...i am so thankful for your mercy and grace. it has washed over my spirit until i'm swimming in it. what goodness you are!
please help me to hold fast to the courage and truth that you've shone on me during this adventure. help me to not forget the peace and hope you've shown me in my beloved sister land, kenya.
grant me the strength not to pick up what i've let go. i love resting in your vision for my life, even though i can't see the whole picture. help me to never leave that place.
oh, i love how your love is changing me!
Dear Leah, Wow! Pretty amazing and moving! Thanks for being sensitive to this song. Tonight the words moved my soul as I have just completed my first week working each night in the homeless shelter here in Haywood County. My heart is heavy and sad for these precious people of God. I wept as I listened to the words and saw the pics of the video ..related to the homeless people that I just said good bye to and hugged. I will not forget nor will I rest till a resolve is made!
ReplyDeleteAnd I am so very proud of you Leah. I love you ever so deeply!
Your Mama...Kana
Leah: I love your letter...part of it about not picking up what you've let go reminds me of a wonderful story by and about Corrie ten Boom. If you don't know who she was or anything about her, Google her and find out...a truly extraordinary Christian woman of the 20th century). After WWII, (during which she had been interned in a Concentration Camp), she spoke and lectured world-wide on the wonderful Grace of God, even in the face of losing her sister and parents in the camps. During one talk in Japan, she brought along some visual props, to help illustrate her words, because she did not speak Japanese, and though she was being translated, she wanted to make the context of her words more meaningful. She spoke about letting things go, giving them to God, and then not picking them up again later. For this illustration she used an old suitcase, out of which she took things one-by-one, as she "gave them up" and left them out of the suitcase, as though emptying her life of the things that had weighed her down. It was a very effective illustration, and she knew she had gotten "through" because, at the end of the speech, after most of the audience had left, she was picking up her props, and putting them back in the suitcase, to take them away and use them for the next speech. A little Japanese woman, walked quickly up to her on the stage and stopped her. "No, no!" she said. You must not pick up and pack in again what you have allowed God to have!" That taught such a valuable lesson to me, because I have so often "preached" to others about "letting go, and letting God," and then gone and done the opposite: I kneel in fervent, heartfelt prayer, asking God to take some burden away, and then when I arise from my knees, I pick up right where I left off! Something so easy to do...some things seem so hard to let go of; yet the rewards of letting them go are so amazing!
ReplyDeleteBTW, I have your blog on my "follow"list on my own blog page, and enjoy it very much. Sorry it has taken me so long to comment. If you are so inclined, I invite you to visit my blog: http://reflectionsfromacloudymirror.blogspot.com/ It's basically a "stream of consciousness" sort of thing, but it often contains thoughts on the spiritual side of my life as well as the humorous - which many times are one and the same. Anyway, all the best, Paula Tohline Calhoun
Leah - I love this picture of you - it captures the essence of what I felt and experienced while there as I know it does for you as well.
ReplyDeleteWhile I know we experienced many different emotions, trials and blessings... I know the heart of it all is the same. So, I thank you for sharing these eloquent words that say what I am struggling with so very much today...
I love you and I'm praying for your peace as you continue to "let go... and not pick up what has been let go"....