Update #116

“I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart.” Ezekiel 26:36 (GNB)

Seedorf, Switzerland

Have you ever looked at your feet? During my career as an athletic trainer and physical therapist I spent more than my fair share looking at, treating, and fixing feet. But, I have to admit, they are one of my favorite parts of the body.

Feet are amazing. Not only are they the body’s primary weight bearing surface, they adapt to whatever cover you put on them – running shoes, walking shoes, flat’s, kitten heeled shoes, boots, high heeled shoes, stilettos, or my favorite…slippers. Our toes adapt to the pressure put on them and shape to the shoes we wear, joints form corns and calluses where repeated friction occurs, and in extreme cases of repeatedly wearing ill-fitting shoes, bunions materialize.

I think our spirits are a bit like feet. They adapt. They can become numb, anesthetized, desensitized, unfeeling, deadened to the world around us if our primary environment isn’t spirit-enhancing, spirit-building, and life-giving.

Our spirits can become dull to the pain surrounding us because we see it everyday. We are insensitive to the pleas on TV to feed this one, give to that child, save this village. We treat as junk all the “ministry mail” entreating us for money - and some, don’t even open the envelope. Our spirit adapts, it acclimatizes and develops “hard spots” so we don’t have to feel the pain. It puts filters in place so we perceive only a fraction of the truth and, ultimately, our reality becomes skewed.

How did we get this way? How did we become so hard, so callused, so thick-skinned? When did we start treating the pleas of the world as background white noise?

When feet get “ugly” I highly recommend a pedicure (yes, for men too). Pedicures remove the dead skin, scrape away callus’, remove corns, take away hangnails, push back cuticles, file away rough edges, and reveal the true, beautiful foot underneath.

I think our spirits need this service too. We need to get rid of unforgiveness, repent for sins we have committed, reveal the truth about our feelings, and honestly confront situations. We need to apologize where needed and offer grace and mercy as well. We need to nourish our spirits with life-giving water and refresh often!

When was your last pedicure…your last spiritual pedicure? When was the last time you sat down and had an honest face-to-face with God about stuff happening in your life? When was the last time you repented, cried, and felt remorse about something you did to another…intentionally or accidentally? How thick are the layers around your heart? Is it easily touched by your surroundings or are you immune? What would it take to restore your spirit?

Updates:

Condo – we may have a buyer! I am waiting for the offer to come through and am praying that it is a full price one…stay posted!

Work – We have about 27 new trainees going though our training process and prepping to travel with us this spring to either Cape Town or Chennai. I am tired after the weekend but the fatigue was worth it!

Travel – to Redding, CA this weekend for recruiting and the JesusCulture conference (whoo hoo!)

Requests:

Condo – full price offer, that the buyer will be “legit” and not flake at the last minute

Work – we had our prayer team come in and pray all day during Saturday training and it was AWESOME…I can’t believe we hadn’t thought of it before. My prayer is that we can have intercessors at every training session and in mass at our weekend away in April.

Websites – If you would like to RSS my update vs. getting them by email visit my blog site http://www.denaandrews.blogspot.com/. To find out more about rēp visit http://www.repurposing.biz/ for information.