Category: posts

Help! I’m Broken, and I Can’t Get Up!

~ Barbara ~ 6 Comments

Happy September everyone—a tree in our backyard is already boasting red leaves! This month we will embark on a journey to hope.

After countless hours of frustration, I contracted a Pakistani creator on the other side of the globe to design new covers for my companion books, I Was Broken, Too and Finding Hope. After many (emphasis on “many”) attempts, it came together. To celebrate, I will share a thought from one of the books each week. I hope this first post resonates with you.  

Fading hope is like fading light; it darkens our surroundings. We don’t choose to go to this dark place, but neither do we choose not to go. Life’s assaults weaken us and, in our diminished state, they carry us to places where fear threatens and vision dims. In the midst of the darkness we can’t see a way out, and the prominence of our problems obscures the hand of God. It’s a shadowy, murky place to live. Who of us wouldn’t want to experience a miracle… in the midst of our desperation?

The path of hopelessness is a downward spiral that will continue to deplete your spirit. I know. I lived there—the place where you may now live. The place of brokenness.

Under the weight of sorrow upon sorrow, amazingly, somewhere deep within, hope still flickered. Haltingly, I made choices that set me on a course that would restore my hope. This book tells of my journey and the four paths I walked to find hope again. I share them as a weary traveler who was dangerously close to losing her grip. My struggle, sadly, is not uncommon.

I cannot erase your pain or restore your loss. But I can offer you four paths to renew your hope.*

Next week, we will step onto the first path to hope.

Now available on Amazon:
I Was Broken, Too: Four Paths to Restore Hope
Finding Hope: 65 Meditations for a Broken Heart

* Excerpted from I Was Broken, Too, chapters one and two.

Follow the Leader

~ Barbara ~ 2 Comments

Did you play Follow the Leader as a kid? Everyone lined up behind the leader and mimicked the series of antics he performed. One by one, each child floundered until only one follower remained and became the next leader.

I just read the Exodus account of the Israelites following Moses through the Red Sea. Although familiar, the story still amazed me. What an awe-inspiring demonstration of God’s power and dramatic escape across a dry riverbed! I loved their bold faith when they safely stood on the shore of the river and, as their leader, Moses led them in a song of worship that praised God’s spectacular capabilities:

  • The Lord is highly exalted.
  • He is my strength and my song, my salvation.
  • The Lord is a warrior who drowned our enemies.
  • His right hand is majestic in power.
  • His love is unfailing.
  • Nations will tremble before Him.

These proclamations reflected Moses’ faith, the very thing that made him a good leader, then and during the forty years they wandered in the wilderness. Moses knew who God was and exalted Him above the frightening situations before them. Unfortunately, the Israelites fell out of line, floundering like the children in the game. But one followed closely and became the next leader, Joshua.

A good leader doesn’t waver when circumstances are adverse, but points to the truth that is higher than the challenge: who God is, how He acts, and what He says.

I am dismayed by the poor leadership I see, elected officials who rant and rage but do not honor God with their words. Do we follow leaders with the loudest voices and highest emotional charge? Or those who trust God to be God?

I want to follow leaders who honor God, whether in government, in church, in medicine, or in personal relationships.

Let’s follow the leader who believes God and knows that anything is possible with Him.

Better yet, you be the leader who proclaims God’s power, wisdom, and sovereignty over all things. Lead others to a higher level.

Image from imgbin.com

Ascension Day: Moving Up

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

Have you done your Ascension Day shopping? Bought a new outfit? Purchased gifts or planned a special dinner? Me either. But when I grasped the door handle of a restaurant in Lancaster last week I stilled, surprised and pleased to see the day being honored.

 In all my many years, I can’t recall seeing a sign announcing Ascension Day, let alone closing a business to celebrate it. I do remember going to church as a child but, sadly, today it is seldom mentioned, let alone honored.

We celebrate Christmas and Easter for their life-changing significance but, Ascension Day? We let it slip by even though it points to the most profound, life-changing event we will ever experience.

On that day in history, Jesus’ ascension fulfilled prophesy, but it  also pointed to the future. Those watching Jesus ascend heard these words of promise in Acts 1:

“This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven,
will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”

The Messiah was born. The Messiah was crucified. The Messiah will come back—the same way He left, on the clouds. Ascension Day commemorates Jesus’ return to His Father and His rightful place on His throne, but it is more than that it. Ascension Day celebrates the promise, the assurance, the certainty of His return. It points to our ascension, when we will join Him in the sky and He will bring us home.

The Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God…
We who are still alive… will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Then we will be with the Lord forever. 

So encourage each other with these words.
I Thessalonians 4:16-18 NLT

Happy Ascension Day!