Yesterday, I spent a full day in the yard. Edging. Mowing. Pressure Washing. Mulching. I was sweaty, dirty, and stinky.

Even in the midst of that “status,” I had some powerful takeaways as I worked.

When you look at the pictures, you see a fence that is part renewed and part weathered. Then you see a picture of me with my hair, face, and legs coated in muck. All of that came from the fence. As I used the pressure washer to strip away and uncover, all that was on there had to go SOMEWHERE. It was ON me. I thought of 2 Corinthians 5:21 – Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin….TOOK IT ON HIM….that we might become the righteousness of God. I saw that yesterday. I’m so thankful for Him!

But part two is this: there was nothing wrong with the “left side” of that fence. It was just weathered – and it needed to be uncovered. As I went line by line until it was finished, I just saw things in our lives being stripped away that have hidden what He created us to be. Weathering doesn’t happen because we did something bad or ran away from Him – it just happens as we are exposed to the elements of life. We weather seasons that are hard – raising kids, navigating relational issues, financial hardships, work stress, health concerns and more. Most of the time, we may not even realize how much it has impacted us.

I saw a picture of me on that fence. As I pressure washed those boards, I could hear Holy Spirit speaking to me: “Jackie, it’s time for some things to be uncovered and brought back to life. You’ve weathered some hard days, months and years – and they’ve weathered you. But trust me as I strip that away and uncover who I’ve created you to be.”

While we don’t always appreciate the hard seasons while we are in them, they give us perspective to see them WHEN we get to the other side.

I’ve got joy again.
I have promptings to write again.
I’m taking care of my physical body again.

Praying that you, too, will experience an uncovering. Trust him with the weathering process…..and get ready to see beauty from ashes as He strips it away.

❤️

I love music. All kinds! Pair that up with mowing the grass and you just might get a post. 🤪 Here goes!

As I was mowing the grass this morning, my playlist brought up the song “Grateful” by Official Hezekiah Walker. There is something special about a Gospel choir. One voice is beautiful. But when all the parts come in together? POWER. 💥

As I mowed, that four (or ten, it seemed) part harmony kicked in. In the middle of a humid and hot Alabama morning, I got chills all over my body.

Isn’t harmony beautiful?

If you don’t really get it, just think of the opposite. I learned from the best choir teacher, Carol Baggett, at Westlawn Middle School. I can remember the alto part of “Blue Jeans.” (Any of my Westlawn choir friends out there?) You may not notice the beauty of the harmony until you have just that one voice that gets off key. (To be fair, I’ve been that person before. 😬) Then, no matter how pretty the other music is…..you can only zone in on the one off-key voice.

One.

That’s all it takes.

Maybe you’ve never been a part of a choir and music doesn’t move you like that, but you know what disharmony feels like in your home. In your workplace. In your friendships. It’s hard and it’s yucky and, left unaddressed, will invite other “choir members” to join the off key song.

How’s your harmony, my friends?
How is it at home?
With your spouse?
With your kids?
With your co-workers?
With your friends?
With your neighbors?
With your church members?

Harmony is powerful.
It’s beautiful.
It moves and inspires.

Your voice is needed in the choir. Is there any place where you’re off key?

Time to get back to mowing, so thanks for reading today. Keep singing!

#BetterTogether

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted a “lessons from the lawn” type post. I’ll have a heavy hitter coming in just a minute, but I want you to know that every post is written AFTER Holy Spirit speaks to me. Sometimes, it’s a gentle whisper; sometimes, it’s a warning; sometimes, it’s correction. Please know I write from a heart that is growing and processing and digging deeper in my faith. I often mess up. I regularly “fall short.” Yet I’m so, so grateful that I still hear His voice. I hope this will speak to you, too.

PRUNING.

Yesterday, I shared a post from Richard De La Mora regarding pruning. One of the IG slides said, “God is pruning things out of your life because He’s preparing you for greater.”

Put a pin there. We will be back.

It’s been a rainy summer in Alabama.
We are thankful we haven’t had to spend money on watering the grass and shrubs, but it also means the grass and the shrubs are growing exponentially fast and need attention more often. I’ve been busy and I’ve been tired. So, the shrubs have not been tended to. The first two pictures you see are real life photos from earlier this afternoon. (For those of you who know me, you know I like a well-manicured lawn and this is not my “norm.”) However, I just couldn’t find (or just couldn’t make) the time to prune the shrubs.

Until today.

I listened to a Darius Daniels sermon last week and he made a comment that stuck with me: “Many of us are growing in discipline, but we are not growing in discipleship. We’ve put structures and boundaries in our lives – disciplines, per se – because we are dealing with a consequence of something. But discipline is not discipleship.”

