UNTIL NOTHING'S LEFT
 We imagine life to be some sort of obstacle course. You get pass certain places and gain certain things and you feel accomplished... and in a way it’s like that. The thing about an obstacle course is the key word—OBSTACLE. There is no avoiding them. But... We do our best to avoid the obstacles with hope that we will still get the prizes. I’ve learned a lot over the past months to a year... The obstacles though i don’t welcome them and i know NO ONE does BUT they are the only things that get us our greatest prize. We look at earthly things as rewards and although they are AMAZING don’t get me wrong AT all... i love the blessings i have been given. Earthly things are ONLY temporary. They will pass away. We have to see the bigger picture. The bigger picture always being Jesus... living in eternity with him. Appreciating our earthly gifts. Showing Christ in all we do and adoring him with all we have. Our lives as Christians are not meant to be without issues. QUITE THE CONTRARY. This walk means obstacles... suffering... hurt... all the stuff that we try to avoid. Our greatest prize comes with these things though. Our issues produce character. They give us great perspective. “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5 ESV Want the true fullness of life... ENDURE THE UNIMAGINABLE. No one imagines miscarriage, divorce, a child’s death, job loss, never finding love... Those are considered the unimaginable. Those instances give us CHARACTER. Y’all... don’t think i am just around here welcoming all the problems BUT i am learning to embrace the bad... how can i make the most out of it. How can it draw me closer to my savior. The unimaginable is not ever really fun BUT YOU CANT IMAGINE HOW IT PAYS OFF IN THE END. Let’s make the choice to learn to deal with the unimaginable. With the help of our savior... of Course. Don’t live a life running away from obstacles because you think it will make life better... avoiding situations only makes you live in a state of denial and quite frankly it makes you FAKE. Whenever the obstacles arise... find God in them. Learn to let him help you deal with the unimaginable. Be ENCOURAGED. Until Nothing’s Left, Brittany.
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 The Chase...
One thing i don’t understand is why God constantly pursues me and i am so not worthy... My heart gets overwhelmed when i think about how i am just nothing. I am absolutely nothing and God sees me as the most beautiful thing on this earth. My heart is overwhelmed with gratefulness and conviction all at once. The more i learn about the God that i have known pretty much my whole life i understand more how blessed i am to be pursues by him. When you are dating your partner chases after you but eventually that fades or it waxes and wanes throughout the relationship- You get comfortable. You get complacent. God NEVER gets comfortable with where you are... there is always another level to go to IN HIM! That’s where i have fallen short. I thought getting married and having a child and being a nurse checked all my “what i want in life” boxes until i realized that if He isn’t the TRUE foundation he will uproot and make his way in. We call ourselves believers and we say we have faith BUT as soon as we get a hiccup, we trip. We get mad at God and think “how dare he allow this”... This was/ is me. I struggled with it bad months ago... i stayed bitter and mad. One day i was so angry and a person who i am very close to was listening to me vent and she said “who do you think you are that you can’t go through anything” and it knocked me off my feet. Another instance i heard something similar- as Christians we are fed so much prosperity gospel that we forget why the true meaning of being a follower of Christ is— WE SUFFER for the cause. We take up our cross. Taking up a cross isn’t pretty. We literally suffer daily. The concept of do this and that right and God will bless you... that’s really cute until... you start struggling and you think BUT didn’t i do everything right. HOW MANY TIMES MUST God tell us “works” mean NOTHING to Him. There is NOTHING we can do to make him do more for us and love us more. I have been learning so much more recently during this time of isolation and “silence”... who God is and why things happen. I am learning that anything i go through is not just for me. Somebody else will benefit from my life lesson. Why would i try and rush something that could eventually set my great great granddaughter free. God doesn’t want my works- he wants my heart. He chases after my heart. He wants me to seek him like i sought after that man to be my husband or that degree to be a nurse. AND EVEN WHEN I DON’T take that approach he still chases me... until i run back to him. We don’t deserve God’s goodness. We don’t deserve for him to pursue us. If i have rambled on in this blog and you wonder what’s the point— get this- GOD IS BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU COULD IMAGINE IN YOUR WILDEST DREAM. He is bigger than the best thing ever. When you think you’ve arrived- he’s better. When you think you no longer need him— you need him the most. Don’t let him just chase you... chase Him. Run after him. Find him in all the things. It won’t make for flawless life but i promise it will make EVERYTHING else so much more worth it. I’m no where