Life by Betsy

A snowday Luke 4 reflection-- When Jesus goes into the wilderness, after John baptizes him, he is full of the Holy Spirit. As he is in the wilderness, the devil tempts him by targeting 3 specific things that we all as humans are drawn to: provision, power, and pride. Jesus, the same man who as a boy ran to the temple of his Father to learn the scriptures, now full of the Spirit too, combats each temptation with scripture. What struck me most were those 3 temptations: provision, power, and pride. 1. We as people have a desire to have provisions, for survival and beyond that for comfort. Jesus counters by pointing himself (and throigh reading, us) back to God as the source for humanity's deepest need. 2. We want control- of our lives, of our surpundings, of others even. We want money, power, security, respect, even dominion in our world. Jesus counters by calling himself first and foremost a servant of God, not a king of peoples. Furthermore, he (by extension, we) is to adore in...

Tomorrow is December 1 and I realize I have come to a place in life where I know I have a relationship with God, but seem to have forgotten how I have that relationship to begin with. I, in my history brain, have subconsciously locked the person of Jesus to the past. Sure, he rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, but silly Betsy, he is still alive! Who is he, really, not just who was he? If he is the only way to the Father, he is worth knowing deeply as an individual member of the trinity. The father I know. The spirit calls to me in nature and worship and ties me through prayer to the father. But what about Jesus? Anyways, this may seem like a "duh" situation, but for me it is hitting hard, especially at the beginning of the advent season. My point is, this season, I want to fall deeply in love with Jesus for all he was, is, and will be forever. He is more than a bridge to the father, and more than a role model. He is my savior, my brother, and my dear friend. ...

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...