Well, friends, it's been a minute. There's been so much going on because of this hurricane and my non-profit's work in Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene caused some real major devastation. And so we started doing this series of just finding hope in the storm. We've talked about compassion fatigue and survivor's guilt, among other things.
And honestly, just as we've been processing all of this, I have gone through so much and experienced and seen and heard so much that my brain just kind of shriveled up. There's so much work to be done on the side of things to try to help everything go smoothly and help as many people in crisis as we can.
And if you missed the other posts, I run a nonprofit called Crisis Response International in addition to my business Starling and Stone Mentoring, and there's so much work to be done because it's an honor to be able to meet people where they're at in their greatest hour of need, their darkest moments.
We provide physical, emotional, and spiritual care for people in their darkest times, and it's such an honor, but it requires a lot. I won't say it's as physical for me, like my husband who has been sleeping on the floor on the deployment for six weeks. I have been more on the mental / brain side, (not that he hasn't), but I haven't done as much physical side stuff as he has on the deployment.
I have been working in my brain, my thoughts, and my emotions. And when you are a responder or a first responder or you're in the military. or you're in the medical industry and you see people who are in distress in front of you, it really does take a toll. So not only have we been trying to manage the work that we're doing, but also we really believe in self-care.
So I've been kind of managing the amount of time that I give myself to things that are work. And that has meant that I have actually taken a couple of weeks where I haven't done any content creation because I really couldn't give myself to it all, and I would start thinking about it, but my brain was like, "Oh my gosh, I just don't have enough energy for this".
I knew I wouldn't be able to give it my all or my best. I need to respect the process that I'm in. I say all of that because I want to encourage you by modeling that to you. That when you are in crisis, when you're going through a lot, when you're moving through a transition, when life is hard, you've got to learn how to respect the stage you're in and what you're going through. Give yourself grace and compassion and determine what the real urgent, important things are.
What are the absolute necessities? What are the non-negotiables? What are the true priorities- and there should really only be a couple. When we say we have 10 priorities, well, then nothing is prioritized, right? That's the antithesis of the actual word.
So you've got to stop and say:
What do I want to get done? What am I capable of?
And just step back and give yourself some time. So, as I was coming into this post, my heart was to just be able to talk to you and to wrap up this series of 'hope in the storm'. I have been looking at some notes that I've been making and a song that I've been listening to a lot, along with some things that I've been processing and stuff that comes up when I'm talking to people who are going through a difficult time.
So, I'm just going to share a little bit about what's been going on in my mind and heart that I would want to share to you if you find yourself in the middle of the storm, because I think one of the hardest parts for me is reconciling what's going on inside my soul with what I know inside of my spirit, right?
So, my soul might be dealing with trauma, crisis, hardship, and pain, while my spirit knows God dwelling inside of me, right? So, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So God, Emmanuel, is within us and dwelling in our spirit. And our spirit is alive now if we know Jesus.
The truth is dwelling in our spirit and our soul. Once we get saved and become alive in spirit and born again, then our soul steps into that new creation and starts to be renovated. Now that the spirit is awake and alive, the soul can begin the restorative process.
Okay, what's going on within our mind, our imaginations, and our beliefs are all of our paradigm. Also, our emotions, our will, and our personality, all of that is in the container of our soul. And while it's being restored, it is not fully perfected, right? So it can be moved around by what's going on in the world.
It can be challenged, it can be grieved, and we can be in this process within our soul, and need to have respect for it, but it can feel like it's out of sync or alignment with the truth that we know in our spirit, and I think it's really easy to start feeling shame or condemnation because what's happening in our soul is not in alignment with the truth that we know in our spirit, right?
How many times does the Bible say, do not fear? And yet our soul is afraid. In our spirit, we can say, "I do not fear because I know that God is with me and if He is for me, who can be against me? Greater is he that is in me than he who is in the world." And that is all truth in our spirit. And it remains the same.
The truth is always there written on our hearts. Even when our soul says, "Oh my gosh, I'm so afraid right now. This is very scary." Plus, our brain and our body and our nervous system are all being affected by what we've experienced. That's where the push of adrenaline and cortisol is happening.
And our brain is having memories of stress and trauma, right? So you've got what's going on in your body and your brain, your soul and your mind, and your spirit. And that's a lot. But when it feels like it's out of sync, it's just because we're triune beings. There are three parts of us: our body- the outer being, our soul- the inner being, and our spirit- the innermost being.
So you might be trying to hold on to the belief that God is for you, but you don't feel like He is, because it doesn't look like He is when you look around. Or you want to have hope and be positive and have gratitude, but the grief just rises up out of nowhere. And keeps preventing that hope and optimism and gratitude, right?
It's like your soul needs to be able to experience what it's going through. And you can encourage your soul, like David often did, but you've got to reach that from within your spirit. And so your spirit needs the invitation. Invite and encourage your spirit to rise up and lead your soul and pour truth into your soul, rather than letting your soul and your body lead you, and convince you that what you feel, think, and see, is true. You've got to invite and step back into your spirit and say, "No, what my spirit holds is the truth, and within my spirit is the spirit of God."
