“Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story-“ Psalm 107:2 NIV

“OK,” I motioned for my eight-year-old, “hop on.”

In the midst of a Spring that just won’t spring, I trekked through our over-saturated backyard in my rain boots with my daughter on my back. Emergency trips for X-rays never happen at convenient times, and so it seemed mildly appropriate the car was parked in the backyard while our street was being re-paved. 

It’s easy to talk about God when things are great. To reflect His presence in our lives it’s rolling along at a nice clip. When the new road is freshly paved and void of bumps threatening to pop tires or spill coffee. We sing praises when the sun shines and the flowers bloom before the first day of summer, but much less when the old road is broken up and blocking our driveway. 

How do we speak of God when the days are gray and we don’t feel very cheery? Deuteronomy 6:5-9  says “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.” NIV

God doesn’t move or change with the weather or the roadwork. Through it all, He remains. When we are gray, ugly and broken-up, He loves us the same. So, on ugly broken days, when we have to carry our kids across the muddy lawn …we speak of God. 

“Let me pray over it,” I said as I attached an icepack to her blue-green foot. We prayed, and then started to laugh. All the way to the car, sitting in the waiting room watching funny videos, and when her sock came off to reveal a regularly colored foot. Little Lo didn’t want to be pushed in a wheel chair to the X-ray room …so she rolled herself there like she’d just made the wheel chair grand prix. And we continued to laugh. The situation wasn’t funny -she had a dance competition in literal days and could put no weight on her foot. But she has God-given gift to see hard situations through a heavenly perspective.

Ruled a sprain, good doctors and good treatment would heal her, but we both knew prayer had a big stake in her circumstance. God will put out the orange barrels and block us from our driveways at times. There are parts of our lives that need tending to, in the time only He knows they will set properly. When we pray specifically for radical change, He is faithful to reframe our circumstances. God’s hand is in every rescue, and every excavation of evil. In Christ, inconvenience is used for good, and all things exist under His reign. 

Telling our story, like Psalm 107:2 says, is more than just sharing the gospel. Loving God, like Deuteronomy 6:5-9 instructs us, is more than telling our testimony. It’s living His truth, as though it’s permeated into every last thought and thread of our being. Loving God is living loved, in the everyday annoyances and little bits of triumph. Laughing in light of trying times tells more than mere words. Celebrating small victories make says something about the state of our souls. We are the redeemed of the LORD! Through all we say do, let the love of our Mighty God’s redemptive and compassionate hand be ever so evident.

Find a way to laugh …or at least smile through the tears on tough days. Reach out to encourage a friend to remove self-pity. Remember all there is to be thankful for. Repeat, “Jesus!” for there is power in His name. We are promised painful times this side of heaven, but there is so much good to say. Talk about it! Repeat it! Go tell it! The healing power of God is activated when we engage in conversation with Him. Our hope is restored by the re-telling of way He’s moved in our lives before, and it encourages and assures us He will do it again. 

Happy Telling,

Megs