Author: Christine Maynor

Seeing Jesus in Our Lives

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Backstory:

I listened to a good audiobook called The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauck. One of the characters said something like, “I saw Jesus at a summer camp when I was 15.” I’m sure the character didn’t actually see Jesus face to face. But I liked this idea of finding Jesus more in our lives, when good things happen to us or when we are even in the midst of trials. I need to practice this more in my life so I can be more grateful for Jesus’ hand in my life. 

Seeing Jesus in Our Lives

When have we each individually seen Jesus’ hand in our lives?

If we could recognize His hand more then we could more easily thrive.

When we are in the midst of a hard trial,

We might be a little low on oil in our faith vial.

Jesus is always there for us

And if we could just recognize that, then it would be a big plus.

We can see Him when we feel forgiven of our trespasses

And because of Him, we can put a new lens on our glasses.

When someone shows us unexpected compassion,

Then maybe Jesus helped them be our companion.

When we feel prompted to serve or comfort someone,

Then Jesus is working through our hearts to help the one.

We can see Jesus after we have come through or are in the midst of a big storm,

He will help us navigate out of the big waves and will help us feel warm.

When we realize we were strengthened or carried through our hard time,

Then Jesus helped us with the strength to constantly get up from the grime.

Jesus is always with us especially during our suffering,

He will help us on our journey of recovering.

So, don’t ever think that Jesus will leave you alone,

He will be with you because for you individually, He did atone.

The Takeaway: We all have hard times in our lives when we might feel like no one understands how we feel. That is not true! Jesus always understands what we are going through because He has felt all of our pain and trials. We need to learn to recognize His hand in our lives helping us along our paths. He will always be there beside us, no matter what.

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

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Backstory:

My Mom and I are currently memorizing the words of the song, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. I have loved this song for many years because I have sung it in many choirs. I looked up the backstory behind the words of the song. It was written by Isaac Watts and published in 1719. He used Psalm 23 as the backdrop to the words. During his work on this and other hymns, Watts suffered a prolonged illness. In gratitude for the sustaining help he received, he offered this song and others. His story resonated with me because I have an autoimmune disease that I struggle with every day. As I was thinking about writing this, I looked at a painting in my living room and it caught my eye. The painting is called Beside Still Waters by Greg Olsen. The story behind this painting is also Psalm 23. The fact that I looked at the painting while I was thinking about writing this story felt like a tender mercy for me. We all are so blessed in our lives. We just need to recognize our many blessings.

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

Jesus is our Shepherd and we are His Beloved Sheep,

We should trust Him so much that if He were here with us we could fall into a deep sleep.

Imagine being with Jesus near a beautiful and tranquil stream,

Would it be so surreal to be with Him that it would feel like a dream?

The scene is so quiet and peaceful

That you have never felt it’s equal.

You feel at once that you can trust Jesus because of the loving spirit that surrounds Him,

And you feel like your soul will never again feel grim.

You sit down with Him under a shady tree with the sun shining down around you,

And even though you have only just met Him, in His presence you can’t feel blue.

You can feel His love for you right away,

And you know that you would follow Him any and every day.

You don’t ever want to leave His presence because of how He makes you feel,

And you can tell that His love for you is real.

You fall down at His feet near the stream and bathe His feet with your tears,

You thank Him for His example and His guidance through the years.

You thank Him with all of your heart,

For suffering for your sins and weaknesses and choosing to do the hard part.

As He leads you away back to your home,

You hope the peace you felt with Him will stay with you so you never feel alone.

The Takeaway: We can always rely on Jesus to be our Good Shepherd. We can trust Him to lead us to a place of peace, joy and rest. He always knows how we are feeling at any time and in any situation. Even though He isn’t here with us physically, we can always feel His presence and His warm embrace in our lives. He will never leave us alone. We can always count on that.

The Prince of Empathy

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Backstory:

On an RVVL podcast episode I listened to, David Butler said something that has stayed with me. He said something like: there’s something about that story in the Bible that helps me trust Jesus today. Through all the hard things He went through, Jesus proved faithful in every moment. When He doubted, He proved faithful. When it was excruciating, He proved faithful. That gives me confidence that He will prove faithful now—especially when things are hard or excruciating for me. I believe He sits with me in those emotions even today. We often talk about how Jesus experienced our pains in the past, but I actually think He experiences them again. He’s the Prince of Empathy. He sits with us, and I think He feels our pain in the very moment we feel it. And He doesn’t give up. He will prove faithful to every promise He has made.

The Prince of Empathy

Jesus as the Prince of Empathy feels everything with us,

He understands all of our emotions and that for us is a big plus.

He feels our pains so deeply as if He were inside our experience too,

And He can help us feel better when we are feeling blue.

