Welcome to Trace’s Space. How interesting life has been for me this last week or so. I am home recovering from a tumble that I took at work, and it’s funny how sometimes you are able to see a lesson forming by an event that is not exactly pleasant or even part of your plan, for me, the lesson is that of humble pie and swallowing my pride!
Pride is vicious! It’s one thing to be proud, to be full of righteous pride, like if someone does something great, or you yourself achieves a goal, but it’s another to be so unable to accept help, or you feel guilty that folks may need to help you. It’s easy to be a helper, it’s quite different when you are in the position of needing help.
So I fell. I injured my foot, so I have ended up in a very ugly robo inspired boot. It’s ugly, it’s heavy, it’s uncomfortable, it’s a cramp in my life, and my need to be busy. By Friday last week I thought I would lose my mind I hadn’t been able to be out anywhere. It’s was doctors appointment day so not only did I get to travel there but we decided we needed stuff, and made a pilgrimage to Walmart.
Here is where I believe my life lesson started. Yes, Walmart!
In past blogs I have shared Walmart experiences, you know no cheese, and I’m not sure if I shared slamming pie girl or not, if not, last weeks Walmart greeter was in the past a pie slammer, yeah, so anyway, I need to clarify that I don’t often go to Walmart, but we needed paper products so we decided that was the best choice because they have shopping scooters, motorized buggies!
This was not my first experience with the infamous scooter, but this time the experience was different.
So as my journey into the abiss of Walmart begins I find my self struggling with the operation of said device, just like any new vehicle you have to learn it. I had to figure out forwards, backwards, slow, fast. It didn’t help that my husband was walking behind me singing, “hey Speed Racer!” My response was simply an imitation of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man exclaiming, “I’m a good driver, yeah, I’m a good driver!” Now to us it was hilarious, we were having the best time trying to make light of my inexperience in driving my mode of transportation, but other customers found us annoying, and not only that they were a little inpatient with my inability to reach what I needed. They could hardly wait to get past me.
It is very difficult when using one of these carts to have grocery store ediquette. You know, how you move to one side to let people through, you park your cart and go look for what you need and not block others who already know...it’s very difficult. I am a very polite shopper, I try to not hold folks up, so this was one of many challenges that I had this trip.
I found that most people were very kind and understanding, I wasn’t the typical user of this vehicle, so they extended a whole lot of grace, they could see my uneasiness on my face, and will they were witnessing my skill. Mike went to the other side of the store for something he needed, and I ended up practically in tears because people buying laundry soap are mean!
See I had become vulnerable and controlled by my circumstance. This thing that was a thoughtless act had become difficult, I had to rely on my husband to reach things I couldn’t and struggled reaching things that I could, all the while getting the look of doom from other shoppers. Another shopper recognized my anxiety, and tried to comfort me, but those moments of comfort were few.
It was very humbling. I am certain that this lesson in humility is a tool that God is using to soften my attitude, when I am in a hurry and just want to get the task at hand done, when I have to wait my turn, whether it be at Walmart or even at home. Sometimes we are so rushed to get our business taken care of we tend to look right through those who for what ever reason are struggling.
How many times have you felt your body language-facial expressions change because you have had to wait for someone else to simply get done!
We are all guilty.
We are so busy and often find ourselves thinking if we don’t get something done right now it will never get done. Why? We are always in a hurry... my dad always said if you are in a hurry leave sooner. There is much wisdom in that.
I believe God wants me to slow down, He wants me to really look at folks, and hey, maybe fulfill a need or two. Because at any time their struggle may become ours! At any time any of us can be placed in a place of ultimate humility!
Lord today I pray that we all just open our eyes, our ears, our hearts to the things around, help us to recognize the struggle is real for everyone. Help us to say a kind world or meet a need even if that need us simply a smile! Thank You Lord for revelation and for not only revealing to us who we are, but more of who you are !
Amen!
See you next time.
Monday, February 11, 2019
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Could The Kings Men Really Put Him Back Together?
Welcome to Trace’s Space. This message has been in my heart for months. All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty together again. I know you are wondering, how could an egg and a wall lead to a thought, or a series of thoughts, but it’s there and now is the time to share.
