On a journey...

It’s a good season. Transition is uncertain, but God is steadfast and He is with me. I just got back this week from an amazing conference with ICAP (International Christian Alliance on Prostitution) at the Green Lake Conference Centre in Wisconsin. It was beautiful. Being on a search for beauty I found so much beauty there. The surroundings were beautiful, but I think the beauty that met me most deeply was the beauty of God’s heart, and the beauty of those who have chosen to connect to His heart. As I listened to speakers who have lived lives of loving God and people so well, I found myself typing and writing down the wisdom they shared. Some were good reminders, and others were words that expressed loving people in a way I’d never contemplated before, and these words ministered to my heart. So I wanted to reflect on a few of those many nuggets and invite you to read along if you like. Loving people. “Jesus never met a prostitute.” I was kind of shocked by the statemen

Seeking a place of being “careless”. Not because I don’t care, but because God takes my cares upon Himself. I have cast my cares upon Him because I know that He cares for me. And I trust in that care. Processing the last season. Thankful I never broke down. It was close, but I encountered sufficiency in His grace. God was enough and He gave me enough to make it through. It was sufficient. Sufficient meaning enough to fully meet the need. And what He gave me was sufficient. It was enough to sustain me. Thinking about it, it doesn’t look like wisdom. Exhausted, worn out, worried about so many things. Not the best starting point to plunge into another intense battle, leading the way. Arriving to lead the Shine Seminar my soul was so weary. Compassion is a gift, but it’s hard work. It requires risking and often living through rejection by the very ones you are trying so hard to show acceptance. It drains and involves the famous “give a hand and have the whole arm taken”. The

Beauty. Two branches in full bloom. Different, yet the same. Flowers. Fragrance. Sweetness in the midst of darkness. One a clock in the night in Fortaleza, Brazil. Walking along the streets in their “Red Light District”. Arrested by the beautiful fragrance in a place with so much stench. A dark street carrying a treasure. Ten in the evening in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Visiting women on display in windows. Distracted by beauty and fragrance of a simple flower. Stopping to take it in. Places so incredibly different, yet so much alike. And in the midst of the fragrance I am reminded that the women are also treasures waiting to be found. Yet they were never lost by God who always sees them. Reminded to seek after beauty and not gaze on darkness. Transition. I’m in the midst of it and I wonder how to define it. I guess part is remembering. Remembering what has been. Processing. Thanking Him for what has passed. Remembering so that it can be released and I can st