That is what is going to impact and feed my soul and my body and help me get through this. So when you feel conflict inside your soul between your thoughts and your emotions, sometimes your mind might say, "Go put on your big girl panties, time to move on, time to get over it." When really you're like, "I just want to curl up in a ball. I want to sob all day long. I wan a bowl of ice cream and my grandma's afghan and I want somebody to rub my shoulders and I just need comfort."
Or you might have thoughts that you should be feeling more upset and be crying more, feeling more sad, but you're not for some reason. You just want to avoid the pain and think about the tangible things that you could be doing.
Maybe you want to go do rather than be. Or you think you should be fixing something or doing something about the situation so that you don't feel like you're just wasting time, but you can't seem to find the physical energy and stamina to do it. All of us are made differently. Some of us need to just sit in our emotions and operate more in that space for awhile, but then feel condemnation or guilt if we're not doing something.
Some of us want to do and find out that we're burning ourselves out because we need to go take care of our mental health more. Sometimes we're overthinking and we're spending too much time in the mental realm.
We actually need to let some of that emotion soak in so it can flow through and out and we can experience emotional healing.
Regardless of what is normal for you. Inside of this abnormal situation called a storm, conflict will rise up between the spirit, the soul, the body. And that's okay, and it's normal and you're gonna make it through. I just want to tell you, this is normal. Conflict here is normal.
Condemnation and guilt are not from the Lord. Conviction is, but conviction will always draw you and turn you around and love on you, whereas condemnation will tell you you're not enough. You're not in the right place. You're not doing the right thing. You should be more, you should be less. All I can tell you is that God brings deliverance and shelter for our souls when we turn towards Him in our spirit.
It might not be an external, tangible deliverance. It does mean that there's peace, there's a turning inside in our innermost being that will shift the inner being of our soul. And that doesn't mean that the situation will change. It doesn't mean life becomes 'always fair'. It doesn't mean people will never do mean things.
But it does mean that the peace He offers is going to surpass understanding and seep into your soul that will rise up through the spirit within you so that you can know He walks through the middle with you. You're not abandoned. You're not alone. You're not being punished.
You're being held up by His righteous right hand, and you don't need to be afraid, even if you are, because He will be in the fire with you and you can lean into Him. Even if the pain's not subsiding, He is really good at holding us in our pain. I want you to think on and remember Psalm 23:6, "Surely mercy and goodness will follow you all of your days".
Can you find a way to write it down, put it in your phone, set a timer so it pops up and you get to read it, write it, remember it, so that it's written on your heart, and speak it out loud:
Surely mercy and goodness follow me all of my days.
Obviously, since we do disaster relief and crisis response, we've worked with people almost two decades around the world in really terrible situations. A lot of people want to know why bad things happen if God's in charge; if He's in control. I'm going to give you a very simplistic answer to this. I am not a theologian, but I think this is the foundation of what could be a really big conversation. This is how I would share it with anybody who was right in front of me that I just had 10 minutes to sit across the table and eat a meal with them on a deployment.
God put two trees in the garden. And you have to ask, like, why'd He do that? One was the tree that led to life. One was a tree that led to death. And why would He give us one that would lead us in a way He didn't want us to go that wasn't good for us? It was so that we had a choice. God could make us follow him if He wanted to, but He hopes for friends, sons and daughters, right?
When Satan enticed and convinced Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it was only possible that they could do that and that he could entice them to it because God had put the tree in the garden- so that we would have choices. It's called free will- so that we would have free will from the get-go, not to tease us or to tempt us, but to allow us to make our choice.
There was a tree of life we could choose, and a tree of death as well. If He'd only offered one tree, there wouldn't have been any choice. Only offering one tree that pointed the way to life, and then we would only have one way to go, which was to be with Him, would not have been equal to loving him. And God wants us to be engaged in a relationship and a covenant with him.
He loves us. He's not forced to be with us. He chooses us. And two trees offered us a choice, whereas one tree would have only offered a requirement. Aren't you glad that your life is full of choices rather than requirements and demands and control. So we're born into free will, which has already chosen the tree that led to death, right?
So that's how we got here. Therefore all people are operating in free will. But God had this fantastic, marvelous plan for a Rescuer to be sent to us so that each person could be able to choose with their free will, either the free gift of salvation and reconciliation and rescue and refuge and eternal life with him- or not.
That's the simplicity of the Gospel. There is a plan. A Rescuer has come and we can choose His free gift. Or not. Each choice has fruit. So when somebody asks me, "Why does God allow suffering and pain and murder and abuse and disaster and crisis, all of the things?" It's because while God is ultimately in charge, He is not in control because if He were, He'd be controlling us.
But He has no desire to control us. He chooses us. The devil wants to control. If God was controlling things, it's true that there would be no murder or abuse or disaster or evil. Like the Bible says that in heaven there will be no more tears or pain. That is going to be a place where we will not deal with what we deal with on the earth today.
