Friends.
Playmates.
Defenders.
Encouragers.
Kindred Spirits.

We need in our lives those we can call friends. Playmates we can share the fun of life. Defenders who we can count on when our walls of protection are crumbling. Encouragers who speak truth in love to inspire, nurture, cultivate and strengthen our lives. Kindred spirits who graciously intertwine their faith and lives with our own so our journeys will not easily be deterred.

As I pondered the words of Luke 5 this morning and considered the events of the last few weeks, I know I have been blessed with such amazing friends. Sisters, who confronted, challenged, encouraged and loved me to the Truth. Truth that I had known but wouldn’t accept and therefore, lay paralyzed in the muck of my own sin. They carried me past the crowds, through the roof and lowered me to the foot of Jesus. This is the only place where forgiveness and healing could be found. They knew that and they knew that pride, fear and shame had incapacitated me. Their faith carried and placed me where I needed to be, the place where I could not seem to get to on my own.

This place, this sacred, holy destination is where healing was found. I stand in the strength that is not my own. I will not argue with the Pharisees who doubt the healing or the forgiveness. I will pick up my mat and go home – praising God for what He has done and for the sister friends who brought me there.

Leaving the Embittered Path

Have you ever been here? A place where you know you shouldn’t be. It is a place where you really don’t want to be but yet, you can’t seem to let it go because it has been a part of you for way too long.

Familiarity doesn’t mean good or right - just familiar.

This has been my place for the last few weeks. I am not proud that I have journeyed here and have chosen to remain.

I know better.

I want better.

My choices, my selfish and arrogant choices, however, indicated otherwise. I have been camping out in my own bitterness. Ignoring the promptings on my heart and instead, feasting on more selfish and bitter root.

God beckons with more urgency and greater intensity. He will not be ignored.

My heart softens and then is broken. He has that power to shatter the concrete shell of bitter discontent and reveal the beating flesh within.

I can no longer ignore His promptings. They are too deafening to disregard. I must respond by leaving this place. Leave it all behind. Nothing that I brought should travel on.

I will admit I find it difficult to leave it all behind. Much of it has kept close comfort. Most has reasoned my bitterness. Without it, I journey on naked and vulnerable.

Yet, I know. It is all or nothing. Leave it all behind or look at nothing different for the destination ahead. A place of forgiveness, I pray.

Where this path will end, I do not know. Its finish is now in the hands of another.

Peace comes in the obedience. I pray for restoration in the destination.