When Empty is Full

AS MORNING’S first light nudged the last of the darkness, Mary Magdalene walked with heavy heart and feet along the dirt road. The garden’s birdsong and fragrant blossoms, usually welcomed, suffocated her and assaulted her senses.  

Mary’s first encounter with Jesus altered the course of her life forever. Possessed by seven demons, she was trapped in darkness, no companionship except the spirits that sought to cause her harm and evil. Anxiety, depression, and distress defined her. She was full but so empty.  
 
Casting out the demons, Jesus created space for a filling of new, good things. She was empty but quickly filled with devotion to Jesus. Mary and other healed women followed Jesus, taking care of him as he traveled, teaching and preaching. Drawn to his loving countenance, Mary had never experienced such grace and compassion.  
 
And then everything changed. They had taken Jesus, savagely beaten him, and hung him on the cross between two criminals. Although part of her wanted to hide, she had to be there; she had to see.  
 
As they took his dead body from the cross and carried him away, Mary was empty. Her hope was smashed, and her future was uncertain. And yet she had to honor him. His body had not been properly prepared for burial due to the quickly approaching Sabbath. And so, as soon as the law allowed, she’d set out to finish.  
 
With the stone rolled away, the coolness of the tomb joined that of the early morning. It testified to the emptiness she could no longer hold in. Sobbing, bending low, she looked in.  
 
“Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” asked the angels, one at the head and one at the feet where Jesus’ body had laid.  
 
“Because they’ve taken my Lord, and I don’t know where,” Mary answered them.  
 
Turning and standing again, Mary saw a man who asked the same questions.  
 
“Please, just tell me where you took his body,” Mary pleaded, seeing but not at all comprehending, the man was Jesus.  
“Mary.”  
 
It was all Jesus said – all he had to say – to open her eyes to his true identity.  
 
And while she longed to embrace him and linger with him, she obediently went to carry his message to the disciples.  
 
Filled with good news and resurrected hope, surely she ran. The morning light washed her weary body. The birdsong and blossoms carried her along the dirt road, her feet barely touching the ground.  
 
“I’ve seen the Lord!” she announced.  
 
The first to proclaim it, Mary Magdalene, reminds us when we go empty to Jesus, He never fails to fill us.   
 

appeared May 2022 Good News Shelbyville 

https://goodnewsmags.com/shelbyville/when-empty-is-full/ 

Temporary Chaos

Please excuse the current messy state of the blog.  It's in a remodeling phase. This is the future home of my pondering and will also store all posts from prior blogs. 

Like our homes, things get chaotic at times, even overlooked, but God loves us through it.

Thank you for being here. I promise it won't always be this way. 

 

Staying Power

So do not worry, saying "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we during" or "What shall we wear?" For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all those things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. - Matthew 6:31-34

The hairs were moving out, leaving my scalp like a trapped multitude leaping from a burning high-rise. Anxiety was moving in.

“I’m concerned it’s male-patterned baldness,” the dermatologist told me.

My father is handsome and bald, yet I had no desire to look that much like him. I was panicked.But then I read:

My grace is sufficient for you…..I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 

Suddenly I was aware that anxiety would not be moving in after all. The hairs might be leaving but were making room for the power of Christ to settle over me. Immediately peace whispered Gods’ love to me. Hair or no hair, God would give me strength and courage to handle anything I saw in the mirror.

Thankfully, the hair loss issue came to an end, but, praise God, the love of Christ didn’t and won’t. His mercies really are new every morning.

DEEP Outline - Part 2 (Explore)

Welcome back! We're walking through my DEEP formula for Blessed Quietness. 

A study time can be DEEP and still be easy. My DEEP formula for Blessed Quietness study follows four stages.

D - Devotional - selected reading

E - Explore – further Bible Study

E - Express – journaling your discoveries

P - Prayer – listening prayer as you allow God to speak to you through the time you've spent

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E is for Explore

Read any verses noted in the devotional reading, then read other verses cross-referenced to it. Write out verses that stand out to you and note key or repeating words. Use an online resource to take a deeper look at these words in their original language and note their meanings.

If you'd like to go DEEP in your quiet time, contact me (Contact Me button in drop-down menu above) to receive a free Blessed Quietness Journal printable that you can start using right away in your devotional moments

DEEP Outline - Part 1 (devotional)

Familiar routines are woven throughout our days. We start with coffee, the news, exercise, or a walk. We shower, brush our teeth, do our hair and makeup, and rush out the door.

