Tip the Scales by Jacqueline Hooks
Jacqueline Hooks is our guest blogger today. This is what she says about herself and her ministry: “I am an everyday ordinary gal who started following Jesus less than a decade ago, and has fallen madly in love with the Carpenter King who saved my life and my marriage. My husband and I are raising “four holy moly messes” (Jake 10, Jude 9, Grace 7 and Joshua 1). I am technically a stay at home mom, but I rarely find myself at home, and the soap opera and bon bon life hasn’t found its way into my living room just yet. I do occasionally allow for a small celebration when all the laundry is clean AND folded at the SAME TIME on the SAME DAY…and that is typically twice a decade.
In 2012, God called me to begin Pruning Hooks Ministry. Pruning Hooks is a grass roots group of “Everyday ordinary women serving Jesus allowing their everyday ordinary lives to become extraordinary”. It is a ministry founded on the principal that Jesus wants your daily life, and following Him is a lifestyle of loving and serving and walking with Jesus…no event needed…just a Savior and our hands and feet. Jesus has called us to serve lunch and breakfast five days a week to Generation One Academy, provide monthly meals to residents of medical housing, love on teen moms in our area, help and encourage single moms and meet the needs of anyone God places in our path. Pruning Hooks gathers each month to listen to an ordinary woman share her Jesus Story which always encourages and reminds us how our amazing God works inside the every day. Because He wants our everyday …plain and simple.
And I write. Writing has been the tool Jesus gave me from the very beginning of my life to navigate every treacherous road I have walked. There are boxes of poetry notebooks and short stories stashed somewhere in my mom’s attic to prove it. My hope is that my words inspire and encourage you to see Jesus in your everyday too. He is right here waiting for each of us, in the daily mess, hoping we see He wants so much more from us and for us than we could ever imagine. I pray my writing will lead you to Him.”
Visit Jacqueline’s website at: http://www.pruninghooks.com or like her on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pruning-Hooks-Ministries/173578226122133
I am a Failure.
I Have Failed Completely the Last Few Years.
And I Think It Is Safe to Say This Failing Will Continue.
I am Not Living a Balanced Life.
At All.
And I am So OK With It.
I fell asleep on the couch again last night…watching Sons of Anarchy…judge me if you need to judge me…I have definitely learned that organized crime doesn’t pay and won’t be joining a biker gang anytime soon. Yesterday was a huge and jam packed day. Yesterday was filled with waking up and starting laundry and dishes, feeding and “gently urging” four children to get dressed and leave the house for school. Yesterday I ran with my friend, Susi, so we can actually not die during a 5k in a few weeks.
Yesterday 14 women came to my house for two hours and made calls to 120 trafficked girls sold on the internet. 120 girls were told Jesus loves them and given a hotline and possible freedom. Yesterday I ran to Hobby Lobby just in the nick of time to get bandanas for my son’s birthday party this weekend.
Yesterday 11 little girls took over my house as they had a Brownie meeting in my living room…my kitchen…my bedrooms…and my porch…they were everywhere. Yesterday was Open House for my 2nd grader, and I drug all four kids (minus my husband who has a crazy work week this week) to go look at Grace’s art and accomplishments, and we all made it home for baked potato soup in the crockpot. Thank the Lord for crockpots. Yesterday we had a family meeting about all 3 older kiddo’s grades, and there were tears and honest answers and learning how to accept responsibility when you are wrong. Yesterday during bath time my husband ran to the store to find shoes for our 2 year old and cargo pants for our almost 11 year old who grew out of everything yesterday. Yesterday. Yesterday ended with me falling asleep on the couch, holding my husband’s hand, who woke me up as I mumbled that I was never ever going to join a biker gang. And drifted off to sleep in my footie pajamas which make me way too happy.
And That is Just One Day.
And There Are Tons More Days Coming…
And Don’t Even Think About the Holidays.
And Y’all Might Just Live My Yesterday Everyday…
And Y’all It Is So OK…and I am Happy…And I am Not Too Busy.
