Helping and Healing Business

The Lord gave me an analogy today as I talked with a dear friend.

Maybe it’s a stereotype that guys like to fix things, but I know that I, too, have a tendency to fix things or at least try to. One of my deepest desires and passions is to see people walk in freedom and receive healing. Naturally, this can tend towards a fix-it mentality. Being American we want to microwave things but God is into marinating them. I am guilty of this and the Lord has been slowly helping me learn how to walk with people through their troubles and not slap down a label or cure. Coming along side people, holding their hand, carrying them briefly, encouraging them, and simply being next to them. Clearly, I’ve not mastered this but I am working towards this idea of playing the role in simply helping the Father.

I realized that my role is not to fix someone. Simply, my role is to help the Father in His process of “fixing” someone. The vision I had entailed that of a little boy helping his father fix the car.

The boy has no idea how to maintain a car, fix a car, what parts to replace or repair…only the father does. But, the father can teach and use his children to accomplish a certain task. Does he necessarily need to? No. However, he wants to!

“Son, pass the wrench.” “Okay dad!”

Now, this help can look many different ways. For instance, the son has no idea what a wrench is. “No son, it’s that one over there.” “This one?” “No.” “This one?” “Yah, thank you.” The point here, we are the children helping and sometimes we make mistakes or we just don’t quite know how to help and provide what someone needs. The beauty is that it’s a learning process for both the one needing healing and the one trying to help.

Or I think of a little girl helping her mom cook. She doesn’t know how to cook but she can go get a measuring cup and pour a cup of flour. She begins to pour, tipping the bag and suddenly there’s a white floor and an overflowing cup of flour. “Oops! Sorry mommy.”

Sometimes we deliver wrong messages at the right time or right messages at the wrong time. Sometimes we just get the wrong tool to help. Other times we spill things. It’s a messy process all in all—this whole helping and healing business.

We are human. We are God’s children and we make mistakes. We are all learning.

As the helper we must never assume the role of the fixer. We are getting the wrench for the Father or taking something he gives us and delivering it. A word of encouragement. A revelation. A great insight. A thoughtful prayer. Practical help with a physical need. A listening ear.

So, the helper must have grace in that the one who’s needing healing may be slow to come around. The one needing healing must have grace in the fact that we are all learning and we don’t always know how to help.

We must practice our ability to listen and hear the Lord. He knows how we can and should help. He knows how to heal us. He knows how to best use us. He’s teaching us just as a Father teaches his son/daughter.

A Granny's Word

i often muse over the memories spent with my granny-- what she taught me, still teaches me, how the Father used her to help form me, still helps form me. the simplicities of life to cherish... her wisdom forever shapes me and speaks into my life. i hold her dear to my heart today just as i did years ago as a child learning the ways of the ocean. she is a teacher and my granny.

for years, she has written an article each week in the Victoria Advocate, relating her relationship with God to that of her experiences with the ocean. after visiting for Thanksgiving, she emailed me a rough version of what was to be published the following weekend.

here is the link to the article in the paper:

http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/841/story/162197.html

here's the article just in case the link doesn't work:

"Teaching grandchildren is harder now" by: Elaine Wheat

December 01, 2007
“Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations.”

Deuteronomy 32:7

Today I enjoyed remembering the days of old, considering the years of many generations.

My oldest grandgirl, Dyanne, came to visit me. And, after catching up with each other’s lives, and looking forward to great things to come for her, like graduation from A&M with a teaching degree, and me being able to brag on another Ms. Wheat teacher, we wanted to look backward to the way we were.

I got out a bunch of old VCR tapes to refresh our memories and, after watching several, Dyanne asked me, “Granny, don’t we have any tapes where we are not in or at the water? I would like to see one of me where I’m not wearing one of your old tie-died, wet shirts, a used fishing cap or visor, and not have wet, stringy hair.”

