At this point the world knows I have a 60 pound escape artist of a tortoise! He’s escaped at our home in Texas and he’s escaped at our home in Virginia. The first time he escaped it was completely my fault, I left the gates open! Future escapes have been because he’s strong, or major rain events have caused deterioration to his pen, or something on his pen broke or wore out like this last time. Sometimes it takes us a bit to figure out what we need to fix. As a result he’s now outfitted with a tracker!
There’s always tears and heartache when I lose Franklin. This time was no different. He was gone for 6 days and I cried every one of them. I searched every single day even in the rain knowing the weather was too cool in the evenings for him to go too far or move too much. He was ultimately found less than a half mile from the house by the sweetest girls who were just as elated at having found him an reunited him with us as we were that they found him and he was safe and sound.
I realized while taking steps to ensure we don’t have to go through this heartache again that there was something far more beautiful that has happened each time Frankie has been found.
In our community in Texas and in our community here in Virginia when the trumpet blast was sounded via social media, word of mouth, and text or phone calls, the community sprung into action to help us. When people you don’t know, have never met, and maybe never will, take the time to not only share your post, but to physically go out and walk the neighborhood, to message or comment words of encouragement and let you know they’re praying it ads dimension to the relief of finding Frankie. This is the beauty of community! God created us in His image which includes living in relationship and community together with Him but also with each other.
Finding Frankie in Texas and Virginia has come with its beauty and relief but seeing communities come together to support us in both of those places has been so much more beautiful. Honestly, we were longing for the same type of connection to our new community here in Virginia that we have in Texas. Finding Frankie helped us to see the beauty of this precious community and see with new eyes the joy of connecting to others in it.
I can only imagine what life was like in the early church in Acts chapter 2 as they daily met together and broke bread in their homes and shared their meals and “God added daily to their numbers those who were being saved!” Acts 2:47
Community, connection, unity is important, Paul writes about having the same mind in Philippians 2 loving one another and being united in spirit intent on one purpose. Specifically, he even noted to consider others interests as important as your own.
Our community considered my interests in Finding Frankie. They demonstrated love to us and we are so grateful to be a part of them, but also to see God’s word more clearly as we think about living in community and being united in one spirit intent on furthering the gospel.
This may mean sacrificing my time, my wants, my preferences so that someone else will come to know Jesus as Savior and King. As I reflect on how our community responded in love to help us find Frankie, I also reflect on God’s word and purpose for our lives and the tenacity with which he leaves the 99 to find the one lost (Matt 18 and Luke 15) and hope that we demonstrate that same zeal for sharing the gospel with the lost!
Do you ever have days you just want to make a blanket fort and hide inside it with your coloring books and crayons? My Bestie and I joke about that a lot, although I think if I legit made a blanket fort she’d probably bring the crayons and join me! Recently, it seems there’s been no shortage of trials in our lives. It seems like just when we get through something and start to breathe and think of enjoying a moment the phone rings and BAM another wave of difficulty, or BAM something breaks down, or tragedy strikes, you get the idea.
The other night Shaun and I both woke up at 2am with 1.53 million thoughts running through our heads and couldn’t go back to sleep. He had different stressors than I did, and his brain was trying to prepare how to have difficult but intentional conversations the next day that would help rather than isolate and lead to unity and team building, among 1.52 million other things. I was laying there questioning every decision I’ve made in the last 2 years and reflecting on the will of God and praying about whether I was following Him or me. We are definitely two different people, when Shaun frets with things, he comes up with workable solutions mid fret and lets the Holy Spirit lead him. I tend to initially act like Chicken Little running around screaming that the sky is falling, and then finally manage to yield to the Holy Spirit and let Him comfort and guide me through things. It takes me a minute to capture my thoughts and beat them into submission. Shaun and I talked until 3 that night before we finally managed to drift back to sleep, I fell asleep mid prayer, this happens so much. I saw a cartoon on Facebook posted by a friend today that is the literal picture of what happens to me when I focus on my problems and stressors and when I focus on the problem solver, rather than counting sheep, focus on the Shepherd!