All nursery rhymes have a symbolic meaning, as does this one. It represents or even actually makes fun of the king or leaders of the day. Their leadership was not effective, it was not respected, it had no value to the common man. Think about this, no matter how high and mighty you may seat yourself, you can fall, and you will shatter! Wow that is deep. Think about it, you will shatter and because there are so many cracks and broken pieces, even those followers you have sucked into your agenda, will have no clue how to put you back together.
In 1 Samuel, Gods kids are demanding a king. Samuel goes before the Lord and let’s Him in on the demand, God’s answer in essence is, be careful what you wish for. See they had lost faith in their leadership, they have lost faith in God, they wanted a king like all the other nations so that the king could go before them and fight their battles for them. They wanted an earthly king who could judge who could make decisions.... Honestly God was very upset over this request. Eventually God gives them what they wanted because He knows they are not going to give up in the idea, and for whatever reason His kids had to learn the hard way, just like children of God do today. For what ever reason we have given up on leadership and as a whole our nations trust in God is wavering.
So God gave Israel Saul. At the beginning it was all good, but as quickly as he had become king, that ruler started to crack, he started to crumble. See Saul didn’t wait upon the Lord, he had been instructed to wait, in his inpatientance, his unwillingness to wait upon the Lord, he offered up a sacrifice, a selfish, self indulgent praise. What was sad about the whole thing is, if he would have waited upon the Lord he would have been greatly blessed as well as Israel. All God was looking for was a ruler who was after His heart, instead he got Saul who was in a hurry, and well just not the man for the job. There is a whole lot of meat in the message of Saul, take time to read it, you will really get what I’m trying to say here. This man ruled for a long time, and the end of his story was quite ugly, he was killed along with his sons by the enemy, that enemy that would go to David who would become king, and tell actually gloat about how he had done Saul and his sons in. See this guy thought David would be pleased, but David called him out and had him executed, because horrible leader or not, Saul was one of God’s anointed, failures, disobedience all of it.
So, who is responsible?
Let’s talk about Humpty Dumpty. How did he get on the wall and why? I tend to believe he was a risk taker and maybe sought attention. Why when he knew the risk of falling, did he climb the wall?
I know he is a fictional character, but why? He may represent a king, a church ruler, even a cannon that was placed on a wall...all of the origins of his character represent leadership and strength and the battle for common good. Most of us like to believe that a Humpty was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and ooooops he fell, but if you really look into it, he got into this mess all on his own. He was not a good egg! He started at the bottom and worked his way up the wall, brick by brick he had an effect on those he served. While climbing, the wall protected him, but once he made it to the top he was no longer hidden,no longer protected, he was fully exposed to his enemy, what he had become, a careless egg. If you think about that, his exposure at the top of the wall put the very folks he was charged with protecting in danger, he exposed the way in to the kingdom he was serving.
Then it happened, he somehow lost his balance and down he went.
It was over the moment he hit bottom. There was no bouncing back, no reconstructive surgery, no last minute intervention, it was over. Everything he represented in a million little yolk filled pieces. I imagine all those kings men had a ewww moment! It was a disaster. Their king was gone! All they had left to do was clean up the mess.
So, where am I going? Exactly to this time and place and the realization that our country and our world is in big trouble. We have somehow lost our ability to trust in God and our hope has been placed in rulers/kings that seem to not have solutions that glorify God, all they care to do is glorify themselves. No matter what side of the wall you are standing on, you expectations differ, yet at the end of the day if you don’t get your way you are quick to want another king. We have lost focus on who we need to trust, heck our leaders want that reminder removed even from our money!
Because we were not careful what we asked for, we have gotten exactly that!
Daily it gets crazier and crazier, from the devaluation of human life to slanderous media, to leadership that does not want to own their behavior, it has become a time of great trouble.
We find ourselves crying come Lord Jesus come. We are responsible.
We have removed God from a lot of things, but sadly we have removed Him and our ability to trust Him from ourselves! We have to start owning it. It’s up to us to pray, we need to pray for our country, our world, our leaders. We need to repent that we have become so self centered and reach out to others and show the Love of Christ to our fallen world, our fallen neighbors, our fallen selves.
Unlike Humpty Dumpty we are not so broken that we can’t be repaired.
In the midst of our troubles our hope is simply that God is Faithful!
God thank You for Your Mercy! Have it on us! Help us to reach out and look beyond ourselves and own what we have done in order to get our country back into Your hands. Help us to remain humble and to know it is From you all good things come! Heal our Land, Amen...
