Reflecting

It's been over a month since my last post. I definitely will up the frequency on the blogging once I'm in Australia. I think part of the reason for the silence is that the Lord has had me in a very calm season of rest and just soaking in stillness. I get so use to chaos and business that I can easily forget how to enjoy these calm seasons and let God use them to restore my tired soul and prepare me to enter into what is next. But, looking back, kinds on the end of it, it seems like that's more or less what this time has been, and it's been good.

Speaking of resting, I've gotten to do some reading for fun, which has been really nice. I recently read The Heavenly Man about Brother Yun, who suffered for the sake of the gospel in China. This man's story is incredible. The thing I seem to remember the most about it is the Lord's lovingkindness and goodness in how near He is to those who suffer. I have been wrestling with chronic pain in my back, shoulders, and arms. But the Lord has been so NEAR in it all. I cannot deny His closeness. I am humbled with a dependency on Him that I haven't had to have before because of physical limitation. But when I cry out to Him, He answers.

A little over a month ago, God led me to call a lady about massage therapy. She is such a servant of God, and through the leading of the Holy Spirit, she now gives me hour long, deep therapeutic massages completely FREE of charge. How good is God! What a blessing. It's in times like this, that I know He is near.

I was reading the other day in Exodus... in 3:7-8, God says, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey." Are you hurting? Tired? Suffering? God KNOWS your sufferings. Not only does God know because He sees your suffering, but Jesus knows because He has borne the fullness of suffering. We suffer and it's the result of either a fallen world or our own sin. But Jesus suffered, not as a result of sin at all, but to destroy sin all together and make a way for us to be restored to God, free from sin for eternity! He suffered on the cross, understands all our suffering completely, and destroyed suffering that we might spend eternity in glory. I love that- gives me hope and peace!

Anyway... off the subject, but it's crazy to think in 18 days I will be leaving for Australia (Oct. 26), and in 12 days (or something like that), I will be leaving Birmingham and heading back to Tennessee to spend some quality time with family (and to pack up my life for two years)! Crazy! It's been such an insane journey to get to this point, but I wouldn't trade any of it for anything. God has been so evident in it, and it's so clear to me that He's been guiding and orchestrating this the entire time. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement... hopefully I'll be writing again soon!

Love,

Christy