Gracie Girl Blog

“Oh for grace to trust Him more”

– Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

I usually hear that verse personally, as “oh for Grace to trust Him more” and it convicts me every time because every time without fail, there’s something I am not entrusting to the Lord. I heard it this morning and that felt like the right way to start off my first blog post in a while. To be honest – it’s been so hard to write the last year. At times it feels like to corporate schedule is closing in on me and I only have maybe one Saturday morning a week to sit down, fueled by coffee, to whatever creative endeavor I choose and lately, that hasn’t been writing. I’ve been reminded recently, however, that it’s like a muscle and will get stronger as I do it so here I am, getting back to it no matter how imperfectly, praying one day this could be my 9-5.

This was my second winter in Colorado, and it was the warmest since they started keeping record of the weather. My first winter with a ski pass, and the skiing was better on the east coast. As spring started, it’s become a “if you don’t laugh you’ll cry” type of feeling. I realized this winter how much I love winter – and how much I missed a true cold and snowy season.

This is ironic because I’d love to skip the emotional and spiritual winters in my life. I’d love to skip the cold and barren and quiet seasons where it feels like nothing is happening. But “skipping” the physical winter this year reminded me just how disorienting that could be. It reminded me how sitting in the cold and quiet prepares you for the warm and busy spring and summer.

I’m someone who very much needs someone or something else to give me permission to rest. It’s something I’ve been unlearning but always feels like an uphill battle for me. Even on weekends, the practical to-do list persists and I find myself doing just was much work as I do during the week, just of a different kind. The weather is something that lets me rest. A rainy or snowy day just naturally lets me be still. Since we hardly get rainy days here in Denver, a snowy day is usually the stand in. Having very few of those this winter made it easy to feel like I should always be doing something, always outside, etc. I even attribute that partially to my lack of writing – there were few days that felt good for sitting around.

Don’t get me wrong, having such a mild winter did lessen some stressors. It was never so cold your face hurt just being outside, I only had a couple sketchy commutes to work, and I was able to keep riding through the winter. Unlike Virginia, the world does not stop for snowy road conditions here and most of the time when it’s snowing you are expected to show up to work and school.

Maybe it’s that I feel as though I’m in a personal winter right now that is making the season change hard for me. It feels like there is a lot about my life at a standstill – my career and romantic relationships being the biggest two. It’s hard to feel like the mundane is getting to you when the world is loud and busy and moving forward around you.

The solution? Along with asking for prayer and having people around you who will hope for you and encourage you on the days you don’t have hope yourself – is taking Jesus at his Word. The solution is to open your Bible and read about all the good things the Lord has done and all the good things He has promised to do for me.

Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.

Psalm 85:12

So here’s to winter, and to spring. I hope that whatever season you are in, your Bible and heart stay open to the work of the Lord. Despite the personal winter I’m experiencing, I feel as though I am in the middle of a holy moment here in Denver. The church is growing, people are coming to faith, and I’m watching all the Christinas around me grow in boldness in sharing the Gospel. There is a tremendous hope following Easter Sunday that this city is turning from their pagan practices and to a God that loves them. My pastor wrote in an email summarizing our Easter services that “this is book of Acts stuff” and I couldn’t agree more. I feel incredibly blessed and intentionally placed to be here for such a time as this. ❤

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord!”