Author: squishypancake19

Surrender

Posted on by squishypancake19

Surrender

Freefalling 

Catching waves

Riding the wind

Whatever you want to call getting swept up in a moment in which presentness is the only option

Presentness and what to do in it

Fight it 

Fear it

Enjoy it

Recognise that freedom of the mind is a choice 

Peace is optional

So fear is optional

So surrender is optional

Not only to the state of affairs 

But to the author of them

Trusting that the maker of the wind the waves and the sky

Is more than able to calm, settle, and clear them

To make a way for your foot to tread where He made the soil

Pretty sure He’s got it

It’s all very poetic 

Thoughts and feelings hiding behind allegories and metaphors

Thoughts like, “What will I choose to do with tomorrow?”

“What will I choose to do with right now?”

Feelings like, ‘This is way to big for me.”

And “I fail so easily and live so fickly”

I know the only one worthy of my trust is Him.

Never me. Will never be. 

So, I’ll trust. 

And I’ll keep my vows when I say I will. 

Where He leads me, I’ll follow.

When He says, “Yes.’ I’ll proceed.

Halting only where He lingers 

And never going back

Jesus before me

Within me and beside me

Everything else behind me

Where my past and fear can stay 

Faithful only because He’s faithful

Courageous only because He is

Present only because He is

Surrendered because I’m His.

No pit too deep.

Posted on by squishypancake19

The Hiding Place tells the true story of Betsie and Corrie Ten Boom, two Christian Dutch sisters who housed Jews during WW2. The book is written from Corrie’s perspective as she remembers the highs and lows of her life and how God held her in every moment.

Both Corrie and Betsie were incredible women of God, but Betise is a personal hero of mine.

The way she sees beauty in everything. Even when being tortured in a concentration camp. She suffered deeply, wore it honestly, and clung to everything God said in every moment. She took God literally and applied His goodness and promises to every place she ever found herself. There are three striking moments in the story from her life that have shaped the way I see God and the world.

1. Early in the war, during an air raid on Holland one night, Corrie went downstairs into the kitchen to talk to Betsie because she couldn’t sleep. When she went back upstairs after a short while, she cut her hand on her pillow and found a large shard of metal had flown through the window and pierced it. She ran back downstairs to Betsie and cried that if she hadn’t had trouble sleeping she would have been dead just then. Bestie calmed her and simply answered that there are no “if’s” in God’s world; the center of His will was the only safe place.

I’ve let that quote permeate me many times in moments of fear. I love that that moment happened quite early in the story: God intentionally using it to prepare them for what He was about to walk them though.

2. Later, they get arrested for helping the Jews and both sisters end up in prison in isolation for months in a filthy cell. They’re both very unwell during this time and suffer with a lot of trauma, however when being relocated from the prison to the first concentration camp, Corrie walks past Betsie’s open cell and sees that Bestie had cleaned and decorated the room with whatever she had (even making the filthy straw beds look homely). I was so struck by that image and how we’re called to carry peace and beauty into wherever God puts us. It doesn’t matter how difficult, filthy, or scary the situation is.

3. My third favourite moment is after Corrie and Betsie are living in their final concentration camp and the warehouse they’re kept in is infested with fleas. Corrie moans and cries about the fleas and the filth but Bestie gentley rebukes her and reminds her to be thankful in all things. Bestie leads Corrie in a prayer of thanking God for the fleas and trusting that He’s looking after them perfectly.

That leads to a bunch of cool stuff happening, but I’ll let you read it and find out.

Be prepared to get wrecked.

Corrie’s life is an example of how God can use anything for His glory.

One of her anthems that came out of her experiences was “There’s no pit too deep that Jesus isn’t deeper still “

Mum used to tell us this story when we were very young, and I come back to the life of the Ten Boom sisters so often to be reminded of the perfection of Jesus in all things. We can get so caught up in our own struggles, and forget that Jesus has a track record of being perfect.

Remind yourself that He’s enough for everything and anything. There’s nothing too big or too small. No struggle too momentary or persistent. He’s enough for all of it. I often sing to myself the lines “He’s bigger than I know He is and stronger than I hope He is.”

Take a moment to remind yourself of who He says He is. Because it’s really true.

“The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood

And the Lord sits as King forever.”

