GOD KNOWS YOU

Today, for our link up (which I am once again late to), Holley Gerth asked us to write a letter of encouragement to our fellow dreamers. There are 99 people in our group, so I wasn't sure who to pick. Then I started to worry, what if I pick one person and someone else is hurt? What if nobody picks several people? Can you tell I tend toward being a peace maker and people-pleaser? Not to mention, with so many wonderful, gifted women - who could pick just one? So, in the spirit of equality, I'm writing to ALL the dreamers, those women on the God-sized Dream Team and those are aren't on the team but are dreamers none-the-less.

Dear Dreamer,
It's hard to be a dreamer, sometimes. Some days, it even appears impossible. Today, I interviewed a woman who had every reason to let all her dreams go, to give up because it's too hard. She has hydrocephalus which is basically spinal fluid on the brain. In her life, she's had 27 different serious, she-could-die-on-the-table brain surgeries. She is also legally blind.

As I talked to her and she shared the various things she's done in her life - including not only writing and speaking but also becoming a lawyer - she said something that hit me. "I like to focus on the abilities rather than the disabilities - God gave me both. I think He gave me both for a reason. We all have disabilities and I don't believe God gives us things without a plan of how those things, if we follow Him, will bring Him glory."

Maybe you don't struggle with a physical disability like blindness or a chronic disease. Maybe your disability is something much subtler, like a bad temper or chronic disorganization. Maybe, in a world or extroverts, you are painfully shy and see that as a handicap in your life. Get this - God has a plan, not just for your abilities, but the things you consider disabilities or handicaps in your life. He can use it all for His glory, if you let Him.

Later, the same day, I was listening to Beth Moore. I love her - don't you? :) She talked about Psalms 139:14-16,

"I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them."

Moore talked about how God knew you "when I was made in secret." In other words, there was a time when only God knew and delighted over you. Nobody else - not even your mom - knew you even existed yet. I guess the earliest detection is at about 7 days into a pregnancy - and that is with some spiffy tests your average woman doesn't get.

In fact, God knew you BEFORE you were even conceived. Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I framed you in your mother's womb, I knew you."

That means that God knew you would struggle with patience or have a stronghold of fear before you were even formed. He knew if you would struggle with a physical, emotional, mental or spiritual disability. He knew; He planned for it; He can use it to bring Him glory.

What we consider the worst of parts of us can become a beacon of God's love, mercy and grace to a world cloaked in darkness.

So, Dreamer, will you give it all to a God that loves you, that has plans for you - yes, even for those things you consider disabilities in your life?

He is the God who bring beauty from ashes, after all.

~ Blessings, Bronte