Spring Renewal

Not sure if it is the rhythmical sound of my feet pounding the pavement as I run or the steady meter of inhaling and exhaling.  Life seems to regain its balance and cadence while on a run.  Some of my best conversations with my Lord take place with the wind in my face and my muscles tensed and pushed to the limit.  Some of my deepest moments have taken place when the winds of life have all but blown me over and my faith strained and pressed to the edge.

I love how simple God made it for us to notice Him.  He is in everything as we look around and take notice.  All of physical life mimics the spiritual.  I see the groaning as life is birthed from the earth fighting through the weeds and overgrowth of dead plants.  I sense the lament and struggle of my heart as it fights the flesh and longs to live out Christ likeness.  Pushing away the deadened sinful old self, and giving birth to the renewal and transformation of my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Renewing of the mind is not an easy process, especially if you have spent years cultivating poor thinking.  Praise God that there is freedom and life to be found in Him!  The unending process of retraining can be tiring should we try to do this in our own strength.  As I seek to retrain my thought patterns and cycles, I find myself more dependant on Him than I have ever been.  I am a mess left to myself.  This is a work that cannot be accomplished from mere human might.  True change can only manifest through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Step family living is a wonderful catalyst to bring about heart and thought change.  There is forever a challenge to work out your faith through relating and dealing with the pressures that it can present. 

At times, it seems that the call to forgiveness will be unending in this land of Stepville, wounds and strife can dominate your thought life.  There are constant interruptions that steal away from your family and marital time.  You are often disliked and gossiped about for setting up healthy boundaries.  There are threats, manipulations, and sometimes cruelties for setting up protective barriers.  Hours can be spent on simply corresponding with the other homes involved.

I came to a point where I cried out to Dave saying “ I can’t do this anymore!”  I would never leave or divorce him; I just knew that I couldn’t handle another year of what we had just been through.  I didn’t know if I needed to go away for the next few years or what.  I was desperate, exhausted, and fed up.  There were seemingly no solutions to the issues that we had been facing- multiple, complex issues stemming from both sides.  Exasperated, I turned to the only source of Truth, comfort and direction I have consistently had- my God.  I was exactly right when I said that I couldn’t do it anymore, I couldn’t!  At least not in the way that I was doing it! 

As a woman, I seem to want to take on everyone’s pain, everyone’s issues, and walk out their faith for them!  Truly, the relational pack horse!  Weighed down, carrying a load that I was not created to bear; my thoughts were becoming obsessive about how to fix the situations.  My heart was pained as I was constantly faced with the pain of our kids and the mourning of the original families, and I found myself mourning them too for their sake.  We are so grateful that God blessed us with each other.  It is just difficult, as I have to let go and not take their pain internally and sometimes rejection personally.

It all seems to circle back to finding my security and significance in my Lord alone.  If I stabilize and center my life on Him, I can freely walk and love others.  There is no dependence on their response.  It matters not if they love me in return.  I encourage them to love others God has brought into their lives (i.e.: step-siblings, step-parents) without heaping guilt on them or manipulating complete “alliance” to me.  I am free and not bound by jealously, bitterness or consumed by fear.  I have been made acceptable to God through the work of Jesus Christ.  I can rise above the pain and struggle of circumstance and walk boldly, joyfully, and lightly as I send them up in prayer- releasing them back into the arms of the Lord.

The enemy would love for us to focus and get swallowed up in the torment, and harassment, the difficult, and the painful.  This renders us too busy and our energy too depleted to live out our calling as believers and followers.    It is a daily choice to take every thought captive, and bring our thoughts to meditate on Him and what He calls us to in everything.  His Yoke is easy and His burden is light…He came so that we may have life and have it to the full…Let us focus on this as we grasp hold of this day and embrace this road we have been led to.   Running away from the past and pain and into full life and joy in Him, we race towards the finish.

Not Picture perfect... and that's ok.

A steaming cup of java in one hand and my faithful Mac before me, I click through the pictures on Facebook.  Notifications of new albums posted on the sites of my dear friends beckon me to click and browse.  I take in familiar faces, smiling, happy marriages, and happy and whole families.  Some could be the poster image for “Christian families”.  I continue clicking through the beautiful images. I see them going on mission trips together, mom and dad at the center and the children following their example of godliness.  Joy in their faces reflecting the joy in their homes.  My heart is warmed and I hold a sense of deep rejoicing when I think of what some of them have had to battle through, but stuck it out, together.

