Tuesday, January 7, 2014

“You can’t reach for anything new, if you hands are still full of yesterdays junk.”

Tuesday greetings everybody!

It has been a little while since we have been together last.  Hope everyone is doing well and keeping warm!  Cause boy o’ boy is it chilly out there!

So for those of you who do not know, yesterday was the Feast day celebrating Epiphany!

Happy Epiphany everybody!

What is epiphany you may ask?  Well, lucky for you, I am about to tell you.

So Epiphany is the day we celebrate the arrival of Balthasar, Melchoir, and Gaspar.

Who?

They are the wisemen who traveled from the east, following the star, to the birthplace of Jesus.

To me this is an amazing story!  I think it says so much about the faith of the Magi and can teach us all a wonderful lesson.

So when I hear the story of the wisemen who dropped everything and traveled so many miles to follow a star because of a prophecy.

They do not actually know for a fact.  They do not go because there was actual physical proof.  They go because of a belief and because of faith.

I remember when I was in high school I struggled so much with following and living out my faith.  I believed and loved the church.  But I didn’t know how to live it.

The summer before my senior year, I traveled to Greece on pilgrimage.  18 youth went to go follow the footsteps of the apostle Paul.  You could call it a “Paul-grimage” if you will…

See what I did there…

Anyway, there was this moment when we were doing Lectio Divina on the beach and the scripture reading was about this man who approaches Jesus and asks to follow him because he believed so strongly.  When Jesus tells the man that he must give up all his possessions to follow him, the man is unable to do so.

This passage really hit me when I was in high school.  Not because I felt that I was overly attached to my material possessions.  But because I wondered if I would even have the guts to approach Jesus.  I felt that I would be intimidated.  Not worthy.

In another post I wrote about bringing your “stuff” to the altar every Sunday but then just before you leave turning around and going back to get it. 

Fast forward to today.  So after Christmas, I was fortunate to work at a retreat at DuBose Conference Center called Winterfest.  The theme for the week was healing.  Throughout the week we focused on different ways we heal and the communities that we lean on when we are going through this crazy journey called life.

Even though I was on staff and was working to relay the theme to the youth that were there, I experienced healing in ways that I never expected.

All the burdens that I dragged with me to the event were just washed away.  Being surrounded by so much love for an entire week…

It would be impossible to say that God was not at work. 

I was taught a very valuable lesson about my faith and my life. 

Everyone makes mistakes…and everyone needs healing.  It is not something you see but it something that you feel.  You don’t have the physical proof, but you can feel it.

I learned how in order to live out my faith that I can’t keep holding on to troubles of yesterday.

What I think about when I hear the story of the wisemen is this concept of blind faith.  These wealthy powerful men drop everything to follow a star.  To follow the light and to live out their faith.  They were able to leave behind all of their “stuff” and follow the light to Jesus.

So today my challenge for you is take everything that is holding you back.

Everything that may be keeping you from living out your faith. 

Imagine that all of that “stuff” is in your hands…and just let it go.

As Paul writes, there is nothing that separate you from the love of God.

“You can’t reach for anything new, if you hands are still full of yesterdays junk.”

-Louise Smith





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