I Stand...

God says:

I will stand by you - Timothy 4:3

I willl help you through, when you've done all you can do and you can't cope - Isaiah 41:! 3

I will dry your eyes - Revelation 21:4

I will fight your fight - Exodus 14:! 4

I will hold you tight and I wont't let go - Deuteronomy 21:6.

I will stand, for if God be for me, who or what can be against me? Truly I would say to you that my confidence comes from battle, from seasoned warfare; from standing after getting knocked down to the ground, brushing off the dust and detritus, wiping away the blood, sweat and tears of defeat and sorrow.

I stand in the knowledge that I am loved, I am forgiven, I am made clean and strengthened with an ever increasing determination and fortitude to see right done, to see justice complete, to shout from the rooftops the worthiness of women and the need for change in a justice system that has fallen so completely it no longer resembles accountability for crimes committed.

I stand firm...

This morning as I listen to cattle lowing across the fields, receive kisses and love from the moose living in my house and sip my first hot cup of heaven after slipping from between cool sheets, I think on these things...we are not alone dear treasures, though we may feel so often. We are loved stupendously, staggeringly without measure.

Before birth, we were known, fashioned and created for purpose, for love, for grace and mercy...“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." Jeremiah 1:5

It has been a minute since I last set fingers to keyboard...fulminating in the presence of God, speaking...then listening with a heart full of gratitude, of thankfulness yes, but alas also with questioning, with seeking spirit and mind...

What has filtered through this patched up heart has been 'stand steadfast,' and 'I stand with you.' No surprise here for many, I suppose... however, for the broken hearted, for survivors of trauma, of fear beyond understanding, of threat of life and limb, of mind altering torture leading to loss of self, this is a truth that must arrive gently and over time...seeping through the cracks until it fills every hole, stitching up torn and rent areas until our cup runneth over.

We ARE loved...gently, with grace, with courage, with strength infused into each and every minute inch of space, not one tender area ignored or pushed to the side.

My heart pushes and struggles to fill words and pages with what lives within...my spirit cries out for those lost ones buried under the weight of trauma and abuse...for survivors wandering once familiar places now foreign, alone and silently crying out help, for encouragement and grace, compassion and mercy.

I pray, I cry out, I beseech God for mercy, for His love to flood lonely souls in desperate need of sustenance and kindnesses.

Let us seek out the infirm, the lonely, the outcast...we do not know their stories, if we did we would stand back from judgement, from self-righteousness...

If we truly listen to understand my friends, we would stand in a much different place...

If we drop our preconceived notions of abuse victims and their 'part' in being tormented and tortured, somehow willingly placing themselves in those roles, we would accomplish much. Take a moment to truly see that each one of us is capable of being enmeshed in horrific situations and but for the grace of God, there go I.

One shout, one criticism, one joking put-down, one degrading moment at a time, the heart is torn asunder, rent from top to bottom...before they can do much more than blink back tears of dismay, they have been thrown into the pit; refuse piled upon refuse until buried under a mountain, under a constant tsunami of emotion they are no longer able to dissect, nor catalogue in hopes of climbing out.

My prayer today is that those NOT in the mix would come to see the depths to which our country has sunk...the depths to which our court system has fallen...but not only this, no.

My prayer is that those not in the mix would find purpose, would pick up the fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

My prayer today is for those IN the mix who cannot see their way clear...that God would shine a light so bright to beat back the darkness, illuminating a path free...that each lost one would fly free from the invisible bars surrounding them so tightly...we must provide a safe space to land until what has lost familiarity becomes familiar once again...that until they find their strength to stand, we would stand in the gap for each one.

May God bless your days and nights with truth, with clarity and most of all, with a love that passes all understanding, with peace to fight back the demons, with grace and compassion to buoy each and every low spirit.

May the one who created us, fashioned us lovingly and with forethought, hold you close, always.