How dying can bring time {Mundane Faithfulness}

"Today I'm fading, I can see it in the tears in his eyes. There is going to be grace for this. Even if it costed 20 minutes to write. May we continue to enjoy each moment. Will you do the same?"

Kara Tippetts

I have been following, for only a short time, this amazing woman.

Kara Tippetts is dying.

She has cancer, and it's taking over her body, and her life is coming to an end.

She's soon leaving this earth - her hospice nurse has told them her time is short.  

Every time I read a post, something amazing happens.  God speaks to me.  Shall I tell you why?

It's this simple.

She LIVES this verse.

"For to me to live is CHRIST, and to die is gain".

This lady desires to live out each remaining moment for her Saviour.  She does this by sharing her journey with others, and challenging them to think and ask questions about their lives, every time she writes to us.

Undoubtedly, this is a heartbreaking journey.  God has created us all to be part of family and community.  It's all we know, here on this earth - bound by time, and not understanding eternity.  Family and friendship is a gift from our Creator.  These things are PRECIOUS.  

What she does is to remind people to take every moment and savour it.  To live it fully.  To cherish those we care about. 

Kara has givven me perspective.  She has made me slow down.  To stop, in fact.  Stop trying to DO, and to instead BE.  Be in the moment.  Be in the place where we enjoy, apprecite and soak up the beauty, joy and precious moments that God has GIFTED to us.  We aren't entitled to any of it, and in a moment - as swiftly as a beautiful dandelion clock can be lifted off in the wind and sail away - our life can end, or those we hold dear can be gone.

I don't want to live a life of regrets.  I don't want a life that, when it comes to its end, I say "If only I...."

I doubt I will ever regret hugging my children whenever I can.

I doubt I will ever regret making fun moments instead of drudgery and conflict.

I doubt I will ever regret stopping the mundane and eternally insignificant, to create character building and relationship strengthening moments with my children.

I doubt I will ever regret putting down the job I am doing and giving my husband a hug.

I doubt I will ever regret pausing a blog posts to hug my two-year-old-who-gets-more-grown-up-by-the-minute, and read him a story.

So many things that can easily be left, because you think there's something more important to do.  

So many chances to live life fully, instead.

I think of the phrase "Redeeming the time".

We don't want to waste time, when we could be using it more wisely.  

Most importantly, sharing the gospel with those we know - telling them they are sinners who need to be saved, and that Christ is ready, willing and able to save if they but confess their sin and seek Him as Saviour.  

Then, we must cherish the moments with our family.  Taking every opportunity to love, teach, encourage and bless those we walk through life alongside.  

Above all else, honouring God, in all we think, say and do.  Every fibre of our being seeking first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. 

I see Kara, living out her final moments, and that is what she is doing.  Reaching out and touching the lives of others, and loving those closest to her, with every fibre of her being.

Oh, how I want to experience the closeness of Christ, as she does.  His presence is so very real to her, and her faith so clear and strong.  I am SO thankful that God brought her into my life, so I could be challenged to love better and live more faithfully.

Please pray for this sweet lady, and her family, as she gets ever nearer to being pain-free and in the presence of her precious Saviour.

"Maybe I’m on a journey, and the journey is more beautiful than any of us can comprehend. And if we did understand, we would hold very loosely to one another because I’m going to be with Jesus. There is grace that will seep into all the cracks and pained places when we don’t understand. In the places we don’t understand we get to seek. And how lovely is one seeking truth. Stunning."

Kara Tippetts

I pray the Lord will grant me many truth-seeking moments, so that I can be stunned by God's greatness, as she has.

Follow Kara over at her blog - Mundane Faithfulness -  or on Facebook.

Women of the Word {Esther - For Such a Time as This}

When I was considering Esther, and what I would say about her, THIS is not what I planned on saying.

I had thoughts of husbands, and communication.  There's a lesson to be learned about that, and MAYBE I will return to it, but the Holy Spirit whispered a different message into my heart this morning, and that is what I will share.  Those quiet moments in the morning, when I manage to drag my tired body out of bed, to savour the stillness with my Saviour, are ALWAYS worth it.  Those are the moments when I hear His voice speaking to me.

Esther.   "Fair and Beautiful".  A girl, carried away in the captivity.  Her parents are dead, and she lives with her cousin, Mordecai.  They live in a foreign land, far away from all that they knew and loved - most certainly separated, by traumatic circumstances, from those they held dear.

