Monthly Archives: November 2018

on finding your place…

I’ve watched her over the past few weeks, preparing herself for a new season. Her golden brilliance was ours but for a few days, or so it seems. Without resistance, she’s released her color to the earth. Valiantly she stands, as she always has, tethered to the soil by her roots and tethered to her purpose by God’s design. Quietly and most sacredly, her posture poses a challenge to my soul …

Find your place in the moment, Elaine.

I spent my morning walk mulling over her prompt in my spirit.

Find your place in the moment.

It’s not always easy. My inclinations often move me elsewhere, sometimes ahead of the moment, sometimes behind. Instead of surrendering to the blowing of the wind, I often fight it, trying desperately to hold on to my color even though the shifting season demands for its release. In doing so, my emotional reserves are spent, leaving little behind to nourish the “dressing down” of winter—the nakedness and barrenness of a season designed to empty so that the re-dress of spring may come without hindrance.

Out with the old. In with the new. And so it goes, or so it should.

I’ve a lot to learn about finding my place in the moment. How about you?

Perhaps this is the message for the season in front of us as we make our way to and through another Christmas. To find our place in the moments that come to us, whether planned or unexpected. Whether welcomed or uninvited. To not rush past them or fall in behind them but, to instead, stand steadily in the middle of them, even if it means surrendering a final leaf or two or ten in order to more fully open up ourselves for the greater work of the season.

Whether naked or fully dressed, the maple tree in my front yard stands ready and available for the seasonal plans of her Creator.

I pray for a similar stance. I pray the same for you.

Find your place in the moment, friends. Linger long enough to hold it and then, in faith, to let it go so that you might embrace the next one. God is with you in all of your moments, and he will give you the grace and grit to find your place therein. I’ll meet you somewhere in the middle. As always…

Peace for the journey,

my miracle

I saw her staring at us while in the check-out line at Wal-Mart. I didn’t know her, but it was apparent that she knew us. Moments later, her declaration confirmed my suspicions.

“Glad you’re home. Welcome home!”

Jadon and I looked toward the sound of her voice as I said, “Oh, do you recognize my son?”

“No, Ma’am. I recognize your miracle.”

My heart was tenderly warmed by her pronouncement.

My miracle.

My Jadon.

It’s been happening a lot these days … strangers recognizing my miracle. We call Laurinburg home, and ever since our arrival here over a week ago, we’ve been stopped by folks wanting to speak a word, give a hug, meet my miracle. Somehow (and as only God could orchestrate it), they feel a part of the story, tightly connected to the ever-growing community who are surrounding and supporting Jadon’s healing.

Whether through prayers, through giving, through visits, through doctoring, or just as casual readers/observers of my Facebook posts, their involvement in Jadon’s fight have granted them access to the outcome. It’s also given them access to our hearts.

Within minutes of Jadon’s accident, I made the decision to have our need go public on Facebook. And while I’ve frequently had a love/hate relationship with social media, this time around, I’ve seen how God has used it for his kingdom gain and good. The fact that you’re reading my words in this moment is proof that you are (at some level) connected to our story. And this, folks, is a beautiful representation of what I have often called “sacred multiplication.”

In the economy of God, when we enter into God’s handiwork—when we see him at work and decide to put our hearts and hands to the plow alongside his—we plant seeds into the lives of others. The growth and influence are exponential, expanding at a rapid rate that exceeds singular gain. The rapidity and scope of influence is often so great, it’s incalculable.

That’s where we’re at, at a point of not being able to measure the length, breadth, width, and depth of this far-reaching miracle. It has touched many lives, and I believe that this is what God had in mind all along. God’s miracles are eternally impactful, intended to point the world to him.

Mission accomplished. Mission accomplishing.

This beautiful sorrow we’ve carried continues to point the world to Jesus, reminding those with eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to receive that God has not left us. Instead, he is in our midst, making himself known to us, and drawing us all into a deeper, more intimate relationship with him.

Not long from now, in just a moment or two more, our faith will become sight and we will meet our Miracle-Maker face to face. But until then, there is a beauty being scripted into this world by the very hand and heart of God that should remind us all of just how close he really is to us, of just how much he wants to be with us, to do for us … to love us. Accordingly, I want to live my life with eyes wide-open, expecting to see more of the Father, to be and to do and to love more with the Father. God is not exclusive in his dispensation of miracles, friends. Through Jadon, I have come to realize that his generosity as it pertains to the miraculous far exceeds my expectations therein.

Humbly and with deep reverence, I make the confession that I can no longer underestimate God.

These past seven weeks serve as a witness and testimony to the Father’s inestimable love for me. My entire life, I’ve read about and committed to memory many of the miracles recorded in Scripture. But on this day, some 2000+ years beyond their unfolding, God has given me one of my own to hold.

This is my parting of the Red Sea. This is my feeding of the 5000. This is my “Lazarus, come forth.”

This is my really big God showing up on the scene of my itty-bitty life in a really big way.

So, by all means, go ahead. Recognize my miracle. Call him by name and welcome him home. Jadon’s story belongs to you even as it belongs to me. God has beautifully written you into this chapter of our lives and the ink is still wet. There is more to come. With God, there is always more to come.

Sacred, extraordinary, kingdom multiplication.

What in the world?!

God in the world. 

Yesterday. Today. Forever.

Amen. So be it.

©F.Elaine Olsen (allrightsreserved)

PS: In case you missed it on FB, here is one of the thousands of prayers prayed over Jadon in those first 24 hours following Jadon’s accident (thank you, Mike Price!). 

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