Image Bearers

 

On Friday I had the opportunity to attend The Chattanooga Autism Conference with some others from Grace. We sat through sessions learning about autism from the perspective of teachers, parents and those who have autism themselves. There were about 700 people there and many different presenters. I’m grateful to have been able to spend the day thinking about the unique and special ways God has created these people and to learn more about how to come alongside and connect with people with autism.

As I have walked this role as Elementary Director the past few years at Grace Baptist Church I have both been dragged along and have also sat back and watched God orchestrate our Image Bearers (special needs) ministry. I say this both ways because there have been some days when I have felt so far in over my head that I have pushed back against what God had in store for us. This was when He graciously just dragged me along. There was no stopping the growth and learning and family He had planned.

But I have also sat back in awe as God has kick started a desire and passion and heart for the kids that come through the church doors to belong, be loved, be welcomed, and have a safe place. I have watched countless of our church members who work with children learn alongside myself. Cheryl Winget and Donna Patrick organized a whole training a year and a half ago on children with learning support needs. Other teachers have brainstormed and planned on how to include families with kids who are so very special and just need some extra support.

We have several amazing families who are a part of our church family and have children on the autism spectrum. We have kids who come to Awana and VBS who are outside of our immediate church family and are a part of our community who are beginning to trust us to care for their kids with special needs. Do we have it all figured out? Absolutely not. But has God been so evidently leading us this whole time? Yes and Amen.

At the conference, there was so much information to take in. Tips and supports shared. One piece that really stuck with me was the importance of and desire for connection. A man who wasn’t diagnosed with autism until he was in his 40s talked about the difficulties of the lack of support he had as a child. An audience member asked him, when looking back, what help and support did he wish he had received (particularly from teachers). His answer was, “I wish they took the time to get to know me.”

Don’t we all want that? We have a desire to be known! God built into us a need for relationship. And while we may think, communicate, and see the world differently, what an impact of love we can make on someone’s life just to take the time to know them. It is so fulfilling and a gift of hope when we think about how known we are by our Creator God. We can point others to Him when we show an offering of care in someone else’s life.

Tonight at Awana, one of our Image Bearer kids was having a hard time entering his classroom. I walked outside the room with him with this reminder to find out what it was that he wanted to communicate and what was important to him. Crayons. It was crayons. He wanted black and grey ones specifically. So we got him situated so that he could color and listen to his teacher at the same time. And when I tell you the art that came out of that little boy… talk about being a creative image bearer.

As I express my joy in seeing where God has led us the past few years and offer the hope of things still to come, I leave you with this challenge: What offering of connection have you made recently? Who have you shown your desire to know? How have you listened to the desires and interests of someone’s heart? You may be amazed how God uses that encouragement in their life. You may also be amazed at how He uses it in your own.

-Sandy Gromacki

GARDENING

         This is perfect gardening weather, cool and even partly cloudy.  The ground is still somewhat damp from all the rain we have had.  That makes the weeds easier to pull up by the roots.  I have taken several loads of weeds to the back of the lot where I dump them.

        When my five year old grandson came to go on the Longest Yard Sale, his first question was did I have a job he could do to earn some money to spend on the yard sale.  I didn't hesitate--take the pile of weeds in the front around to the back and dump them.  I have another pile of weeds he could take now, if only he were here.

        While I weed, I have lots of time to think, and God has lots of time to work on me.  This last spell He started talking to me about forgiveness and my relationship with one particular person.  Oh, there's no open break.  In fact, I don't know that this person even realizes that I've held resentment and anger about some of her actions.  So it isn't possible for me to walk up to her and say, "I forgive you."  Yet in order for me to have peace with God and with myself, I must forgive.

        Our pastor has just preached through Ephesians 4 which includes verse 32, "forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you."  That's one of the first verses I taught my children to say.  If I could teach my children to forgive, I need to forgive as well, even when no one else knows I need to forgive.   

        Christ has forgiven me; I must forgive.  I did business with God while I pulled the weeds.  But then I thought of another root that I wanted to pull immediately so the root could not take hold and go deep.  It's the root of bitterness mentioned in Hebrews 12:15, "Don't let a root of bitterness spring up to defile you."  Unforgiveness can be that root of bitterness.

    So as I'm pulling up my weeds by the roots, let me urge you to pull up yours.  Forgive as He forgave us.  

