Sweetly Scattered

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've braved the blogosphere.  In this world where I've tried to back away from oversharing, cut back on the social media, and live life face to face, I feel the conflicting urge to empty my heart of the jumbled noise running through my head--the need to see it transform into something meaningful with each stroke of a key.  It's a need that's mostly for me, as I know my thoughts become more clear as I see them in front of me.  But there's also a little whisper in my soul that tells me that as God speaks to me, He might also be speaking to someone else.  So while I know that this blog won't make me famous, or even have more than a handful of followers, I feel led to stretch my comfort zone just a little and see where God leads.

This is different from the other blogs I've had.  My purpose is simple:  Be real.  I won't go to the trouble of having a perfectly monogrammed and polka-dotted custom page design.  Because I don't have a perfectly put together life.  I sit at this moment in my bed, typing on a 10-year-old laptop that has to stay plugged in because the battery exploded about 5 years ago, looking at a playpen that is now used for a clothes draping device, and sneezing because of the dust that covers the furniture.  And I can look at it all and chant my new mantra "It's a beautiful mess."  All these things are results of blessings, and I am learning to soak it up.

As I was thinking and searching for the perfect name for a new blog, I wanted to reflect 2 Corinthians 12:9  But he [Jesus] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."  As I thought about my weaknesses, I was reminded of the song "Sweetly Broken." I visualized brokenness as a vase broken and scattered.  And then I realized that scattered was the perfect way to describe myself.  Sometimes I feel like I'm pulled in every direction, a thousand little pieces that are suppose to be together.  And that's where the "sweetly" comes in.  If I was able to keep it together, what need would I have for grace?  Galatians 2:21 "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law [my own effort] , Christ died for nothing." 

I'm here to boast about my weaknesses, because when I am weak, He is definitely strong.  I pray that by being open about the thorns in my flesh, others may see how God's power has rested on me.  And I pray that by letting you see how scattered I am, you can be encouraged when you aren't so perfectly put together.