In The Heart of the FREE

"...come to me when you're weary and I'll give you hope when you're hurting."
 
Jamie Grace sings this in my ear as I sit in Starbucks sipping on my venti single shot honey latte', and it's exactly what I needed to hear! My oldest son is at a Heart Change Workshop right now  (you may remember I wrote about my youngest son's Heart Change experience HERE), and it is day 2 of the workshop. We look at Freedom today... 

The problem with freedom? It doesn't come easy, and it's not handed over without giving up what we cling to. We cling to our ideas of who we should be, how we should act, what we should think and what others will think of us. In doing "all the right things" we find that we are put into more and more bondage and pain. We don't find freedom to be ourselves by trying to act differently or by dressing differently. We won't find freedom in doing it "the way it's supposed to be done" according to some self-help guru looking to gain fame and fortune with their bestseller. We won't find freedom until we realize that freedom isn't free. Freedom requires something of us.

Freedom requires us to take our eyes off ourselves.

Freedom requires us to realize what freedom is and what freedom isn't. 

Freedom is not the ability to say whatever I want under the guise of free speech.
Freedom is not the ability to make a choice as to where I live or what work I do.
Freedom is not the ability to vote for whomever it is I want to lead our city, county, state or country.
Freedom is not the ability to marry whomever I want to marry and raise my children the way we want to raise them.

You may be shaking your head....yes, those things are all the outcomes of national freedoms and the laws we live under. However, do you really understand TRUE freedom?

True freedom is knowing you are exactly who you are supposed to be because you know the very One Who created you.
True freedom is knowing you are not the sum of what you do or what you have done, but that you ARE...because the Creator loves you.
True freedom is knowing you don't have to fit in to be accepted.
True freedom is knowing those people who call you names, refuse to listen to your heart, or put you down because you're not like them are the very same people you were put on earth to love and lead to true freedom.
True freedom is knowing you don't have to fight for your freedom....you have to accept it.

Accepting it. Man! Isn't that the hardest part? Yesterday I wrote about accepting the blessings of someone else (you can read there HERE ). Today I'm faced with accepting freedom. I think there's a theme here, and I see the need to encourage all of us to get to know the heart of our Savior so we can learn to understand the need to accept HIS gift to us - complete and utter freedom.

Throughout this workshop my son will be fighting for his personal freedom...his changed heart...and many will be standing in the gap praying for him and the others who will be walking into battle for their own hearts. Is that what's missing in our relationships? The people who are standing in the gap for us? Are you standing in the gap for anyone?

First, let's figure out where that phrase came from - to "stand in the gap." It comes from Ezekiel 22:30 where it says, "I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one." God was looking for someone righteous. He was looking about the land and searching for someone who was crying out to HIM in the midst of a society that sounds, terrifyingly, much like ours. He was looking....seeking...searching for anyone who was willing to stand up to the injustices of their time.

He found no one.

Matthew Henry says in his full commentary, "Sin makes a gap in the hedge of protection that is about (around) a people at which good things run out from them and evil things pour in upon them, a gap by which God enters to destroy them...When God is coming forth against a sinful people to destroy them He expects some to intercede for them (to stand in the gap) and enquires if there is but one that does; so much is it His desire and delight to show mercy. If there be but a man that stands in the gap, as Abraham for Sodom, He will discover him and be pleased with him." (parentheses mine)

