Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life. Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home. Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways. Unbutton my lips, dear God; I’ll let loose with your praise. (Psalm 51:7-15 MSG)
Sometimes heading into the holiday season can be overwhelming. Today, I am asking our Holy Savior to put a wind in my sails to praise Him continually throughout this sacred Birthday season of my Lord.
Not trying to have it all planned out! Not expecting to have the best decorations or gift giving ideas. Just loving Jesus and those he has put into my life to love.
Simplifying as I soak in His Presence.
The reason I simplify is because I know where I was one year ago. This journey has taught me so much.
One year ago, we were finishing up a long hard journey. One of the toughest I have walked.
My husband’s cancer.
Now one year later, I am in awe and amazement as I see the hand of God and where He brought us and what He has taught us.
How our Lord’s miracle working power is still alive. He goes before us and carries us through those toughest times when we choose to look into His face. Learning to focus on His Presence instead of the answer.
The above scripture in Psalms spoke volumes to me recently. Here were some take aways:
* Being soaked in the laundry of God has its advantages and disadvantages. The end result is being washed clean.
* Sometimes starting a Genesis week out of the chaos of our life is sometimes all we need.
* Seeing things from a new perspective…the Creator’s perspective.
* Learning to breathe in His forgiveness and love is part of the healing power of the name of Jesus.
* When we feel we are in exile and lost to the sight of God, He puts a fresh wind in our sails.
* He is using every moment of ours to teach others about seeing who our God really is.
* It is Him that wants to unbutton our lips so that we can let loose with Praise and make His Glory known.
I am glad to say that we are walking in His Presence today as we journey back to MD Anderson to have Kevin’s yearly check up with the physicians. I am confident that God has healed Kevin. I see the Glory of God’s Presence in the healing that He has brought to our family.
The hard part of visiting, is the smells, the sights of the walls, chairs in the waiting rooms, and even the airport that we travel in and out of. Those things bring back thoughts, feelings and the hard places that taught me so much. Remembering is so fresh and vivid with reality of the brevity of life.
I thank God for all those loved ones new and old that He has brought our way as we have journeyed through cancer. Oh, the life lessons our Jesus has taught us.
I am on my knees today thanking Him for his healing, mercy and grace for this journey. As I have been reflecting this week of where we were one year ago, I heard this song and again…it spoke volumes to my soul as I sang it out LOUD!
Our faith is sealed…
Our hope is real…
Come what may…we are not afraid.
I hope it brings encouragement to someone else out there that might be walking through the tough spots of the laundry process. You will come out clean when you go through God’s washing machine!
Strong Tower 
Love you! Rejoicing in the healing that Father God blessed Kevin and your family with!
Amy….How I appreciate your sharing yours and Kevin’s journery. My prayers continue for you and your family. God has certainly guided my steps this past year and I am enjoying Christmas in a whole new way. Would you please share the name of the song that you included those three lines. I think it will be most shareworthy with my small group and friends that are struggling with grief and health issues. Thank you for sharing the moments of your life. I know Who your God is.
Amy, I do love the sentence ‘focusing on His Presence instead of the answer’. The heart that has been refined understands this, it is not something we casually grasp with our natural minds. I thank God for the complete work of healing He has wrought in Kevin and praise Him for the depth of intimacy He has brought about in you. Thank you for sharing how God has been keeping you.