Saturday, February 20, 2010

Too Much

I know we are way behind in updates. We feel the tug daily to tell you of our world. The things we are experiencing. The people we are meeting. The relationships we are building. The family that has visited. The teachers in our home daily. The students we are teaching. The athletes we are coaching. The children we are parenting. The marriage we are nurturing. The lives that are changing.

I could go on and on.

But what is overwhelming to me today is that as I scan Facebook, as I glance over CNN.com as I hear from many of you, is that we are all burdened. Here are just a few of the needs that I know of personally:

A friend looses her sister
A man looses his job
A man leaves his job
A wife needs to go back to work
A car needs to be replaced
A new round of Invitro begins
A family moves to a new city
A family hears their adoption is soon
Another family hears their adoption is soon
Someone is struggling with depression
Someone is pregnant without insurance
Someone cannot make ends meet under current circumstances
Someone is struggling with addiction
Someone is hurting from a spouse's addiction
A family is living with their parents
Somebody had a second miscarriage
A mother doesn't know her place in her world
A friend looses her best friend
A deadline needs to be met
Someone needs to loose weight
Multiple families with car trouble
Somebody needs to find a new home they can afford
Many are pregnant
Babies are sick
Babies are in the hospital
A friend looses her job
A friends is paying for her own wedding....

These are all people I know and these are all current and these are only off the top of my feeble brain. There is so much pain, so much struggle, so much need.

I want to remember who God is. His Power. His Glory. His Residing Presence. We are just in process. He is refining us. He is giving us distinctiveness, our identity in Him. I want to be distinguishable from the rest of the world despite what my challenges may be. Beth Moore states it well from her Esther study, "One of God's purposes in this journey is to help us recapture both our identity and identification as His children - not so we can be obnoxious but so we can be influential."

So if you are or if you fit into one of the above burdens, or if like me you feel the weight of the everyday burdens like making another meal when you haven't even cleaned up from the last one or begging your children to take a nap so that you may have a moment to do or to be still yourself...so for all of us, this is my prayer and my song today:

Habakkuk 3:17-19 A Hymn of Faith
"Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls---
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my Salvation.
The Lord God is my strength;
He will make me walk on my high hills."

A HIGH HILL IN THE JUNGLE OF PANAMA...

It may be a mystery as to why God has given you your burden. Even so, I pray we steward them well.

10 comments:

  1. We, as God's children, need NOT forget that our battle has been won. We are victorious through Christ. When in the midst of horrifying circumstances, a grateful heart is the only remedy. No circumstance can devalue the worth of the cross and the security of our salvation. Praise God!

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  2. I LOVE YOU CLARE - miss you and so needed this today

    Brooke

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  3. i ditto brooke's comment! beautifully written and may we remember WHOSE we are! He is so much bigger than any of our needs, no matter how big or small! love you, precious friend and praying for you! xoxoxo

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  4. well said nathe and mckenzie. such comfort to know our battle has been won and where our worth and security come from!
    thanks for reading my friends!!

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  5. Thanks for your beautiful words Clare! Your life continues to have great influence on mine even when you are so far away. Love you guys.

    Meg

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  6. thanks for the good reminder that we are ALL in the fight. Know the the Jackson Richardson's are holding you close in our hearts and prayers...and encouraged by your example of perseverance!! Denise

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  7. thanks for the reminder that we are ALL in the fight. All the Jackson Richardson's are holding you close in our hearts - and are so encouraged by your perseverance in your situation!

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  8. Clare,
    In tears reading this right now. Just what I needed to hear. Miss you dearly and hope to talk to you soon. Thank you for reminding me that we are to steward our burdens well...aka...go straight to the cross with them in prayer. A relief and a joy to know our God is faithful in the midst of all the brokenness and heaviness in the world. Hallelujah! Strange that I just finished a song called "Too Much" about who I used to be before I started facing some of the pain in my life by the grace of God. Love you. Miss you all. Hug the girls and Field tight for me!

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  9. What great encouragement! My mom showed me the note you wrote them and I saw your blog so I'm now a reader :) I have a blog too, but it's private so I need your email address to invite you! Your work in Panama sounds amazing!! May you be blessed!

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  10. What a great reminder to thank God for His sovereignty - over ALL of life. Much love to all of you. Joy

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