What a Weekend

I have spent the weekend in Louisville, Kentucky at a conference I had never heard of before, called "Women of Joy" (go to womenofjoy.org for more information). 

I had an amazing time.  It was interesting because I had to keep shutting down my brain.  Sounds like the wrong thing, but being involved in ministry sometimes means you take in everything you see and hear and try to apply it.  Immediately.  Like, "ooo we could do that kind of lighting at church!  I need to take pictures and take them back to show the staff.  And oh!  We could do that billowy fabric, and . . . what did she say?  I wasn't paying attention."

So I spent the weekend trying to just absorb, while shutting off the worker bee in me.  Because I gotta be honest, I needed to hear what these women had to say.  Let me tell you about this conference.

Friday night the speaker was Sarah Palin.  Yup, the Sarah Palin.  Now, I'm an unapologetic conservative, and I'll tell you all about that anytime!  ;0)  My big issue is life, and as a mother of a Down's Syndrome baby, and the mother of a teenage mother, Mrs. Palin had a lot to share on this issue.  (If you want to know what else I think about her after seeing her, you'll have to ask me.  Not gonna share it here.  lol)

Saturday morning, after an awesome worship time with Charles Billingsley, we heard from Becky Tirabassi.  She is amazing!  She has real, in the trenches, spiritual experience, and her desire is for women to know who they are in God's eyes, and live and breathe and work, laugh and cry and praise, do everything from our perfect place in God's plan. 

The next speaker was Anita Renfroe.  Oh. My. Gosh.  I have never laughed so hard in my life.  Go to youtube.com and search for "Momsense."  Hilarious.

That evening we were in concert, with two guys you might have heard of before.  Steven Curtis Chapman.  Michael W. Smith.  That's right, they were both there.  Came to sing for little old me.  ;0)  Steven shared his testimony of the journey he has taken over the last two years since his daughter Maria was accidentally killed in an accident at home.  I cried so much . . . well, I really can't even begin to describe it.  Let me try to sum it up like this:  My dad has been gone for almost 20 years.  He has missed lots of things in my life.  But SCC reminded me that if he's in heaven, like SCC's daughter is, when I see him again we can catch up on some of that stuff.  SCC wrote a song a few years ago called "Cinderella," where he sings about dancing with his daughter.  And he shared that he'll dance with her again.  I know.  Tears, right?

Anyway, on Sunday morning, after more amazing worship, we heard from Liz Curtis Higgs.  Her message was of the amazing beauty we all share, simply because we are God's creation.  From the moment He formed us He knew about the extra pounds, the gray hair, the imperfections that we had, have, and will have.  He hasn't been surprised by any of it!  He loves it all!

Liz used a scripture that I had heard many times, and said myself often, and it's from Psalm 139.  I decided to read that scripture this morning, and was amazed to find how many of the wisdoms I have heard - and used - over the years were all contained in this one passage! 

I'm including the entire psalm below.  I'm planning on reading, re-reading, meditating, and memorizing the entire scripture this week.  Because it's God's love letter to us - to me.  And sometimes I need to be reminded of His love.  Sometimes I just bury my feelings of insignificance and worthlessness and act like they aren't there . . . but they are.  And God doesn't want me to bury them.  He wants me to bring them to Him.  So here they are today, God!  All the things about me that I think are dirty, hairy, scary and wrong.  You say in Your Word that You love me anyway.  Not in spite of the bad things.  You just love me.  And I realize how much I need Your love again. 

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

 ¹ O LORD, you have searched me
       and you know me.  ² You know when I sit and when I rise;
       you perceive my thoughts from afar.
 ³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
       you are familiar with all my ways.
 ⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
       you know it completely, O LORD.
 ⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
       you have laid your hand upon me.
 ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain.
 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?
 ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
 ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
       if I settle on the far side of the sea,
 ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
       your right hand will hold me fast.
 ¹¹ If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
       and the light become night around me,"
 ¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.
 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother's womb.
 ¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.
 ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
 ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.
 ¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
       How vast is the sum of them!
 ¹⁸ Were I to count them,
       they would outnumber the grains of sand.
       When I awake,
       I am still with you.
 ¹⁹ If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
       Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
 ²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
       your adversaries misuse your name.
 ²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
       and abhor those who rise up against you?
 ²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
       I count them my enemies.
 ²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
       test me and know my anxious thoughts.
 ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
       and lead me in the way everlasting.

Blaze brightly for Him today.