So today, I stand in the gap for those fighting for their freedom - their true freedom. Will you join me? Who needs you to stand in the gap for them? Who needs you to cry out to God in their favor and pray His mercy and redemption on them? Martin Luther has this great quote that cuts me to the quick when I think about praying. He said, "I have so much to do today I must spend three hours in prayer."  Dr. Chuck Swindoll shared the story in a recent broadcast of his daily message on "Insight for Living" of a man he knew who set aside the best three hours of his day to spend in prayer. I remember, too, hearing a well-respected Bible leader back in my days of working in radio (I can't even try to remember who it was who said it - some days the teaching ran together and the voices all sounded the same to me,,  if you made me guess I'd say it was Bill Bright) who said, when asked how he could possibly pray for so many people each day (his prayer list was substantial and prayed over daily) that he remembered WHO he was praying to. He knew God knew all going on with each person just by name. So, he said that throughout the day as a person came to mind he simply lifted them up to God as he went about his duties. In doing so he prayed without ceasing and stood in the gap for many, many people who needed those prayers. Just this past weekend a friend and fellow middle school small group leader shared with me how one night he was really struggling with *what* to pray for a certain person. As he struggled he heard God say, "stop talking. Just say the name and rest in Me." (I've paraphrased) That very night, after he shared this with me, I had the opportunity to put this prayer tactic to the test, so to speak. One of my girls was such a burden on my heart and I had no idea how to pray for her. I simply laid in bed and said her name....and held her up to the throne of grace with confidence. The peace that came was immediate. 

There's so much more that could be said for standing in the gap! From the honor found in the Jewish community when they say, "I'll say your name." They are meaning that they won't forget - they will bring honor to the person and say their name. 

What a beautiful option we have to stand in the gap for those who are fighting for their freedom! Stand in the gap today....pray without ceasing...say their name...and rest in this: 

Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!

Psalm 116:2

True Freedom.....who do you know who needs you to stand in their gap so they will find it? 

To Serve or To Be Served....that is the question

In the forty-five years I've been alive I have had multiple (as in hundreds if not thousands) of opportunities to serve others. When I was younger it was often on a stage with a choir, a microphone or a dance partner singing our hearts out and giving our audience a respite from their current state of affairs. I would look out and see the wrinkles of aged faces dissolve away as their eyes would take on that misty, far-away look of a bygone era living only in the recesses of their memory. I would see couples reach for their partner's hand as we struck our single pose and sang a love-song. They would smile at each other and it didn't take a brain surgeon to see the memories flitting between them.

As I got older and began to mature i had the opportunity to expand my horizons. It would be in helping my mom with meals on wheels and listening to the fascinating stories of the people we were serving. It woud come in the shape of a note handwritten and delivered to someone needing encouragement to get through a rough patch. Another opportunity morphed into the hearts and voices of a choir or a congregation raised in praise and adoration to our God and Savior. Yet another would come in the decision to spare a new mom the frustration of having to make a meal while delivering love and nourishment to her family. (caveat: I am not the world's greatest cook. In fact, when it comes to meals I am the three basics kind of gal - protein, veggie and side. So, my delivered meals were often store bought lasagna with garlic bread and a salad. No one ever complained about getting a free meal....no matter where it came from! :D )

So, I've had lots of experience in blessing others. It's easy - I bless, I help, I encourage, and I feel good. Really good. I like blessing others.

I've begun to realize something, though, and it's the darkside of being a blessing.

To Bless or to Be Blessed....

The darkside is that "or be blessed" part. It's hard to allow others to bless me. 

I don't like to be needy. (got over that thanks to a self help book or two - or a broken relationship or two - in college thankyaverymuch!)

I don't like to have to rely on other people to get by. 

I don't like to be at the mercy of someone else doing things I know I can and should be able to do myself. 

And therein lies the problem. 

*I* Want To Be the Blessing!

*I* Want To Be The One On The Pedestal

*I* Want To Be the One People LAUD as "Such a Helper!"

Am I the only one? 

I think not. 

IN fact, I know not. 

We all do that. How hard it is to accept the help of a stranger when they see us struggling with a door and hands full. How hard it is to accept the help of a friend who knows we just can't get to _____________ right now and they step in to do that for us so we can mark it off our list. How hard it is to ASK someone to give an encouraging word because we're just so down we can't see up. 

I figured something out tonight regarding this phenomena....

In digging down to the heart of serving, I am beginning to realize the blessing that comes from letting others bless me. That sounds crazy and selfish, but in fact it is the opposite. 

If I'm always rushing to bless others and never allowing them to bless me (ie: help me) I'm really saying that I don't need  people, but people need me. I'm putting myself on the pedestal in the name of serving others. 

