HOPE & HEALING IN THE HOLIDAYS

If you are just now joining us, I encourage you to start at the earlier posts (links are included in the box below) to build the foundation for the thoughts I share here.

1. Looking at the BIG moments that Change Your Life
2. What Happens When a Moment Changes Your Life?
3. Hope & Healing in the Holidays
4. Have you noticed what you need this holiday?
5. Say It Like It Really Is
6. Little Words that Will Make a Big Change

I started this series with a post about looking at the BIG moments that Change your Life.  What is marvelous, as you finish reading Psalm 77,  once again we are reminded of tha RED SEA moment.  (Check out the #1 post listed above if you need a reminder about the Red Sea. Or read the book of Exodus.  Fascinating telling of history. )

After Asaph, the writer of Psalm 77, chooses his response by

• noticing his need (post 4)
• expressing his emotions (post 5)
• and pivoting his perspective  (post 6)
• He sees God!  O God! (also post 6)

Then he gives an example of an O GOD moment, one that would be familiar to his audience.

When the Red Sea saw you!

The Psalmist once again is reminding the reader of that big God moment when the children of Israel stood between death – and death; between the RED SEA and the Egyptian army. A moment when they couldn’t imagine a way out.  They couldn’t begin to fathom how God could intervene.

And then He does.

16 When the Red Sea saw you, O God,
its waters looked and trembled!
The sea quaked to its very depths.
17 The clouds poured down rain;
the thunder rumbled in the sky.
Your arrows of lightning flashed.
18 Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;
the lightning lit up the world!
The earth trembled and shook.

When the Red Sea saw you O GOD…

19 Your road led through the sea,
your pathway through the mighty waters—
a pathway no one knew was there!

20 You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,
with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

Here it is once more –  THAT moment that the children of Israel tell again and again and again; down through the generations- through out the history-through out the psalms. Even today!

That moment when the Red Sea saw God and gave them a pathway no one knew was there.

That’s a story of seeing God

do something so incredible,

Leading them on a path they couldn’t even imagine before

Until they TURNED and SAW GOD.

Wow!  What is your RED SEA moment in your story?

Your moment of loss can be a Red Sea Moment for you.
Leisha’s death is a Red Sea Moment for me.

You are here- having experienced loss-
and being threatened by the terror of grief.

We can stay here- between death and death.

I know plenty of people that do.

Some of us want to because it’s the last place we were close

to our loved one who died
to the marriage we loved
To the health we knew
To the dream we held dear.

It is so sad, but the closest thing we have is the death of it.
We can stay there. We have that choice. 

But what if instead of staying at the death, we choose to respond by

• Noticing our need
• Expressing our emotions- honestly
• Pivoting our perspective
• And seeing God- O God

Different  *  Bigger  *  Beyond anything we have ever imagined

What if we could tell a story of that kind of hope? Click To Tweet

What if we could share the moment when we saw God.  When He showed us a path through our grief we never imagined was there.

I share my journey through the grief tunnel in my book, Lovely Traces of Hope.   You can read my RED SEA story in  chapter 15  by requesting it here.

EXCUSES: 

But I often hear people say things like

• ‘no- God’s not showing up for me like that’.

Are you watching for him?  Are you looking?

Or maybe you are saying

• I don’t think God really works like that anymore.
• Or he just doesn’t work like that for me.

Why wouldn’t he?

In this advent season, we are reminded that He sent His Son to earth as a baby so that we would identify with Him.  He allowed his son die on a cross- for me and for you!

God experienced loss – for you.

He loves you!

This holiday you can have hope because God is very much aware of the death to death places you face.  When you see God, he is at work in your life.  It doesn’t always look like you think it will, but He’s at work.

He provides a path no one knew was there.  

What if instead of focusing on our loss this holiday, you focus on the one thing you can control- your response through the grief.

Where are you in your response to open your hands?

N.E.P. or O.

I’d love to hear from you! How would you complete the sentence below.

When I saw God _____________________________

Leave a comment below- or please email me at kathy@greenhopecoaching.com.