Is grace happening to you?
Is grace happening in you?
Is grace happening through you?

I’ve been stuck emotionally and spiritually more than I’d like to admit. Raise your hand if you can relate? Okay, we’re all “not alone.” But, let’s not stay stuck!

Looking to take a step forward in your life?

Want your actions to more closely match your intentions?

Me too!

Each of the themes below links to a previous mysilentscream post that has been helpful to readers looking to make a change. 1

Love – Tired of empty expressions of “love”?

God transforms. God heals. God restores. God does so in my life and can do so in yours.

Max Lucado wrote, let grace, let God, “so seep into the crusty cracks of your life that everything softens. Then let it, let him, bubble to the surface, like a spring in the Sahara, in words of kindness and deeds of generosity.”

God will change you, my friend.

“Jesus’ death is the means to new life for others…suffering is an avenue for God’s life to transform situations.” 1

I meet many people in my work. The vast majority of the people I meet are generally normal people. Children are children. Teens are teens. Adults are adults.

I live in a community in which the high school is populated by about seventy-percent “people of color.” Generally speaking I like people different than me.

Across from me is the other kind of person.
I have really tried to like that person, but woah!

Background

I’ve known her family for about twenty years. I’ve been in their house. I’ve pet their dog, talked to their cat, spent time with her parents, and gotten to know her siblings. I have tried to like her, but woah.

Sometimes it’s a challenging to feel safe enough to share our true feelings with others.

We fear the rejection, the judgment of others.

Sharing our feelings helps us.

When we share positive feelings we increase our positive self-regard. When we share our heavy feelings we often decrease the emotional weight we had been carrying alone. Sharing our feelings also helps us to build deeper relationships with people you care about and people who care about you.

In my experience connecting with God has been transformative.

Recently a friend posted on Facebook: “Remember that we are human. Before you judge us or decide how you’ll deal with us, walk awhile in our shoes. If you choose to judge us still, we have one request. Take the time to learn the facts, then judge us for who we are and not for who you think we are.”

I know I won’t see you do this, but by a show of hands, who has had to face a challenge bravely even though other people didn’t understand?

While you were facing that situation, what feelings did you experience?

Yesterday as Josh Groban walked toward me I smiled and thought to myself, I wonder if he’ll pause look around the room and ask, “Whose writing all those mysilentscream posts about my songs?”

If you missed those posts, here they are:
Hidden Away
Our Hiding
Secrets & Hiding
Secrets: As If.

Josh Groban and TreeHouse
False Alarms by Josh Groban
Brave by Josh Groban
War At Home by Josh Groban
If I Walk Away by Josh Groban

Human Trafficking and The Prayer by Josh Groban
Believe by Josh Groban
You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban
You Are Loved (Don’t Give Up) by Josh Groban

Reader JenniferMacLeod[~= @JenMacAtlGA82 recommended that Josh Groban’s “You Are Loved (Don’t Give Up)” be included in this series.

I had forgotten about the song, and when I watched the video I fought back tears.

Watch You Are Loved (Don’t Give Up) here. (Lyrics below)

I cannot begin to tell you how accurately this song describes what I have experienced at TreeHouse since 1989.
– Teens lost, lonely, and screaming-longingly to feel heard.
– Parents seeking, searching, and silently-longing to be encouraged.
– Friends hoping, hurting, and helping their friends limp along.
– Youth ministers, teachers, counselors, politicians and police officers looking for solutions.
Every week I see the looks on people’s faces when they feel heard and find hope.

I love Josh Groban’s song You Raise Me Up
Give it a listen:

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

Today’s insightful guest post comes from our friend Angi of peepsarecool fame. Angi and her husband Aaron have a beautiful daughter Anika. I’m her proud godfather.

Hey – Angi’s work friends – pass this around. She shares my thoughts with you, please share her insights with others!

Here’s Angi:

Today I put in an “old school” CD, and brought Anika to child care. It was Michael W. Smith’s Go West Young Man.

The song that I was blessed with was “Seed to Sow.” 1

I sang to Anika and then sang to myself on the way to the bus stop.

I gave out my cell phone number to a new friend this week.

As soon as I shared my number I felt obligated to explain a few things:
– I don’t answer very often
– I don’t text back very quickly
– I don’t answer when I’m busy
– I don’t respond to people who call or text repeatedly

A few years ago I decided it was easier to explain this list of annoyances when I share my number than to have to make apologies.