Author: Megan

Faith

"It is well with my soul"

Megan

“Now may the Lord of Peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance…” 2 Thessalonians 3:16

As I was reading earlier this week, this verse caught my attention. Who wouldn’t like to have peace? Not only peace, but peace that is continually granted in every circumstance. We all experience situations that seem to turn our world upside down, or at the very minimum, rock the boat. These situations bring us anxiety, pain, or sorrow. It’s no secret: life is rarely easy. It hasn’t been since the Garden of Eden.

Paul wrote the letters of 1 and 2 Thessalonians to the church in Thessaloniki, a church well acquainted with difficulty. Earlier in this letter, Paul had written, “Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.” (2 Thessalonians 1:4).

To this church, one enduring persecution and afflictions, Paul writes of continually granted peace in every circumstance.

Like the Thessalonians, we can have this peace. We can have peace in every circumstance because we know we are fully and perfectly loved. We can have peace because we know our sins are forgiven and we have glory awaiting us. We can have peace because we have a Savior who is intimately aware of our sufferings. We can have peace because we know God works all things–even the hard things that we would rather not go through–together for our good. We can have peace because we know this world is not our home and it is not the end. We can have peace because we know that God is able. We can have peace because we know God sees further and knows infinitely more than we could ever know.

When our eyes are fixed on our faithful, loving Heavenly Father, our circumstances will not determine our level of peace. When we present our requests to Him, we can rest in the peace He gives.

No, peace might not change our circumstances, but peace transforms us. Peace guards our hearts and minds. When our peace comes from God, rather than our circumstances, we can rest through the wildest of storms and rejoice in the darkest of nights. When we are at peace, we can persevere and endure. When we are at peace, we can sing, “It is well with my soul.”

Faith

Oh, for grace to trust Him more!

Megan
Do worry, fear, and stress come all too naturally to you? They do to me. There’s stress about all that needs done, and worry and fear about the future and the unknown. These things try to weigh on me and to rob me of peace, joy, and hope.
As my husband and I drove back from the airport after our honeymoon, rather than being filled with joy and being excited to get to our home, I was filled with dread and became stressed. Why? Because there was somuch to do. Life had flown by after we had moved my things out of my apartment and into his house, and so things remained in boxes. Wedding gifts combined with my things had created a mess that made walking in the house a daring endeavor. I needed to clean, line shelves, wash our new dishes, and unpack my things. There was so much to do and it made me want to cry! Shortly after having confessed my stress and dread to him, my husband said, “Maybe you can go grocery shopping tomorrow.” Had he seen the kitchen?! Did he think there was room for even one more thing? Wouldn’t one more thing cause the floor to cave in or some other disaster? Yes, I needed to go grocery shopping, but so much was needed before it was possible. We drove on, and I sat texting my mom about my many woes. She said, “I know [you’re] overwhelmed, but trust me, it’ll be okay.”
We got to the house, and as my husband opened the door ahead of me, all he said was, “What….?” I looked to see what was causing the confusion. His table had been replaced by mine, and it had flowers and a bowl of fruit on it. As we ventured in, we saw the boxes had all been moved, the living room had been arranged, my bookcases had been filled with decorations, there were vases of fresh flowers everywhere, and the toilet paper had even been folded to a point! My in-laws had spent hours and hours getting the house ready for our homecoming. I wanted to cry tears of gratitude and joy. 
Before                                                       After
How’s this for transparency? 

After all my stress and dread, the house was already orderly and inviting. My mom had already known about it.

So many of our worries end up being pointless and far from reality. I’ve seen this many times in my life.
For years, I wanted one thing: a husband. I got older and watched as more and more of my friends got married and started having children. Meanwhile, I was still single. Datelessly single. What was wrong with me? What was taking so long? Where was myhusband? Did he even exist? Would I end up alone? I was no stranger to crying. My prayer journal was filled with my request for a husband, prayers about the kind of man he would be, prayers for God to bless him and his family, prayers that our families would be prepared for each of us and that they would love us, and questions of timing and his existence. As more time passed, I began to feel desolate and hopeless. One night I heard from God about it. Not in an audible voice, but in a voice that was crystal clear in my heart, He said, “You are not desolate. I see your pain. I know your longing. You can take me at my word. Trust that I have provided.” Another time, He said, “I know what you need and when you need it. I know who you need and when you need him.”
Even having heard from God, I still had dark days. I still had days of doubt and days of heartache. Trusting God when what I see differs from the truth God has spoken is challenging. Walking by faith and not by sight isn’t easy.
However, on Valentine’s Day, I received a message from a man I would grow to love and greatly admire. On March 27th, we met in person for the first time, and we were married exactly one year later. My husband and his family are such beautiful answers to a decade of prayers. They are kind, loving, generous, and I have felt at home with them from the beginning.
God had a plan and a time all along. My worry and despair added nothing—instead they only robbed me of a peaceful trust in God’s loving hand and a hopeful, joyous expectation in what He had in store.
Trust God. He is faithful, aware of your needs and longings, and He is a loving Father who knows how to give good gifts to His children. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” 
Proverbs 3:5,6
Faith

The Product of My Procrastination

Megan

It’s that time again! I have a final project (an 8-10 page paper) due tomorrow night for my Business Finance class. This is the last business class I have to take before I finish my bachelor’s degree next semester! I’ve come to realize that upcoming final projects mean procrastination will be in full swing. While I should be writing about the steps the company in my case study should be taking, I find myself ten times more motivated to write anything and everything other than what I should write. Viola! A blog post is birthed!