As I pulled out the trimmers to attack those shrubs today, it’s was as if I could hear the shrubs crying out, “Don’t trim too much! This is going to hurt! You might prevent further growth!” Interestingly, I was only trimming the surface. The deep parts of the shrubs – the root system, the underneath, the health and life of the plants – wasn’t telling me to stop. In fact, when the pruning was done, it was very apparent that other parts of the plants – previously overshadowed by the surface level growth – were evident and healthy and ready to produce again.

John 15:1-2 says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
‭‭
Now, back to that pin.

Have you given access to Jesus to do some pruning in your life? Maybe you’ve got shoots going off this way and that way and it LOOKS like growth. But will you acknowledge that it’s the root system – the underneath – the actual health of your relationship with Him – that will sustain you, grow you, and grow others in return?

Back to Richard’s quote.

The Lord does not prune us to hurt us. He does not prune us to hold us back. He prunes us so that we don’t get enamored by shallow fruit and find ourselves empty because our root system is depleted.

THAT is the greater.
It’s not more fame.
It’s not more money.
It’s not more titles.
It’s not more accolades.
It’s HIM.

He must become greater; I must become less.

Lord, we give you the pruning shears today. Cut away the shallow. Expose the root system. And take us to greater levels of intimacy with You.

In Jesus’ Name – Amen!

Merriam Webster defines the word SEARCH as “to look at as if to discover or penetrate intention or nature.”

This morning, CJ taught us through Psalm 139:23-24. The very first words? “Search me, O God.”

In Psalm 139:1, David stated, “You searched me and You know me….” So why the need to search again?

Have you ever searched for something? Maybe an important document? Maybe your keys? Maybe an article of clothing that has gone MIA? It’s likely that you searched in one place. And another. And another. And you’ll search everywhere until you find said item.

It’s THAT kind of searching David was inviting God to do. Search here. Search there. Search completely. And if You find anything that doesn’t belong….that offends You, God….I give You permission to point it out.

No one knows our heart like our God. We can make the outside look really, really good….but our heart may be bruised, bitter, hard, and bleeding on the inside.

Search ME, O God. (Not THEM.)
Test ME.
See ME.
Lead ME.

Today is a great day to grant permission for the search. He can heal what we stop explaining. He can remove what we stop controlling.

SEARCH. 👀 🔍 🔦

Vulnerable post. Hang with me.

This morning, I kept having the word “refine” come across my mind. I heard it in a song. I saw a picture in my mind.

I know a lot of people who have felt like they’re in a refining process because of things they are walking through relationally, physically, emotionally, professionally, financially and Spiritually. I can identify in many ways.

So, I did a little research.

Refining happens in stages. I’ll specifically speak to the refining process of gold.

In the first stage of refining, the big debris is removed first.

In the second stage, cloudiness is then filtered out.

In the third stage, dissolved substances are separated chemically.

In the fourth and final stage, the microscopic contaminants are removed, a process called “ultra-purification.”

One statement about this process literally leapt off the page at me: “Refining precious metals (like gold, silver, and platinum) is essentially about progressively removing impurities based on how reactive or stable they are.” Just pause and soak that statement in for a moment.

Now, let’s turn this process to ourselves….to our hearts.

The first stage, removing “big debris,” is what’s easiest to identify (because it’s so evident) and attempt to remove.
What is that for you?
One of mine would be people pleasing (also known as Fear of Man).

The second stage, filtering out the cloudiness, becomes a little bit harder. The heat has to get a little bit hotter….because this one may not be as easy as the big debris to spot.
What is that for you?
One of mine would be responding to situations and people because of past – and unhealed – hurts/offenses.

The third stage, things that have been dissolved have to be separated chemically. Think about sugar dissolving in coffee or tea. When it dissolves, it becomes a part of whatever substance it’s in. Hard to see. Hard to break up.
What is that for you?
One of mine would be unhealthy – and often untrue – patterns of thought, especially about myself. You can’t see them – but they’ve made their way into being a part of me.

The last level is called ultra-purification and is the hardest level to accomplish. The description of this level absolutely blew my mind. This level is the hardest because “The less reactive a metal is, the harder it is to remove.”
These are the things that are deep, deep, deep.
I’ll leave that there.

Now, in the hands of Jesus, refining can take on a whole different approach. Back to that last level of ultra-purification. These are the hardest things to remove because they “look the most like what the target is.”

Lord, would You give us the courage to let You refine us? To remove the big debris. Then the cloudiness. Then the dissolved things. Then any other thing…..so that, through the process, our ultra-purification actually reveals that we look the most like You?

Selah.

“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭7‬ NLT‬‬