October 14, 2021
(1 minute 22 seconds)

We are in this together you know, dancing, skipping, or shuffling forward. One day at a time, one inhale followed by one exhale. Seeking to live Kingdom-minded and walk in a manner worthy of the gospel as we sojourn this heavenward path.

My heart is heavy today as I consider precious souls around me who are in a shuffling forward season right now.
High school girls who talk bravely and honestly about their insecurity, anxiety, and depression. A middle-aged mom at church alone because her husband is caring for their severely autistic and blind son who needs constant care. Close friends whose foundation is Jesus but whose walls are crumbling because of the dishonesty and abandonment of their husbands.

When putting one foot in front of the other is about the best we can do, what does it look like to go on and go forward?

Just a few weeks ago I met a sweet, gentle-spirited woman named Melissa. With only two chairs still open I scooted in next to her at a grandbaby shower of a mutual dear friend. After about thirty seconds I knew this girl was special and I loved her by minute two.
A treasured friend dropped in beside us onto the one empty chair next to me. “Oh good!” my friend beamed, “You guys know each other!” I told her that Melissa and I had just met and she smiled knowingly. “Well, I know both of you really well and you are really going to like each other.”

In our conversation trio, I learned that Melissa is a cancer survivor. With five young kiddos at home, she had overcome breast cancer in her 30’s in spite of all the horrors that go along with it: radiation, chemotherapy, double mastectomy and hair loss.
She even lost all of her eyelashes except two.

The three of us leaned in together marveling over the goodness of God in her story. As we honored the broken path that this dear one had crawled down I learned how this new friend, in the midst of the battle for her life, had bravely gone to a homeschooling conference with her bald head and two eyelashes. She had applied mascara to those two eyelashes because she said, “That’s what going on and going forward look like”.

Shuffle if you must dear one. Live right on.
And apply your waterproof mascara.