

"Today I was reminded of the things that are more important in life. Today I was reminded that what we long for is to be known, to be loved for who we are, not what we can do for someone. We walk in search of it, our hearts crave it, our minds reason and justify for it. We are waiting for it. All the efforts and plans that we lay down are of no replacement for it. But there is peace in simplicity. There is beauty in the release of expectations and embracing the one thing that almost seems too easy or simple to accept. We are the ones that hold the plan that we must achieve or be someone, but God says to simply be. Maybe when we listen to that truth, we will slow down enough to see that what we are searching, pining, longing for, is in front of us…in the present." 

 & 

"I am learning.  I have not arrived, nor do I have life figured out.  I am not balanced.  I waver.  I walk strong and just one breath later, I fall apart.  But I am learning.  I am learning to not take myself so seriously, but instead to trust intentionally in the freedom of walking with the Lord.  So with that, I’m remembering.  

I remember that there was a time when I didn’t recognize God in all areas of my life. He was up there, and I was down here, and the two didn’t exist cohesively together.  I remember making decisions about the Lord with that view and the brokenness that it brought to me.  But I remember when that began to change. God told me He was going to begin an adventure in my life, and He was going to show me how to live, and live free.  So together, our journey began.  

When the winds came, He showed me that the winds weren’t a sign of His displeasure in my life, but to show that when I trust in Him, I can walk through anything.  That nothing would be so powerful as to rip me away from His presence.  And that on the other side of the storm, was renewed strength and confidence in Him.  It is because of the storm that the air that follows is much sweeter. 

He showed me that though I struggle feeling lonely, I am not alone.  That God is not going to one day come and be with me, but that He is with me, presently.  He is my comforter.  He is helping me to learn how to be ok alone with Him.  And because He loves me, I should accept that, and get to know this woman He has created. I am learning that I love simplicity.  I don’t need a lot of things in my life.  I love a good porch, and a great chair to sit on that porch.  I love not having to wake up early, and I don’t really mind if that makes me appear unmotivated in life, because I would rather have a great hour of coffee and reading than rushing into the race of the world.  It can go on without me. 

I remember when I pleaded with God to show me that He would never leave me, because I needed to believe that He was more than the distant God in the sky. I needed to reshape my view of Him, and He has been helping me and is teaching me still.  So, I am learning to walk in this new view of Him, however awkward, and uncertain, and clumsy I feel, I would rather falter to freedom, then stand still and never live.  

I am learning that I have a lot to learn.  I see how far God has brought me, and I can’t even imagine what’s around the corner.  I wait expectantly for the day that I look back even on this writing and see how much more God has taught me.  I am unbalanced, but am embracing that part of balanced living is becoming unbalanced!  How would I ever fully know where the center is unless I’ve fallen to the left or right of it?  God is more than the efforts that I try so desperately to use to win His approval.  He doesn’t need me to feel wrong in order for Him to be right in my life.  He died for my life, for freedom, and the least that I can do is learn how to walk in that freedom." via VanessaFrances@tumblr.com

I do not think that I could stop crying, now on the outside, as I read her beautiful words of how she relates to God, and how God is moving in her life. I completely understand the emotion behind every word she wrote as if I had written it all myself.