Living this way perpetuates a spirit of unworthiness in others instead of instilling in them a knowledge that they matter - they have worth - they are a necessary part of this equation called life. If we always step up to prove we don't need help with such-and-such ("Oh! Thank You, but I can get that!) we are robbing someone of the blessing to be a blessing. 

Think about the last person you witnessed helping someone. Think of the person serving, and then think of the person being served. BOTH of them were given a gift, right? The server was filling a need - realizing they were doing something good - and it made them feel good about themselves, right? The servee was made to feel worthy of service and being seen. 

Now think about that same scene a hundred times over. If the person serving only serves and the person being served only receives what happens? 

Anger. 

On both parts. 

The Server gets tired of always having to serve and they begin to see the people they are serving as greedy curmudgeons only grabbing and nabbing what others will give. 

The Served begins to feel like they can't do anything on their own and they figure they might as well just give up. 

So where am I going with this? What does it mean for those of us, like me, who are in a place of serving a lot and authentically enjoy the occasion to serve others? How do we give that back?

Well, here's what I learned today. 

My son is attending a workshop in a town about 40 minutes from our home. I was there serving in the kitchen when I ran out to my car to get my purse and retrieve some money for his lunch and dinner. The only problem was that my purse was not in my car. It was at home, forty minutes away, sitting in the kitchen where I forgot to grab it on my way out the door. 

The food I had been preparing was for the staff members. My son is a teenaged boy who thinks every food item on earth is not enough to satisfy his hunger. I was facing quite the conundrum. 

I had a choice. 1) I could run home and get my purse and make that trip 6 times in one day because I had to return home to teach and then go back to get him. OR 2) I could share my dilemma with the staff and ask for help. 

I asked for help. 

And I got way more than I deserved. 

And the gal who helped me kept saying over and over, "thank you so much for asking for help! I'm so glad I could help you out this way!" In the midst of the helping I was able to hear a really cool God story about her recent vacation, and we reveled together in the goodness of our Savior. 

If I hadn't asked I wouldn't have received. 

If I hadn't asked, she wouldn't have been given the blessing of being a blessing. 

Asking isn't easy for me. 

NOT.

AT. 

ALL!

My independent streak is strong. My mom, in fact, shares the story of when I was a very young girl and we were standing with a friend of hers. Mom looked at me and said to her friend, "UGH! She is SO independen it drives me crazy!" Her friend laughed and said, "Gee, I wonder where she gets that from?" We all know very well that the apple did not fall very far from the tree!

I'm learning, though. I'm learning to ask for help. 

It's not easy. 

I reallllllllly don't like it. 

But I'm learning to be strong enough to be weak enough to let someone else be strengthened through my neediness. (think that was hard to read? Try to get it to type coherently! LOL!)

In all seriousness, though, read it again...

I'm learning to be strong enough to be weak enough to let someone else be strengthened through my neediness.

Who are you strengthening by letting them serve you? Who needs to know they have what is necessary to help others in this world? Who in your realm of influence needs to have someone say to them, "I honestly can't do this, and I see in you the knowledge and wisdom to get it done.  Could you help me, please?" 

Yes, yes, yes....I know. Some of you are thinking of that person who really is a master at being served. They are willing to ask for EVERYTHING! I'm not talking about that person....I'm talking about those of us who do such a good job of serving we would rather waste an hour and a half of our time and a quarter tank of gas to take care of our needs than ask someone for help. I'm talking about those of us who are really good at jumping in to help out with a need when we're able, but refuse to ask for the same help we gave when the tables are turned. 

There's a word for that. 

Pride. 

EEEK! Are you willing to humble yourself and allow someone to serve you? Wtih no expectation of you serving them back? 

I'm not totally there yet, but I'd love to know there are people willing to walk that trail with me. 

I'd like to bless others....and revel in that joy. 

I'd also like to see the faces of those blessing me light up when they realize how very much their service is appreciated. 

How are you going to start? I'd like to hear your thoughts.....