I was thinking today about bitterness and brokenness. I was thinking about how we put protective shells around us when we are hurt and broken. Like a cast around a broken leg to help the bone get a chance to be supported and healed.

But what if? Just what if we never take the cast off the leg? When we get a cast people commiserate with us. They autograph the cast and help decorate with fun sayings or pictures. Kind of like when we are newly broken emotionally and people listen and comfort, you know? And really no one blames us for a while if we are taking measures to protect ourselves. Maybe some will even encourage us to harden ourselves.

But again…what if? What if we never take the cast off? What if we forget to allow ourselves to be tenderhearted and kind again and just stay hard? It stinks really. Then atrophy sets in and the limb becomes useless. We never walk quite right.

A cast is heavy, inflexible, picking up dirt. Bitterness is like that. Makes our hearts heavy, hard and looking for the worst, letting it cling to us. Long after the real need for the cast around our soul, the cast of bitterness brings attention to the wound that should by now be healed, ready for training in moving, building muscle operating as a fully functioning part of the body again.

When it comes to the wounds of the soul, we don’t get to wrap up in layers of gauze and plaster so we wrap up in anger, a cold shoulder, snippy remarks, gossip and so on. That is the cast God comes to remove.

So do not fear, for I am with you;

 do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you;

 I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

He does not promise life will not hurt ever again. But He will be our strength and His hand will hold us up. He will be with us. He will be the one to harden us to difficulties in a way that does not cause our soul to atrophy but instead can make us stronger.

When we are taking off old things making way for the new year, bitterness is a cast it is time to remove. Time to take out the surgeon’s saw of forgiveness and cut that thing off.

It was one of the nearly perfect winter days today. Sunny and comparatively warm (45 degrees). My afternoon schedule was rearranged so I had some free time to use putting Christmas stuff away in the shed which I did not want to attempt on a below 30 day. I may have grown up a Northwest Indiana Girl but there are still things I don’t particularly want to do on a cold day. Tackling stiff storage tub lids in an unlit, unheated shed is one of them. Need warmer temps and sunshine, which I was happy to have today.

I also switched out door wreaths, put fresh bird food out front, and organized a few shelves. Then since Marty was off visiting a shut in I had time to sit in a chair by our picture window to have a mug of tea while finishing up Middle of the Mess by Sheila Walsh and a Bible Study on Philippians by Joyce Meyers. And journal, ponder and pray.

Glancing up I told myself I should try to catch the sunset today. You know take time to enjoy the paintings God sends us. So many people post amazing pictures of the glorious sky while I tend to forget to take a look at the free art show when it comes my way. Then I saw the window was less than sparkling clean. I had cleaned it inside and out a few months ago in the fall. Slowly but surely the grime of life, weather and no maintenance made it dingy.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood…from Romans 1:20

That is the way my mind tends to go-finding a spiritual truth in the everyday based on that verse. I thought about how easily and pretty much without notice, our lives can get smudged…purpose for life growing unclear.

We can let life happen day after day without spending time in God’s word and worshipping him (I get it young mommy, I raised eight) This may not be the season for long prayer, study, journaling sessions. God is not requiring that from us in a religious legalistic way. Having ONE scripture that to think about through the day is meditating on His word. It is washing ourselves with the water of His word. Cleaning our “window” so we can see more clearly with His viewpoint. It is planting ourselves along streams of water and growing strong. Just one scripture you say?

Yes even one scripture if we will take hold of it through our day will do that over time. It will renew our mind so we think God thoughts. It helps us practice the presence of God in our lives and gives us peace as our mind is fixed on Him through His word.

Sometimes (many times really) we are just clipping along in life, busy, busy, busy when suddenly we realize we are in an entirely new season. We are there sometimes just as the natural order of things…winter to spring ect…infants to toddlers…teens grown and married…But sometimes there is distinct almost abrupt change. The doing we are used to doing is not fitting or even an option any more. Afterall doing it for the sake of doing something out of habit because we have always done is not always what should be happening.

 We may have entered into the season I have come to call “The Season of Being Pulled Back”. I suppose there are many reasons a person could be in that season but they are not all bad. In fact I have come to see, thank God, there is a very GOOD purpose in the pulled back stage.

Look at this little picture posted from Brave.

Notice what she is doing with her bow and arrow. Get it? Thinking of ourselves in the hand of God, He is the One who shapes us into the straight arrow, with polished shaft, sharp tip, clean feather lines, notch perfect. ‘And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he hid me.’ Isaiah 11:4

 . We might simply and profoundly be in a season of refurbishing. We might be a favored arrow used time and again in need of some tender loving care in the hand of the Archer. We might be in the quiver for a time to be pulled out for a specific purpose refitted with a new arrow head.

But take note and heart lovers of God who seek to serve His purposes. He knows the season and the purpose and the preparation. You may in this moment be in His hand fitted to the string of the bow, which is even now being pulled back in careful aim to hit a specific mark. And pulled back you must be or you will never reach the distance with the impact necessary. Take heart if this is your season. It is not one of rejection from the Most High but one of cherished preparation. You are blessed!

To all of us who are perfectly ordinary people, who in the mix of ordinary days may be hounded by the thought “What difference do I make? What is my purpose? What in the world is my calling?” If the thought has much opportunity to be pondered that is, depending on what your day entails….you know husband or wife stuff, maybe parent stuff but also work stuff, extended family stuff…in general life… the one Jesus came to give us abundantly.    

There is a thought that comes to me over and over and it is about “The Ordinaries” who may not bear a title or recognized position of authority, so find themselves feeling some way less important than those who do or those they look up to. We do naturally, read much of the big names in the Bible who were the Apostles and laid hands on the sick, seeing miracles, and we know of those who follow in like paths. But what if?

What if I am just a mom? Just a neighbor, employee, employer, son or daughter or volunteer someplace? What if my thing is gardening, cooking or fixing cars? “Let each of you abide in the calling in which you were called” (1 Corinthians 7:20) while not specifically addressing this does seem to me to be a principle to apply. Abide means to live in that place. Make a life in and from that place. Make it a place of life and from that place reach others with the love of God. This does not mean there is no room for improving ourselves and the lives of our families but unless you have a mandate from God to full time ministry, your ministry is where you are doing life primarily.    

A few years ago, I attended the memorial service of Betty, the Mother of one of my dear friends. A letter was read from a woman who had been a young girl when she came to know Betty. It brought this point home perfectly for me. The writer of the letter was a woman who was one of 14 children. Betty, over the years as she raised her own children, extended her life to this girl. She talked to her about her own love of our nation and stories of the places she grew up. She paid her to babysit also gently gave her shoes or clothing she had bought that were “too small” for herself, so she would have new things with out embarrassment. She came to know the Savior through Betty. Today this woman is a Pastor.    

While I strongly believe in the gifts and callings of God on our lives that can take notable forms, I submit to you this simple, lovely example of an ordinary person. In living her life in an ordinary way with that touch of normal every day loving others as she would love herself, the normal was made quite extraordinary in the long run.     

That sense of “there must be more, I am sure there is more”…very possibly there is, but use these days living them to the fullest in what your hand finds to do in the ordinary. Loving one another. Being kind to others. Lifting others up. Love the Lord. Live well in the now, a day at a time and God will lift you up when the time comes for that place of something more that you are sensing. This is the time of preparation for that place which is another note topic all together.

God Bless You!