Forcing myself to take a break from the computer I plod downstairs to conquer the dust.  The cloth uncovers faces from a day in our lives that seem a lifetime ago.  Tiny innocent faces of sweet children, happy, actively a part of a whole family, much like the ones that I was just admiring.  They knew no brokenness.  No loss.  Their world was still whole in that moment in time… and so was ours- though we as adults knew it was broken.  My heart aches as I stare into their precious naïve eyes.  I ache for them then and what they didn’t know what was about to happen; I ache for them now and how they are forced to walk through the wreckage of the demise of their original families.  Did no one stop to really see them?  No one escapes without mortal wounds in a divorce.  Damage too deep to put words to.  Scars they will have to carry, and only God Himself can bring healing to. 

I always had this vision of what my family would be, whole, and God following.  A happy family who loved God and served Him in every chance that they could, reaching out to others.  A home filled with love, laughter, and hope. 

I shuffle through the circumstances that brought us to today.  We arrived here, in Stepville, a land of broken dreams and high hopes for renewed ones.  We walk through a slow mending of the torn and anticipating the creation and building of something new.  Some residents are willing to embrace the new dream, some still asleep to what is and not wanting to wake up. 

The aftermath of devastation forces you to take a position- either of allowing the pain to change you into something better, or you can sit in it, roll around in it- somewhat like playing in the mud continually looking back to what was.  We each had that choice of how to respond.

Looking back never moves you forward.    

I recently heard a wonderful illustration from the former king of Greece.  He had defected during a major conflict.  When the reporter asked him how it was that he could face people and not be embarrassed or completely humiliated, his response was something like this… “My mother once told me… if you stub your toe on a bedpost, it really smarts.  Why would you keep going back to the same bedpost and continue to hit the same toe on the same post?  It only causes additional and continual pain!”  Oh the times I have gone around and around playing in the mud of the wounds and poor decisions made in my life!  What a waste of energy, time, and talents! 

Stepville isn’t what any of us originally envisioned, or desired, but here we are.  God has promised to redeem and restore… He promises for those who mourn, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.  In their righteousness they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for His Own Glory. (Isaiah 61:3)

God, the one who specializes in renewing the worn out, the hopeless, is continually giving us the hope of restoring that hope for our family.  A family filled with people who love God and want to seek Him first.  A family that serves out of gratitude for what God has done for them…and it begins with us as parents leading the way. 

Our family photo is different than most.  Peppered with the reality that there were once family units that don’t exist anymore.  Yet a hope lives on that in this new entity we can love, learn, and serve each other… and together be a light in this dark world for our God, who brought us together.  Not perfect, not arrived, but honest, real, and striving to be more like Christ...and who knows...maybe someday we will get the white picket fence too.  Until then, we thank God for the small victories, and rest in the knowledge that He holds it all within His mighty hands.

Love...Agape style in Stepville

"Love- the Agape kind that desires another's highest good-doesn't whitewash sin or allow wrong behavior to continue without confrontation... A healthy relationship is one that is open. Things aren't buried, covered up, ignored, or denied, because when they are decay sets in-putrefaction." -Kay Arthur, Bible scholar.

Agape Love.  All-inclusive is God’s grand love of us.  Sacrificing for those who hated Him, loving them regardless of how they felt toward Him.  Giving His very life even unto death for the ignorant, the ungrateful, the ones who would continually betray Him and spit on Him and His ways…I am one of those.  I look back and see the hypocrisy that I have delivered in my life.  Posing the outer appearance of what I thought people wanted me to be, and ever falling short of what God called me to be.  I praise Him both for His goodness and His grace in how He loves me so unconditionally.

Agape love- Perfectly demonstrated, not perfectly or easily mimicked.  Stepville offers yet another opportunity to exercise the muscle of Agape love- or loving, as God loves.  Sometimes the pain from stretching that muscle just about knocks me out completely.  The stresses, the trials, the hurts, it all constantly brings me to my knees and forces me to continually ask my Lord- “how do I love like you in this situation?”  I know that I can never accomplish His love in my own strength.  There is just too much pain involved and my flesh rears it’s ugly head causing me to feel the desire to run away, not love and draw closer.

Agape Love.  My longing to have a whole family again places that innate desire to gain acceptance and love from the newer members of the family above boundaries and logic.  Acceptance, love and relationship can never be forced, coerced, or bought.  It is also increasingly difficult to have the difficulties of ex relations and maneuvering healthy boundaries with unhealthy people.

