Heart Readers

Written by: Jessica Russo

Co-blogger for Truly Fed Ministries
 

A few weeks ago I attended a fabulous wedding in New Orleans. Lively music, fantastic food, and family were all in one place for this exciting event. There were two little girls there, one a 9 year old cousin of mine, and the other a 7 year old from Norway. The little 7 year old did not speak any English. Together the two girls played games, built jump ropes out of strands of beads, and played tricks on other wedding guests. For several hours they played, laughed, and communicated without speaking.

Watching these children made me think back to Genesis 11 when God separated language. It is written that he separated language in order to place necessary limitations on the people after seeing the enormous tower they were building up to the heavens (Tower of Babel).

Although the separation of language did in fact place limitations on the spoken communication; I wonder if God was also encouraging a deeper communication that surpasses words. Perhaps a communication similar to that which we have with him. When praying I often just sit in silence and go through so many thoughts in my head, communicating my heart without speaking.

Psalm 139:4
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

Wouldn’t it be so much easier if people spoke less with words and more with their actions and their hearts?

All too often I confuse my words and they don’t always accurately reflect what my heart is trying to communicate. Have you ever said something to a friend and they just sit quietly and stare at you, so you follow up with: “Well you know what I mean.” The people in my life that know what I mean even when I speak it wrong I call my “heart readers.”

After studying the communication between the little girls and pondering it for a while, I have challenged myself with three things:

1. Surround myself with my heart readers
2. Take responsibility in showing others my heart so they too can look beyond the words and see my truth.
3. Not to hold others accountable to just the words they speak but to look deeper. I too must become a heart reader.

We can look beyond what our mother, father, children, sibling, spouse, and friends say to us (even when it’s difficult) to find the underlying message, feeling, or issue the words derived from. God separated language because, quite frankly, words get us into trouble but always know the heart never lies. If you are walking with the Lord your heart will never steer you wrong because he is at the wheel.

My prayer for myself and all of you this week is that we communicate our inner truths with open hearts in all we say and do.

Blessings,
Jessica

Squeezing Grapes

I love this picture taken the night before Easter. First of all, I'm sure you can see my granddaughter Reese somehow figured out how to wink for the camera. Pretty amazing for a 2 year old! The second thing I love about this photo is it includes Brooke's boyfriend Mitch, who we got to meet for the first time over the weekend.
He's a casual mix of funny,caring and personable; a perfect blend of attributes to add to this wildly wired family of ours.
Arriving home from the airport he reached into his bag and handed Bobby and I a gift. It was a beautiful book of photographs taken from the vineyards of Sonoma where he lives and works. Picturesque hilltops and valleys draped with acres of vines bursting forth color; drenched in the beauty of luscious grapes. He is a winemaker--schooled in the art of turning fruit into liquid. I quickly became enthralled considering Jesus happened to be a fabulous winemaker Himself.

The day Mitch left I poured over the pages of this book, photo by photo, as I studied the process of grapes becoming wine. The first photos capture the image of barren wooden sticks. Entangled and interwoven, these sticks are the vines that will one day house blossoms of fruit, but truthfully, they look like dead wood for a fire. Lifeless and empty, tangled on the poles meant to help them grow straight.

The next pictures show the beginning of buds. Months of harsh weather, and careful wrapping by the vine keepers have brought about a tiny bud that can hardly be seen with the eye. The buds don't look anything like grapes. As a matter of fact, they look like tiny beads of sweat on the unshaven face of a man. So fragile, that with the wipe of a tissue they might fall off the branch and dissolve in mid-air.

Now comes the sun, shining through the camera lens as though a new carpet of life has been laid over the barren rug of sticks and buds. Tiny balls of green and purple hang off the branches like toy prizes in a gumball machine. Round and plump, the acres of land host rows of purple mixed with the rich hue of green; leaves that nestle the grapes like a mama nestles her child.

The final pictures show the calloused hands of the vine dresser carrying the grapes to their final stage before fulfilling their ultimate purpose. The vine dresser places the grapes in a machine that squeezes them until they can't be recognized as grapes any longer. If grapes could cry, their tears would splash all over the drone of this machine as it takes them from their branches, and pushes them to be something far different than what they started as.

As I looked with awe at the stunning process of wine making, I was reminded that this is exactly what God does in our lives. From tangled branches that look like dead wood, to the tiny buds of new life--we begin to develop and grow. Just when we feel pretty good, and seem to look good too--it's time for the vine dresser to squeeze us so we become even more useful.

The great writer and teacher Oswald Chamber says "If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us that counts. It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us. Spiritually, we cannot measure our lives by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all."


I don't think it's any accident that the first miracle of Jesus was to take shapeless, tasteless water--and make it valuable wine. Our lives are like that wine...to be enjoyed by many and celebrated by all. Wine squeezed and cared for by the vine dresser Himself.

Blessings!