                                                            Faith Himes Lamb

Ask for Help

 

I am not the greatest at asking for help. There are a variety of reasons for this. I can be a bit particular about how things should be done, so it is often easier for me to just do it myself than take the time to explain how I think it should be done. I struggle with the idea of someone else doing something I care about and then it not turning out how I envisioned. I also don’t want to bother people with things I could just do myself. They have their own lives going on, and I don’t want to add on to someone else’s stress. Asking for help is a show of vulnerability, and it can be so hard to open up like that.

 

About a month ago, a coworker and I were catching up about all the things going on at work and in our personal lives. I told her that it just felt like a lot. We’ve got a new database system at work, and I’m currently writing training program for others to learn it. Dad’s surgery was coming up, and on top of that, I’m planning a wedding. (Little did I know that more was coming.) My coworker looked at me and said, “Concetta, you have a community of people who want to help you. If you want me to help with decorating for the wedding, just ask, and I will be happy to do it. You have so many people in your life who would be willing to help. You just have to ask.” Her words kept coming to mind over the next day; it was like God was nudging me to get over myself and ask for help. So the next day, I asked for help in putting together the power point for the training. And then God just kept giving me opportunities to ask for help. 

 

Prior to Dad’s surgery, we discussed whether or not we would need help with meals. With Mom unable to drive and Dad not allowed to drive for a week post-surgery, Alyssa and I would be the ones running errands and getting the things needed. We were planning on trading off staying with them to help however we could while also still working. Alyssa pushed for getting help with meals, and I was nominated to ask Pastor for help with a meal train. I cannot fully express how much help that meal train turned out to be. 

 

Five days after Dad’s surgery, Grandma went to the ER via ambulance for significant confusion and high blood pressure. I rushed out of work, picked up Mom, and drove to the hospital. They discharged her not long after we arrived, but we weren’t convinced everything was all good. We picked up some supplies from Grandma’s apartment and brought her back to Mom and Dad’s to keep an eye on her. The next day when I asked her about lunch, Grandma began slurring her words. We jumped into action, loaded her in the car, and sped back to the ER.

 

The next couple days were filled with a lot of hospital waiting, driving through torrential rain, talking with doctors and nurses, driving Dad to a post-op appointment, and just generally trying to stay sane in the midst of it all. In those moments when eating was just for survival, that meal train was a lifesaver. So was all the other help that people provided: picking up and transporting needed supplies, taking care of dogs, picking up the slack at work. I got a lot of practice asking for help that week.

 

We often talk about “bearing one another’s burdens,” and I have come to understand that it is an essential part of community. When we help each other out, we are stronger. But I think we can be pretty good at helping other people when they’re in need while not allowing ourselves to receive help. We make all kinds of excuses about why other people deserve our help but how we can do things for ourselves just fine. If we are to bear each other’s burdens though, we must also allow our burdens to be borne. We must lay aside the perfectionism, people pleasing, and prideful hearts that keep us from allowing others to show Christ’s love by offering help. Of course there needs to be a balance here. We should not swing to selfishness or stop offering our help to others. But simply opening oneself up to be helped is not selfish. It is vulnerable, perhaps more honest than we want to be about our own shortcomings.

 

We still have a lot going on in our family. Grandma’s brain is healing following three mini strokes, and she can no longer live by herself. Dad is continuing to recover from his surgery, and things at work continue to be busy as the school year starts. Of course, I am still planning for a wedding and married life beyond. And I still have the urge to just try and do it all myself. This learning to ask for help thing isn’t a simple switch in my brain, which is probably why God keeps giving me opportunities to practice. So I write this primarily as a reminder to myself—a reminder of how important community is, how only vulnerability can lead to truly knowing one another, and how beautiful it can be when the body of Christ cares for each other.

 

--Concetta Swann

 

Rabbit Trails

 

I love to follow rabbit trails. I feel free when I meander along behind curiosity. The key word here is meander. It’s natural and unforced. There is no agenda, score to keep, or checkmark to check. It often starts as a small question or musing. 

Presently, I am reading the young reader’s Viking Quest series by Lois Walfrid Johnson. These charming books have introduced me to the North Sea and the mountains of Norway. I have never had a desire to travel to Norway, but my interest is now piqued, because I followed a rabbit trail. I wanted to have a better visual of the setting for these stories, so I used YouTube to look up Norway and the North Sea. One video led to another, so I have been learning fascinating things about this beautiful part of the world. At the back of each book, the author lists resources to further explore. I’ll likely look at some of those. Those of you who homeschool may already be used to rambling down rabbit trails. Children (people) learn so much when they explore ideas that interest them without external pressure to do so. Do I have a need to know about Norway? Not really. I just found it interesting. And that’s reason enough.