See you next time
All nursery rhymes have a symbolic meaning, as does this one. It represents or even actually makes fun of the king or leaders of the day. Their leadership was not effective, it was not respected, it had no value to the common man. Think about this, no matter how high and mighty you may seat yourself, you can fall, and you will shatter! Wow that is deep. Think about it, you will shatter and because there are so many cracks and broken pieces, even those followers you have sucked into your agenda, will have no clue how to put you back together.
In 1 Samuel, Gods kids are demanding a king. Samuel goes before the Lord and let’s Him in on the demand, God’s answer in essence is, be careful what you wish for. See they had lost faith in their leadership, they have lost faith in God, they wanted a king like all the other nations so that the king could go before them and fight their battles for them. They wanted an earthly king who could judge who could make decisions.... Honestly God was very upset over this request. Eventually God gives them what they wanted because He knows they are not going to give up in the idea, and for whatever reason His kids had to learn the hard way, just like children of God do today. For what ever reason we have given up on leadership and as a whole our nations trust in God is wavering.
So God gave Israel Saul. At the beginning it was all good, but as quickly as he had become king, that ruler started to crack, he started to crumble. See Saul didn’t wait upon the Lord, he had been instructed to wait, in his inpatientance, his unwillingness to wait upon the Lord, he offered up a sacrifice, a selfish, self indulgent praise. What was sad about the whole thing is, if he would have waited upon the Lord he would have been greatly blessed as well as Israel. All God was looking for was a ruler who was after His heart, instead he got Saul who was in a hurry, and well just not the man for the job. There is a whole lot of meat in the message of Saul, take time to read it, you will really get what I’m trying to say here. This man ruled for a long time, and the end of his story was quite ugly, he was killed along with his sons by the enemy, that enemy that would go to David who would become king, and tell actually gloat about how he had done Saul and his sons in. See this guy thought David would be pleased, but David called him out and had him executed, because horrible leader or not, Saul was one of God’s anointed, failures, disobedience all of it.
So, who is responsible?
Let’s talk about Humpty Dumpty. How did he get on the wall and why? I tend to believe he was a risk taker and maybe sought attention. Why when he knew the risk of falling, did he climb the wall?
I know he is a fictional character, but why? He may represent a king, a church ruler, even a cannon that was placed on a wall...all of the origins of his character represent leadership and strength and the battle for common good. Most of us like to believe that a Humpty was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and ooooops he fell, but if you really look into it, he got into this mess all on his own. He was not a good egg! He started at the bottom and worked his way up the wall, brick by brick he had an effect on those he served. While climbing, the wall protected him, but once he made it to the top he was no longer hidden,no longer protected, he was fully exposed to his enemy, what he had become, a careless egg. If you think about that, his exposure at the top of the wall put the very folks he was charged with protecting in danger, he exposed the way in to the kingdom he was serving.
Then it happened, he somehow lost his balance and down he went.
It was over the moment he hit bottom. There was no bouncing back, no reconstructive surgery, no last minute intervention, it was over. Everything he represented in a million little yolk filled pieces. I imagine all those kings men had a ewww moment! It was a disaster. Their king was gone! All they had left to do was clean up the mess.
So, where am I going? Exactly to this time and place and the realization that our country and our world is in big trouble. We have somehow lost our ability to trust in God and our hope has been placed in rulers/kings that seem to not have solutions that glorify God, all they care to do is glorify themselves. No matter what side of the wall you are standing on, you expectations differ, yet at the end of the day if you don’t get your way you are quick to want another king. We have lost focus on who we need to trust, heck our leaders want that reminder removed even from our money!
Because we were not careful what we asked for, we have gotten exactly that!
Daily it gets crazier and crazier, from the devaluation of human life to slanderous media, to leadership that does not want to own their behavior, it has become a time of great trouble.
We find ourselves crying come Lord Jesus come. We are responsible.
We have removed God from a lot of things, but sadly we have removed Him and our ability to trust Him from ourselves! We have to start owning it. It’s up to us to pray, we need to pray for our country, our world, our leaders. We need to repent that we have become so self centered and reach out to others and show the Love of Christ to our fallen world, our fallen neighbors, our fallen selves.
Unlike Humpty Dumpty we are not so broken that we can’t be repaired.
In the midst of our troubles our hope is simply that God is Faithful!