Gari

Pick up that cast and walk

Written by: Jessica Russo

Co-blogger for Truly Fed Ministries
 
After my rambunctious red-headed three year old leaped off the top of the play equipment at the park (on Leap Day nonetheless), we were off to the ER with a broken leg. A tiny camouflaged cast was placed on his leg and we were given a little boot for him to use to walk. Although I felt sad for my little maverick I couldn’t help but notice how incredibly cute the cast was.

Once we returned home he adapted quickly to life on his stomach. He crawled like a crab for a solid week. The thing that intrigued me most was the fact that he never complained or asked if he would walk again. He seemed perfectly happy with this new way of life. My thought was to attach a Swiffer to his shirt and let him clean some floors with all that scooting around on his belly but my husband had had enough of it. In a gentle but stern voice (that voice that fathers are so good at but mothers never quite master) he said, “Get up and walk.” Fear struck my son’s eyes and I realized it wasn’t that he was perfectly happy to crab-crawl for the rest of his life; it was that he was content to remain down because he was too fearful of the pain of getting back up.

Again in the daddy voice he said, “Your leg is fine son. Get up and walk.” Without question, and through his fear, he got up and walked. His little blue eyes were dancing with excitement as he ran over and thanked his father.

In John 5 Jesus sees a Man at the Pool of Bethesda that lay on a mat sick for 38 years:
8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.

What strikes me about this is the fact that Jesus told the man to pick up his bed and carry it with him. Almost as if he was saying: Get up, take charge of that which has held you down, and move on!

This week I leave you with this to fill in as you choose for your own life:

Rise, take up your ______________, and walk

There are countless things that once were issues or ailments but now are just fears in my life. I could fill this blank with such things as:
-Insecurity
-Sadness of a lost loved one
-Issues with food
-Shame

I could go on and on as I’m sure we all could.

Well needless to say God has healed my little fingerprint and he is back to his mischievous and reckless ways.

God heals and we rise, pick up that cast, and walk……..
Blessings,
Jessica

New Beginnings

This morning I woke up and went straight to my knees to pray. I'm not sharing this to sound impressively spiritual, because the reason I fell to my knees has nothing to do with that. I was suddenly reminded that this is the week we celebrate the cross, and I have spent far too little time pondering it.
As the wife of a professional baseball coach, this week marks opening day (which happens to fall on Easter weekend) and with family flying in to celebrate the ceremonious start to another baseball season, Easter was sadly pushed to the back of my mind...until this morning.

This morning I prayerfully walked through the days leading to the cross. Like a DVD playing through the mental files of my mind, I saw Jesus praying in the garden; shaking and sweating as He realized what He was about to do. I saw his friends, Peter, James and John wiping the sleep out of their eyes as they realized Jesus looked different. He was drenched with a holy perspiration as He told them it was time to go. "Go where?" they probably wondered as the guards came for Jesus. Peter was so confused that he wildly cut one of their ears off.

The part of Easter that bothers me most is the fact that Jesus was made fun of, spit on, and whipped. I hate bullies...and it seems that the most violent kind of bullies were set on destroying Him, as they placed a crown of thorns into His head and pushed so hard that the thorns made his forhead bleed. What had He ever done but heal, love, and speak truth?

Finally comes the cross, splintered and heavy

Rough Stones to Precious Gems

In an effort to provide affordable but exciting entertainment, my seven year old and I headed to the local toy store to see what trouble we could get into. We spotted a rock tumbler on display. On the box it read, “changes rough stones into beautiful high-luster semi-precious gemstones.” So basically, the process was to place the rock in the tumbler with other rocks and/or a grit substance. As the tumbler turns the rocks fall, crash together, and are rubbed by the grit. When the once rough and jagged rocks emerge from the tumbler they are smooth and polished.

Watching this process was intriguing. The more friction these rocks came into contact with, the more beautiful they became. My thoughts turned to my own life and the trials I come up against. As Christians, we are to use our hardships and any friction in our lives to polish ourselves and grow more beautiful to the Lord.

Paul spoke of the thorn in his flesh, a messenger from Satan that was sent to torment him. He begged the Lord to take it away:
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Delight in weaknesses??? Hmmmm. So what does that mean? In times of trial typically the last thing on my mind is how I can grow from the situation. However, the Lord is not expecting that we jump for joy when something terrible happens. He is asking that we find the will of God in these situations and use them to beautify and polish our souls.

For when I am weak, then I am strong??? More strength is required to stand up from being knocked down than to remain standing without adversity. The rocks in the tumbler did not break, they changed. The act of changing requires more strength than deciding to give up.
To illustrate my point (and add a bit of humor) I found this cute comic about a lump of coal:

May we all use the friction and adversity in our lives to change from rough stones into beautiful high-luster precious gems.
“….for my power is made perfect in weakness….”
Blessings,
Jessica

Wandering and Wondering...Is there a Purpose?

