Life by Betsy

I've been thinking about "church" a lot lately, how the very place designed to bring people to God has hurt some people so badly that they all together run from religion, how friends and I can grow up in the same faith and even the same building and have completely different experiences, how what some people see as a cult others see as devotion, how different families of my home church had vastly different Christian cultures than my family or school did, how some people respond well to structural faith and others need more freedom in relationship, how I need a balance of both, how we ornatly decorate sanctuaries yet fill those sanctuaries with broken people and then expect people to feel comfortable coming on Sundays in their brokenness and not feel pressured to look more put together, how my friends have fallen through the cracks, how I have fallen through the cracks in a lot of ways too yet eneded up just fine and stronger even in my walk of faith, how silly s...

Mini-rant from a young adult Christian female feminist and future teacher -- I wish we lived in a culture that wasn't dominated by male-driven female sexual exploitation and objectification. Imagine a world where women could gain societal respect and socioeconomic mobility without needing to use their bodies or sexuality... Too often female empowerment equates to women sexualizing themselves to gain power in the sex based cultural system we have now. I want to see women who are confident in their physicality, yes, but women who are so much more. By reducing yourself to simply your sexuality, you empower the system of male-dominated female objectification, feeding off of an evil you are only helping to grow. You want to talk about taking back female power from a male driven society? Start by refusing to play the game. True power is changing the game. Your worth comes from God above, and is in the whole of who you are-- not how many people you turn on in order to be seen or hear...

I have been reflecting this weekend on why we create space for Good Friday and Easter Sunday in our calendars and our minds but skip over Saturday. What I have come to realize is that we as people are so locked into our own experiences and our perceptions of what is happening around us that we remember the visible Gospel work of Christ and not the invisible. Christ lived a visible life.   He spoke in streets, from boats, on mountainsides, and in temples. He did miracles in private and public, depending on the need. He healed a man's servant from afar and healed a few men's friend from paralysis in front of a full room. Christ died a visible death.   He was hung out and hung up to die, strapped and nailed down to a cross raised on a rocky hilltop, bleeding and vulnerable for all to see. While much of His pain is unknowable and unseen, His death and anguish were cruel and yet necessarily public. Christ rose a visible resurrection!   The entry was open, the ston...

You do not heal for him, you heal for Him. You do not wait for him, you are patient for Him. You will not be satisfied in him, you will be full in Him. You are not lost because of him, you are found in Him. You will not be complete in him, you are whole in Him. You will not find freedom in him, you are free forever in Him. You do not live for him. You do not live for you. You live for Him . ---- You have been called to have life, and have it abundantly- not for anyone or anything other than the glory and good work of Him . Your Heavenly Father has big things ahead for you, kiddo. You are doing bigger things in this season than preparing for a new "him", or for a better you. You are preparing and repairing for the life He has ahead of you. It can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking you are getting ready again for what you had before, to simply recover lost ground. Whatever the future holds, whoever the future holds, one thing is certain: it holds the unf...

Wisdom has been a heavy word on my heart--the pursuit of it, the lack of it in myself, and the desperate need for it. In my own foolishness and pride, I tend to think I can understand the will of God for my life, that if I focus in and pray enough, he will reveal his plan for me. I've believed that wisdom means knowing, and somehow I lost sight of the wisdom in understanding how little I know or ever can know. I've lost sight of the magnitude of the mind of God, and how little I can comprehend. The shockingly simple and face-slapping truth is that  GOD is GOD, and I am not. God will reveal what I need to know, when I need to know it. God will reveal when I am in a season of activity or passivity. God will reveal when I need to walk by faith or remain still and let him work for me. Christian, STOP TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT. You don't need to know his plan.  You need to know HIM. And he is a Good Father and simultaneously your Faithful Friend. Lea...

3/18/15--3/18/16 One year of Divine Healing, inside and out. One year of low to no pain. One year of low to no depression. One year of seeing the brokenness in myself reflect the brokenness of this nation, this world. One year of living in the reality of God's binding love. One year of being overwhelmed and under-qualified. One year of feeling unworthy, undeserving, and guilty for the gift I've been given. One year of attempting to process the un-understandable.  One year of failing to live in light of His Love. One year of learning the power of the Spirit. One year of seeing faith, others' more than my own often, move the physical and emotional mountains of my life. One year of Healed.  But I'm learning there is still so much in me to heal. Healing is a process, just like sanctification. Living the Christian life is learning to allow God into all of the broken, hidden places.  He will restore.  All. Piece by piece. He is still here, living and ac...

"God is light." Have you ever thought about how radical that is?  We were in darkness. Pitch black.  The very absence of light and fullness of shadow.   But as soon as the door cracks, as soon as one little beam pierces the deep veil,  darkness is broken.  That beam doesn't only illuminate one spot on the floor.  Light spreads, fills the space, refracts, and slowly yet surely helps you see anything and everything where you are.  The more the door opens, the more the light gets through, the clearer and more colorful life becomes.  And that one day, when the door is fully opened, and we are one with our true Light, everything about this life will be made crystal clear and we will see and behold things no one can comprehend. It all starts with someone being bold and willing to crack the door to a friend's life. Speak truth in love. God is Light, and darkness SHALL NOT overcome Him.