The brightest diamond;

Jesus. He meets us right where we are. He takes broken people, so different and yet so much more alike and shows us the scars on His hands and said it’s ok if we have scars too, because the scars are always drawing us to Him.

 We do not serve when it is convenient for us. We serve and answer a need when called.

He is teaching me to stop for ONE. It is hard and it is ugly. Every time I stop for that ONE struggling friend, that ONE hungry old man, that ONE needy person, my mind races with the statistics of how many more there are that I am not touching, not feeding, not saving. God whispers every time though that this ONE is enough. That this ONE is feeling His love and that is eternal. I see thousands of eyes and feel thousands of little  hands. I know that even on the hardest day, stopping is worth it. A life changed is worth it, even if only ONE. God’s love made known is worth it, even if only to ONE. I will not save them all. But I will keep trying. I will say Yes. I will stop for that ONE no matter how hopeless. God, give us the stregth to say yes to whoever you put in our paths today.

I am dependent. powerless. weak. drowning. and while all those adjectives should sound scary, they have me in a beautiful place: a place where I can’t go one minute without crying out to my Father or I will sink. I am grateful for this place. Paul says in his letter to the philippians that he “knows the secret”. He has been well fed and he has been starving. he has lived in abundance and he has lived with nothing. His revelation? that he can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens. sometimes I  wish that I was still living in the hungry, needy state that I once was. Sometimes i feel that it is easier to cling to Jesus in that state of having nothing than it is to cling to him in my current state of abundance. The thing is, although I am not physically hungry or in need, my soul is thirstier than ever. and Paul’s secret remains true; as I let Him strengthen me, there is nothing He cannot accomplish through me.