Come Sit With MeSample

I showed up to our unexpected Thanksgiving dinner still carrying old wounds crusted over with the scab of time. I came with my guard partly up and plenty of skepticism stuffed in my back pocket. But I came to the table. And so did my mother, my father, and my sisters. Sometimes just showing up is the beginning to building new bridges of connection. Showing up with a hefty dose of humility helps.

Humility says I’m willing to give the other person the benefit of the doubt.

Humility says being right or even being heard is not the most important thing.

Humility says I’m going to do my best to love well regardless of how someone else chooses to respond.

I didn’t hear those exact words come out of anyone’s mouth that November night, but each person’s actions spoke volumes. And God’s voice in our midst was the loudest. I’m not sure who else heard Him, but I couldn’t ignore the tender, relentless assurance of the Spirit saying, See Me. See how I’m doing the impossible. See how I’m answering prayers you didn’t even know to pray. See how I’m infusing hope and life and healing into your family in ways you never could have imagined.

Perhaps that’s what the Holy Spirit is whispering to you today. Maybe He’s urging you to take a close look at what Paul says about how God meets us in our places of weakness:

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.” (Rom. 8:26–27 NLT)

Growing up in a divorced and dysfunctional family certainly seemed like a weakness. Feeling powerless in navigating emotionally charged relationships with my parents usually left me bleary with tears and hopelessness. Often I didn’t even know how to pray. Yet I see now with hope-restored clarity that God never left me. He was working on my behalf all along.

If you look at a circumstance or relationship in your life and feel sure that the pain and strife of today will always be this way; if you’ve lost hope that any glimmer of redemption is possible because the rift of bitterness and unforgiveness runs too deep; if you think the people in your life will never be able to change—that you’ll never be able to let go, move forward, find healing—ask the Holy Spirit to groan on your behalf. Ask the God of the impossible, the God of the unimaginable to intercede. He just might want to give you an opportunity to extend an unexpected invitation, accept one, or simply show up.

Friend, I don’t know what relational bridges in your life feel too broken to rebuild. I don’t know what emotional injuries from the past are still wreaking havoc on your heart or your holidays. But I know that God is with you. I know that what seems impossible today can change by His power. I also know that He asks us to partner with Him. He asks us to come with love and humility. To follow His lead and open our hearts to the possibility that He just might want to do more than we could ask or imagine. It won’t always be comfortable. The tension might be thicker than your mom’s lumpy gravy. But sitting together with a shared, tender hope for a fresh outpouring of healing and grace is worth it.

-by Becky Keife