And the scales have tipped. And there is no such thing as balance anymore. There is no such thing as balance when everything is important and high priority and Jesus given. There is no such thing as balance when you have already taken all the fluff and not-important-to-you things off the list. There is no balance when every step of the way is important to God, and it all has to get done, so, it all gets done. It all has an expiration date so it cannot expire. This is following Jesus most days for me. The cost is just plain high. The cost is often the balance you hear other people talk about. The balance you’re supposed to strive for to make your life better…easier…more enjoyable. The balance that helps you pretend your time is your time or your life is your life…The balance that seems to be the answer to nearly everything.
This Following Jesus.
It Is Not Balanced.
This Following Jesus is All the Time.
It is More than Daily.
It is Every Moment.
And y’all, I am tired, but let me say this again, I am happy. I am exhausted and overdone in many moments, but my life is abundant and rich. And sometimes the laundry piles up, and then I have to play catch up. And sometimes we just use paper plates because I am tired of washing dishes. And sometimes I feed everyone chicken nuggets so the time we have to sit and talk is more. And we take a short cut here and there…but the BIG stuff is really everywhere and sometimes the shortcuts are nowhere to be found and you will fall asleep on the couch three nights in a row and live in the knowledge that this “busy” everyone talks about really isn’t for you at all…it is life…and it is beautiful. And y’all, it is so important.
And this Big Full Rich Life is Inconvenient.
And There Are So Many People Who Truly Need Us.
And There is So Much Work to be Done.
Take Out All the Stuff that Doesn’t Matter.
And There is Still So Much Stuff that Does Matter.
It’s Hard Y’all.
But It is So Good.
When Jesus officially began His ministry, He spoke in the temple. He read from the scriptures and chose to describe His ministry…what He had come to do in His time here on earth. It’s a tall order:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)
That is an enormous ministry. It was a daily ministry. It was transformational and huge. It is all encompassing and all consuming and a whole bunch to take on…but this is what Jesus came to do. He even did these things on the Sabbath (the day of rest) and this got Him in loads of trouble with church officials. Even when His entire culture said “rest”, He didn’t rest if there was someone in need of love and healing right in front of Him. Jesus was committed to His ministry all the time. And we are committed to following Him all the time, right? And that commitment is meant to be all encompassing and all consuming. And this all encompassing and all consuming following Jesus is really full of crazy joy…sleepy joy at times..but joy just the same. The joy of seeing someone come to Christ. The joy of helping someone get on their feet. The joy of knowing your child feels loved. The joy of sharing your story when it needs to be shared. These things are meant to be HUGE. And they can leave you exhausted. But sight to the blind, setting captives free, good news to the poor…these tall orders are the good stuff. And the good stuff sticks with you. No one shares a testimony filled full of fluff…never letting the scales tip too much…No one wears the t-shirt that says “Balanced Life for Jesus”…it says, “Sold Out for Jesus”…that means there is nothing left. There is nothing safe about following Jesus…We are exhausted and ready for more of the good stuff.
And the Resting?
Well, It Comes When You Least Expect It…
And Sometimes You have to Schedule It…
But You will have Pause and Revival and Celebration.
But Not So Your Life Can Be Balanced,
But So You Can Be Ready to do It All Again.
Because His Creation is Just Plain Worth It.
I am hoping when I get to heaven I am a haggard mess. I am hoping I hand over my paper plates, and my pot of coffee and the trusty old crockpot and tell Jesus I am exhausted, but man, it was a BIG full life. I hope I look my Savior in the face and tell Him there are loads of people still all consumed by Him on earth doing the big stuff and the small stuff in His name and they are going to crawl across the finish line. I hope I am completely living for Jesus when I die…completely alive…completely used up…completely worn out and completely finished…all for Jesus…
Join Me in My Unbalanced Life.
Let the Scales Tip.
It’s Worth It.
Shalom Y’all.