I assured her that I had only gotten out the best ones for our viewing of the way we really were, and, truly, I had not realized that in my way of thinking that naturally included water being swam in or fished in.

After the full viewing, we voted that our favorite one was when Dyanne was about 7 and Marilyn Elaine was about 4 years old and not yet married to an Air Force jet mechanic and living near London. Who would have ever guessed that those two precious pre-people running around on the beach would grow up and actually be adults?

I want to share something with you: Being Granny back then was a lot easier than being Granny now. When “remembering the days of old” our roles were well-defined. Granny taught them important things like how to cast, where they could swim and not to run on the little wooden crabbing bridge. It was their role to do the things they were taught. Well, most of the time anyway. Marilyn didn’t actually run on the bridge but she did do this crazy looking skippy-hoppity-waddling thing instead of running.

The only thing hard about those days of old was for me to remember to trust them and not constantly say granny type things like, “Be careful, don’t run, and keep your mouth shut when you are throwing bread balls up in the air because a beautiful seagull might poop in it.”

I taught, they learned and we all trusted each other to do our things.

Now they are adults, and I am not good at being an adult’s granny. I still know a few things that they need to know, but I have a hard time just letting them learn those things instead of me teaching them. I guess I have to learn from them that it is now time for me to learn to keep my mouth shut or something unpleasant may happen to me.

Dear Lord, please help my generation to pray that You keep Your arm around our shoulders and Your hand over our mouths. How can our kids or grandkids learn faith if all they have to do is teach us to mind ourselves?

Safe Harbors

Thinking back on the days leading to my surrender, I found myself singing my own requiem… walking down, a slow death. Those days seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer—any light proved bright. So far gone, only a greater power could rescue me.

Lackadaisical, her feet dangling in a quaint stream hidden in the shelter of the woods, she silently mourns. Aloneness surrounds her and yet a gentle breeze seems to speak to her as if to say, “I am here with you.” Tears hit the water, mixing unnoticeably—moreover she blends with the inattentive crowd buzzing away with shallow talk of the day. As if a stone feeling the water rush around without a second glance, so people pass her by. She wastes away slowly, only no one knows, for it happens over time with increments too small to note. Similar to that of a child you live with and then one day you realize he’s grown to your size. The monster inside becomes too much to hide any longer.

She awakens one morning to the sound of a hopeful bird, a song so sweet she felt herself beckoned to another world—one filled with no pain, no tears. Could there be such a place or only one hoped for but never created? No such place, she thinks. How could there be in all honesty? Yet the hunger grew with intensity.

Searching with no direction. Thus the course of a year she was a ship steering the course of the sea with no destination in mind save a safe harbor.

As a friend once said, “I didn’t fall in love but I found Love itself. I didn’t find my way but I had it shown to me.” A tiny seed of hope grew and the light beckoned me. He guided the ship with a light. He is my compass.

He drew me into safe harbors. Refuge at last. An anchor for my soul. No longer a tortured soul...peace at last.

The Lord Hides, But I Will Wait and Trust

stillness of the night quiet sounds all around me endless thoughts run free

There are so many things that I want to do with my life, and yet there always seems to be the same hindrances that rise up and block the dreams. I am naturally a dreamer, an idealist, a visionary...but it seems that time always bucks up and pushes the grand thought aside. "Move on over, partner. Time's a'comin' on through." Either that or fear. Fear paralyzes most men--to some degree, anyhow.

As of late, I find myself growing in the area of confidence and believing my Father for great things. He has equipped me and will do wondrous things through me because I live from His presence and favor. Outside of him, well, I'm pretty much useless.

This idea of confidence in the Lord has grown unknowingly. The Lord prophesied in July that I would journey through a season of learning to walk in confidence and not fear man. He told me that I was equipped and assured me that I would accomplish great things with my life. Not to mention, He said I'd be a "protocol breaker." That's a significant statement and call on my life. Something I had to realize is that protocol is just a way of doing something. I won't be rebellious, but I'll just break the traditional mold--the hum drum way of doing things. In order to do that I must walk in His confidence and favor.