He experienced all of our pains and emotions when He was on the earth,

And He did this out of His amazing love for us so we could know our Divine Worth.

In the Garden, He felt all of the pains we would feel in this life,

And He didn’t shy away from experiencing all of the awful strife.

Even though it was excruciating and painful for Him,

He felt it all so that our lives wouldn’t seem so grim.

He proved faithful until the end,

So that in Him we could find our truest and best friend.

He feels our pains with us every day,

And He feels it more deeply than we could ever adequately say.

When we feel like crying, we can picture Him embracing us,

We can cry on His Loving Shoulder so that we don’t feel like making a big fuss.

Even when we feel all alone

And like our trials and struggles are to everyone unknown.

We can turn to Jesus to help our hearts heal from all of the painful moments we experience,

And with Him by our side, in our darkest times, we can feel more resilience.

The Takeaway: We as Christians often talk about the suffering Jesus endured on our behalf while He was on the earth. But I don’t think we can picture Him with us in our suffering that we go through on a daily basis. Jesus, as the Prince of Empathy experiences all of our emotions, even the painful and excruciating ones with us. He will sit by us in our darkest and hardest moments. We just need to reach out to Him and His arms will be open to receive us.

Into the Deep

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Backstory:

I watched a Chosen episode recently of when Simon Peter was called to follow Jesus. Simon was in a very desperate situation. He was heavily in debt and he could potentially lose everything and go to jail if he didn’t pay his debts soon. So he went fishing one last time to try to support his livelihood. Simon wasn’t a beginner fisherman. He was experienced, skilled and exhausted from a fruitless night of not catching anything. Jesus asked him to go back out, and not just anywhere-into the deep. Even though Simon didn’t know much about Jesus yet, he had to have faith. So he did as Jesus asked. Then a miracle occurred and there were so many fish in his net that Simon had to have assistance from his friends to help him bring the net up. Simon fell at Jesus’ feet and told him that he would do anything Jesus asked of him. After that, Jesus asked Simon to follow Him and He later became Jesus’ chief apostle. We can learn a lot from this story about faith and obedience, especially when we are in a desperate situation like Simon was.

Into the Deep

We all experience times in our lives when our situation might seem desperate,

And even though others can’t see into our souls, our worries are legitimate.

Our stress might come from medical issues or family drama,

Sometimes those things are out of our control but they could still cause us some inward trauma.

Or we might be worried about our inward state,

We might be barely holding it together and our souls might feel a big weight.

That’s when we might get desperate and cry out to our Savior for help,

For inside, our hearts might in pain yelp.

In that moment when our hearts seem to cause us so much worry,

That is when Jesus will come into our story.

He might ask us to trust in Him and we will need to do what he asks us to do

If we want to get over our heartache and no longer feel blue.

Jesus might ask us to cast our nets out into the deep,

And what He asks of us might seem kind of steep.

We just need to trust in Him that He knows what is best for us,

Even though inside we might want to make a big fuss.

We can trust in Jesus because He loves us very deeply,

If we want to feel better we will need to trust in Him completely.

Then like Simon Peter we would fall at Jesus’ feet,

For being His disciple would be a big treat.

The Takeaway: Sometimes we might go through very hard things and our situation might seem desperate. In those moments, we need to call out to our Savior for help. He might ask us to do something that might seem strange. But we need to trust in Him enough that He will work out all things for our good because He loves us very much. 

Jesus Walks with You

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Backstory:

I have been thinking lately that I don’t like winter because the weather is cold and it makes my body hurt more. I get sick more often in the winter than I normally do. I love Christmas but after the holidays are over I have a hard time feeling warmth inside my heart in the dead of winter. So I asked myself, “how can I feel that warmth on the inside even when it’s cold outside?” I feel like I need to change my perspective so that I have hope on my darkest day. I was  talking with my therapist one day and she said that “there’s something kind in the fact that Jesus walks with us. He doesn’t just say that He will meet us on the other side.” I really love that idea that He is always with us whenever we need Him.

Jesus Walks with You

Sometimes in the winter if it is hard for you to feel warmth in your body, on the inside or out,

And it might be a time when you just feel like you want to sit inside and pout.

In the dead of winter, if you have a hard time feeling anything in your heart but blue,

Just remember that your Savior, Jesus Christ, is always there beside you.

During those cold months, it might be hard to feel warmth and hope on the inside

Where your mind and heart reside.

When all you feel is darkness and dreariness inside your soul,

Don’t forget that Jesus can help you feel whole.

When you feel like you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders

And it is so heavy to bear that it feels like you are carrying huge boulders.

When your soul feels empty and you don’t know if can get out of bed,

Just remember that Jesus will fill your emptiness with His Living Bread.

