Hold On

I know, like me and mine, many people I love and care about are facing some pretty tough battles right now. As I wrote this poem, I wrote it with many of you in mind. This poem is meant to be an encouragement. It's truth-- whatever we are facing, we are NOT alone, if we belong to Jesus, we have God on our side. Whatever we are facing has been filtered through His hand for His good purpose, for our good and for His glory. Sometimes it's hard to remember that, but it does not change that it's true. So I encourage anyone who is a follower of Christ who finds themselves in a time of difficulty, struggle, warfare, hold on. He's holding on to you.


Hold On

The darkness surrounds, obscuring the view,
Can’t see what is real, can’t see what’s true.

Fear creeps in, demanding control,
Pretending he has some authority’s role.

The darkness lies, its power’s not real,
Hold onto the truth, not to what you feel.

Look up ahead, do you have Him in sight?
Focus your eyes on eternity’s Light.

Circumstance has no power He will not bend,
He alone is the Author, from beginning to end.

Your life, He holds safely in His hand,
His strength He offers, He’ll help you to stand.

When trouble overwhelms, and you want to run,
Stop and remember, look at all He has done.

Remember His words, His promises true,
Nothing can separate His love from you.

He will be with you in every trial that you face,
He’s with you now, right here in this place.

Say no to the fear that obscures truth like a veil,
You plus the Lord will always prevail.

Press on, press on, don’t give up the fight!
Hold on, believe, grab hold of the Light.

Never forget greater is He that is living in you!
He’ll give you the strength, He’ll guide you through!

Before and behind, and upon you it rests,
His hand covers you amidst all of these tests.

Never give up, God’s on your side,
Amidst the storms, in Him abide.

Hold on, hold on, don’t give in to the strife,
Hold to the One who holds onto your life!

He is real, He is Truth, He is your Friend,
On Him, in confidence, You can depend!!

Let it rise, your faith, let it rise up in you,
Remember, hold on, you know He is true!

No storm He can’t still, or your heart in its midst
Don’t let the struggle, your certainty twist.

Look! Look! And remember this day,
He alone is the Life, the Truth and the Way!

Who else could there be? What other way would you go?
He is your hope, this you must know.

Don’t acquiesce; don’t crumble in fear,
Remember He’s with you; He led you here.

He is unfettered by the battle you face,
Never forget He is still Lord in this place.

No darkness can touch the power He holds,
Stand back and be amazed as His grace unfolds.

Declare it out loud; let not the fight you unnerve,
Remember this day, Whom you do serve!

He’s for you and with you, and He’ll see you through,
He’s Lord of all, and He’s the Savior of you!

Praise Him, praise Him, and let your faith rise!
Feelings and fear, this faith, it defies!

Watch and be sure, you will see Him move,
And once again His faithfulness He will prove.

The darkness may come to obscure your view,
But you’ll not be shaken if you hold to what’s true.

Jesus is true, He is your life and the only Way,
So as you stand in this storm, hold to Him today.


By Diana DePriest
© May 11, 2012

The Master's Plan

Funny that they didn't invite Him since they were there in His "house." But He must not have minded since He was there, even if they couldn't see Him from where they stood at His altar.

A man stood there with them, he talked about Him, read from His book. The woman and man made promises in His name with no understanding of what it really meant.

He was there, watching, knowing, but they couldn't see Him, or maybe they chose not to. But He loved them anyway.

They thought they knew love as they made promises about forever-- or at least the rest of their days. They had no idea what their future held, or Who held their future. But He was there, watching, waiting, loving and leading.

I promise...

To love...

To honor...

To cherish...

What they didn't hear was the promise He made.

What God has brought together...

Let no man separate...

He brought them there, and they had no idea. It was His master plan.

It was the Master's plan.

I'm glad He was there, long before we knew it. I'm glad His words were spoken, His book was read. I'm glad the promises were made.

I'm glad we soon realized He was with us. I'm glad the Master revealed His plan.

I still promise...

To love...

To honor...

To cherish...

In Jesus' name.

Precarious

Sometimes, more often than I care to admit, I just get very sad. It comes on quickly and suddenly. It's like a wave.

It's a strange sort of sadness though, because it drives me to my knees. In a very literal sense, I just want to drop before the Lord. In the moment, I'm completely aware of my sinfulness and my desperate need for my Savior.

