Brenda Rodgers

Category: Faith

  • . . . and the soul felt its worth!

    Of course every year I hear the hymn “O, Holy Night” over and over again on the radio and in church just like everyone else. It has become so familiar that it’s just like any other song or rhyme I learned as a child and can recite at any moment’s notice.

    However this year, for possibly the first time, which is sad to say, I heard the words for their meaning and not just as rote memory. Ever since there has been one line that I cannot get out of my head. I replay this one line over and over, and during the past month it has become one with such sweet, precious, profound meaning for me.

    ‘Til He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.

    When Jesus appeared the soul felt its worth! Wow! I’ve thought about the people who lived during the time right before and at Jesus’s birth, and how they “pined”for him as the hymn says. There is no describing how they must have felt as they waited and prayed for the promise that God had given them that their Savior would come. I am sure that many times they questioned whether he really would come and even questioned whether they were worthy of a Savior coming.

    And then He came. And their souls felt their worth. They knew they were worthy.

    Today, just like then, the only thing that every soul wants is to feel worth. In my desperate efforts to gain worth from all that’s around me, this simple line of this old Christmas hymn has reminded me of the only place I will find authentic worth, a worth that does not waver based on my actions, emotions, moods, or thoughts or based on anybody else, but a worth that is solid, never changing, and unconditional.

    That is with Jesus. Jesus has come. He has come to earth. He has come to be live in me. And now I can feel my worth. This hymn has been a blessed reminder of God’s proof to me of how much He loved me and every soul He created.

    “O Holy Night”

    O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘Til He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.

    This post is from the archives originally published on 12/24/09.

    Photo Credit: Creative Commons

  • Your Prayers Mattered – Thank You

    Dear Blogging Friends and In-Real Friends,

    Last night we arrived home from Burkina Faso. My mind is over-filled with stories and faces and now memories.  Over the next several days I will try to pour out my mind into words and pictures so that I can share them with you. 

    But for now I want to thank you deeply for being my prayer warriors.  In some ways our trip was smoother than previous trips our church has taken, and with each blessing we experienced I couldn’t help but think of you – my fearless, prayer warrior friends back home – who I asked to pray for us. Your prayers were felt so deeply, and each face you will see through the pictures I share was blessed because of you. 

    Whether I know you personally in real-life or through our blogging friendship, please know how much I appreciate your prayers.  Our team and the people we met in Burkina are a testament to God’s gracious relationship with us through prayer. 

    Your prayers mattered greatly.

    With Love,

    Brenda

  • Are my tears worthy of thanksgiving?

    For a month now I’ve named how wonderful life is with all of my blessings. Thanking God for warmth and comfort and security. All things that are worthy of thankfulness because they make his presence known right here. And they allow me to see him the way that fits right for me.  Oh, that’s the God I hear and know and talk to – the one that gives me good things. Things I ask for and expect.  He is a God that loves me.

     But I have forgotten about those fallen tears, as I’ve counted all my blessings.  You know, the ones that make me turn my back and question his true love. 
    The tear that fell when . . .
    I lost my first friend at ten years old.
    I didn’t fit in with anyone around me.
    I was homesick and just wanted to come home.
    that college didn’t want me.
    my boyfriend didn’t choose me.
    I sat lonely in an empty apartment.
    I looked at my mom for the last time.
    gossip and slander took a friendship.
    my husband struggled to stay alive.
    I saw the baby I wish I had.
    I still don’t know where I’m going.
    I realized I am still so broken.
    My thankfulness is based on ultimatums and ones that I hold to tight.  If you give me, then I will give back thanks in return. Thankfulness is for the easy, but what about for those tears that fell?  Are they not worthy too?   
    Without them I would be a wreck of a person not knowing my own purpose.  For those tears may not have given me easy pleasantries, but they make the pleasantries possible. 
    Hope. Strength. Comfort. Perseverance. Worth. Protection. Faith. Rebirth. Purpose. Surrender. Wisdom. Humility.
    God doesn’t fit into my tears as nicely.  But I think they’re still worth his praise.  So today for each fallen tear I thank him and look from where he’s brought me.
    “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
    1 Thessalonians 5:18
      
