Beautiful Things

I know that I am a “hot-mess”, as my Crissy would say.  I go through life trying to do things as I think I need to do them, often trying to live up to expectations, real or false.  What I end up doing in many instances is over-thinking and completely jacking it up.  I do truly believe that I have been extremely blessed by the Lord with some amazing gifts and talents, but He didn’t give them to me for me to control and analyze every opportunity to use them.  And He sure doesn’t teach me things daily so that I can dwell on them either.  He has given me such gifts and taught me such lessons so that I can honor Him.  Only when I submit to Him and His Will can I be considered a Beautiful Thing.

2 Corinthians 1:3-11 reads:  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday, the day that we reflect upon Jesus’ sacrifice for each of us, individually.  On this day, He made the sacrifice to forgive our messiness and make us Beautiful Things.  “Out of chaos, life is being found in YOU…YOU make Beautiful Things out of us!”