Courage, Dear Heart #love4lexi

Psalm 73:26 "My flesh and my heart may fail, but my God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." 

A young teenage girl, the middle daughter of three lovely daughters from a local family, lies in a hospital bed, kept alive by a machine, awaiting a bittersweet miracle. She needs a heart transplant now. Her name is Lexi. Her favorite color is purple. She loves the Lord.

#love4lexi. 

Everyone is thinking about hearts. It is February after all. #love4lexi

A community is praying for Lexi,for her family, for this miracle. #love4lexi 

Her classmate and local phenom basketball player, LaMelo Ball dedicated his 92 points scored in one game to her this week. That made national news. #love4lexi. 

As I walked onto my high school campus (work) this morning, the signs were everywhere. BULLDOGS SUPPORT LEXI, #LOVE4LEXI 

She attends the other high school (Chino Hills High) across the valley. 

Huge prayer circles formed on both her campus and ours. Students bow their heads and hold each others hands, crying out to God for one of their...our own. She is everyone's #love4lexi. 

A family waits and prays; sleepless, drained, anxious, hopeful, fearful, faithful, and loved, held up by strength from the God they know is good and loving as well as caring family, friends, neighbors, church body and strangers. 
#love4lexi

...and I hear the words from many, because it is a fear of every parent to ever have to sit, pace, wait in the darkness of things, to watch their own son or daughter suffer, to know the odds, to place every ounce of their own heart, blood, soul and faith in their Heavenly Father and rely... out of default on the Holy Spirit to do your bidding because the numbness sets in, articulation is foggy at the least, adrenaline keeps our own breath too real and our thoughts and dreams... too intense. 

those words..."I can't imagine how (the family) they are feeling."  

And I don't answer that one, because this time... it is not about me. Let it always be about Love. 
#love4lexi

What I do know is that this is a family who knows the Lord, wherein lies their hope. What I do know is that God is good and His will is Good and Perfect. If Lexi lives, His will is Good and Perfect, if Lexi does not, His will is Good and Perfect. God's plan is good and perfect. Lexi is a miracle in the making. Lexi's purpose is for God's glory. 

And so we pray for Lexi, her family and for our own hearts. #love4lexi. 

The world's heartbeat skips and flutters away from a Holy place of surrender, but one heartbeat struggling, makes us catch our breath and refocus outside our own body. One hand joins another, one ball is continually passed to another, and lives touch other lives and Lexi touches ours as we bow our heads and hearts to a sovereign, loving God. 

And if we tell one another that God is love, and if we SHOW one another that God is Love and if we hold onto one another and encourage each because God is Love and if we humble ourselves before Him and allow Him to Love us too, we can know that God is Love, that He is good as we pray for His will, pray in His will.  #love4lexi. 

It still hurts, because love hurts too. Jesus experienced all the emotion of love, the deepest of hurts so He can love us in the deepest, most perfect way and then heal our own failures by teaching us how to love like Him. Though some things remain a mystery, His love is the portion of our heart that sustains the hope within us and gives us that eternal perspective-- a love-light seen through the gaps of our own the broken places. 

#love4lexi.  

Father God, we humbly come before you and ask for divine strength and healing for this young girl struggling to regain a heartbeat. We understand that one heart will be taken so that one can live. We pray for Your will in this. We ask for this family of faith, for your comfort and mercy in all the unknown days to come. May Lexi's life always be for Your glory and for our own reminder that our time is never promised but what IS promised...Your Love that is everlasting and Hope that heals. #love4lexi, #pray4lexi, Amen. 

Splendor At The Door Of My Own Heart

Mark 13:29 "Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door."

With Valentine's Day behind me, I now sit and reflect on things marvelous, wonderful, miraculous, incredible, beautiful, and very personal;  things laid in my path on that particular day of love.

I am in humble awe.

As if God and I had divine appointments all day long, He showered me with gifts from Heaven. Hearts appeared and Heavens sang His praises and possibly more. Seeing all these signs, I captured them in photos. The last "heart" of the day is such a wonderment, that I have chosen to share it only in real time, one on one.

Recognizing that God is near for a very long time now, He continues to give me new revelations, adding to my stories of His grace upon amazing grace. I missed my son that day as always, sending Him a Valentine love wish that morning in a post, now almost 9 years since his passing and returning Home. God heard my prayer and lavished on me, allowing me to see what others may not see, what some take for granted, or do not recognize, what some just want to ignore.

But God tells us many times in scripture to be on the alert, to be on guard.

It's not only for discernment and demon-watching, but I also believe and know it is to see His mercy, His forgiveness, His grace, His hope and His beautiful love for us, reaching down, across, up, through-- in such personal ways.

One unique BELIEVER'S heart, underfoot on a pathway where I worship, fellowship and connect to others, saves me, for I gave my heart in belief to Him long ago and I choose to obey Him by serving and worshipping Him within the Body of Christ.

A second SANCTIFYING heart, pools around the thorny rose, pruned back numerous times, but continuing to explode each spring in a bounty of beautiful buds and spectacular blooms. It's the word picture, the many parables of Jesus, sewing and reaping, planting in good soil and on a firm foundation, expecting a harvest and planning for more.

The third, an ETERNAL MESSENGER heart, empowers me to continue on by doing what I am doing, seeking more, surrendering and trusting in the known and the unknown, praising Him and giving Him the Glory for every beat and pulse that moves me forward, giving me opportunity and providing my every need.

Psalm 8:1 O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy Name in all the Earth, who Has displayed Thy splendor above the heavens!"

All of it is an affirmation, right at the door of my own heart. God is Good, He is on the Throne. He empowers us to share our lives in belief, to live our testimony and grow in sanctification, and to be His messengers of love to others whose hearts are crumbled and broken, whose lives are dry and root-rotted, for those who need to see to believe and/or exist as if hope is lost.

Father God, in Your sovereign plan, You already gave each one of us our own miracle. Your Resurrection redeems us so that we can partake in communion again with You and have a relationship in Your grace. These insights and gifts Lord, are Holy; where what can be seen and felt, moves me to pure worship and humbles me to unspeakable joy. Thank you for these gifts this week and may I be prepared and ready, on guard looking continually and intently along my path, walking it with intention. Help me see those in need of life-giving water, and those just needing to reconnect to the Heavens and find Your powerful face of forgiveness and love. Amen.


Please listen to this song and its story. "Tell Your Heart To Beat Again," Danny Gokey.