Joy Let Loose

November 23, 2020

How Can I Leave a Legacy Today?

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How can I leave a legacy today?

I have two questions I’ve learned to ask myself:

  • Am I loving well?
  • How can I leave a legacy today?

My mom exemplified these questions for me. And with her passing just a few days ago it is becoming even more evident that she loved well. The stories people are sharing are building a consistent, radiant picture of who she was to everyone.

Sacred Moments

She saw her daily activities and conversations as sacred moments. She saw interactions with people as divine appointments, and really SAW people. My mother showed people value, dignity, worth, and her intentional living changed us.

I celebrate my sweet mother today. I celebrate the lives she touched. I cherish that in her quiet kindness, she changed the world around her by helping people hope, and then they turned around to inspire others toward hope and joy too.

What a beautiful legacy.

Many people can look back and see the legacy left for them. Others can’t. But we each have the opportunity to start fresh and choose to leave our own.

My mother gave me a heavenly perspective. She was my equalizer. She gave me eyes to see the difference between what carries temporal significance and what carries eternal worth. I might have shrugged and hem-hawed while learning it, but looking back I now see how my mom taught me discernment.

David Green

Are you ready to ask yourself those questions?

  • Am I loving well?
  • How can I leave a legacy today?

Elizabeth JOY

Posted in: Uncategorized
November 15, 2020

The kindness of wrapping people in prayer

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Wrapping people in prayer

Every stitch of this shawl was knit as a prayer was breathed for the one who would one day wear it on his or her lap or shoulders. My mother’s faithfulness over many years to lead a ministry that cares for people in their deepest points of need is yet another reason her life inspires me.

Prayer shawls

Hundreds of prayer shawls, carefully handcrafted, have been infused with prayers and delivered to the lonely, the sick, the grieving, and the dying. It is God’s creativeness given legs in Kingdom life.

Wrapping my mom in prayer

This shawl has stayed by my mom’s side through a hard year. It was a year of diagnosis, waiting, treatment, more waiting, setbacks, disappointing news, rallying, and decline. And like my beautiful mother, it has continually brought a sense of comfort. It is a reminder that God’s people hold each other up at all times in prayer and steady support. It is one way she worshiped in spirit and in truth.

Faithful care

We aren’t designed to journey alone. And my mom’s life of faithful care for others has knit that into my very fabric the way she has patiently and prayerfully knit it with yarn. As her own earthly journey nears its end, I pray I will remain faithful to her legacy as long as I have breath.

How are you wrapping people in prayer?

Elizabeth JOY

Posted in: Family, Soul care
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November 3, 2020

Worship in Spirit and in Truth

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Worship in spirit and in truth

I haven’t led worship at my church for fourteen weeks. In fact, I’ve honestly barely used my voice to sing in all that time. It has been a season of silence for me, my worship so private and hidden from the world.

Worship in the quiet

I have worshiped more deeply and sincerely than ever before in the secret. No platform. No livestream. No lights. No one even singing, and yet, worship. In fact, I almost didn’t write this because it seems too public, but I feel prompted that someone else is worshiping in the secret too, and needs to be encouraged.

I have not been singing with my voice, but I have worshiped.

  • Making hot tea – worship.
  • Reminding of God’s presence – worship.
  • Choosing to laugh – worship.
  • Injecting pain meds – worship.
  • Processing hard news together – worship.
  • Motivating to try another step – worship.
  • Reminiscing – worship.
  • Changing bedding – worship.
  • Encouraging care workers – worship.
  • Holding weight when legs are weak – worship.
  • Not hiding from the reality of death – worship.
  • Telling that same story again – worship.
  • Choosing intentional conversation – worship.

Serving the vulnerable

Many people serve the vulnerable every single day, and worship Jesus through their service. But for the church worship leader, it can be easy to get so caught up in arrangements and production and scheduling and the skill of it all that our worship rings hollow.

I needed these fourteen Sundays. And I may need the next fourteen as the Lord reframes my perspective of true worship. For now, I choose to fix my eyes on Jesus and stay present in each moment as we walk my mom through her twilight days.

It’s here that I worship in spirit and in truth.

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

Matthew 25:40

How then will you worship?

Have you experienced seasons of private, quiet, hidden worship? Tell us about it in the comments!

Elizabeth JOY

Posted in: Family, Worship
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