Come Holy Spirit! It’s Sunday morning, 5:45am in Washington State and the embers of the Holy Spirit are burning within many hearts here in Ellensberg. They couldn’t have picked a better weekend to have this retreat and even though it was two years in the making God’s timing was as it always is – perfect.
Mary and I were like yin and yang in our approach to where the Spirit led us to lead the women this weekend. What we had ‘planned’ was many times thrown out as we listened to the hearts of the women beat in a certain direction we followed along and poured out what God needed us to give.
Marriages under attack, kids with disabilities, the sorrow of death and loneliness were many layers of ‘identities’ these women wore. From one moment to the next God showed up and lovingly stripped them of those layers in order to reveal the one identity that often gets buried and forgotten beneath the rest – ‘You are my beloved. You are good, very good.’ We are His.
One of the many moments I adored was having the opportunity to sit with a woman who had not been able to be there for the entire retreat. She came to me with one particular question, not knowing anything about me or what had been revealed to the others over the course of the weekend. The question she asked was simple but I could tell there was more to her question. It is in a moment like this that God rejuvenate my spirit and call in what He asks of me through Hopeful Hearts. The question she asked led me to ask her another and there it was – the spark of recognition that I actually understood what laid deep within her bruised and battered spirit. By the end of our conversation her smile spread wide from ear to ear, she dabbed a tear from her eye, “I thought I was just going to ask about —- , I didn’t realize I’d get all of this. God is so good because I wasn’t supposed to make it at all this weekend and I decided to show up these last few hours. I really needed to talk to you.”
“That’s how much He loves you,” I said. :)There were many other moments such as this that I’ll hold close to my heart. Here are some pictures from the weekend.
I’m about to spend the entire day traveling home so this post is for two days.I can say that a Just Show Up moment for TODAY, now at 7:20am (it took awhile for me to find a spot that offered enough coverage to do the post) is listening to David and Cheryl Orvol (the owners of the beautiful land, house and barn that hosted the retreat) speak sweet things to each other this morning. They are shuffling around in the kitchen telling each other ‘thank you’ and ‘Oh you are the best babe’ (Cheryl to David for cooking and letting her sleep in.) and ‘You look good to me’ (David to Cheryl as she mussed with her morning hair. ) They serve as a great testament to marriage.
Now it’s 12:24pm Seattle, WA time and I’m in the airport waiting for my flight to board. The internet and 4G connection has been scarce so I have been trying to get this blog posted every chance I get. I’m calling it a day! I am certain I have corrections that need to be done but I’m not patient enough to deal with how slow this connection is. 😉
I pray today you are able to shed the many layers of ‘identities’ that keep us bound up in our life and come to reveal the one and true identity that will help sustain you as the others layers get too heavy – You are HIS beloved. Go with His spirit and renew the face of the earth.
Blessings
Shannon