All that I have

by Michele Boy | June 13, 2024

Have you ever felt out of sync? The world seems to be moving easier for the people around you. Yet you are a little agitated, confused, and running around like a  chicken with your head cut off?
  That was my week last week. 
  Every tiny thing that could go wrong did. I spent a lot of time searching here and there for lost items. Small things broke down continually leading to bigger things breaking down. 
 I said little prayers that while I was frustrated and frazzled, God kept my family safe.  
  My daughter and I attended a livestock camp this weekend. To say it touches lives is an understatement. 
 Almost every great message I relate to is one that  someone shares their missteps, their fowl ups.  
On Monday morning, the head of the camp spoke in a devotional setting to the group of youth and parents. 
 Every year I hear him speak I am more humbled and blessed. 
 Religion can become so judgmental.  You have to do this, be that, say this. Or worse, don’t do this or that.  
Have you heard the “you aren’t a Christian if you say this or do that?”
 The day Jesus met me on the side of the road, I wasn’t doing any of the things right. 
He taught me, led me, continues to. 
 I felt it on my heart I was in the right place. That my daughter was learning that Jesus shows up when you least expect Him. 
Maybe it is a word you hear that comes back to you later in the day or week? 
Maybe it is the peace that passes understanding?
 What I know is my heart filled up. The irritations that controlled me fled. 
I was back in the rhythm of life again.
I felt like God picked me up and set me back on the path I needed to be on.
  My experiences of falling away from God, failing Him, they all help others. 
 I am so grateful when someone else shares their failings too. 
 My heart fills with compassion, mercy, and the miracles of Jesus’s love.
  And it is a great reminder how God can use you if your heart is open and you are willing to admit your shortcomings. 
 It’s hard though, isn’t it? Sadly there will be people who judge you or who say how you got there wasn’t the “right” way.
 I think that is why more people don’t speak up. 
If you sit in a loving marriage, a happy home, financially stable or more stable than most, how do you see those less fourtunate? How do you see those different from you?
  Do you set impossible rules for them? The bible says, God says.
Hmm. Maybe he did. But it is a living document. God uses where we are today to perform miracles. 
 Are we living in that mentality? Or are we missing them because they don’t match what the bible says?
 I have shared this before but it is on my heart to share again. 
  One miracle I had experienced was a family member who had never given me a dime in his life, handed me over $1,000. He had won big money gambling.
  I never asked for the money. He didn’t know if I needed it or not. 
But God used it. 
Don’t think so? 
  I was young. I hadn’t trusted God yet. 
I felt God say give to the church. 
Give ten percent of your paycheck. 
 It didn’t make any sense to me as I had two dollars left after. 
But I did it anyway. 
When I placed the money in the offering plate, a wave of peace I can’t explain rushed over me. 
 It was a couple days later when I received the money. The money that helped me make my last payment of debt I had been carrying for years.
  I believe God uses all people, all things. How often do you limit God? I think we all do it. 
A famous woman preacher felt the call of God on her life. Many surrounding her said only men are called to preach. So she told her husband maybe it is you He has called. He tried it. He was miserable. 
 Well her answering the call changed my life. I heard things I would never hear from a man. God uses the broken. Thank God. 
“So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah.“
Brandon Lake