Just be.

I saw that on a sign this past weekend at the Boo-tique that I helped with. Liz and Jamie had a bunch of stuff that they entered into it to sell and then Gabe and I ran a hotdog/chilli/nachoes booth alongside. The sign was at another vendor's booth and was made of vinyl letters and glass. I wanted it but didn't have the extra 30$ to buy the thing. The simplicity of it caught me, though.

I have been reading Purpose for the Pain by Renee Yohe. The book is her diary about her life before and during her recovery from drug/alcohol addiction and severe mental, sexual, emotional, physical abuse and trauma. It is intense and it is hard to read and it makes me cry and it makes me laugh and it makes me identify with far more than I want to identify with. Renee eventually became a Christian sometime in 2006. The journals span from 03-06 and the story is chaotic, intense and crazy. And very very painful. The purpose, Renee says, is redemption. Redemption from ourselves, our sin, our pasts, our addictions, abuse, and circumstances. Redemption into freedom and salvation. Renee says over and over again that she just wants to be.

I also have been rereading Ruth. Boaz... man, I want to meet a guy like him. Wow. Hosea, Boaz, - those guys were redeemers in a very real sense. They rescued those women from the pits. Literally in Hosea's wife's case. And they stuck by them and loved them. They helped them to heal. This is what Christ has done and wants to do and is doing for His people. For me.

And all He asks of me is to just be. I don't have to have strength for more than that. I don't have to do anything more than be. Because when I try to do more... I screw up. He will do it by letting me be me and making "me" into what He wants. What He sees.

I look at some people and He gives me a glimpse of who they can become and another image almost simultaneously of who they ARE. His dreams for us are so big. We just have to be long enough to let Him make the dreams into reality. Pray for B. She is one that I have spoken and listened to and one that is on my heart while I write this. Her pain is intense.