Retreat III: The Speaker

First, a few notes about today. Guess what I've done for exercise? I walked to Target and Safeway (both within 5 min walking of our door) to pick up a few things. Boy was it HOT! Ok, warm. But I was breaking a healthy sweat. So what did I do then? But of course! I tried the "heated" pool (which in my book is not heated at all). Did I dip in my toes and decide to lay out? NO! The water was cool and refreshing and felt glorious. It was so precious to have the weight taken off my bones and joints. I sat in it for a while, then I walked around and then did some pilates/yoga movements. Then stretched and sat some more. A short dry off/lay out session followed. ::big sigh:: God is good, all the time. Meanwhile, Aut said she was sitting on the other side of a wall from 8 inches of snow (See the pics on her blog since Blogger is still cooperating with her). God created quite the variety, didn't He?

So the speaker at retreat was Mary Alice, a 57 year old mother of 7 with gorgeous faded red hair down to her mid-thigh. Yes, gorgeous! It was healthy even at the tips! Her love for her family is more than evident. I don't think there's even a powerful enough word to describe how much she loves them. Of her 7 kids, 1 is autistic, 1 is downs, and 3 are severely dislexic (I think 3, and is that how you spell it?). Her oldest daughter is in Cambodia as a missionary, and one of her sons has joined her for a while -- she stuck his homeschool in his back pocket and shipped him off, she said. The rest of her kids, she, and her husband live in an 800 sq ft A-frame house in the country (either NorCal or Oregon, never figured out which). She is a huge part of a women's prison ministry where she lives. Apparently drugs, alcohol, and prostitution are part of her past before Christ got a hold of her. Needless to say, Mary Alice of all women has led a HARD life and she admits to it whole heartedly. But you know what her favorite saying is?

MY GOD IS BIGGER!

This was a different kind of retreat than I am used to. I've always gotten way in-depth, nitty gritty Bible study at retreats. Mary Alice covered large chunks of Psalms 119 and a passage in Hebrews. She never went to the Greek and Hebrew. She never dug to the deepest ravines between the lines. I think normally I would have been disappointed. But not so this time. I needed to just listen and watch Mary Alice.

People. Tried and true genuine JOY was overflowing every nook and cranny of that woman. Joy in her Savior. Joy in the life she has been blessed with. She doesn't have joy just down in her heart...joy IS her heart! The FREEDOM she expressed, even without words, was so refreshing to see. The freedom she has in Christ. The freedom she has from her past. The freedom she has from life's trials. How did she get this joy and freedom? By making "My God is bigger" the theme of her life. She didn't say it was her theme, but I can tell she lives by it every day. She told the doctor who timidly approached her with the results revealing her daughter was downs, "She is fearfully and wonderfully made, and I'm taking her home!" Why? Because God is bigger than downs. Because God knit her together and gave her to the parents He desired for her. She approaches all of life this way. Nothing touches this woman, not because she is strong, but because she understands and clings to the SIMPLE fact that our God is bigger than anything this world has to offer or can throw at us.

And she also portrayed the SIMPLE but most profound and fundamental aspect of our faith...

Just Love Jesus.

Just love Him. Why do we make it so hard? Why do we work, do, serve, minister, and work some more while hardly giving a thought to doing it out of love for Jesus rather than others? By simply loving Jesus, you WILL love others. But just because you love others does not necessarily mean you love Jesus most. If we loved Him with our whole hearts, we would have courage to speak His name, raise our hands in song-worship, seek His face constantly through the day, and so much more. Just. Love. Jesus. So simple, and yet it shames us because we always add more than is necessary.

Believe God is bigger. And just love Jesus.

So simple that it's hard for my brain to grasp the simplicity for all the extras I've added my whole life. When I learn to let the extras go, that is when the joy and freedom will flow!