I love this time of year. In our family it's referred to as "spring training time." When you live life on a baseball calendar you don't count time like normal people do. Our year is explained as a season...and that season is split into three sections: the pre-season (spring training), the season (games count and the pressure is on) and the off-season (breathe, regroup, and get to know your family again). Spring training is one of my favorite times of the year because it holds new beginnings. Regardless of what the past year held, there's the excitement of a fresh chance to be great.

This year has been especially sweet for Bobby and I as our spring training home is in Orlando, Florida. Of course, Orlando is great for many reasons (a little black mouse with big ears being one of them), but Bobby and I had a moment of clarity a few nights ago as we pulled up to a stop light. He practically gasped as he looked out the window to a building on our right. "I know that place!" he said, with a voice filled with bewilderment. I looked out the window and saw a fancy restaurant called Japanese Steak House facing us. "Have you eaten there?" I asked, thinking that it looked a little rich for our lean budget. "No, that's not it..." Bobby replied, deep in thought. Suddenly it came to him, "I cleaned carpets in that place late one night." Both of us scrunched our eyebrows as we recalled a time in our lives much different than what we were living now.

After Bobby retired as a ballplayer, we immediately took a job coaching in the minor leagues of baseball. We thought it would be a short stint, after all, how hard can it be to make it to the big leagues as a coach? Sixteen years later we still found ourselves in the minor leagues. During this time Bobby and I both took on several jobs to make ends meet. Our memory of this steakhouse came to focus as we recalled selling our home in New York, putting our belongings in storage, and renting a small apartment with our kids in Orlando. Our girls Brooke and Ally were in Kindergarten and first grade, while Colton was a blankie toting 2 year old. Bobby would coach in the day for the Kansas City Royals, and then work for a carpet cleaning company at night. We almost cried as we realized we could now eat at a place that formally we could only clean the carpets of.

Sometimes I think life mirrors the experience of the Israelites, who wandered in the desert for a few decades before entering a land that promised a different type of life. They wandered because they weren't ready; and it was in their wandering that they learned to trust God. I know that Bobby and I wandered in our desert for 16 years because God wanted to cleanse, purify, recreate, and commission our hearts for His glory. Any other agenda simply won't do.

If you find yourself wandering today... stuck in a job that seems like a dead-end, raising a child that doesn't learn good lessons, loving someone that doesn't love you back, feeling lonely and looking for a greater purpose--may I encourage you with the words God spoke over those that wandered and were about to enter a new land? He simply said "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

No matter where you find yourself today, He sees your wandering, and will bring you to a new land when you're ready. Don't fight your wandering, but rather, thank God for it. It's often in the wandering that we see God's purpose take shape...even if it includes cleaning carpet to get there.

Blessings!
Gari

Reach, Receive, and React

Living on a farm in Texas was the slow and sweet kind of upbringing where buttermilk was a staple ingredient, you meet up at the church house 3 times a week, and the men all smell of cut grass and farm animals. It was a peaceful place. The land stretched out for miles and there were no neighbors in sight. It was a simple but beautiful childhood and I could not WAIT to get out of there. I had big dreams that required the opportunities and amenities of the big city. At college I found a nice city boy to lift my veil and I was on my way. Ten years went by and I found myself wrangling two misfit boys and wondering what the next plans were for my life. I started a spiritual journey that I am excited to share and continue with you all.

I reached out to the Lord in prayer to ask for direction and clarity. There was never a time in my life that I didn’t know God. Spiritual teaching and bible doctrine had been poured over me from the time I was born. There was no drama that led me to the Lord. No personal testimony there for me to share with others. So what was my spiritual path? What could I use to bring others to the Kingdom of God?

Isaian 30:19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

No matter where you are in your life reach out to God in prayer. He has promised to answer when we seek direction or clarity.

But what happens if we miss the answer?

When we pray the same prayer without ceasing we must open our minds and hearts and prepare to receive the answers. In my case, a sweet Christian Woman by the name of Gari Meacham asked if I would like to co-write this blog with her. I was so excited to have the opportunity to share my spiritual journey with you all and hopefully share in your journeys as well.

My Grandmother used to tell me the story of a man who was falling from a building and prayed “Lord please save me.” His coat caught on a nail and stopped his fall and he said “Never mind Lord this nail caught me”.

Seize the opportunities that cross our paths and always be vigilant to what message the Lord is trying to send us.

Isaian 30:21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Once we recognize and receive the answers or direction from God we must then react.
No matter where you are in your life, how many people you know or don’t know, or how functional or dysfunctional your life has been we all have lessons to teach and hands to reach out to others. If you know the next step in your spiritual journey share it with others. You might just be the inspiration or motivation they need in that moment. If you are still looking for your direction and clarity it starts in prayer. Reach out to the Lord, he has promised to answer.

This blog is my first step to react to the answers and direction I have received. I am so excited about this journey and even more excited that you all are a part of it.

Blessings,
Jessica