While this is productive procrastination, procrastination is generally something that should be avoided. Wikipedia defines procrastination as, “the practice of carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to more urgent ones, or doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time, sometimes to the “last minute” before the deadline.”
We may procrastinate because, as is the case with my final project, we feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the task at hand. Or maybe, we’re just apathetic or lazy. It’s one thing to manage our time and have a specific time frame for the completion of specific tasks, but it’s another thing to put it off by saying “later”. The problem with procrastination is that it is a complete gamble. We are avoiding or neglecting something today and determining to do it at a later time that may or may not be given to us.
Proverbs 27:1 says, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” This proverb mirrors James 4:13-14 which says, “Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

We have no idea what tomorrow holds, and there is a danger in putting things off until tomorrow.
Procrastination can be a threat to more than just the completion of homework or other tasks. Procrastination can hinder us from becoming.
James 4:17 makes this little bad habit of procrastination a little  more serious than we might have perceived it to be. James writes, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”
As flawed human beings, there are areas in us, our lives, or our relationships, that could use some improvement. Maybe the improvement seems difficult or time consuming. Maybe we don’t feel up to the effort it will take. Maybe we know our attitudes and actions need to change, but deep down inside, we don’t want to change. Maybe we know that our relationship with God is not what it should be, but we “don’t have time today”. We procrastinate. We don’t do what we should do. We allow procrastination to keep us from becoming the people God desires us to be and our relationship with Him from being what it needs to be.
Are you procrastinating on anything?  

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Faith

Life Among the Trees

Megan
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to accompany my church’s youth group on a youth retreat. The camp we stayed at had canoes and kayaks, a water inflatable, a rock wall, an obstacle course, and a high ropes course. In case you don’t know me or you don’t know me well, let me tell you quite plainly, while I am definitely not high-maintenance, I am a girly-girl. However, I can be adventurous, I am stubborn/determined, and I like to challenge myself. So, I decided to tackle the high ropes course.
While I stood on a thin wire, at tree-top level, I had the realization that while I wasn’t overly fond of walking on a shaking wire, the height didn’t bother me, and I wasn’t really afraid. Why? Because I knew  if I lost my balance and my feet slipped from the wire, the harness I was wearing would prevent my rapid descent to the ground.
Despite the height and the lack of stability, I was confident that I was safe because of my faith in the harness which connected me to a wire over my head. Yes, falling and having to get back onto the wire would have been a bit of an ordeal, but knowing that there was nothing to be afraid of was liberating and enabled me to complete the course with limited times of hesitation.
Our lives are similar to my time on the high ropes course. Sometimes, life doesn’t feel quite solid and sometimes it is frustratingly uncertain. Unfortunately, there are times that I let myself focus on the uncertainty, and I find myself succumbing to fear. Uncertainty is uncomfortable. Yet the reality is: I serve a God who is even more dependable and trustworthy than the harness I wore on the high ropes course. In times of uncertainty, if we remember the God who guides and sustains us, we can walk securely, by faith knowing we are safe, despite what we feel.
“…we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God.” -Oswald Chambers 
Faith

Seasons Change

Megan

Can you believe it is already September? This year has gone so quickly! Pumpkin fans are rejoicing as pumpkin everything is already showing up in stores and coffee shops. Summer will soon be over, and autumn will be here before we know it. As beautiful as the colors of fall are, I find myself already mourning the departure of summer. Seasons come and go, and I am definitely more fond of some than I am of others.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8  provides the perfect comparison of the seasons on earth to the different phases or seasons we go through in life. It says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” 

We all go through different seasons in life. Some seasons are more enjoyable, more pleasant than others. There are some seasons that are so easy, so smooth, and in those seasons, we may feel incredibly blessed. There are seasons in which everything goes just the way we hoped it would.

There are also seasons that seem long and dreary, merely because they are marked by their uneventfulness. In these seasons, we might feel unproductive, under-utilized, or maybe we’re just not where we would like to be. 

And then…there are the seasons that are miserable. Nothing goes right, and we hope and pray that those seasons end quickly. 

 In the midst of our seasons, we need to remember to keep our eyes on the Season Giver. In our seasons of blessing, we need to be thankful and praise the Source of the blessings. In our dreary and slow seasons, we need to adopt the perspective of rest. Instead of becoming impatient because things are not happening when we think they should, we can be at rest. In our unpleasant seasons, we need to draw closer to God, rely on Him for strength, and give thanks no matter what our circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

What season are you in? What is your attitude toward the season? What is your response to the season?