Today’s post is from my delightful friend Erica Pelzel. Erica and I met during our college days, and I’ve admired her ever since for her energy and creativity. She taught me (and many others) to crochet, has the best laugh in the world, and once, when my then four year-old son greeted her at the door (in his underwear, it should be noted) with an ecstatic “I just went poop in the potty!”, she didn’t miss a beat and congratulated him with equal enthusiasm. That’s just the sort of person she is. She’s gracing this space today with some real talk about motherhood, tiredness in its many forms, a hard year, and hope.
I used to be an awesome quiet time haver. I had the perfect spot, my Baby Girl would sleep for hours, I didn’t have a care in the world… but as Baby Girl grew, that disappeared. As I sat with my open Bible this morning I just stared– intimidated by where to start and struggled to work past my terrible reading comprehension until I could get just… there. To the place where all in my mind and heart is calm and my ears are tuned into the frequency of His voice. After reading at least three Psalms and not remembering a single word, it was as if these words jumped straight off the page to me– as if they were raining down in sweet drops to my desperate and hungry soul:
“Send Your light and Your truth; let them lead me.” -Psalm 43:3, HCSB
I am comforted by the word “send” for some reason. Maybe because it says to me that if He sends something, all I have to do is receive it.
I’ve always been a good girl, a super-passionate Jesus-chaser and churchgoer… until this year slapped me with a weary reality. Over the past year, I’ve felt like I’ve been barely hanging on. I’m great at acting– superb in fact– I can pretend my way through any situation and put on an “I’m fine” face like nobody’s business. But that’s the thing– I haven’t let it be anybody’s business that I’ve been drained and tired. I haven’t let it be anybody’s business that I’m hurting. I haven’t let it be anybody’s business… not even Jesus’. And that’s my fault, really, not His. In the tornado of motherhood, marital issues, sickness, hospitals, bills, more sickness and pretending to have it together I found myself with the open Word this morning, yearning to let my business be His.
If Jesus sent things solely on the basis of how “good” of a Christian I’ve been… I’m afraid to say that I deserve no such package as His light and His truth. But today– today I felt a glimmer of hope begin to illuminate my cold, protected heart. Like the first gleam of dawn, I feel hope that this season will pass and that His joy really will come this morning; He is sending His light and His truth to lead me.
I’m not sure where and I’m not sure how, exactly, but I feel thrilled knowing that He has already sent it. The more I say it, the more I believe it and the more it washes over my mind, my ears, my thoughts, my heart. He’s sent me His light in this dark season. He’s sent me His truth. And through this confusing time somehow… somehow He’s led me. I won’t pretend to know how or try to explain something I don’t understand, but here– in the stillness of this moment– I know it is coming.
I know it is here.
Erica Pelzel is a wife, mother, and creator of beautiful things. Check out her projects and musings at ericapelzel.com.
a feast of crumbs 