In the moment that it comes God feels very near, and ever so far away. Perhaps it is an eternal moment, realizing how far away I am from where I truly belong-- emotionally, spiritually and physically.

The walk of faith is too often proclaimed to be simple, uncomplicated. And too often we Christians want to give off some perception that we've got out all together, and we wear our righteousness with pride.

What fools we are when we do. Because the truth is that we are a fragile and desperate people who fumble and fail at life on our own.

Today when I came home from work I saw my neighbor in the yard with his young granddaughter. He was taking his trash can in and he decided to plop her on top and give her a ride.

I watched as her laughter turned to fear when she realized how precarious her position was. She grabbed at the trashcan below her but found no security in it and her fear got worse.

Then she reached back and grabbed hold of her grandfather. Then I watched as she relaxed and leaned into him. Then she smiled and actually enjoyed the ride.

The metaphor wasn't lost on me. Too often the walk of faith is precarious, the ride scary. We can grab at the "garbage" in this life, but we will find ourselves no more confident or secure.  It's only when we grab hold of the Father and lean into Him that we'll find enough security to actually enjoy the ride.

I'm grateful for the sadness that comes if it remind me of just how precarious my walk of faith is.  When my little neighbor girl grabbed hold of grandpa, the first thing I saw was her grandpa grab her back. That metaphor wasn't lost on me either.

The Winds of Adversity

I've been dreaming a lot lately. Not the imagine your greatest wish kind of dreaming, the actual literal, pictures in your head while you sleep kind of dreaming. And it's been all night long, right up till when I awaken. It's been the kind of dreaming that I will see things, snapshots, pictures, hear words, and see stories kind of dreaming. Sometimes I've even woken up in the middle of the dream and been able to lay back down and go back to sleep and continue the dream kind of dreaming. Makes me wonder if I might be losing my mind kind of dreaming, and I've even been wondering if it's the God has something to say kind of dreaming. (Yes, He does that.)

This morning I had a very clear picture I saw and I heard words very clearly just before my alarm went off. The picture was this, a flower in the wind.

Fist I saw the flower being overpowered, bent and crumpled by the wind. Then I saw the same flower stretch out into the wind, and it was like the wind expanded it instead of bending it. Every petal was stretched out in all its color and glory, it looked powerful, beautiful and strong. Then just before I woke I very clearly heard the words. "It is beautiful when it stands against adversity."

I stumbled across my room and turned off my alarm, the words resonated. "It is beautiful when it stands against adversity."

I looked up adversity this morning. It's a pretty broad definition: distress; affliction; hardship. Who among us isn't dealing with adversity in their lives? Who among us isn't consistently under some level of distress or hardship? Affliction?

My current adversity is eclectic and widespread. Just this morning was a morning of adversity. It's the kind of day when you actually wonder to yourself what you were thinking when you decided to have children adversity (if you never entertained the thought for even a moment, your children are too young.) It was the kind of Murphy's law morning where everything that could go wrong did- the miss every light, leave five minutes too late, get stuck in traffic, nothing goes your way kind of adversity.

This morning, I bent under the wind. I grumbled and fussed, I was ruder than I should have been, angrier than I could justify, I was crumpled, ugly and overcome with adversity this morning.

Then my dream came back to me. I was driving away from what threatened to be a meltdown from adversity (it wasn't but it was close) and close enough I wasn't very proud of myself. Then the Lord reminded me of my dream. I was not letting the wind expand me, I let it break me. (What would I do in a real crisis I wonder?)

It was a moment of decision, and an opportunity to turn into the wind and I did. And things didn't get better. There were more red lights, more long lines, more challenges and difficulties, but I didn't bend. I laughed it off, let it go, remembered that I am "but dust," and needed to be moving in the same grace I am saved by. Giving grace, letting things go and standing.

On my way back to work, in the last long line of adversity before I got here, I was laughing, light, joking. A woman behind the counter thanked me for making her day better. I couldn't help but think of my frustrated stares and angry crossed arms that may have made another woman behind another counter and how I may have made her day worse. Sad when I can see and consider what a simple decision on my part made a difference.

Whatever we face, any adversity at all-- little things like in my day, or big challenges that cannot compare-- "It is beautiful when it stands against adversity."


We are beautiful when we stand against adversity, because it is then that Christ is able to be reflected in us and in the world around us, even if they don't know that's what it is. IT makes the world a happier place for us all.

Stand against the wind, and let your colors in Christ shine.

