Tuesday's Trust - No Scar? ~Amy Carmichael

Tuesday's Trust

No Scar?

~Amy Carmichael

Hast thou no scar?

No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,

I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,

Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?

Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,

Leaned me against a tree to die; and rent

By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned:

Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?

Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,

And pierc-ed are the feet that follow me;

But thine are whole: can he have followed far

Who has no wound nor scar?

~Amy Carmichael

*****

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!

See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands;

your walls are ever before Me."

~Psalm 49:15-16 NIV

*****

"For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ,

not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake."

~Philippians 1:29

Friday’s Faith – Spiritual Train-Wreck (part two)

">>

Friday’s Faith

Spiritual Train-Wreck

(part two)

I am changed. I am a different person. I’m starting to get it… (I know; I’m slow. How could I have been so blind?!) The death of my child, as horrendous as it…is...has been…and will be…over the years, it has also given me something.

Merry Katherine’s death has done something for me that I am not sure would have happened any other way. I think God would put this gift in the category of “Treasures of Darkness” He gives to the hurting, weak, bereaved, to all those of us who are down-and-out. God—through my child's death—has opened my eyes…

**********

In a nutshell, what has happened as I begin to find God’s “Treasures of Darkness”…

Watchman Nee describes such an experience like mine as, in essence...until you’ve been taken to the cross in every part of your life—ALL of yourself, every part of you, to die on that cross—your motivations are suspect; all you have to offer to God is tainted with your “power,” your fleshly contributions that actually only serve to get in God’s way. With my child's death, I have been taken to the cross; every part of me has been nailed to that cross, for example, my child died, I died, my career died, my friend-relationships died, many of my family-relationships died, my “kingdom” here on this earth died, my dreams for the future died.

Instead of Alice going to Wonderland, or Dorothy going to Oz, Angie left glory (the glory of her former life), and went to the cross…to die!

The opposite of the happily-ever-after fairy tales, and yet I am at peace with my Lord! Bringing more joy-in-my-spirit than any magical endings to a Disney movie. And I have been moved out of the way, and God can move! Glory – His glory can shine and can move through me, and love through me to other people who are like me…who are also hanging on their cross—of loss, and pain, and hurt, and grief.

What sweeter place in the world would I rather be than with the other precious mothers and daddies who have been stripped bare, down to nothing, like me. Just pure, raw hearts, aching and longing, yet also tender, and vulnerable, and kind.

I am developing whole new sets of friends, beautiful souls, beautiful hearts stripped bare because of a depth of love for their child that when their child died, their lives too, have…stopped. And we meet one another and share that love with one another. In a safe place. In a place where we are understood. In a place where people care. In a place where people genuinely hurt for you. In a place where we compatriots simply “get it.”

**********

Next week, I will show you some of the new stones I am discovering within my “Spiritual Train-Wreck” that are rocking my world as they begin to make sense of my life as a Christian in the new light of my child’s death, and my death-wracked life.

Thank you for continuing on this painful journey with me and Merry Katherine’s daddy as we sort through the wreckage to find our very foundation—our spiritual groundedness—that we so sorely need to continue to walk through Grief’s never-ending “Trail of Tears”…

Please watch for Friday's Faith - Spiritual Train-Wreck (part three)!

Watchman Nee, Christ the Sum of All Spiritual Things

Part Two - How Can a Friend Come Alongside You in Grief?

How Can a Friend Come Alongside You in Grief?
Part Two

Part Two of my letter to Vicki about how to help us grieving parents in our grief:



Dearest Vicki, (continued)

…That is why I thank you so much, because

your tenderness is a rare “commodity” in this world, even in this Christian-world, believe-it-or-not!

I think many of our churches have dished out too much “prosperity gospel,” so that when someone IS completely flat on his/her back, the spoon-fed Christians get intimidated with the lack of “quick success” out from under the turmoil.

So they choose to get mad at us victims instead of reaching out to love us "in it"!

I think they want us to hurry up and get over our grief so THEY won’t have to feel bad. AND if we would hurry up and get over it, THEY could continue to tell themselves, “Yup, there’s Victory in Jesus; he really is an insurance policy for having-a-life-that-is-always-‘peachy-keen’!”





Hebrews 11* makes it clear that ALL those wonderful children of the faith, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, etc. (despite the fact that they were the devoted, faithful followers of God here on this earth)

1) "did not receive the things promised" this side of Heaven,


2) but "they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance . . .


3) (while) they were longing for a better country -- a heavenly one."





That "always-peachy-keen-life" expectation some have is downright cult-like thinking because our Lord warned many times that



1) We will suffer,


2) We will have trouble here, **


3) We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,


4) But like Him we can endure our cross (giving a slight clue, that yes it will be painful, very painful), while


5) We are to hold on to the joy that will come – some day. ***


(Sorry, thanks for letting me “preach-it-sister!”)




So, Vicki, please rest assured, you do not have any of those toxic features to your comfort:

1) You are not cold-hearted toward us nor our precious child,


2) You are not crass regarding our child who is very near and dear to our hearts,


3) And you are well aware that there's a lot in a grieving-mother's-world that you would have no way of understanding without going through it yourself (God forbid!).


4) That’s very healthy of you in my opinion, that you are well aware of your limitations in the situation,


5) YET you don't let those limitations intimidate you into silence;


6) You just love-us-where-we-are, pray for us, then reach out and lovingly touch us in our pain.



You have no idea how incredibly healing that touching-us-in-our-pain is.



It’s like we grieving parents are living in a lepers’ colony of sorts, and someone lovingly dares to enter our colony, look into our eyes, see our brokenness, yet reaches out and touches us anyway.



It is an unbelievable phenomenon that when a person lovingly risks touching my pain, as heavy as my load is, it feels like that person has reached out and helped me carry the pain awhile. It actually lifts my load awhile! It has that kind of impact.



So thank you again, sweet sister! Much love and thankfulness for you!


Angie


**John 16:33

33"I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."



*Hebrews 11:13-14, 16

13All these were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own….

16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.


***Hebrews 12:1-3

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In Honor Of

Another Precious
"Twitter Friend"
who ministers to me

Victoria Thomas Gaines
Vicki's Blog: "Light for the Writer's Soul"
http://victoriagaines.com/

http://victoriagaines.com/
http://oloferla.deviantart.com/art/Her-sadness-50508172

http://www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/show_image.php?imageID=5685