But that is the fruit of using our free will and choosing God. We get to go to a future eternally where there is no evil. So we get to choose a plan that was set in place that will create a future for us.
If God was controlling things, it would be the same as if you were living in a cult where every movement and everything about your life was controlled by people outside of you, rather than you living in the freedom of choice and controlling yourself from the inside out. God can and will take charge at times to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. He will take charge to manifest His will, but He is not lording Himself over us and controlling the world 24/7 over the whole earth, demanding that all follow him whether they like it or not. That wouldn't be a loving God who would demand you to do something that you don't choose to do, but this loving God does give us choices. Then there are consequences of our choices and their fruit based on what tree we eat from.
That's my simplistic answer. Why do hard things happen? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do believers also suffer? Well, we live in a fallen world and the earth is groaning for the return of Christ. And the earth is praising God. All of creation is crying out, but we as humans are the only ones in all of creation that have an outer being, an inner being, and also an innermost being.
There are other beings with bodies and souls. But no one's like a human with an innermost being, a spirit that is capable of making a choice with free will to be born again, to be alive in spirit, to have the indwelling of the Most High God within us so that we can reap the fruit of His goodness and His love for us.
And when suffering happens, because the Bible says we will have sufferings, He will be with us. And when He's in within us and our spirit is alive within us, then we have access to truth and freedom and peace and joy, regardless of the external circumstances. Then we don't have to have the circumstances change because we're living from the spirit-led life, where we get to find out that He's with us in all of this.
There's a song by Maverick City Worship that is just one of these timely songs. And it's called You Hold It All Together. The lyrics say:
You come, at the right time,
When I least expect it, never behind
So why would I be surprised,
When you deliver, every time
On mountaintops, You stay the same
In valleys low, You never change
And I believe that I will see
The goodness of the Lord
I’m confident as seasons change
Your faithfulness remains
You go before me
To prepare the blessing
You made a way
It’s more than I could Imagine
More than I can fathom or comprehend
God of my present
God of my future
You write my story
You hold it all together
You are the Alpha, and You're Omega
You're in the middle, You hold it all together
You're not just at the beginning
And You're not just watching from the end
But You're walking with me in the middle
You're walking with me in the middle
You're the God of the middle
You're Jehovah in the middle
You're Provider of the middle
You're our Healer in the middle
You're our Keeper in the middle, yeah
You are the Alpha, and You're Omega
You're in the middle, You hold it all together
Okay. When I read that, I feel the electricity, the chills, because the energy of the Holy Spirit is manifest right now as I'm saying this. I'm proclaiming and declaring that God is Alpha and Omega, that He is with you in the middle, in the storm. He's the God and Jehovah and Provider and Healer and Keeper.
In the middle of the storm, He is with you. I encourage you to cling to Him, to lean into Him, not to blame Him that He allowed something to happen, but to say, thank You for being with me while things happen. And Turn your heart to Him, ask Him to come resolve the conflict between the spirit and the soul within you, ask Him to be the healer of the trauma, the One who speaks to the waves, and be reminded of howHe has parted waters for you.
Remind yourself, encourage yourself. Build yourself up in the spirit, actually think on and meditate on and dwell on, get in the Ziploc and get yourself marinated in the truth. He is with you in the storm. That is why there is hope. I bless you, friends. I pray for your healing. For joy to rise up for you tangibly, no matter where you are in the storm.
I pray that you would find yourself looking into the eyes of Jesus and knowing that his banner over you is love and joy is your portion in Him. And it's internal in your innermost being, you don't have to keep looking for it in your soul, in your body, in the world, in the circumstances. It is always with you right there, within your spirit, and if you don't know Him and He is not with you, just invite Him in.
"Lord, in the midst of this storm, I am not able to hold myself up or calm these crazy seas, so I submit my life to you. I invite you into my life, my heart, and my soul. I trust You to guide me as the Savior of my soul. And I believe that You gave your life for me on the cross so that I could be reconciled to a good Father. And now I have the great joy of being with Him eternally and also knowing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as it is manifest and made real right now in my life, from this moment forward. Thank You for forgiving me for all of my sins and dying on the cross for me so that I can be with You forever. In Jesus' name I pray."
Now He's in the middle with you, friend. Turn your heart to Him and embrace the God of eternity and of all creation, Who loves you dearly and is drawing you near. If you have made it this far through the podcast, there is a reason and God is wanting to speak to you.
I encourage you just to stop at the end right here and ask, what does God want to say to you? Who does God say you are and what does He want you to do with the truth that He is giving you? Just listen, open the eyes of your heart. He gave you an imagination so that you can be in relationship with Him by using it to hear and see things from the Him in the spirit, because He designed you to operate with Him like that.
It's a joy to be able to love on you and speak to you; to bring truth and hope and joy; to share healing and hopefully restoration through this podcast. So thank you for being here with me, and I bless you in the middle of the storm, and in your coming and your going, and I will talk to you soon.
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