Comfort from my Own Mouth

I chatted with one of my friends today. Like a Spring bouquet, she rainbows color and sports many nicknames, Captain and Princess among them. She creates a delicious, tangy tension in my life like sweet and sour shrimp. She’s got attitude  aplenty and I am never certain if she is going to spank me with accountability or give me a hug.  And that’s just one of the reasons I love her.

As we swapped sass, she challenged me to claim a scripture to which I had just alluded as a verse over my life on this coast of change like a lease on the house in a dead market:

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, (Philippians, 4:13).

Sounds just like Paul, doesn’t it?

Talk about a guy you never know is going to slap you up side the attitude or give you a hug!  He and Captain are two peas in a pod!

Paul calls the church to Faith over and over in scripture. Like a General, he’s got pristine standards of conduct for his troops too. However, he is simultaneously Gentle and always remembers who paid to make him free.

In this verse, Paul claims victory through the strength of Christ.

Moreover, he asserts that he can “do all things,” through the robust, living vitality of Jesus. Who better than Paul can tell me that any trial, duty, temptation or condition is bearable?

He’s got quite a vitae that one.

His words echo without an ounce of vanity, reckless self-reliance or pride. His biography warrants him experience and he knows that he knows his source of strength.

I too can do all things through Christ Jesus.

Like Paul and you, I have complete championship through Jesus who is my strength and redeemer.

I stake this claim with an admission.

Every minute here is not bathed in sun and charged with amusement park joy and funnel cakes.

There are many tears.

Tides of grief
rotate shores.

Valleys of boxes,
panic attacks,
and uncertainty so visceral
that I sleep
badly
with a paper bag
under my pillow.

There is also Jesus.

Jesus is one colossal PEACE ATTACK!

Yesterday,
Today,
And Tomorrow.

This, however, is not a handkerchief place.

This space offers another altar from which I may Praise His Holy Name.

And I can do all things through the strength of Christ Jesus even when I when I weep, grieve, hold a sobbing child, attack boxes or wipe just as a nursing Mamma multi-tasks!

Postpartum blur and memory issues aside, I know that you remember how many things you could do as you nursed like a human octopus with nipples.

That said, like many adult children, I still call home.

Because home is a handkerchief  place.

When I called home yesterday,  Nana told me a story about a treasure she had found in her dresser that very day.

She had saved an email that I had written to her during a time of challenge and transition.

She soothed,  “What better than words from your own mouth to comfort you today?”

See how strong is my Champion Jesus?

I can do all things through my kind-hearted Brother who strengthens me so WELL with infinite buckets of living water.

I can do this.

My children can do this.

It’s a good plan, not an easy, but a good.

I Trust Him.

Well there was a time when you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show that to me do you?
And remember when I moved in you?
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah!