He wasn't made for this world and neither are you....

So much of Easter is spent focusing on Jesus's broken body, and rightly so. It paints the most graphic picture. It is vivid. It is gory. It is detailed. It is physical.

We can see the physical stuff with our own eyes. We can use our 5 senses to sympathize what it must have been like: the nails, the thorn, the blood. Part of us winces in pain when the story is told. We gently run our fingers over our wrist and imagine where the holes in Jesus’s hands must have been and how much weight they had to hold.

But today, I can't stop thinking about Jesus's broken heart.

I can’t stop thinking about the part of Jesus that can only be seen with the heart of someone who’s felt the agony of being alone. The weight of the pain and loneliness and rejection he was forced to suffer.
It’s not like one group of people hated him. It’s not like one section of society hated him. It’s not like one clique chose not to invite Him out to lunch. The whole world hated Him. Deeply, deeply hated.

The whole world mocked him, the whole world cast him aside. The whole world gossiped about him, and gawked at him, and left him out to dry. He didn't belong with the elites. He didn't belong with the religious. He was the ultimate outcast. He was the ultimate outsider. He was the ultimate exiled.

He was there to help them, and all they did was hurt him.

He had one, small band of followers and on the night before his death, even they abandoned him. Even they denied him. Even they threw their friend/teacher/brother under the bus during his darkest hour. All he asked was for them to stay awake and pray with him, and they couldn’t do it. Then when the time came, they deserted him.

At his absolute lowest, he was alone.

Do you know why the Lord is close to the broken-hearted? Because on that day, in that hour, He was broken hearted.

When you feel left out, when you feel unappreciated, unliked, unpopular and misunderstood, cling to Jesus. When you feel like people have disappointed you. When you feel like people have taken who you truly are and twisted it. When you feel unfairly treated. When you feel unjustly picked on. When you feel like there is no one you can turn to, cling to Jesus.

Cling to the man whose body was bruised, whose limbs were torn, whose heart was trampled on for you and for me. Cling to the man who gets it because he’s been there and he’s done that.

Don’t walk, don't dally, don't drag your feet. Run to Jesus's arms and when you get there, don't let go. Pray for His unending mercy and grace and love to wash over you and spill into you: every nook, every cranny, every deep and hurting hole.

The world may not get you. The world may not accept you. The world may not like you. The world may not include you in their party of who’s who and what’s what and where’s where.

But that's okay, my friend. Take heart. They didn't like Him either. He wasn't made for this world, and neither are you.

Dear me, I am sorry...

I'm so very sorry I did not love you like you deserved to be loved.


www.facebook.com/reel/2075415382810795

LADIES ONLY!!!!!!

Anyone know what the hell he was saying...i was a little distracted......


www.facebook.com/100087925429356/videos/3528938990651178

Handle With Care.

Every woman I know has,
at one point or another,
sobbed in the shower
cried in the car
swallowed down tears in the supermarket
and broken down in the bathroom.

And then she has dried her eyes, lifted her head,
taken a deep breath
and carried on.

She has walked into work
or in through the front door
or into the store or the coffee shop or the hair salon.
And she has smiled and chatted to people so that no one would know she’d been crying.

And I’m not reminding us of this to say
“look how strong we are to pull ourselves together when we are falling apart”. Although that still stands.

I’m reminding us how easy it is to paint on a brave face so that other people are none the wiser.

So while it might not have been you sitting in the car crying this morning, it might have been that woman who sits three desks down from you.

While it might not have been you sobbing in the shower before getting the kids ready for school this morning, it might have been their teacher. Or another parent on the school run.

While you might have gotten round the supermarket without being on the verge of tears today, it might not be the same for the person working the till. Or the person behind you in the queue.

Everyone wears their brave face in public.

And we’ll never really know just how many people around us have pulled themselves together with the thinnest of threads each morning. How many people are ready to fall apart again at any point.

But compassion strengthens those threads.
Compassion is powerful.
Because even when no one can see it,
even when no one can hear it…

They can feel it.

Grounded

Have you ever thought about this?
In 100 years like in 2123 we will all be buried with our relatives and friends.

Strangers will live in our homes we fought so hard to build, and they will own everything we have today. All our possessions will be unknown and unborn, including the car we spent a fortune on, and will probably be scrap, preferably in the hands of an unknown collector.

Our descendants will hardly or hardly know who we were, nor will they remember us. How many of us know our grandfather's father?

After we die, we will be remembered for a few more years, then we are just a portrait on someone's bookshelf, and a few years later our history, photos and deeds disappear in history's oblivion. We won't even be memories.

If we paused one day to analyze these questions, perhaps we would understand how ignorant and weak the dream to achieve it all was. If we could only think about this, surely our approaches, our thoughts would change, we would be different people.

Always having more, no time for what's really valuable in this life. I'd change all this to live and enjoy the walks I've never taken, these hugs I didn't give, these kisses for our children and our loved ones, these jokes we didn't have time for. Those would certainly be the most beautiful moments to remember, after all they would fill our lives with joy.