 I have both sides of the situation.  I am a stepmother, and my ex is remarried, so my children have a stepmother.  She is not my choice.  She is not a believer as far as I can see.  But she isn’t a bad person either.  My children have done O.K. with accepting her.  I try very hard to stay an encouraging force for them to adapt to what is.  If they are comfortable with calling her mom or referring to her as one of their parents, I want to support where they are.  I realize that my standing as their bio-mom never changes.  I do not fear them loving her “more” than myself.  Through many trials I have learned who I am in Christ and that my security and significance is solely derived from Him alone.  I imagine if God hadn’t already been dealing with that priority and truth in my life, I would deeply struggle with feelings of betrayal and insecurity- dependant on my children’s so-called “devotion”.

This enables them to not have to deal with loyalty issues on top of their already painful and difficult situations that they are processing through.  I pray that this helps the other home stay in peace. 

Encouraging our children to “play nice” with the “new kids” (new step-parent, or step-siblings) is crucial for THEM.  Do I like the fact that I am not their ONLY mom?  No.  It is difficult to accept that there is someone else pouring into his or her lives, and I have no say as to what she is adding.  Particularly if the new step’s life is not centered on Christ.  For me, there is no life apart from Him.  Not that she cannot impart some good things into their lives, she can and does.  It just isn’t what I always agree with.

Agape Love.  Loving someone more than you love your own comfort.  Wanting what is best for someone else over you.  Honestly, I hate the fact that there is another woman that I have to share my children with.  Holidays, Birthdays, weddings, birthdays, all shared with a relative that I didn’t pick, didn’t want, and frankly is irritating me.  But for the kids- so they can still have a shot at being healthy people we have to be as neutral as possible.  No guilt trips for relating well with that other person.  No guilt trips for time spent with the other parent or enjoying time with the new stepparent.  This helps them in their pain and encourages their healing.  Even though it is, at times very uncomfortable for me.

Loving even when the battle rages on.  In recent weeks, Dave and I have spent hours returning emails and maintaining communication with our exes.  This takes from our home and family time, and quite frankly is draining for all involved.  Hurtful comments, and arguments over money, along with manipulative tactics can overwhelm and take over the home.  It is difficult to relate with people who have hurt you so deeply.  I must admit that this is an area where I do not love well, even though I really do try.  I try on a daily basis to see where they are coming from and how this all affects them.  I did not choose them, and they did not choose me.  But here we are in a jumbled mess that no one is certain how to navigate.  Professional counselors, supportive friends, and fellow stepparents are crucial.  Relationship and constant conversation with God and your spouse is imperative

Love- true love is becoming as Christ did in Gethsemane.  Most often it plays out like a continual prayer of “Not my will, but your will Lord.”  It seems like a constant pleading for the Holy Spirit to remain alive in me so that I may win my family over without words.

To love as Christ, is an impossible task in my own strength.  My own wounds, my flesh, my ideas all get in the way but there’s an app for that! (Love my new Iphone!) Not by power, not by might, but by my Spirit says the Lord!  Through Him we can do ALL things!  We can love freely without fear.  Our God can enable us to love and hold out an example of love without allowing those who are unhealthy overstep boundaries. 

Love is choosing.  Choosing when to lay down our lives.  Choosing when it is abusive and when it is sacrifice.  Sometimes it may look dysfunctional to the outsider; when it is merely choosing to lay down one’s life for another.  I think of the scene in “The passion of the Christ” where Jesus is collapsed exhausted and bleeding after having been beaten while he is chained to the post.  He looks over toward Mary His mother, John, and Mary Magdalene.  You can see it in His eyes as He CHOOSES to allow the abuse and beating continue- out of the recognition that He has to go through with the Father’s will in order to save them…and us.  This is NOT powerless victimization, but rather a Holy strength and will to do the impossible for the helpless and hopeless.

We cannot pretend to be Christ, but His Holy Spirit does reside in those of us who have crowned Him as Lord.  We house the same Spirit that raised Him from the grave; we also have the same Spirit that gave Him the strength to choose His Father’s will and not His own- for OUR benefit.

What an example!  What courage!

In the days that I feel too weak to love well, I push deeper into my Lord.  He is always a constant refuge, a steady Savior who never quits calling me deeper, and He quiets my soul and pries away my flesh.  He shows me once again his mercy, His grace, and reminds me again of all that He has loved me through.  And He calls me to love this family through all of what we are walking through, in His strength.  Speaking His truth, in love.