 I don’t know where I learned to follow rabbit trails, but I’ve done it a long time. My husband loves learning, so he probably influenced me. The internet has made it so easy too with videos, articles, and book suggestions. You can go a long way on one trail if you desire or veer off in another interesting direction.

God has taught me so many things when I allow myself to follow rabbit trails when reading Scripture. Questions pop into my mind, and instead of strictly adhering to a reading plan, I allow myself to leisurely wander off schedule and pursue that path to see where it might lead. (I also love pictures of literal pathways. You will often see them on my Facebook page when we go hiking or biking. I’m always curious as to where a path might lead.) I love when I have plenty of time to do this and to talk to God along the way. My excitement about what I am learning spills over onto other people, and they too learn a few things.

Have you learned to wander? It’s fun! As the saying goes, “All those who wander are not lost.”

I’d love to hear about what you’re learning or any paths you have explored!

joyce hague

The Road Not Wanted

 

The road of life is full of twists and turns, isn’t it? Things seem to be going fine, and then unexpectedly the road that opens up before us is one we do not want to take. If we could just close our eyes and make it go away, we would, but life doesn’t work that way. Standing at the start of that road and looking ahead, all looks hazy and the path cannot be clearly seen. But we know enough to know that that it won’t be easy, that there will be deep valleys and hard climbs, and we aren’t even certain where exactly this particular road in life will lead. Even here, as we take our first steps on this rocky path, our eyes fill with tears for the pain and challenges we know will come. How do we step forward onto this difficult road as those who are followers of Christ?

We step forward in faith, knowing that God is the One who ordains our paths (Psalm 139:16). This road is His choice for us, His plan for our lives. Although this may be hard to understand, there is comfort in knowing that this path did not come to us by chance, but by a purpose ordained before we were ever born.

We step forward in faith, knowing that God is good and wastes nothing in our lives (Romans 8:28). He will use this hard path before us for good. He is conforming us to the image of His Son, and this trial will bear the good fruit of making us more like Christ as we fix our eyes on Him.

We step forward in faith, knowing that we are not alone for God walks with us (Psalm 139:5-12). He hems us in on all sides as our refuge, help, and comfort. Not even one step of this dark path will we tread without His strong arms undergirding us.

We step forward in faith, knowing that God will give grace for each step of the way (2 Cor. 12:9). His grace will enable us to keep putting one step in front of the other and to keep our eyes fixed on Him, even in the darkest moments.

We step forward in faith, knowing that God cares for us and we can throw all our worries and burdens on Him (1 Peter 5:7). In the long nights and when the tears and trials come, when we are overwhelmed by our lack of being able to control the situation, in humility before our God who holds all things together, we surrender control and throw our fears on the very capable shoulders of our loving Heavenly Father.

We step forward in faith, knowing that we are surrounded by those who have faced their own dark roads and who have found God to be faithful (Hebrews 11:1-12:1). We realize that we are not the only ones who face hardships, and we are encouraged by the testimony of those who have gone before us and their deep trust in God. He sustained them and held them fast, and He will do the same for us.

We step forward in faith, knowing that while we may not have light to see what is on the other side of this dark path, we do know where our final road will lead (1 Peter 1:3-9). No matter what happens in this trial, we have an inheritance in heaven that awaits us and that can never be taken away. We will one day see our Savior, where all will be light, all dark paths and tears will be no more, and we will know that all the trials we faced were worth it for the glory that is before us.

So, as we step onto this road that we never wanted, we fix our eyes on what is unseen and not on the darkness and uncertainty we see ahead in our physical sight. And when the tears and trials come on this path, we’ll throw ourselves onto the One who is light in the darkness and who walks beside us. He is for us, and we trust Him.

-- Amy O’Rear

 

Contentment and the Creative Urge

 

By virtue of being made in the image of God, humans are naturally creative. We love to make things and try out new ideas and display our skill. You’ve noticed it, haven’t you? Beautiful patterned fabric when plain colors would be faster and work as well. Walls painted with vibrant murals instead of perfectly functional whitewash. Music and rhythm that makes us have to get up and move. What’s the practicality in that?

