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What If I Told You ...


and what if I told you ...

that I know the One that can heal them all ?

Would you even believe me?

My eyes have been opened to a lot of hurting recently. Yesterday I spent time at the Clothesline Project, reading the shirts that the hurting women and children created. I have listened to a friend tell of her grandson that she lost too soon, and seen the heartbreak on the face of the mother who lost him. I have witnessed friends who are broken over a marriage that just couldn't work, and I watch them trying to get back the love they used to have. I watch people hurting every day because of loved ones dying from cancer. I know people hurting because a dream is now lost, or a friend is now gone.

I watch the show intervention on A&E. I watch the story of a life that took a wrong turn. Someones brother, daughter, mother, who they have watched turn into someone else. They have turned to drugs or alcohol to numb them from the pain they feel inside. I always feel so sad that I can't just sit down with that person and tell them what they are missing. The one place that they never try to turn to. I watched one episode not too long ago about a man that was so confused in life. He tried everything he could to be happy again. Nothing ever worked. After he went to treatment for 90 days and became sober, he eventually came back home, relapsed, and committed suicide. It broke my heart to know that this man couldn't find happiness because he kept seeking it in things that do not matter. Why couldn't someone tell him where to find it?

But would he even believe them?

I find that so many times, people just can't forgive themselves. They can't forgive themselves, so they can not possibly imagine someone who would forgive every thing they have ever thought, everything they have ever said, everything they have ever done. I remember that feeling of thinking that life would never change. That it would never get better.

Nobody understands what I'm going through.

I remember.

Nothing will ever change. It has been this way too long.

I remember.

I could never possibly start over. I can't have a brand new life.


I know, I remember.


But I was wrong.

And so are you.


Please, listen to me when I say -

None of this will matter. One day, it will all turn to dust.

Whatever you are putting before God in this life: Money, fame, the search for romantic love, sports, music, movies, "fun", your reputation, whatever you cling to for your happiness. It isn't what is going to make you happy.

But would you even believe me?

Before I decided to live my life for Christ, I searched for happiness in everything. And yet, my heart was still just as broken. I had phases where things seemed fun and happy, and yet, I always went back to my broken heart. Always searching for something to heal my wounds.

If you are one of those people, my heart breaks for you. Everyday it breaks for you.
And I love you with all of my heart. And I care about your soul more than you could ever know.


Who in your life has watched you change? Who has watched you try to find happiness in drugs or alcohol, in the chase for love, in something other than the source of true happiness? And who has watched you, broken and bruised, constantly try to pick yourself up again?

The truth is, if you don't have the Healer, you will never be whole.

But we have to be willing to surrender. To give up our old life, put off the old self. You can not live a life of sin, realize how lost you are, repent and be baptized into Christ to live a life for Him,... and then go back to exactly how you were living. If you can, then you were just going through the motions. You aren't really fully living your life for Him. You can't truly call yourself a follower of Christ.

Christ will change you.

"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."
-1 John 1:6-7

"He that will not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it."
-Matthew 10:38-39

Your life CAN be different. You CAN start over.

Before it's too late.
You can.

"What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing."
-Luke 15:4-5
It is the parable of the prodigal son.

The son who had stayed there with his father and did everything that he asked, was angry. And he said - Dad, why are you making such a fuss over the son who rebelled against you and left you when I have been here the entire time? And his father answers:

"Son, you are always with me. And all I have is yours. But your brother was dead and is alive again. He was lost, and now is found."

It is a simple question. And the answer will come quite easily if you ask yourself.

Who do you live to please?


God or Yourself?


The world will throw all kinds of temptations at you.
Things to make you think that you have succeeded, that you have had a happy life ...

but one day, you will take your last breath.

And on that day it will not matter

how much money you have.

how famous you are.

who you are married to.

if people laughed at your jokes.

who your friends are.

if people find you interesting.

what your job is.

how much fun you had.

ALL THAT WILL MATTER

is how you lived.

Will it be for God, for the glory of his Son who suffered so that you may be healed? Will you despise the things that put Him on the cross? Will you strive to shine His light for all to see? Will you try to tell others about his unending love?

or will it be chasing after the world for the answer to your broken heart ?

One of these roads might make you happy for a moment.
Sure, it prepares you for death.

But the other will prepare you for Life.


Choose this day whom you will serve.
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8 comments :

  1. Beautiful, beautiful post. So true.

    I remember being in that place and thinking, how could there ever be hope? But that's the amazing thing about God. He is above and outside of everything. Where we can't go any further, He meets us and carries us the rest of the way.

    Thank you for that beautiful reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  2. T,

    This was beautifully written. Your passion is so transparent and the urgency you feel is evident.

    One thing you said made me think and I'd like to develop my thoughts into a blog post of my own. But (unfortunately) the thing I'm thinking is in direct disagreement with the thing you said. Would it make you sad if I wrote a blog post that counters this a little bit? I would never want you to think I was being intentionally disrespectful to you.

    Love you,
    A

    ReplyDelete
  3. Would it make me sad? Well, of course. Because I know how you feel about it. But do I think you have every right to blog what you feel? Sure. It wouldn't be disrespectful. Just know I love you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well said Ms. Theresa!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks pretty lady. <3 And while I understand why it makes you sad, I'm sorry. Love you too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Quite powerful and so true... I know I went through a similar experience of searching for happiness is everything but finding nothing until I came to rest in Him.

    What, may I ask, is the clothesline project?

    Best,

    Hannah Katy

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hannah,

    The Clothesline Project is AMAZING. :)

    http://bluhm-escape.blogspot.com/2008/10/clothesline-project.html

    ReplyDelete
  8. MICHELLE PEAVY PRICEMay 24, 2010

    OH MY I FEEL LIKE THIS WAS WROTE ABOUT ME, AND THE WIERD THING IS I AM STILL SOBER BUT HAVE NOT BEEN FOLLOWING THE LORD AS I SHOULD I CLAIM I LOVE HIM AND I DO BUT I M FEELING IT THAT EVEN THOUGH I LOVE HIM SO MUCH I AM MISSING THE BIGGER PICTURE AND WALK IN CHRIST I LOVE THIS THERESA U R TRUELY A MESSANGER OF GOD!

    ReplyDelete

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