Prompt 4

My prompt today was to describe a perfect world...

Describe the perfect world:

                Contrary to what many believe, the perfect world has already existed. God, in His infinite power and creativity, dreamed up, created and perfected the perfect world. I have always imagined the beginning of the world to be something that one might picture from a fairytale. There is green grass everywhere, filled with wildflowers that grow and bloom and open their faces to the warm sunshine that showers the earth. The sky is full of perfect white fluffy clouds that stand out against the blueness of the air behind them. (In my perfect world, there would be no evil birds, only ones who desire not to scare the pants off of young girls.) The sky would be filled with the most colorful or birds, whose chirping and singing create the most beautiful sound imaginable.  The green grass would be the carpet for huge mountain ranges, with perfect white caps on their tops. At the center of all of this, there sits a garden. The garden is like a rainforest, only there is less humidity, and animals of every kind roam around. There is no snake to tempt humans. God literally dwells at the center and man and woman encounter Him daily. The love they have for their Creator is the purist form of love. There is nothing that could ever separate them from their God.

                And as man and woman begin to reproduce, the population of the world increases. There is not one soul who is brought into sin. No one has a desire to sin against their Creator. They only desire to know Him in a deeply personal and unique way. There are no heart aches, nor greed, or lust, or a desire for power. Each individual only desires to grow closer to their God. They love each other, they help each other, and the word hate doesn’t even exist. There would be dinosaurs roaming the earth because they would have not missed the boat during the flood. There would be no fighting, nor yelling. No one would know what divorce is, or what depression feels like. Loneliness would be a foreign concept. Every day would be spent worshiping and serving the Creator.

                Though the perfect Earth may seem like a fairytale, the reality is that one day we will be taken to the perfect world. We only have to endure the heartaches and pains of this world for a few years. There will be a day with no more pain, no more fear, and no more sin. We will see our Heavenly Father and spend our days worshiping His majesty. Christ is coming to take His children to the perfect world that He has created. 

Stronger

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ~2 Corinthians 12:9

My  post today is not my normal rant about waiting to find Prince Charming... nor is it about my beloved pair of grey owl socks. My post today is about my weakness. 

There comes a time in every Christians life when they realize that their strength is not dependent on themselves. I came to that realization this week. I am weak. I am hurting. I am lonely. I am broken. I am confused (mostly because of the pain meds, but there are other reasons too.)

My life is not the easiest right now. My walk is lacking the normal swagger that it is used to, my brain is fuzzy from pain medicine, and I am as tired as a two year old who has been playing on the playground all day without ceasing. I get so caught up in my daily struggles though, that I forget to take time to focus on my triumphs. 

Its been hard for me to feel Christ lately. I mostly feel empty and alone. But the past few days He has been talking to me. I am slowly beginning to understand things better now. I understand that this time in my life is not permanent. This is a small speed bump on the highway of life. And no matter how lonely I feel, I am never truly alone. I have a God who is surrounding me daily. He is pulling me out of bed in the morning, holding my steering  wheel while I drive, and offering His arm to me while I am walking on campus. 

And so it hits me. Maybe at my weakest, I am actually at my strongest. 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells me that in my weakness, Christ's power is on me. I think this thought is mind blowing. I can't do anything on my own right now. Left to myself I would probably be huddled in some darkened corner, holding my knees and rocking back and forth. And for so long I have thought that I need to be strong. If I am strong, then people will think that I am still independent, that I am not as hurt as I actually am, and that I have everything figured out. Guess what, I have no idea what is going on right now. I am a mess. And today I reached that point of holding my arms wide open and asking God to be my strength, to give me a reassurance that everything is going to be okay, and to remind me that being re-shapened (I made that word up) is not a pain free and easy process. 

I have no doubt in my mind that God is using this time in my life to build me into the woman of Christ that He has created me to be. I have assurance knowing that I am still being worked on. I won't be in pain forever, I won't be alone forever, and I surly won't be confused and completely out of it forever.In my mind, Christ has two pom poms in His hands and He is cheering me on, reminding me that I can't do this, but assuring me that He can! 

So my dear friends, please pray for me right now. Please pray that I am constantly reminded that God is reshaping me, that this is temporary, and I am part of a greater plan. If you see me and you want to give me a hug, I need a lot of those right now. And as I need support in my struggles, I also need rejoicing in my triumphs! I have reached my goal weight for my surgery, and I have gone on past it! That is super exciting for me! But, I still need encouragement, of every kind, from my friends who love me! 

I pray that maybe you found encouragement in the post too, or at least a reminder to keep walking through the hard things in life, the things that are only temporary. Let your weakness be a way for Christ to break in and be strong. Left to our self, we are nothing. But when Christ is pilot of our lives, we can be everything He has created us to be!