And some of us waste it day after day with greed, selfishness and intolerance.

Every minute of life is priceless and will never be repeated, so take time to enjoy, be grateful for, and celebrate your existence.

Sabotage

Let me introduce you
To a woman that I know
She hears my every thought
And follows everywhere I go

She wakes me up abruptly sometimes
When I’m fast asleep
And keeps me up for hours
Whilst she taunts and laughs at me

She takes joy in convincing me
That I am hard to love
That if I’m less than perfect
Then I’ll never be enough

She shakes the ground I stand on
And talks down what I achieve
She highlights all my flaws to me
And tells me I’m naïve

She battles with my confidence
And wrestles with my pride
She’s like a double agent
But she’s never on my side

And she knows just how to sabotage
By sowing seeds of doubt
And arguing with logic
In a voice that likes to shout

And you’d think I wouldn’t listen
That I’d turn and walk away
But it’s so hard to ignore her
When she knows just what to say

In ways that make me question
Things I’ve thought and done and said
You see, she is an imposter
And she lives inside my head

Becky Hemsley 2022
Artwork by Hayk Shalunts

You've got no time to waste.....

One time I met a man
Who only had a month to live
And I asked him if he had
Any advice that he could give

He said “I wake each morning
Knowing I am going to die
So each day must remind me
I am blessed to be alive

You see, my life’s on countdown
As each hour is unfurled
I know the clock is ticking
On my time here in this world

But what you’re overlooking
Is that it’s the same for you -
You know that I am dying
But forget that you are too

So make the most of sunshine
And go dancing in the rain
And sing a little louder
When your favorite music plays

Notice nature’s colors,
Savor everything you taste
Stop waiting for tomorrow
Cause you’ve got no time to waste

And could you say convincingly
That you’d have no regrets?
If just the next few days or weeks
Were all that you had left?

And then my breath caught quickly
When he turned to me and asked
“Could you say that you died happy
If this day had been your last?”

The Way People View You.....

The way people view you.

Sometimes I think about the different characters I play in everybody’s story.
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I’m a terrible person in some people's narratives and a Godsend in others.
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And none of it has anything to do with the person I truly am.
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The lens that others view you through is coloured by their upbringing, beliefs, and individual experiences.
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Some people see your bright personality as endearing and others see it as annoying.
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Some people think you’re weak and emotional and others feel safe to be themselves around you.
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Some people think you’re rude and selfish and others respect the way you stand up for yourself.
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Some people admire the way you take pride in the way you look and others think you’re conceited.
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And none of it has to do with who you truly are as a person.
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What you have to understand is that you have no authority over how people view you so never try to control the way others see you because the only thing that truly matters when the dust settles down at the end of the day is what you genuinely see in yourself.

Cody Bret

Art: unknown

Watermelon Art

I love these...

Are you Unforgiven II.....

These guys have no idea how many lives they saved with their music...including mine

There are no words to describe what they mean to me:
JAMES
Kirk
Lars
Cliff
Jason
Robert

I take this key and I bury it in you
Because you're Unforgiven, too



Lay beside me
Tell me what they've done
Speak the words I wanna hear
To make my demons run

The door is locked now
But it's opened if you're true
If you can understand the me
Then I can understand the you

Lay beside me, under wicked sky
Through black of day, dark of night
We share this, paralysed

The door cracks open
But there's no sun shining through
Black heart scarring darker still
But there's no sun shining through
No, there's no sun shining through
No, there's no sun shining

What I've felt, what I've known
Turn the pages, turn the stone
Behind the door, should I open it for you?
Yeah, what I've felt, what I've known
Sick and tired, I stand alone
Could you be there?
'Cause I'm the one who waits for you
Or are you unforgiven too?

Come lay beside me
This won't hurt, I swear
She loves me not, she loves me still
But she'll never love again
She laid beside me but she'll be there when I'm gone
Black heart scarring darker still

Yes, she'll be there when I'm gone
Yes, she'll be there when I'm gone
Dead sure she'll be there

What I've felt, what I've known
Turn the pages, turn the stone
Behind the door, should I open it for you?

Yeah, what I've felt, what I've known
Sick and tired, I stand alone
Could you be there? '
Cause I'm the one who waits for you
Or are you unforgiven too?

Lay beside me
Tell me what I've done
The door is closed, so are your eyes
But now I see the sun
Now I see the sun
Yes, now I see it

What I've felt, what I've known
Turn the pages, turn the stone
Behind the door, should I open it for you?
Yeah, what I've felt, what I've known
So sick and tired of staying alone
Could you be there?
'Cause I'm the one who waits
The one who waits for you

What I've felt, what I've known
Turn the pages, turn the stone
Behind the door, should I open it for you? (So I dub thee unforgiven)

Oh, what I've felt Oh, what I've known
I take this key (never free)
And I bury it (never me) in you
Because you're unforgiven, too (Never free, never me) '
Cause you're unforgiven, too