Lessons from Nichole

It's been a fun weekend so far, and I'm excited to be back at church tomorrow! I'm writing tonight with a thankful heart to the Lord for His kindness and blesssing on our family, because of some serious contemplation that has bombarded me today. I spoke with Nichole Greene for a long time today (see her blog for the details) and all at once my heart was excited and yet deeply grieved. Excited because Nichole is so faithful to the Lord and is making her life count for Him, honoring Him in all of her trials and circumstances. Grieved because I want to do better as part of the Body of Christ to serve her and her family, and to encourage her. I had excused myself in some ways and today realized that I am the one missing out on this great opportunity to function in the Body, and to be blessed by the rich encouragement that comes through the Body working together- especially upholding the weak. It strikes me as ironic right now and the more I think about it, the more I realize that God's Kingdom is full of paradoxes... track with me. We die to ourselves, and live abundantly. We give- because it is surely better to give than to receive. I should be able to think of more, but I think those two make the point. If we sacrifice and serve others, we receive a far greater blessing than we could ever give. We are told in Scripture to give, and expect nothing in return. When we operate within these God-given "paradoxes", we will find His promises to be true. Wow. What an amazing God we serve!! Even when we are "sacrificing" for Him and serving others, He returns so much joy and fills our hearts with so much "marrow and fatness", and we see the richness and benefit of serving the Great King. I am privileged to be a servant in His Palace. I long to serve with more passion and to "spend and be spent" (borrowing Paul's words) for the Lord. I don't want to "be spent" from overshopping, from overeating, overexercising (that's not a real personal threat, but might relate to some of you), or from wasting time on pointless things- which can deplete me of energy because it saddens me. I want to focus my energy on serving for the sake of the gospel, for building up the Kingdom of God by serving within His Body. I am resolved today to make it my aim to use more energy this year in serving others!
Oh, and to elaborate on my thankfulness to the Lord for my precious family... considering Nichole's situation and the fact that she has been apart from her family and really not able to function in the home with her kids has made me thankful for each day that I have in full health. Lest I take any of the Lord's blessings for granted, today I am deeply grateful to the Lord for the time that He has given me with each of my precious kids and for the health that He has given to us thus far- enabling us to enjoy simple pleasures in life like hide and go seek, park days, reading books together, snuggling, wrestling, making dinner together, etc. The Lord is good.