We may not all have the same idea of beauty, but we do seek to surround ourselves with what we love. I grew up in the hills of West Virginia, and though we didn’t have much money, we always had enough to visit the garden center for begonias and coleuses to plant in pots for the front steps. My mother spent hours and hours cultivating dahlias that she traded with friends and neighbors all up and down the dirt road. I have driven by sad little houses perched on the hillside and noted red geraniums and yellow marigolds rising out of coffee cans and old cooking pots.  These people are saying to anyone who cares to notice, This is my place, and these are the things I value.

I have written elsewhere about a time in my life when I failed to cultivate the beauty that I love, when I let clutter accumulate, took no interest in decorating, and neglected to hang pictures on the walls. Looking back, I realize that I was just getting through each day waiting for my circumstances to change. I was discontented, looking to a day when I could move someplace else and create the home I wanted.

I was in a meeting with a group of women when the speaker said something like this: “If you are not happy with your house or your income, or some other aspect of your life, you are saying to God, ‘You’re not taking good care of me. You’re a bad provider.’” That statement made an impact that I obviously remember to this day, and it made an immediate difference in my attitude. When I accepted that I was in the place God intended for me at that time, I started to take interest in my surroundings and worked on beautifying my home, making it mine for whatever time I might be there.

Peter reminds us that believers in Jesus are “strangers and pilgrims” on earth (I Peter 2:11), and Paul reminds the church in Philippi that “our citizenship is in heaven” (3:20). But in the meantime, we live here. As children of God, we can display our gratitude for God’s goodness by living lives of contentment—certainly not complacency with situations that need to change—but a settled and satisfied feeling that our God who loves us is taking good care of us.

Then, out of a heart of joy and appreciation, we can open up the creative urge within, put there by God, to build, paint, plant, write, rearrange our environment and reflect God’s image in our surroundings.

 --Sherry Poff

The Root of Restlessness

 

I’m going to say it: school is starting in just a few weeks. I know, no one wants to talk about it. We are all in denial. Summer flew by. But it’s coming soon and truth be told, it’s causing me a little bit of dread.

There certainly are nice things about having consistent schedules and expectations. And school is important and good and all those positive things. Fall sports kick off and there are fun memories that are made through those. But what I’m feeling negative about is all the chaos and busyness and whirlwind schedules that can overwhelm a heart.

I’ve been reading Sanctuary: Cultivating a Quiet Heart in a Noisy and Demanding World by Denise J. Hughes. It’s really a fitting read to bring into the calendars and must-do’s of the fall season. The emphasis is about finding our sanctuary, our holy refuge, our quiet place in the Lord, even while being surrounded by the loudness and intensity of the modern world in which we live.

When I am pulled in every direction: kids, husband, friends, extended family, church, school, house, etc. etc. etc., and I try to do it all myself, my heart becomes restless. Can you see it now? The exhaustion that comes with trying to keep up with everything and everyone? THAT is what I dread. That is what I want to step away from and find the quiet place for my heart. 

So as I look into these two weeks ahead of me, when I know the ease and gentle flow of the summer will come to an end, how do I find that peace in the chaos? I look to the One. In my reading, Hughes has talked about how when my heart and focus are pulled in every direction that is where the worries come. I become distracted, prone to wander, and divided. I can’t keep up with all the things.

Sadly, my frequent choice has been to daydream all the possible results of the chaos of my life. If I think about it, I can be prepared for it, right? I can worry away all of the possible terrible-ness of every item on my calendar, of all the conflict. Wrong. Wandering this path keeps my heart divided and “a divided heart is at the root of all restlessness.”

The root of my peace and hope and security is Jesus. Just Jesus. So rather than letting my mind and heart play through every possible scenario and try to keep track of it all myself, I can bring every single thing to the Lord. This dread I feel? I hand it to Him. The scheduling conflicts and overload? I talk with Him about it. The decisions needed to be made for the kids? I ask Him for guidance. Then I find rest. 

I love this summary in Sanctuary, “How can we stitch together the fragmented cares and worries of our hearts? We can begin by laying each care at God’s feet. Today, enter the sanctuary of God’s presence and list the ways in which you feel stretched right now. Invite God into each of those circumstances. Ask for wisdom. Then ask God to give you a one-thing heart - a heart that truly wants only one thing: Christ. Since the old sanctuary in the Bible pointed to Christ, we find sanctuary when we find rest in Christ’s presence.”

--Sandy Gromacki