This season continues to be drawn out as the Lord carefully and even meticulously uproots insecurities, fears, lies, and wounds. The mending of such brokenness takes time and great care. He is patient--no, he is patience, the very essence of patience.

I am grateful to know that he loves me enough to walk me through the junk and even challenge me to change and become a better person; to become more Christ-like. The process can sometimes be messy but the other end of things is always so much more beautiful. Take a diamond for instance. A diamond in the rough...the process of cleaning and polishing...then the result of a rare and priceless jewel.

We are to co-labor with the Lord. He has given us great desires and dreams. It's not like Buddhism where you take away all desires. That is a cheap and goes against a passionate God's heart for us. As we surrender our hearts and desires to him, he fills us with his desires. Our desires line up with his and by his grace and power we can co-labor with Him.

Time is not an issue for the Lord. Therefore, time does not have to be an issue for me. It's that simple. What could take years, the Lord can do in minutes. I've seen it happen in my own personal life. But then again, the Lord is patient and does not view time in the way we do, so sometimes it seems that something may take forever to come about. Keep in mind that no barren woman in the Bible stayed barren except David's wife because she did not like his dancing before the Lord. That speaks well of the Lord's promises to us!

The only fear we should have is a healthy fear of God. Perfect love casts out all fear. With help from the holy spirit, I can be fearless.

Taking these roadblocks out, I find myself once again dreaming with God and desiring to co-labor with the Lord.

Direction...now if only I could understand which way to go...this involves listening, trusting, waiting, and obeying. I suppose through all of these things, I am learning greater revelation of who God is and who I am in Christ. No, I don't suppose. I know so. I am learning to be a sheep that knows my master's voice. The art of listening.

My thoughts are a little scattered tonight, but all the same, coherent.

In the end, I just want to know my maker intimately, be known by him, trust and obey. My big hope is in the King and his Kingdom. Anything else is only subservient.

Isaiah 17:8 "I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him."

2 Thessalonians 3:5 "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's lvoe and Christ's perseverance."

Change Begins With the Roots

A friend asked for this drawing and I felt led to send it along to others...over the years, another dear friend has taught me the beauty in sharing. may the Lord use this to minister to you.

Several days ago the Lord had given me this vision of a tree coming up through a heart...previously I had seen a shirt that had a picture of a tree that said, "Change begins with the roots"...while watching the Gospel of John I felt inspired to start putting the image on paper...different verses came to mind and I felt that they went along with the image. At first I was going to do a tree that was half in the desert and half in the streams, but that just didn't seem right, for we have complete Life in Him--not just partial. The colors came together and a renewed tree and heart presented itself...

The Lord has taken me through so much healing and He continues to. It is a process...through all of it we are renewed with a new heart and mind. Keep asking Him for healing and renewal. He never holds back healing from those who ask and seek it. some of the verses that i put on here have been speaking to me since the very first day that i received the Lord...and others just came...

lies and wounds are like weeds that need to be dug up. dealing with your heart is like dealing with a garden...it must be maintained and fertilized or else it will become overgrown with weeds. in order to dig up a weed and insure that it does not grow back, you must attack it from the root. likewise, to become free from a wound or lie, we must dig it up from the root. once the weed is dug up, we must nurture and fertilize the soil and the plants remaining. we must replant if necessary. the same is true with our hearts (and minds). when a wound and lie is uprooted, we must replant...replace it with the truth and love of the Lord. the holy spirit helps us in this process. our minds must be renewed in the process in order to keep the healing and keep our hearts protected from future arrows and wounds.

The scars are our testimony. Revelation 12:11 "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."

the verses in the picture to meditate on are as follows:
John 15:5-8
parts of Isaiah 61
Jeremiah 17:8-9
Proverbs 4:23
Isaiah 43:18
Psalm 126:5-6
John 4:13-14
John 7:37-39