God thank You for Your Mercy! Have it on us! Help us to reach out and look beyond ourselves and own what we have done in order to get our country back into Your hands. Help us to remain humble and to know it is From you all good things come! Heal our Land, Amen...
See you next time
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Man In The Mirror
Welcome to Trace’s Space. Who do you think you are? Who is the man/woman in the mirror. It’s funny how we change, it seems as if the lines on my face are getting thicker these days, I jokenly said to Mike the other day, “ I have aged twenty years in the past year.” But it is true, life takes a toll on our appearance, age, illnesses, life events, it honestly does, but while the outside changes, the inside does too. I would like to believe we are all like fine wine and that we become better with age, but honestly sometimes, just like wine, we may lose our sweetness and become bitter.
Life is hard! But God, He is so Good!
But who are we?
Yesterday I was engaged in conversation with some folks and we were talking about how sometimes people appear to be one thing in person, but behind closed doors they are completely different. They are not the person that shows up in the mirror. Our society makes it easy to hide our true selves, social media gives us the opportunity to be royalty or paupers depending on the validation need of the moment. I am not saying all people do this, I would say the percentage of folks is very low, but it is a reality of how we are wired, our desire for acceptance quite often trumps our life requirement to simply be real!
When you pretend to be something you are not, it requires a whole lot of work, you have to constantly have your game on and have your next lie ready to go. Some folks are so good at it, they have forgotten who they are, they become the lie, no truth stands a chance! They have forgotten a lot.
I am not perfect! My life is complicated, I can be ugly, I can be mean, but I am who you see! I am not one person at home and another elsewhere, my filter in public might just be a little better, lol! But seriously, people do not want to be surrounded by superficial yes people, they want honesty and realness.
Have you ever known someone who is just as beautiful on the outside as the inside, pretty is as pretty does? I don’t believe you have to be Miss America to obtain that level of beauty, I believe that appearance comes on because of the level of truth you allow to manifest in how you live your life.
You know the person who you know that you know, walks the walk and truly talks the talk.
The sad part is sometimes we have no clue that our words and actions testify to who we are, or the perception of who people think we are. Sometimes you are having a bad life or a tough season and because the world doesn’t want to see it you are chastised for living your reality. We can’t always be shiney happy people. So quick to judge a bad day. I remember a supervisor telling me, “you can never have a bad day in early childhood!” What planet was she from, you can have a bad day anywhere, you just can’t allow those days to define you! Tomorrow is another day, this too shall pass! That’s reality.
Who are you?
Jesus told his buddies, “I Am!” Those words were revealing, truly identifying, words from old so that they would know he spoke truth. I wonder if the big twelve were waiting for a complicated response, but Jesus being God knew that He is, “I Am”!
He also has words for us as to Who He says we are, we are chosen, not forsaken, loved, we are His, set apart. That is why honesty and being who we truly are is important. He knows our heart!
“How folks see you everyday is how you should be always! There is no such thing as a church face!
Be real! God knows your heart and in reality so does everybody else!”
(People love that person)
Really no matter how hard you try you can’t hide the truth! Don’t avoid the mirror, it will show the effects of life on your face, and don’t avoid the truth, it will reveal the true beauty in your heart!
See you next time!
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Holy Moses
Welcome to Trace’s Space. Today the account of Moses and the people of Israel has been on my mind. In Exodus the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land begins, it is a event that most children learn some about in Sunday school and occasionally it becomes the subject of a bible study, but for me today I found the information applicable and relevant to the times we are living in today.
Israel had become captive, and Moses was used by God to lead them out of a terrible circumstance. Understand when the Children Of Israel left Egypt, they had never known anything other than slavery and captivity, their entire lives for a couple of hundred years had been ugly, it had been hard. The journey they were about to embark on was not going to be easy, deliverance was not instantaneous, it required forty years of wandering in the Wilderness, that in itself was unknown territory, to a land that was Promised to be filled with all the Goodness Of God.
I imagine they were frightened, they had no provisions and had to rely of God to meet all of their needs, Moses lead the way with the help of a cloud and fire from God, imagine how strange this all seemed.
They became hungry, they became thirsty, they grumbled, but God who is Faithful provided. You know they basically ate the same meal for forty years, manna.
