Baring to Bear

God’s timing is mind-boggling.

Last week, I shared an abbreviated version of Ace’s story. It wasn’t my initial plan for that post, but God had been nudging me and He keeps reminding me that this is His platform and I get to be a part of it.

I had no idea what God had in store for our family a few days later.

On Friday, we heard from Ace’s lung specialist doctor about the results of the CT he had a few weeks ago. News we were anxious to hear, but also preparing ourselves for there to be little change. Boy, were we wrong!

The cysts that were in his lungs are now GONE!

His lungs look “almost normal”! A prayer for healing we’ve been bringing to God for over 3 years- ANSWERED.

God said He would heal his lungs, and Friday we finally got to see it!

Aside from crying tears of ecstatic joy, lying awake in bed grinning ear to ear too amazed at our God to sleep, and squeezing Ace about a hundred times with him looking at me wondering what’s up with mommy- I have had the absolute privilege of getting to tell the people in our family’s life who have been praying for Ace for these past 3 years that God has very literally answered their prayers!

I had a different plan for this week’s post, but that will have to wait until next Tuesday. I can’t let this week pass by and not share with you a special piece of the joy God’s given me this week:

Community.

It has been the sweetest time filled with pure blessing connecting with some of the precious people who have surrounded us with prayers for Ace’s healing since he was born. A lot of these people have been following Ace’s story from the beginning as Matt and I shared updates along the way.

During the very beginning on some of the hardest days in the NICU with our son, we felt God’s leading to write updates to share publicly for all who wanted to keep up with what was going on with our family.

This was not my favorite request from God at the time.

It is not natural for me to peel back the curtain and let others peer into the painful, raw areas in my personal life. I’m a pretty private person. Back then, I truly dreaded the thought of letting so many people in like that.

But following God, week by week, I put my heart in ink to update those who were praying for and following Ace’s journey.

And as time went on, I realized writing these updates wasn’t the dreaded chore I expected it to be. Instead, it became an outlet for me to process and share how God was moving and changing my own heart along the way.

And out of this painful time of baring my heart came a beautiful community who poured out their love and support and prayers over our family. More people, near and far, than I could have ever imagined were caring for our new, hurting family.

And this week as I made phone calls and sent messages out about Ace’s lungs, I realized that I never would have had this community around me if I hadn’t invited them into my brokenness.

Galatians 6:2 says,

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 (ESV)

A lot of times this verse is brought up in times to challenge and remind us that as we are going through life, we need to take time to be aware of and care for those who are struggling around us. And this is true!

But, there’s another side to this verse that is perhaps the more difficult challenge to lean into.

In order to allow others to live in what this verse is calling, and bear one another’s burdens, we need to be willing to share our own personal burdens with the Christ followers in our own lives. If we are told to carry each other’s burdens, then we are in the same breath being told to let others see and carry our burdens.

Our culture of appearing put together above all else and living by the “fake it ’til you make it” mantra has seeped into our church doors, and corrupted our vision of how we are supposed to act around each other when we’re surrounded by those who want to follow Christ with their lives.

Somewhere along the way, gathering with fellow believers whether that be on Sunday morning, or more intimate, smaller group settings, has been twisted into a time of covering up true pain, and withholding signs of what we’re really going through.

But this is wrong.

This isn’t what Jesus has in mind for His followers gathering together.

In Matthew 5, Jesus is talking with a big crowd of people who have seen Him do incredible miracles, and are now eager to hear anything He has to say. He begins by giving these people eight blessings that seem backwards in our culture today.

The first one is this:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3 (ESV)

Notice that this verse doesn’t say blessed are the poor in spirit once they are no longer broken.

No.

He says, blessed are the poor in spirit.

We put so much energy into suffering on our own to look good enough to be around those who are filled with faith as if the state of our hearts is a direct indicator of our level of faith in Christ.

But, if the broken are blessed, then it must be ok to be broken.

In this verse, Jesus is giving us permission to be broken or poor in spirit. To have days, weeks, months where we feel like we have nothing left and it takes every ounce of our energy left to pray for God to somehow give us the strength to get out of bed this morning.

So why do we work so hard to hide when we are poor in spirit?

Jesus says He does not just heal those who are broken, He blesses them. When we are poor in spirit and have nowhere to run to but God for strength, we are in a position of blessing.

This gives us freedom to feel broken, and to share that with others. Freedom to allow other followers of Christ to truly know what we are going through, and allow them to bear our burdens alongside us.

This week has been an eye-opening reminder for me that God has given all of us our surrounding community for a reason. Not so that we can all pretend to be strong on our own and never have days where we’ve had the wind knocked out of us, while singing worship songs on a Sunday morning.

But so that we can lean on each other as we lean on God’s word and walk the paths He has for us. So that we can live out Galatians 6.

I can’t count how many times I was encouraged by someone’s texted prayer for Ace or another’s reminder of one of God’s promises for His children that I so desperately needed to hear that day.

I know many of those people in my community who have been praying for Ace are you all who are reading this. And to you, I have to take the time to thank you from the bottom of my heart for truly taking our family’s burdens upon yourselves and asking God for healing in Ace’s little body. And I’m so excited you get to share in our joy of God answering your prayers, and now getting to share with others in your own community about what He’s done!

What does your community look like around you? Do you have community, or have you pushed everyone away so they can’t see your struggles? Does your life look like both sides of Galatians 6:2?

My prayer this week is that our communities become more genuine, starting with us allowing our burdens to be seen so others may come alongside us just as Christ tells us to.

From one of His children to another,

Christi