walking

I recently rediscovered a bracelet that I received quite a few years back. I say re-discovered, because I intentionally leave it in a visible place so that it’s easily accessible when God nudges me to look at these things. I pulled it out about a week ago, and felt that nudge to start wearing it, and since I’m working to follow these Holy Spirit calls, I put the bracelet on. It’s a simple soft plastic loop that says “Walking With Jesus”. At the time I wasn’t sure why these words were important, but I’ve learned over the years that reasons will become clear as they are needed.

In these situations, I spend time with the words God gives me. But what about the message on the bracelet? I try to walk in faith in all my daily activities – though if I’m honest I’m not always as successful as I would like – so I like the phrase. As I continued sitting with the words, I began thinking about the people I’ve been working with over the past several months in preparation for a faith retreat that’s coming up. These amazing people have shared the stories of their personal walk with Jesus. I am humbled by the faith they have, and obviously rely on, as they walk through challenges in their personal lives, their families, their jobs, the world around them.

And then, I needed to prepare a Children’s Message for Worship last week. The focus of Worship that morning was the story in Luke where Jesus appears to two of His followers on the road to a village called Emmaus. If you’re not familiar with the story, two of Jesus’ followers were walking along discussing the death of Jesus and the rumors of His Resurrection when a stranger joins them and in the course of their walk explains everything about the life of Jesus. It wasn’t until the stranger joins them for the evening meal that the two followers recognize that the stranger is actually the risen Jesus Christ. For the Children’s Message, I focused on the gift that Jesus Christ gave those two followers – walking with them in their pain and bewilderment. And I reminded the children of two important things: first that even if we don’t recognize Him, Christ meets each of us in our hard times and walks with us; and second that sometimes Christ looks like their parents, their teachers, grandparents, siblings, and even like them, because we all have Christ within us and can walk with others in their hard times. They seemed a bit surprised at that idea, but as I looked in their eyes, I could see the spark of Christ and I know that a seed was planted. I don’t know when or how it will bloom, and that’s ok. I was only called to plant a seed, and I’m so glad Jesus was walking with me that morning as I shared with the children.

The phrase “What Would Jesus Do” has been around for a long time, and while I think considering how Jesus would act in situations we face is a good first step, I think we can take it a step further and decide to walk with Jesus, to visualize Him in our situations, to invite Him to walk beside us in our pain and bewilderment just as He did all those years ago with those two followers on the road to Emmaus.

I see that in the stories members of our retreat Team have shared. I see them seeking His wisdom and reassurance, and I see the footsteps of Jesus walking with them, often in the shape of the feet of family, or co-workers, or friends, and even in the other members of our Team.  What powerful gifts Christ Jesus has given us – to know that He is walking with us and to be able to walk with others as Christ’s representative.

The footsteps of those who walk with us in that role may look like a hug, a prayer, a listening ear. They may be in shared tears and shared laughter, in words of support and encouragement as well as in moments of silence.  God knows the best way we can do that for those we walk with; what seeds we can plant or how we might best water the seeds others have planted or how to nurture the tender shoots of growing faith and recognition of Christ’s presence.

I’ve been trying diligently for the last few days not to write this, and I take that as a sure sign I needed to do it. I’m glad I did. Because, as God so often does, in the writing, the sharing, God has shown me what I needed to see. The beauty of being a part of this retreat Team, the recognition of Christ’s footsteps in the lives on these faith-full women and men, and a deeper connection to Christ’s footsteps in my own life.

Would you take some time to look for Christ walking beside you? For the times He has met you in your pain and bewilderment? He may have looked like family, or co-workers, or friends, but I promise you, His footsteps are there…

listen

I have so many ideas floating through my mind, words searching for a way to be expressed. Things like imagination, coming home, imperfections, following – things you may see here in the future.

But today, it’s a friend’s comment about my willingness to listen to the nudges from the Holy Spirit that is at the forefront. As I sat with those words, I realized that I try my best to place that listening at the core of all I do. “Try” being the operative word here, because I know there are times that I definitely hear or feel the nudge and then choose not to act on it. But I am getting better. I am praying more, crocheting more, writing more, all prompted by those nudges. And I realized that taking the time to listen is part of all the other ideas floating around in my mind. So I decided to take that time now to listen to what the Spirit is telling me – about listening.

I write a faith study for my church, based on hymns and current Christian music, which is posted on our website, and recently I heard that this study spoke to someone over 1000 miles away and that he would like to use it for an adult Sunday School class he leads. The concept of the study itself and the 50+ songs I’ve worked on are all based on taking the time to listen. It’s the nudges from the Holy Spirit that got me started, that direct me to which songs to use, which Bible verses to reference, and what questions to ask. I know I couldn’t do this on my own.

The piece I’m currently working on is a perfect example. Looking through the hymnals for which song to work with, I was drawn to a hymn about personal healing. I attributed the pull I felt to the work God and I are doing on my personal healing. So I continued looking, and found one on social justice, which spoke to me, because social justice is an area I’ve been called to grow into. I decided to go with the social justice hymn because it felt like it had a wider appeal with everything going on in the world today, and started looking for Bible verses to connect to where the hymn seemed to be calling me. Two hours later, with no appropriate verses, I stopped. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to use this hymn. Maybe it was my personal feelings rather that the Holy Spirit that made me pick that hymn. I looked at the other hymn again and recognized the universality of the message of the song. So I started looking for Bible verses for that hymn, and within 3 hours I had all I needed and the beginnings of the questions for the various verses. Apparently, I had unintentionally dismissed a nudge. What a difference listening to the Holy Spirit made!

When I listen, things go more smoothly, I feel more motivated to continue the task, I’m less frustrated. Sometimes the listening even requires me to pause a task or call from the Holy Spirit to make sure I’m continuing on the correct path, or if another task needs to take precedence. Recently, I was working on a prayer shawl for a friend as she works through a long-term situation. But in the middle of that I got the nudge to make one for someone else as she prepared for a major change in her life that was about to take place. Part of me hesitated to put the one aside for the other, but I listened. I completed the intervening prayer shawl just in time, and then went back to the first one. Once I completed it, I sent it out. And that friend called me to tell me that the prayer shawl arrived at just the moment she needed it. I explained what had occurred with the other nudge, and my friend told me that if her prayer shawl had arrived a week prior, she would have loved it and used it just the same, but it might not have made such an impact on her. She explained that because I took the time to make the other prayer shawl in the middle, her prayer shawl arrived the day she heard some very hard news and needed that expression of God’s love even more.

I am so grateful to be a part of the work the Holy Spirit is doing. Whether it is writing words to help others see and accept God’s love and grace, or exploring a new social justice ministry, or sharing prayers and concern and care one stitch at a time, I am blessed when I take the time to listen on this journey called life.