So, I really wanted to start this post with: Lord Willing and the Amite River Don’t Rise. But here’s the thing. In spite of the reference to the well-known phrase: God willing and the Creek don’t rise {or creak for most}, I can’t type the incorrect grammar as the title. Just can’t do it. Lord Willing and the Amite River Doesn’t Rise—yea. It loses it’s ring. A quick Google search also reveals that the original meaning is indeed Creek referring to the Indian tribe. So there’s that. So that title is out and Breathe it is. Our souls are begging for it. So are our lungs for that matter, but clearly I am digressing . . . Moving on.

Yesterday morning I woke to the forcing of the cuff to the blood pressure machine around my arm. Joe worked clumsily at straightening my legs and tightening the cuff with little help from me. I mean. He lifted my arm to allow him to adjust the thing and I plopped it right back down. I had no energy to help, no energy to fight him off. A quick reveal of my low heart rate that’s hung on all week, seemingly contributing to making me “all weak”, was followed by Joe’s nudge for me to get up and get dressed. He was dragging me to a clinic against my will. I fought him, cried for sleep. I literally cried. Let. Me. Sleep. In spite of the previous days of not much more than sleep and rest and then some more sleep and rest, I just wanted rest. This only compelled him all the more to have his wife checked out. He’s protective and I love him for it. Even if I didn’t want to get up, get dressed, and visit some clinic with no health insurance in the midst of a healthcare system gone wild. Perhaps I should continue my previous series of The Journey of the Uninsured. But I’m too tired for that. Did I mention I was tired?

A morning at Lake After Hours O’Neal Lane made me miss Dr. Abide and the Denham Springs Urgent Care clinic that I call my doctor’s office. Dr. Abide might as well be my PCP and I’m praying his office comes back. He is one of many in this city needed by our community. Now there’s a “Closed Until Further Notice” announcement on his door. So Lake After Hours, it was. No in house labs, they send there’s off. Dr. Abide has me spoiled. No extra equipment, so a clear EKG and negative strep test meant labs done and sent out, but with a STAT, thank you very much, Mr. Clinic doc. I received the call back today. Labs all clear. I’m left with good reports but continued, although slightly improved, fatigue. So find a PCP, they say. Jesus is my PCP, I reply. I didn’t really say that. But  I wanted to.

For the past week, since church Sunday, after a strange episode of stomach pain that abruptly ended two hours later, I’ve been wiped slap out. Out of commission. Closed for business. You get the point. My body begged rest. Surrender didn’t come so easily for my mind. And in spite of the lack of confirmation or clarity on what in the round world is going on with my body, I am certain of this: Rest is what is needed  so very desperately. For me, this week, I’ve been forced to rest and I’ve resigned the fight. Much like my stay in Ecuador, I found myself in a place of being forced to stop. Slow. Rest. Ecuador provided the setting for the Lord’s beautiful Truth to unfold. Funny thing—the flood happened and I didn’t need to be here to effectively help. The plans the LORD had for His people, my people. people in need of Him, well. They unfolded just fine without me. And this week, another funny thing. Life happened all around in spite of my lack of strength or contribution to its daily activities. Suddenly I’m realizing I’m like Elijah. I saw God move in Ecuador and I’ve seen Him move here at home post-flood. So who do I think I am that life cannot continue if I sign the check-out sheet? Is it possible I’ve thought just like Elijah? Oh LORD, I, even I alone, am here to help these people. Seriously? I just needed to get over myself, already, and be still. Be still. Know that He is God.

Tonight kicked off Priscilla Shirer’s Bible Study—Breathe—with some amazing women.

How incredibly fitting. Not only for this week, but after a long season for me of the unveiling of grace and the rest that the LORD compels us to, and now for our city, this study is so vital.

Clear lab results have left me grateful but bewildered. What in this round world is going on? Causing low heart rate, fatigue? That is completely rhetorical as I am surrendering it all to the Maker of “me.” Today I let go of the undone list of this past week and I ignored the ant carnage surrounding the perimeter of our master bath. I rested, refused to succumb to the frustration over lack of clarity. This season has proved to be a faith walk amplified. We are stepping into 24 hour periods of knowing very little of what is to unfold the day ahead. And that . . . that’s a good thing. The trap that is our need or obligation to see ahead to plan accordingly has been stripped away revealing the lie that it is. Yes, we make our plans. But the LORD, He directs our paths. He has called His people to rest. Every single thing He has for us is a rest. Salvation is a rest from our works of the law, that is also a lie that we buy, cleverly disguised as our so called obedience. We just can’t fulfill it and that’s why Christ came, that’s why He took our place. His grace is a beautiful rest in which effective work spills from giving Him all the glory. His Spirit and the gifts that flow out of His baptism, also beautiful rest. {Isaiah 28:11} Of these Truths, I can testify time and time again. And this week—I can testify once again! No wonder the enemy fights both of these gifts with such fierce opposition.

As a result of this rest, strength has poured in once again. Tonight I joined some amazing women for this timely teaching and had some more Truth poured right in. And that! The returning and resting that Isaiah continues to talk about in chapter 30, the receiving of these beautiful gifts, has done far more for me than any earthly physician.

When all the world has lured us to a life of toilsome grind, when the church still largely points us back to ourselves and our overly glamorized obedience, when the city sits among ruin begging for incessant action—the LORD compels us to rest in Him first and cease from our grind. Then! THEN, effective work will follow, it will flow. And He will get all the glory.

Hear Him calling today. Breathe. Breathe in beautiful grace. Feed on beautiful Truth. Rest on the finished work of Jesus Christ. And let’s watch Him move, NOT by our might. NOT by our power. But by His Spirit. {Zechariah 4:6} And then, all of those things we think we need to be doing, let’s Trust if the Lord’s willing and the Amite “won’t” rise—they’ll get done.

As Priscilla Shirer so beautifully said regarding the part we play: “We have many resources; but there’s only One source.”

But first, before we do anything, just breathe.