Dear Unhappy Reader

Dear Unhappy Reader,

I want to pause for just a moment in my very busy day to say ‘thank you.’ You really cannot know what a gift you’ve just given me.

What you can’t know is that moments before you wrote me, I had been out walkin’ in the clear, bright sunshine, savoring the breeze and the lavish, wild green of Papa’s beautiful earth, and I was prayin’.

I didn’t know that I was prayin’ for you.

I was thinkin’ how hard it is for me to offer grace to other people; to extend mercy to others who are messy. I was thinkin’ how bad I am at lovin’ sometimes, and then this came to me (and oh, I know that Voice by now.)

“You have to be filled with grace and mercy before you can have it to give. You have to KNOW that you have it for yourself; that you have all that you’re needin’, and then, little sister, you’ll have it to give.”

This came, you see, right on the heels of what Friend Jesus has been teachin’ me about His own unconditional love: “Just receive it. There’s no ‘making yourself worthy.’ You’ve got all of My love already, so just receive it.”

He’s said that, too, about my struggle to accept my physical frame, Papa’s tabernacle: “Just receive it.” 

And then He threw it in when I was askin’ for that fabulous Peace that He’s got. “Just receive it.”

To a girl who’s used to workin’ on and for and at everything, this whole notion of “just receiving it” has been life-changing and transforming. Oh, I so hope that you can hear this, dear reader.

Anyway, He’s also been teachin’ about forgiveness. And the thing He showed me the other day was this, that forgiveness doesn’t mean that you let the offender off the hook. It simply means you take ’em off your hook and you put ’em onto His.

Huh. Now that seems like somethin’ I can do. So I went through my list just before I got your message, and I put folks that had hurt me onto His hook; flat switched ’em out from mine, and I said, “I trust You to meet all my needs.”

Then–then I came home and found your message.

The gift that you gave me was the confirmation of that transaction we’d just made, me and Him, out on the road. Because when someone needed grace from me, I had grace and mercy to give.

I want to thank you today, unhappy one, for showing me that I sure do hear His voice and that what He says is true, that He really does fill us up, we really will have love to give, and He can and will provide every single thing we’re needin’.

With love, then, and my prayers for your blessing,

Rhonda