I'm still living the good life in CO, so my friend Holly is guest posting today.  She's a pastors wife and was also some of my kids preschool teacher.  She was so sweet with them, and helped them learn and love Jesus more!  She's posting today about something that's so convicting for me.  Enjoy her words!

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There is so much I have to do today.  I have to clean the house for bible study tonight.  Vacuum … mop … sweep … bathrooms … dust … I’ve got to get everyone ready … do breakfast … intervene fights … take care of the dog … welcome play date guests … intervene play date fights.  Oh, our guests will be here in two days and the guest room/playroom is a mess. I’ve got to finish moving my stuff into there and move all of Tucker’s stuff into his new room.  I’ve got to get groceries this afternoon … in the heat of the day … with tired children.  There’s so much to do.  I feel the tension rising.

I feel it in my neck.  The tension creeps up.  My neck and shoulders are tightening.  The kids are bickering.  I can’t get it all done.  I just feel a mess this morning.  Just a mess.  Not just organizationally, but I’m off with the kids … that’s a mess this morning.  I’m off spiritually.  I like to sit and read and pray every morning and that hasn’t happened this week like I’ve wanted it to. .  Jesus meet me in my mess!!!  Help!  I feel like I’m drowning here!

I finally give in and break down and throw out these prayers to heaven hoping they connect …

Jesus, I want you to meet me here.  Be here with me.  Come and take it all and make it right.  Make the house clean; make the errands be done; make the kids stop fighting; make it all go away and be done!

 Y’all … this really happened a few days ago.  I’d been just sitting in this place of ‘God where are you? What are you doing here in my crazy every day mess?!  Why aren’t you coming to make it all go away!? ‘ But then I realized something …

He IS in my mess.  He’s here.  He’s always here.  In the book of Matthew, Jesus is risen and speaking to His disciples and gives them specific commands for when He’s gone, along with some comforting truth.  Here is what He says:

 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20 (bold added)

 So I really don’t need to plead for God to be with me in what I’m going through.  He is already here. He knows what I’m going through.  He actually is allowing a little bit of crazy in my day so that I might lift my eyes and heart to Him and be drawn back to Him in the midst of the crazy.

Realizing this has been life changing for me.  God is always with us.  Jesus is ALWAYS there to meet our every need.  His death, burial and resurrection were given to us so that we might secure our eternal whereabouts, but also so that He might meet our every need here on earth.

 How do you reconnect to God during the crazy?

 I’ve found that once I recognize I’m in the midst of something overwhelming – whether emotionally, spiritually or just circumstantially – then I need to stop.  Just stop.  Stop and pray, acknowledging to Jesus that I’m in over my head and that I need Him to help me right here, right now.  I get really specific about what I’d like for Him to do in the moment and then I just surrender it all to Him and His will, knowing that He is going to do a far better job taking care of me than I ever will. This always comforts me in those moments:

 “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11

 So I challenge you today to acknowledge the crazy that’s around you.  Take it to Jesus in prayer and allow Him to work it out through you.  Sit in the comfort and peace that His plans for you are full of welfare, future and hope.  I’ll be doing that with you today … let me know, below, how it goes.

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Holly Dennis is married to Michael Dennis and they have two kids, Kennedy & Tucker.  Church Planting brought them to Austin 7 years ago and they started North Village Church almost 4 years ago.  Holly loves good food, including a good burger and fries and exploring Austin with her family.