Rae's Reads

Lately, I’ve been feeling distant from God. Felt like He’s been silent. Not helping me out as much as He used to. Letting things go by that He used to not. I wondered why that was. I was doing everything right, wasn’t I? I read the Bible daily, I journaled, I prayed (out loud, I might add), I fellowshipped, I tithed, and I was kind to people. What could I be missing?  Well, the answer came to me on a Sunday. What were we doing? The answer might seem obvious to you.  We were worshipping.  What? It was that simple? Yes, It was that simple. Notice I said simple, not easy. The very act of worshipping can be surreal. I poured my heart out to God, I praised Him, I clapped, I jumped, I waved my hands in the air. Guess how long it took to start feeling God’s hand in my life? Well, we sang about four songs, so I’d say about 20-30 minutes. Really? That’s all it took to feel close to God again? Yes, really. Not fasting for 3 days, or secluding myself for a week. 20 minutes of worshi...

One time, somebody got my car into an accident. No big deal, that’s why we have insurance. Only one problem: I couldn’t drive it before it got fixed up again about a week later. Oh, how frustrating that was. I live close enough to my work to walk there. I live close enough to the grocery store to walk there. I live close enough to church to walk there. I live close enough to my best friend’s house to walk there. I live close enough to the gym to walk there. Wait a minute… Okay, I see what God did there. I didn’t need the car for anything, really. I could walk anywhere I needed to go. Now, I can’t deny that I have a newfound appreciation for cars, my license to drive one, and God for giving me the finances to buy one. Wait, I thought we were talking about bad things? Let’s try another, harder one. Your grandma dies. Wait, is that too much? Well, mine did die recently. That certainly qualifies as bad, right? Well, let’s look at the facts. She was a beautiful woman of 91 years (...

  Sometimes, when you think about life, you might say to yourself, ‘Here we go again’, ‘life’s been hitting me hard’, or ‘It is what it is’. You might say, ‘If only I had money’, ‘If only I were skinny’, or ‘If only I found love’. Some of us say these things to ourselves almost daily, and most of us say them multiple times an hour. I disagree with this thinking. Life is meant to be lived, breathed, experienced, enjoyed, purposeful, meaningful, lovely, wondrous, delicate, adventurous, exhilarating, and many more things. Life is a gift from God, and should be treated as such. What do you do if you receive a gift from someone? Do you toss it onto the nearest surface, fully intending to get back to it when you have the chance? Do you open it, then, realizing it’s not what you wanted, shove it aside and hope the giver doesn’t ask what you did with it? Or do you regift it to someone else? Wow. Saying it like that really puts it into perspective how much we care for things that are ...