When it is cold and dreary outside and you feel like it is weighing you down,

And you feel like all you can do is sit in the darkness and frown.

Don’t ever forget that your Savior has felt all of those feelings

And that He hears your deepest pleadings.

Even if you feel weighed down by the darkness of the world around you

Just change your perspective so that you won’t always feel blue.

Don’t ever forget that Jesus will walk beside you and carry you on your darkest day,

For He loves you more than you could ever adequately say.

The Takeaway: If you are like me, then winter might be a hard time for you to feel hope and joy. On days when it is cold and dreary outside, it might be hard to feel warmth inside of you. Just remember that there is always hope because of your Savior, Jesus Christ. He will always walk beside you and He will even carry you and your heavy load of burdens on your hardest and darkest days.

A Grief That Can’t Be Spoken

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Backstory: 

I live every day with a chronic illness and autoimmune disease. This is something that no one really understands unless they go through it themselves. It makes it hard for me to make it through every day with the constant fatigue and pain in my body as well as other frustrating and annoying symptoms. The other day when I was thinking about my chronic illness, I had the words of the song from the musical Les Miserables called Empty Chairs at Empty Tables going through my head. I especially think these words apply to me with my health struggles: “there’s a grief that can’t be spoken, as the pain goes on and on.” 

A Grief That Can’t Be Spoken

Empty chairs are at empty tables when you have a chronic illness

Because you feel like no one really understands the loneliness

Of going through every day with your body having one crazy symptom after another,

You try to let others know how you feel but they really can’t even though they are a sister or a brother.

There’s a grief you have to get used to

And that sometimes will make you feel kinda blue.

Chronic pain is invisible to most people outside of your body,

But you really wish they could walk in your shoes for a minute for them to truly see.

Like the empty chairs, others don’t see what hurts or what is missing

And you constantly wish for a doctor that could to your body be fixing.

Unlike most trials in this life, there is no clear ending to a chronic illness,

So you have to work with that kind of grief which sometimes steals your bliss.

But no trial in this life is ever wasted

Even though for your moments of hope you have patiently waited.

No matter how hard things get day to day,

There is always hope because of your Savior who loves you more than you could ever say.

Only Jesus can truly sympathize with what you are going through,

He knows how you are feeling at every moment and He will always be there for you.

Your grief and pain are never unspoken to Him,

And because of this hope you never need to think that your life is grim.

The Takeaway: We all have hard trials that we have to endure in this life. Our earth life wasn’t meant to be a piece of cake. Sometimes we might feel like we are all alone at a table all by ourselves with nothing but empty chairs around us. But we are never really alone and there is always hope because of our Savior. He has felt all of our pain and heartache. We can always talk to Him and He will understand exactly how we feel.

Healing Waters

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Backstory:

I listened to a really good audiobook called Chariots to Jordan by E. James Harrison. It’s a biblical historical fiction. Part of the story is about Naaman being healed from leprosy by the prophet Elisha in 2 Kings in the Bible. This story can teach us so much-especially about humility, faith and God’s power to heal all who come unto Him.

Healing Waters

Naaman was a great military leader of Syria,

He was powerful and successful and for the praise of the world he met all the criteria.

He had an affliction called leprosy that got worse over time,

He tried to hide his disease from others because to them it was a sort of a crime.

He didn’t want to be persecuted and ostracized by other people,

Because he knew their persecution of him wouldn’t be peaceful.

His servant girl told him of a prophet named Elisha who could heal him from this affliction,

Naaman wasn’t convinced at first but eventually he agreed to see him so he could be healed from his condition.

So Naaman traveled to see this prophet and he probably expected to be healed in an instant,

And he probably imagined that after the healing his skin would again look brilliant.

He was told to wash in the Jordan River seven times and then he would again be whole,

Naaman was at first offended that Elisha didn’t even want to see him in his big role.

But he humbled himself because his illness made him desperate for healing,

After washing in the river seven times no one could imagine the change that he was feeling.

But it wasn’t the river that healed him, it was his faith that made the difference,

And after this experience he knew that God would help him and be his deliverance.

The path forward to healing for Naaman was very simple,

And in his life it probably didn’t seem very comfortable.

But he was obedient and did what God asked of him,

And only after he had faith he was healed and then his life no longer seemed so grim.

The Takeaway: We can learn a lot from this story about faith and obedience. Sometimes the greatest miracles come in our lives when we choose to step into the waters of healing with faith that we will be healed. And sometimes we aren’t healed the way we expected or imagined that we would be. But we need to take that first step forward in faith and then those miracles will happen for us.

Lord, Abide with Me

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Lord, Abide with Me

Lord Jesus, I know that I am weak on my own,

Please abide with me so I am never alone.