near perfect. But i am learning. Learning is not easy. Trust me. But it’s necessary. Until Nothing’s Left. Brittany Worship Song: Refiner- Maverick City “holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” Philippians 2:16 ESV “and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;” 1 Corinthians 4:12 ESV “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,” 2 Timothy 1:9 ESV “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,” 2 Corinthians 3:5 ESV  Most little ones love bandaids. I know i did when i was younger. The bandaid fixed any ailment. The scrapped knee. The tummy ache. Everything. I’m sure many of you were like me, too. I recently learned through my own child that bandaids don’t always help. Sometimes they bring on more pain. I put a bandaid on my baby’s foot and few minutes later he was crying. I asked what was wrong and he proceeded to snatch the bandaid off- which reopened the small wound... the bandaid was too tight and just making the situation worse. Life’s like that. We get into some issue and we use a bandaid to cover it up. Notice i didn’t say we use a bandaid heal it. Bandaids are only used to make a wound be less exposed. More pleasing to the eye. As a nurse i have seen some HORRIBLE wounds. But i have never seen i simple bandaid heal them. I have seen a bandaid with something added to it aid in healing. I have also seen stitches used to hold the wound together. I have seen things used to clean the wound out to make a clean area BUT none of these heal. They just assist. Healing takes place over time and it starts with an inside change. Some fully healed Wounds leave scars. Those scars are reminders. Some people can look at their scars and say i will NEVER ride another motorcycle. Others can say i will never touch a hot stove. Some wounds don’t leave a scar... sometimes the circumstance wasn’t worth remembering. (Take that how you may). When we settle for “bandaid healing” we settle for quick. We skip pass the intricacies that need to take place to slowly remind us to never do whatever it was we did again. We want our situation/ mistake/ flaw to just be covered up and made pretty BUT not healed. When we take this approach we only risk a longer healing duration or an infection. Both of which can lead to bad outcomes. We rather look good on the outside and slowly die within. Re-injury can occur. In this case- healing begins again and a new route for healing takes place giving the scar a different look and causing new pain. In life when this happens- We are reminded to step back and reevaluate. We are given a different perspective of how to approach the situation. As i mentioned earlier sometimes wounds need a little help healing. When this is the case stitches are placed. Stitches hold the sides of the wound together. They aid in healing. Stitches may be needed because the wound is so jagged that it can’t come back together on it’s own. Sometimes our emotional and mental wounds need stitches because our thoughts are so jagged. We can’t seem to find what’s wrong or right, real or fake. The use of Scripture, prayer and people of God aid us. The assistance used to pull us together. Stitches add another layer to a scar. A reminder that we couldn’t do it on our own BUT God provided what we needed. Using a bandaid only covers up. It never fixes the root issue. Until everything that is restricting healing is uprooted and thoroughly cleaned out the proper healing cannot take place. All foreign substances and debris. The negative thoughts and defeating mindsets must go! Healing can be uncomfortable. Wounds that heal from the inside out cause itching. It’s a natural thing. Irritation of this sort is sometimes unbearable and the only thing we feel that can help us is scratching. This only adds to the problem. Scratching or should i say bringing up the past. Listening to that song. Calling that person. In this case in the medical field a doctor will prescribe an antipruritic (or anti itching med) to ease the irritation. In the spiritual realm Our irritations present as worry and anxiety and our antipruritics are prayer and scripture... Burning or pain can sometimes reoccur in the healing process. These can be Slight reminders of what happened and what we don’t want to go back into. Healing is a process. The ONLY TRUE healer is Jesus. EVERYTHING ELSE JUST HELPS. When we see how people have healed we rejoice with them. They can give advice and encourage anyone else going through a similar situation. Everything seems so nice in the end. But no one talks about the process. We cover it up. We are ashamed. We put bandaids of makeup and nice STUFF over it. We hide it. Sometimes it takes people SEEING how we endured to get the best picture. Just seeing the end results is misleading. Then everyone is just living for their end result. They don’t want to hurt or endure. We must go through things. We must stop using the bandaids of STUFF to cover up our stories. The bandaids of stuff to make our testimonies pretty. Stop using bandaids to cover up what can heal you and others. Embarrassing, maybe. Hard, yes. Necessary, ABSOLUTELY. Until Nothing’s Left. Brittany Scripture of encouragement: “He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.” 2 Corinthians 1:4 TPT Song of Encouragement: Desert Song- Hillsong |
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