This reminds me of the passage in Matthew 14:22-33 when Peter has the bright idea to walk to Jesus on the water while wind was causing the boat to be buffeted (beaten) by waves, and Jesus tells him to “Come”. Bro was doing fine the whole time he kept his eyes on Jesus but when he started to focus on the wind around him, he started sinking. Literally my life!
On Tuesdays I do a zoom Bible study with a group of ladies from all over, I’m new to the group, this is my first study with them, but they readily embraced me and made me feel like we’ve been doing life together for years. We are studying Revelation which can certainly make you focus on calamity, especially with the wrong perspective! Nancy Guthrie’s accompaniment book “Blessed” has been tremendously helpful in focusing on Jesus throughout all of the confusing and heavy passages. We were discussing interpretations of some of those passages yesterday and discovered it really kind of depends on where you stand eschatologically. Which is a big word that just means study of the end times. I used to be a “pan theologist” meaning Revelation is tough, just trust Jesus and it will all “pan out”, but then I listened to one pastor talk and I decided that I believed that believers would likely have to face the tribulation or at least part of it, this is known as post-tribulation, or mid-tribulation. Then I listened to another teacher who I affectionally call Professor, because he’s literally one of the smartest most humble people on this planet! Anyhow, after his class I decided I was a pre-tribulation believer. Then I went to seminary and just became more confused, I think! There are still even more viewpoints of the end times because technically those labels are just in regard to a specific event in the Bible concerning the end times. Check out this simple chart and then I’ll try not to confuse myself anymore and know that there are still scholars studying and debating and they don’t even have it all figure out yet.
So, when I say pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, I’m also stating what I believe inside one of the above categories. The trib refers to the great tribulation and the pre, post, or mid refer to the timing of all believers (the church) being raptured (gathering together of believers in clouds with Jesus and taken from Earth) 1Thessalonians 4:13-18. See why pan-theology is starting to sound nice right about now! How you view these will be impacted by your Covenant Theology (your study and belief of God’s Covenants). Cue Raychel beginning to run around like Chicken Little! Truthfully, I really have and do sort all of this out by reading Scripture and allowing it to inform and instruct me, I just do it like one would eat an elephant…one small bite at a time…Not that I encourage the eating of elephants or would eat one, it’s just a colloquial saying about doing something that seems impossible!
As we discussed a touch of this in our study our leader reminded us that the whole purpose of Nancy’s study was more of a zoomed-out view of Revelation, rather than trying to nail down every single answer to every single thing we are trying to understand (which isn’t possible), to look at it through the perspective of what it reveals about Jesus and how that impacts how we are exhorted to live our lives as it unfolds.Literally, focus on the Shepherd!We were reminded too, that what we believe about how the end times will specifically play out does not affect our salvation or the commission we all have to go and make disciples. Two believers can believe the end times and the rapture will occur differently and because they have trusted Jesus for their wage of death for their sin through His death burial and resurrection on the cross, (repentance and faith), they’ll still end up in the same place at the end! We don’t have to have all the answers, that’s not faith, and we aren’t God, that doesn’t mean we don’t study, the Bible literally tells us to do that in 2Timothy 2:15.
As we wrapped up our study and shared with each other some of the things we each have going on in our lives, I began to have the thought that adulting seems unnecessarily hard sometimes. But we could look to James chapter one and know that these trials are purposeful, and they produce perseverance which leads to maturity. Trials mean He’s still working on me and are actually a comfort because I know that I am in Him and He’s working on me (Phil 1:6), granted, some of my trials are a result of my own stupid or poor decisions, but I still learn something and grow! All of this to say that life does seem really tough sometimes, and when I focus on how hard and difficult things can be, when I focus on the problems, I get depressed and, in the dumps, and feel like it’s all unnecessary, definitely thoughts I need to Untether from. But when I tether myself to Jesus and force my eyes to look at Him and His Word, I find verses like John 16:33 and I have peace and hope in Him!
If this encouraged you at all, please consider liking, commenting, and or sharing with someone else to encourage them!
Raychel Writes 