See there is so much meat to this account. God is really speaking to us when we read this. First of all they could have maybe made it to their destination sooner, but God had a plan , first to protect His people from danger, the shorter route was filled with giants, it was evil, they would not have survived. I think our first lesson here is, God sometimes leads us to the wilderness to protect us, but also so that he can lead us through, then out! I believe that God designed this journey because the plan for Israel was big, and in this journey the guidelines for how He desired that they live and worship would be established! They truly needed forty years!
He constantly spoke to Moses, He gave Moses the Law, but what I found interesting was, He waited, and I believe those words came at a certain time because God’s kids were getting rowdy, and tired, and they needed to be brought back to order...see rules and laws are good, people hunger for structure and boundaries. Not only did Moses go to the mountain top, but the word of God was placed upon stone, yep a rock, great symbolism there! You know, Jesus our Rock our Redeemer.
So much in there...
The kicker for me was Moses never got to cross the river. By the time we get through a few more books of the Bible the outcome is interesting. God takes Moses up to the top of the mountain and shows him the land that was promised then tells him he’s not going, and he dies. No explanation.
No one actually even knew where they placed his body, so odd, but I believe that God wanted the focus to be on the fulfilled promise, not on Moses.
So the children of Israel under new leadership, enters the promised land with instruction from the Lord on how that land was to be secured then divided. He was specific. The law was established prior so that they would be able to live together as a great Nation, Israel, just as He had promised.
I guess I should clarify, this is what I am getting from this. My take away!
1. God Provides
2. God Protects
3. He is Faithful in His promises
Even though the journey was long, so much happened most of it is applicable for today. Our need for rules, our need for leadership, our need to be able to trust those who have been chosen to lead us.
Our Giants are different, so is our wilderness, but we have a hope, and that Hope is Jesus! Trust Him, as in the days of Moses, our God can and will lead us to and through!
See you next time!
Israel had become captive, and Moses was used by God to lead them out of a terrible circumstance. Understand when the Children Of Israel left Egypt, they had never known anything other than slavery and captivity, their entire lives for a couple of hundred years had been ugly, it had been hard. The journey they were about to embark on was not going to be easy, deliverance was not instantaneous, it required forty years of wandering in the Wilderness, that in itself was unknown territory, to a land that was Promised to be filled with all the Goodness Of God.
I imagine they were frightened, they had no provisions and had to rely of God to meet all of their needs, Moses lead the way with the help of a cloud and fire from God, imagine how strange this all seemed.
They became hungry, they became thirsty, they grumbled, but God who is Faithful provided. You know they basically ate the same meal for forty years, manna.
See there is so much meat to this account. God is really speaking to us when we read this. First of all they could have maybe made it to their destination sooner, but God had a plan , first to protect His people from danger, the shorter route was filled with giants, it was evil, they would not have survived. I think our first lesson here is, God sometimes leads us to the wilderness to protect us, but also so that he can lead us through, then out! I believe that God designed this journey because the plan for Israel was big, and in this journey the guidelines for how He desired that they live and worship would be established! They truly needed forty years!
He constantly spoke to Moses, He gave Moses the Law, but what I found interesting was, He waited, and I believe those words came at a certain time because God’s kids were getting rowdy, and tired, and they needed to be brought back to order...see rules and laws are good, people hunger for structure and boundaries. Not only did Moses go to the mountain top, but the word of God was placed upon stone, yep a rock, great symbolism there! You know, Jesus our Rock our Redeemer.
So much in there...
The kicker for me was Moses never got to cross the river. By the time we get through a few more books of the Bible the outcome is interesting. God takes Moses up to the top of the mountain and shows him the land that was promised then tells him he’s not going, and he dies. No explanation.
No one actually even knew where they placed his body, so odd, but I believe that God wanted the focus to be on the fulfilled promise, not on Moses.
So the children of Israel under new leadership, enters the promised land with instruction from the Lord on how that land was to be secured then divided. He was specific. The law was established prior so that they would be able to live together as a great Nation, Israel, just as He had promised.
I guess I should clarify, this is what I am getting from this. My take away!
1. God Provides
2. God Protects
3. He is Faithful in His promises
Even though the journey was long, so much happened most of it is applicable for today. Our need for rules, our need for leadership, our need to be able to trust those who have been chosen to lead us.
Our Giants are different, so is our wilderness, but we have a hope, and that Hope is Jesus! Trust Him, as in the days of Moses, our God can and will lead us to and through!
See you next time!
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