Delights

I wrote an email recently and said, "He shattered my brokenness." I was thinking about how bizarre that sounds. It almost doesn't make sense because it's meant to be a hopeful statement. The thought brings joy and gratefulness to my heart.

So I was thinking about that and what it might look like. I saw a chipped, cracked ceramic plate. It had a clear gloss coating on the outside that seemed to be holding together the brittle and cracking ceramic on the inside. I saw this strong hand coming and shattering the plate on the floor--tiny pieces. It was a huge mess all over the floor. It was shattered so powerfully that it became like dust. Then a strong wind came and blew the thick dust into a pile. And a rain came and poured down over the pile of dust that was once a plate. Through the rain, these strong hands came and started to work the water into the dry dust. Slowly it began to change. It started to form a ball and became pliable and maliable in those hands. I saw the man that the hands belonged to. He was a big man sitting at a bench in a workshop. He was surrounded by pottery--some colorful, some finished, some broken, some raw and waiting to be shaped. The man's hands were dirty from the water and clay but he didn't seem to mind. Quietly, meticulously he worked. His potter's wheel was spinning. He placed the lump of wet clay on the wheel and he began to shape it. He was so patient and careful it amazed me. But I noticed his face. It was so full of compassion and joy and love. This wasn't just work for him. It wasn't just a job. It was a passion that was coming out of everything that he was. I could see that the creator loved to create. When he looked at the clay in his hands, there was delight on his face. He was delighting in taking the broken and restoring it to beauty. He was delighting in forming beauty out of that which he had breathed life into.

He delights in me. I feel weary and painfully aware of my messiness and unfinishedness, but I know that my maker delights in me. I know that He is good. I know that he loves to show mercy and compassion to me. I know that he is near to the broken hearted. I know that he is near. There is no greater place that I would rather be than in the hands of my maker who delights in showing mercy to me.

This is the God I know. This is the God I serve. This is the God who loves me.

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Elijah's Moment

I find myself praying earnestly for Poland this morning. This morning I remembered my prayers 4 years ago in Rzeszów. I remember the cold wooden floor that I prayed facedown on. I remember the words that used to pour out of my heart for that city--God if you don't come, then they won't know you. If you don't move in power then their hearts won't know you. So come and pour down like a blazing fire from heaven and speak so that the people will see your power and they will know you in the depths of their hearts. More than the baptist way, more than the catholic way, more than any tradition, God, may their hearts know you and feel how it is to be held in your hands and how it sounds to have their names spoken and called by your Voice. May they desire you and follow you.

I remember how my heart broke for people that I didn't even know. I remember feeling such a heavy burden and such a strong desire that the people around me would desire to know God and to live in his ways.

Now I remember my time in Kraków. I remember how half-heartedly I had asked God for a burdened heart for the people he'd placed me around. I don't think I ever prayed on my knees much less my face for Kraków or the Roma.

This morning I was reading Psalms. I got to Psalm 67 and started reading it as a prayer. And then I felt that I needed to pray it for Poland.

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you."

God may the people of Poland praise you! May they be writing songs of praise to you with all their hearts. May they be speaking your truths about experiences they've had with you. May they be desiring to know you and to see you move in their country.

I don't know why I've been to Poland 4 times or why I'm obsessed with it or why I romantacize about it by calling it my home away from home, but ever since the first time I was there God connect my heart to people so deeply. I feel like I've had to leave pieces of my heart all over the country--Rzeszów, Tarnów, Kraków, Szaflary, McD's in Lublin, Warszawa and Poznań. For some reason God connected this crazy American girl's heart to Poland. I desire to see God move in Poland--not in an American way but in a beautiful Polish way that can only come through God's hand on Polish lives.

We ask that God would bless us--not for ourselves but for the people he has placed us around. They will see what he has done and they will praise him. May we be able to be a part of that. May we have hearts that desire to be a part of what he is doing in our lives and where ever we find ourselves in this world.

I hear the rain now in Spring Hill. I'm here for a moment, but I want to not miss this moment by wishing I were somewhere else. I want to be praying for people here and connecting with people. May he burden my heart for a new people. And if this burden for Poland stays, may he allow me to return in his time and not mine. May I be content to be where he has put me. May I be dedicated to the purpose he has for my life here right now--healing. May I persevere and seek it with all my heart because I know this is his purpose for me right now. And more than the watchmen for morning, may I wait and watch for him and his ways and his moving. May we be found faithful. May we desire him with all of our hearts above and beyond ourselves. For his ways are good and his paths everlasting and his love steadfast.

May the glory of the Lord shine upon your face. May you stand at the crossroads and look for the ancient path--the good Way. And may you walk in it with all that you are.

Posted with LifeCast