Quiet time is often a part of our routines, too, whether in the early morning, later in the evening, or anywhere we can squeeze it in between. Some days we can't squeeze it in at all despite our best intentions.

A routine for our quiet time focuses our thoughts and gets us started on autopilot.  

A study time can be DEEP and still be easy. My DEEP formula for Blessed Quietness study follows four stages.

D - Devotional - selected reading

E - Explore – further Bible Study

E - Express – journaling your discoveries

P - Prayer – listening prayer as you allow God to speak to you through the time you've spent

**************************************

D is for Devotional

Today's post covers the beginning of Blessed Quietness. First, come to this time with Lord expecting His Spirit to open the eyes of your heart to His Truths, asking in prayer for Him to focus your thoughts. Using the devotional reading of your choice, read the selection for the day, making note of any themes and verses that speak or stand out to you.

Read it a second time, more slowly this time. Sometimes the first reading doesn't catch recurring themes or key words that you see this time.

Take note of whether or not you sense the reading speaking to anything particular in your life or current studies. 

Don't think you have to limit yourself to one devotional. I often read from two daily devotionals, or I read a chapter of a devotional or inspirational book.

Some days a quick devotional reading is all we can manage, and that's OK. Other times we can't even squeeze that into the day, and that's okay. There's grace for that, too. For me, the more time I've managed to spend, the more my heart longs to make room for more -- and still, I miss days. 

Join me tomorrow as we look at further exploring what we've found in our devotional through Bible study.

If you'd like to go DEEP in your quiet time, sign up for the Blessed Quietness newsletter and receive a free Blessed Quietness Journal printable that you can start using right away in your devotional moments.

DEEP - an outline for Blessed Quietness reflection

    Quietness, what is it, really? It's generally described as free or comparatively free from noise. I think of quiet as the base to which everything with sound and motion is added in our days, the place where stillness resides but gets buried by chaos.

    This base is a foundation, and the foundation is Jesus.

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 3:11

    Chaos cannot successfully bury our foundation. Jesus was buried and rose on the third day. Jesus uncovered as our base and foundation of stillness is Blessed Quietness.

 

  Blessed Quietness is shutting the door on chaos, like locking a fit-throwing child outside the bathroom door. You know it won't last forever, but you plan to make the best of it while you have it.

    One way to make the best of it is to use a framework for your time, a routine. Like other repetitious acts, before long, you're using it automatically and have established a habit upon which you can build for the rest of your life. 

    DEEP is the framework I have used in my personal quiet time for more than two decades. Whether I have only a few minutes to escape or time for a mini-retreat, it has served me well and allowed me to draw closer to Jesus day by day. It's not a box I have to check, and failing to make it one day does nothing to diminish my longing for the next stolen moments. It's become a way of life, one that has encouraged and strengthened me in the harder seasons of life while helping me to see His Presence in everyday places.

    It consists of devotional reading, exploring what I've read, expressing my thoughts and prayers by journaling, and closing with prayer--listening prayer.

    The next posts will outline each step of my process. I'm excited to share it with you!

"Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee." -- Saint Augustine

If you'd like to go DEEP in your quiet time, contact me (Contact Me button in drop-down menu above) to receive a free Blessed Quietness Journal printable that you can start using right away in your devotional moments.

LAUGH - Five Minute Friday

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. - Ephesians 3:30-21

 I'd have laughed out loud if you’d told me a year ago that I’d be writing today. My journal writings from a year ago are filled with honest cries for help and relief from my job’s stress and vision struggles. This time last year, I was at the end of recovery from COVID and the pain related to the pressure in my eye was beginning to skyrocket, leading to the removal of part of my eye. That procedure stopped the pain immediately and gave me the courage to say “yes” when God opened the door to my dreams. Dreams I’d given to him over and over for almost 20 years.

I never fully grasped abundant exceedingly more prayers. I had mustard-seed faith in them, though, and God showed His faithfulness to that tiny faith and answered my prayers, bringing to fruition my heart’s dreams of writing full-time.

I hope you’ll prayerfully dream with God and wait expectantly for Him to answer. Write down your dreams, date them, and return to them in your quiet time with God. Assume there are no limitations to what you can do together because it’s the truth. Nothing is impossible with God!