Broken People

It's been a while since I last posted. I've been busy-- writing my second book. My first book i self-published and has sold a few copies, mostly people I know. I won't be retiring from my day job at this point, but I am writing because I feel the stories I am telling are important.

My first book "Homecoming" deals with some pretty intense social issues. Someone I know casually is reading it, and we crossed paths and she mentioned it. I asked her if she was enjoying it and her response was, "it's intense." I didn't know how to interpret that response and so I asked, "Is that a good thing or bad thing?" Her reply was again open to interpretation when she said, "It's not your typical Christian fiction."

I've been chewing on that exchange ever since. This is what I have decided: too many of us in the church prefer life that plays like "typical Christian fiction." But the thing is, life's not like that. As I have been thinking about the "synopsis" for my second book that I hope to release in the next few weeks, the description that came to my mind was-- it's NOT typical Christian fiction, because it's not comfortable Christians, it's for Christians who still remember their own desperate need for a Savior.

The truth is that my books are full of broken people-- even CHRISTIAN broken people. The reality is, that's what churches are full of. Even those of us who try to put on a good show at come across as the "perfect Christian," we're just exhausting ourselves and pushing away other broken people. We are all very aware of our own brokenness. Even if we think we have other people buying into our facades, we are all works in process far from the completed masterpieces God is creating, that we will never see on this side of eternity.

Easter has just passed. It's a time of outreach and "sharing Christ," but what are we like a week or two later when the broken people who come looking for the Jesus we have proclaimed. Are we suddenly back to being focused on the status quo? Do we get back to a place of not wanting to make disciples of Christ, but rather disciples of ourselves? Do those who come needing Jesus find Him-- the one who loves them unconditionally, and accepts them as they are, broken? Or do we greet them at the door with a list of "to do's" that says, "Change your life," "Be this way."

Jesus came for the broken. He called those who knew their need for Him, and wanted to receive what He had for them. What He has for each one of us is different for each one of us. He sees our brokenness and He is the answer. As a church, we are but a tool to direct the broken toward Him. We need to embrace our own brokenness to truly be able to embrace the broken. (And I will encourage you, if you don't think you are broken, look harder-- you have not arrived.)

So I am glad the my book is considered "intense" and atypical, because that is the reality of life. I hope my book will be read by just one unbeliever who will realize that Jesus came for them. I pray my book is read by just one believer who has avoided accepting the unconditional love of the God who sees beyond their facade.

WE ARE BROKEN-- CHRISTIANS ARE BROKEN!! We struggle with sin, we don't like ourselves all the time, we struggle with depression, anxiety, we have pasts-- we are people who desperately needed a Savior, the only difference between us and the rest of the world is that we found Him.

If you're interested in my book, you can find more information about Homecoming - The Redemption Series (Volume 1) at www.dianadepriest.com. (Available on Kindle and in paperback at Amazon.com) Coming soon: Fallout - The Redemption Series (Volume 2)

Prayer of the broken

There's no coming back from a first impression. This is the thought that is filling my mind today. I think it's valid, truth even. The only problem with it is that it's only a productive thought when it's thought in advance.
Thought in advance it's wisdom to be applied, after the fact, it feels more like a nail in a coffin. It's unfortunate when you find yourself inside said coffin.

The sound of the nail pounded unleashes the barrage of "if only," thoughts. And a desire for a mulligan at life, or time travel that does not exist.

The coffin is an exhausting place, there's no rest or peace there. Perhaps that's why in true death we don't actually remain there. Just another crazy thought.

The past is lost, but it haunts, and there is really no simple solution. There are no magic steps. The present is polluted by what was-- so much so, I have become the pollutant.

I want to disappear, which is kind of ironic since being too transparent seems to be my greatest... shortcoming? hindrance? failure?

It's hard to feel bloody, broken and bruised, and to feel like you haven't been careful enough about where you've bled. No one appreciates the stain on their own. Sigh.

If I could go back, what would I change? The answer changes, but as time goes on, the list grows longer. Mostly I'd change the way God made me, which seems like a sinful thought, but a true one just the same.

Being broken bites. There is no other way to say it. But I don't even want to hope for whole, it's anonymity I long for. I can't undo, unmeet or un-impress first impressions (or 2nd, or 10th or 1000th) so I find myself longing to be forgotten. But even fading into the darkness is a scary trip.

Jesus come, the only prayer I can even pray with confidence. Perhaps that is the true prayer of the broken.