Psalm 29:10 nkjv

Friendship

Posted on by squishypancake19

So often, I get frustrated at myself for not being capable, good enough or strong enough for a task or situation. I’ll crumble to pieces and turn to my friends asking for prayer. And every time, when I expect them to be as disappointed in me as I am, they’re thankful for the opportunity to be there for me. It’s like they count loving me, praying for me, helping me, and walking alongside me a privilege.

I think I often expect people to only want to be around me when I’m at my best. And sure, it’s probably more fun for them (and for me) when I am, but I’ve found being vulnerable and honest with my friends in all my states of being does 2 things.

Firstly, it opens up an opportunity to grow in friendship. True, deep friendship never came from doing the easy things together. Having a running buddy, classmate, or friend that you do a hobby or thing you love with is fun, but that friendship will never become anything strong or eternal if it stays at that level. True friendship is spawned out of going through significant life events together. Life events in which both parties are honest about the process. The change, the hurt, the joys, the high and the lows. Someone who you walked through depression with or who was faithfully present in your change of season. It doesn’t always have to be an intense experience that creates bonds, it can just be in showing up when they’re sick or calling them when they need to talk.

And secondly, it helps both people know that they’re not alone. They’re not alone in their weaknesses, joys, loves or struggles. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.” Every time I read that, I remember that there is nothing that I ever struggle with that I’m ever alone in. Ever. There will always be someone (maybe not everyone, but someone) who can relate and will be able to help me through. There’s no path that I’ve walked that has never been walked before. “There’s nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) tells me that what I’m walking has been walked before and that there’s not only a “way of escape” but also a way to thrive in it. God works all things “for the good of those who love Him” (Romans 8:28), so every single thing we ever go through is an opportunity for Jesus to use it for His glory and turn it to victory in our lives. And more than that: victory in the lives of those around us. I’ve found that honesty in my struggles and victories encourages and empowers others in theirs. Nothing is ever wasted.

Pretty much every one of my anthems this year have come from conversations with friends in which they’ve spoken into my heart and situation the way only they could because they saw what I was feeling and going through from the perspective of things that they had gone through. The chorus of each of those anthems is that Jesus is our hope.

Hope’s a funny thing. It’s why we live and breathe, but there wouldn’t be any need for it if we never struggled. It’s almost like struggling is a gift that enables us to attain hope.

I get lost for words when I think of reasons why I’m thankful for the people God’s put in my life, but I know that even in that God’s greater. He’s the greatest friend. The highest lover. He’s the one who puts friendships in our lives and can take them out of our lives at any time He pleases. And it’ll all be a part of His glorious story that He’s been writing since the beginning of time. We only see a moment in this story, so it makes a lot of sense to trust the Author’s storyline. (‘i get overwhelmed sometimes’ – Abbie Gamboa)

So, I think what I’m saying is to not be discouraged in your failings or insufficiencies, because Jesus is enough for them and they’re an opportunity to deepen friendships through the realisation that we’re never, ever alone.

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17

“My grace is sufficient for you; my strength is made perfect in your weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

29,220.

Posted on by squishypancake19

29,220.
The number of days in 80 years.


80 years.
The average lifespan in the UK.


What if we lived like each of those days are as precious as the next? Holding excitement and expectation for tomorrow whilst experiencing all the wonder of today.

What if we lived like our days are numbered, fleeting and miraculous? Like the sun that was hung in the sky today can’t be seen by tomorrow.

What if we lived like the moments we get today, the faces and breezes and sun kisses and conversations, only exist in today? Like tomorrow has enough of it’s own cares, and today deserves our full attention.

What we lived like life’s a gift: a wild, precious, and unpredictable narrative that we get to be written into? Like there’s only one Hero in the story, and we get to discover a little more of His character as each page unfolds.

What if we lived like we were put here on purpose? Today. Here. Now.

Finite.
Intentional.
Unrepeatable.
Individual.


I think part of what makes every moment precious is that it’ll never be found again.

The flower that uncurls before the sun. The smile from across the room. The splash you created when you dove in the pool. Moments that were yours. Briefly and faintly. But just for a moment, they were all yours.

I want to live like today is mine for the taking.

Like I get to choose what I do with it and then choose to give my all to it.

I want to live like L.M. Montgomery’s Anne and wake up each day whispering, “Dear world, you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.”

Because today is a gift given by a Lover. And the best way I can think of showing my thankfulness is to thoroughly enjoy the gift He’s given.

So, I’ll be thankful for today.

Come what may.

And I’ll be thankful that it only comes once.


“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.”
Psalms 39:4 NLT

“Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.”
Job 14:5 NKJV