Especially as the light fades, stay with me in the darkness,

Until I fall asleep and am no longer conscious.

Daily my body is in pain and weak,

Please stay with me every day through the week.

I have days when I feel discouraged and like darkness follows me everywhere I go,

Help me feel thy Loving Light on my face so that with you I can glow.

When I am feeling like I am at the end of my rope,

Please be with me so that I can always feel like there is hope.

I don’t know why I have to go through the hard trials that I do,

Just help me to not feel so blue.

Please be with me when I have to wait for answers to my prayers,

And help me feel like you are always there.

I wish that I could see You standing there beside me,

And then maybe from my trials I could feel free.

I know that life isn’t meant to be easy,

Help me feel like You love me deeply.

I know that You do love me for who I really am on the inside,

And that with me, You will always reside.

The Takeaway: There are moments in this life when we all feel alone and like no one understands what we are going through. But we are never alone because we always have our Savior who is waiting and willing to abide with us every minute of every day. We just need to invite Him into our lives and our hearts and there He will stay.

Walking by Faith

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Backstory:

I was thinking about faith the other day, and the scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:7 came to my mind that says that we “walk by faith and not by sight.” I researched the meaning behind this scripture as well as the comparisons between using our eyes or walking by sight and walking by faith. In this scripture Paul reminds us that what we see now is not the whole story. And that life is temporary, but eternal life with God is real and sure.

Our sight allows us to see what is before our eyes,

We rely on light, distance, clarity and evidence as our prize.

Our eyes help us navigate daily life safely and practically

And they show us facts, circumstances, and outward appearances rapidly.

But we can only see what is right in front of us

Because our vision can be blocked or incomplete and this is not a plus.

What we see with our eyes isn’t always the full truth

Because appearances can deceive us, especially in our youth.

Walking by faith and not by sight

Can move our spiritual eyes to new heights.

With faith, we trust in our Maker even when we don’t know what is going to happen,

But that trust in the Being bigger than us should lead us to action.

When we have faith, we rely on God’s promises rather than our circumstances,

And we can see better with our new faith glasses.

Even though we can’t see the big picture in front of our eyes

We move forward despite uncertainty as our spirits start to rise.

Looking through eyes of faith, we can see hope when sight sees hardships coming closer,

We can see purpose when sight sees delays right near our shoulder.

Eyes show us the brushstrokes of life

When faith shows us the Artist free from strife.

The Takeaway: We use our eyes all day every day when we are awake. I, for one, am so grateful for all that my eyes help me to see. But our eyes limit us to what we only see in the moment. If we walk with eyes of faith then we will see the big picture instead of just the brushstrokes in front of our eyes. If we trust and have faith in our Loving Father in Heaven, then He can help us see with more spiritual eyes. His vision of our lives is beautiful and we need to trust that He has a plan for each one of us.

Trust the Master Poet

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Backstory:

I have always enjoyed literature and books. Writing has been a really great outlet for me the last few years. I heard of this metaphor and really liked it: that we may only see one stanza of a poem at a time-but God knows the entire poem-and it is beautiful, even when it’s unfinished. This really resonated with me being a poet and with my love for words and books.

Trust the Master Poet

We experience life line by line,

We don’t see the big picture because our vision is so fine.

Just one stanza of a poem may feel awkward and incomplete,

And in the beginning of writing it the theme doesn’t yet feel concrete.

As our Master Poet, our Loving Father in Heaven

Sees the whole poem in its entirety and its theme is never in question.

He sees the opening lines, the long middle where growth happens,

And the final resolution that brings meaning to every earlier line and all of its captions.

What feels like a rough draft to us with our paper and pen,

To our Father is part of His divine plan in the end.

Our unfinished lines in our poems of life,

To us may seem like failures full of strife.

Our inward growth in life is not about perfection in a single moment,

But as long as we progress and keep writing until we are out of content,

Then our Savior comes along and turns our unfinished work into a perfect and beautiful masterpiece,

And we can finish our rough draft with Him as our editor whispering in our ears words of love and peace. 

Some of the most powerful poems are full of hard moments when the soul is aching and yearning for more,

Our lives are the same because we long to be in our Father’s Loving Arms but all we need to do is open the door.

And one day after this life is over-our poem of life will be read aloud in its finished state,

Then all of our earthly cares will be gone and our souls won’t feel so much weight.

The Takeaway: We are all writing our unique stories while we live on this earth. But we are never alone in our journey in mortality. By our side is our Master Editor in our Savior, Jesus Christ. He will help us erase our shortcomings and weaknesses. He will be there to whisper words of love and peace to our minds when we feel darkness inside. Our Father will also be there as our Master Poet to help us write our stories into something beautiful and full of purpose.