Esther.  Taken into "custody" - a prisoner.  A year spent preparing herself for a glorified beauty pageant. All her days spent amongst those primping and preening - all for  the possibility of becoming the Queen of a mighty ruler. Paraded before a godless king, to have her beauty admired.

Esther.  The one admired by those around her  - her inward beauty most likely shining forth, even then, as well as that outward beauty.  The one chosen by the King, obtaining grace and favour in his sight, over all the other maidens.

What struck my heart this morning was this.

She was a woman who accepted.

She gently, quietly, without fuss and drama, ACCEPTED her situation.

Who would CHOOSE to be taken captive, as a young girl, far away from all you held dear?

Who would CHOOSE to be paraded, like an animal in a market - gazed upon, weighed up alongside the others - to be the potential Queen of a ruler looking only upon your outward appearance?  An ungodly King, apparently easily influenced by those he places in power alongside him.

Esther didn't choose the situation she was in, yet she calmly accepted it all, and MORE.

She became a woman who owned her life.  She became a woman who accepted what God had given her as her portion, and poured herself into it.  She emptied herself into the situation she was in, and redeemed it to the glory of God, by redeeming the people of God.

She quickly took upon her role of a supportive wife and helped to save him from the plotting of his enemies (chapter 2:21-23).  She didn't have to do that.  She could have sat quietly by, whilst the husband she didn't choose for herself, and a man who had so easily dismissed his previous wife, was assassinated.  But no, that was not in her nature, nor a reflection of the inner beauty she possessed. She owned her life by being everything that she should have been.

She placed herself in a place of potential sacrifice, in order to approach her husband.

"If I perish, I perish."

She was willing to die for those she loved.

Knowing the King, and what had happened to Vashti, she didn't admit defeat, and think there was nothing she could do. Instead, she immediately fasted and sought a solution to the dire situation. She found herself in a state of affairs that put those she cared so deeply for at risk, and she went about making sure that she saved them.  She set aside her earthly comforts, to seek heavenly counsel about her situation.  We are told she fasted, and this invariably, in scripture, goes hand in hand with prayer.  It's an assumption, but one that is not unlikely.  She put self aside, in order to live fully, sacrificially, and with compassion, in the situation she was in.

What lesson did the Holy Spirit whisper in my heart, this morning?

We cannot always choose the situations we find ourselves in.  In God's sovereign dealings with our life, we may find ourselves in a place not of our choosing.  We may experience heartache.  We may be thrust into situations that are hard. We may have to go through trials that test us on many levels. We may be in relationships that require patience and grace.  We may be in marriage that is far from perfect.  We may be far from those we love.

It's not right for us to fight the perfect plan of God.  It's not right for us to grumble, to complain.

God did not create us to live a mundane life, where we don't embrace the season we are in and live it with passion.

We are to be "Esthers".  Esther was the outliving of the words of Paul.

"For to me to live is CHRIST, and to die is gain".

He didn't say "For to me to exist".

He didn't say " For me to endure".

He said, "For to me to LIVE".

We can only live fully, to God's glory, if we do everything in our power to live it for HIM.

To honour Him.

To praise Him.

To obey Him.

To joyfully embrace and own where He has us.

It cannot be done in our own power.

It cannot be done for our own gain.

God has placed you in your situation "for such a time as this".  Like Esther, you have a work to do, right where you are.  The circumstances don't dismiss you from this delightful duty - they simply dictate the way you will live it out. Each with our own story, to HIS glory.

Our lives can be lived as ones of incredible influence, just like Esther. No matter where we are, or who we come into contact with, we can influence others greatly, for God's kingdom, if we accept our circumstances, and live fully devoted to God. I am sure Esther never imagined, as a child fleeing persecution, that she would be so greatly used in the wonderful plan that God had for the redemption of His chosen people. Esther, willing to be used. Not sitting by, simply existing. Willing to go, with confidence, to live a life of boldness. A life that would be recorded for the generations to come, to read of her willingness to serve in the hard places.

Am I willing to live that kind of life? To accept, with humility and a burning passion to see Christ glorified, RIGHT HERE?

I don't need to be in a palace.  I don't need to be on the mission field.  I don't even need to go outside of my HOME.

God can work in me, and through me, if I am willing to live a life that is bold and full - owning my life, glorifying Him, and faithfully following His lead.