Reflections from our church family this Advent.
Follow the whole series here.
Audacity
This isn’t your usual devotional but more of a mix of thoughts from conversations with youth and the hopelessness that seems to follow them before life has really even started.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Sinking, falling, failing, feeling… overwhelmed by how far I’ve come (or haven’t come) and convincing myself that obviously I was never enough . These are the lies that burrow at my heart rendering me a (place) of nothingness and neverness.
It’s hard and it’s confusing and causes countless questions of ‘am I really seen’ — to be left to wallow in the emptiness of here and now. Subtly and so very slowly the anger began to rise and the light of my hope became no more than a flicker.
All of this took me to right here, right now where the mirror scrawls pity over my eyes and cruel snares over my smile. I forgot who I am… but the thing that terrifies me more is that I forgot who you are..
To accept my fate is easy but to have the audacity to push… I mean really push is more courageous than a thousand warriors. So today I’m choosing faith and patience and I’ll trust that your wisdom is for me-praying that these unclimbable mountains are lessons in disguise intricately designed to be the training ground for my Everest ecstasy.
My head might justify that you’re dark and unkind but my heart still believes… My heart hears something my words can’t speak or even comprehend. My heart knows YOU and JOY flows through my soul again reminding me a whole new story of adventure awaits the very second I chose to see it… And I’m so devoted to the destiny that dares me to dream that I’ll outrun the echo of failure (unmovement) until these bitter lies are nothing more than bitter lies.
Prayer
I’m declaring this over the Hub and hoping you’ll join me…
A place where mums come because they’ve had enough and need to get away but also a place where kids come when they’re skipping school because it’s safe and they feel it.
Let’s make the Hub ageless where it becomes so normal to see these young guys nursing strangers babies and having a laugh with old silly guys without any weirdness. My prayer is that the Hub is gonna break the generational gap and build a community the way it was made to be built.
Little kids and as well as not so little kids who never felt they had place of belonging will find the mums and dads they never knew existed and older couples find the children they were never able to have and family can start again in the best way possible. Who cares if it’s not blood! Is blood really what makes a family?