THE BEAUTY OF LIVING ROOM

My first meeting of leading Living Room during this season of my life will be happening early next month.

Yesterday, I met with the chaplain from the community where I’ll be volunteering. I felt I needed to warn him that I’m not the person I used to be—the person who had pioneered mental health awareness in the church, the person who had founded a faith-based support group called Living Room.

I pointed out the severe tremors that he had already noticed. I mentioned the hard times I’d experienced, leading to frequent bouts of anxiety. I could see the disappointment on his face. Maybe this leader that he was expecting was not as strong as he had hoped she would be.

And yes, driving home even I wondered and worried a bit. Yet I knew that God would be in this work. He always was before, and God doesn’t change.

God was with me throughout the night as I pondered these things. He led me to the words of the apostle Paul when he wrote about what God had told him about the “thorn” in his flesh: “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”

Later I was able to email the chaplain, saying:

“Yes, I am a broken person. I will share some of that with the group. And they will be encouraged to share some of their brokenness, because we are all broken in one way or another. But it’s from such a place that we will be most desiring Jesus and reaching out to him.

“One purpose of the group is to come together and share where we’re at. We will see that we’re not alone. We have each other and we have Jesus.”

I’m looking forward to our first meeting.

God is good.

marja