The Cover Up

Flattering shades of make up, layers of clothing, the right hair products, and trendy jewelry are used to hide, distract and make us feel better. There is no denying that. As we’ve all heard so many times, “Beauty is only skin deep.” However, with those cover up techniques we can make ourselves feel beautiful. There is no denying that, either.

Last Saturday at The Quest For Joy loveSTRONG ministries event we heard four Life Storytellers take off some of those distracting layers. As I listened to each one I heard a little of my own story in each Storyteller’s voice. While I watched each one talk about their quest toward joy I learned what they hid to make life feel better or at least look better on the outside. I am guilty of some of their same tactics. I also heard what caused them to not give up.

A friend of mine recently answered the question, “What increases joy?” His answer is a fearless obedience to God, day in and day out. Joy is not a euphoric action or a fleeting feeling. It is the consequence of a choice of who or what to follow. What this means is holding onto God’s hand even when you are drowning in illness or personal conflict. Nothing else can rescue you. Not another person or your own actions. Plain and simple, it is God. Life is not without hurt and we cannot escape from circumstances. What we can do is run toward joy, forgetting the past and moving on to a better future. In the book of John chapter 15 it says, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full.”

We will continue to wear the cover ups, but God knows what is inside and how to give us joy. That is something that cannot be denied at all.

Sherree Fischer

loveSTRONG ministries

Speaker/Facilitator Team Leader

www.lovestrongministries.com

What's Eating You?

This past Easter during Lent (the six week period leading up to Easter) I felt God was leading me to give something up that I couldn’t seem to live without: sugar – in all its many forms. I’ve wrestled with weight issues and an eating disorder for most of my life and have had a particularly nasty addiction to sugar since childhood.

When I felt that holy nudge to lay down this addiction for six weeks I did so expecting to completely fail. After all – what would a life devoid of sugar actually look like? Sugar has been my “go to” drug of choice for as far back as I can remember. Whenever anything was eating me – I ate back with sugar.

As a stress eater, the idea of not eating my way through a crisis seemed highly unlikely, but I quit sugar cold-turkey, nonetheless. My body (and my brain) reacted to some uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms that were very painful – both physiologically as well as emotional. I suffered from headaches, body aches, anxiety and off the chart cravings that drove me to the brink of craziness.

It was right smack in the middle of all of this “suffering” that I truly came to understand what Christ must have endured during his 40 day fast in the wilderness and of course, his painful suffering on Calvary. Putting my “suffering” in the same category as Jesus’s suffering shamed me. Saying “no” to after dinner ice cream was nothing compared to Jesus’s anguish.

The greatest gift that God gave me during my Lent sacrifice was to open my eyes to the level of importance I had placed on my love of sugar. First John 5:21 shone a spotlight on the root of my core problem: Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

My problem wasn’t just a little sugar addiction. My real problem, my sin, was that I’d suffered my whole life from a heart condition. I put the need to “go to” sugar during an emotional crisis above my need for Jesus.

I can’t say that sacrificing sugar for six weeks magically healed me, but it did help me to see through eyes that weren’t always glazed over from eating icing or sprinkles. I’m not fixed yet, but I am making an effort to make Jesus my “go to” solution rather emotional eating whenever something is eating me.

How about you? What’s eating you? Is there anything taking God’s place in your heart? Why not let Jesus be your new “go to” solution.

Blessings in Christ,
Kathy Kurlin
Author
www.kathleenkurlin.com