how pain becomes amazing
Pain birthed my ministry to hurting Christian women and to the leaders who serve them. For you I write. I understand, I’ve been there.
My ministry to hurting Christian women and to the leaders who serve them had an unwelcome beginning.
Pain.
Who likes pain? Not me. I’m a comfort girl, big sweat shirts and blue jeans. No pain, no gain? Jane Fonda had it all wrong.
Yet God allowed it to barrel into my life. Yours too?
The blessedly wonderful and yes it is true: You can know joy. Abundant joy overflowing, sloshing over bucket rims, wetting toes, puddling.
I didn’t know the secret to abundant joy overflowing — and I still forget at times — but I know it now and I want to share it with you. You and me, together, arms linked, seeking joy, finding joy.
Abundant
joy
overflowing
Yes!
This is how pain becomes amazing. God turns it upside down.
The Flip Side
Year ago before A-J-O-Y — abundant joy overflowing yes — I experienced loneliness. Even at church. Especially at church.
I’d go to church desiring friendship with godly women, and it seemed everyone was chatting with someone else and they knew the secret handshake or the secret password or whatever
and I didn’t. I flowered the wall, another daisy lost in the lobby, dying.
Can you relate?
Know this, sweet sister: You are not alone in your emotional and spiritual struggles. You are not alone in the pain that tags along with your physical problems.
God Whispered
Then God whispered to my heart: “Lucy, comfort my sheep who are hurting with the comfort you’ve received from me.”
“Who me?” I asked
“Trust me, Lucy.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Trust me.”
Like the fuzz of a dandelion, my arguments floated away and I said, “Okay, Lord.”
Since then I’ve ministered to hurting Christian women and to the leaders who serve them. Fearful women. Lonely women. Abused women. Women trapped in addiction: shopping, alcohol, pornography. Women who’ve committed adultery. Women with hard pasts. Women like me. Like you.
Will you journey with me to the well? At the well we discover living water. Bubbly, fresh, overflowing. Extravagant.
Special Plans
I’ll share special plans in the coming weeks to help you find hope and healing, comfort and care. I’m fixated on the “HOW” of things. Someone will tell me a great idea, a perfect inspiration, and I ask how. Beyond the how, I need steps, foot prints showing the way. A map to the treasure. And friends.
A journey begins with a single sip. Dare to join me?
With Joy Overflowing,
The phone rang.