     

  • The Dark Corners Come to Light

    Recently every corner I turned I found myself in a dark place.  Question marks defined my steps more than periods.  Fear crippled more than assurance energized.  The pieces didn’t make sense.  I was lost for what to think.
    I wondered if the lion was on the prowl.  I did exclaim to the world and all God’s will over mine when my teenage prayer went unanswered. And I have been warned that his attacks will come as I write out a list of things to pack, buy gifts for my Compassion child, and prepare to go to the other side of the world to proclaim the Truth once and for all.  Maybe he’s beginning to feel threatened, so he’s prowling around trying to devour again.
    All that I need is within me.  I know that.  But sometimes it’s allowing the Spirit to fight for me that is hardest. I try to fight with my only weapons – fear, anxiousness, uncertainty, control, pity – but they bring more of their own character.
    A wise mentor told me to stop fighting and ask for wisdom.  Every day, she said, get up and ask for wisdom.
    I have done that for the past few weeks.  And the corners have gotten darker.  Darker as God has taken me back into my past, to corners I never even knew existed, so far back to when I was a little girl.  He has revealed a specific scheme the enemy has used all of these years to try to take me from the One who bought me.
    With each revealed corner, darker than the night could ever think of being, the Light begins to shine.  Together it comes together to make the pieces fit, and I understand.  The Light opens my eyes to the darkness.
    The lion’s prowl is no more.  He is defeated by the Light.
    Has God revealed dark corners of your life only to help you overcome them?

  • Striving for the Abundant Life

    There are days that turn into seasons sometimes.  Seasons that I wonder if it’s real.  This abundant life I admire in others, strive for in myself, and read about as Truth.  These days feel low and hollow, like I am deep within the earth.  And with every peak above the dirt I wander if it’s just for them.

    I see others walking in it.  Filled with hope and peace and grace.  But it seems so out of reach, so I strive just a little higher.  Climbing up that hill of dirt trying to get out.  The rain falls and then the snow.  But there I am still climbing. 

    I shame myself for trying.  I know it’s in the abiding, but for some reason the abiding takes more than the striving.  So I just continue with what I know. 

    It can’t be a secret.  Each morning His words are there waiting.  Each morning offering the same.  An abundant life in His rest. 

     

    But for some reason I still keep striving.

  • 13.1 Miles of Prayer

    This past Saturday I ran my first half-marathon, the Victory Junction Run to Victory Half-Marathon!

    Victory Junction is a camp in Randleman, NC for children who have chronic medical conditions and illnesses.  The camp was donated by NASCAR driver Richard Petty, and his wife Lynda, in honor of their grandson, Adam Petty.

    Running a half-marathon is a goal that I have had for myself for a long time.  I started running in my early twenties, and ever since I have wanted to run this race. 

    However, my reasons for wanting to run it in the past are drastically different from my reasons for running it today.

    Beginning probably ten years ago, running became a trend.  It suddenly became the exercise of choice.  No longer did people call themselves “joggers” or say, “I’m going out for a jog”, but that were overnight runners, and they went out for runs.  I was one of these people.  Running was fairly inexpensive, I got a lot of bang for my buck as far as burning off a lot of calories, and I liked saying that I was a runner.

    Over the past couple of years, though, maybe since my husband’s heart transplant, I’ve begun to develop a different perspective about this body God has given me.  I have started to see it as a gift and me as a steward. 

    So this past weekend I did not run to burn calories or get puffed up with pride.  I ran to honor God.  I ran to be a good steward.  I ran out of sincere gratitude for what I’ve been given.  And I ran for all the people who will never run this side of Heaven. 

    My dear friend, Laura, who ran this race with me, had a wonderful idea and one that I used during the race.  We ran each mile for a different person or group of people, and during that mile we prayed for them. 

    This is my 13.1 Miles of Prayer:

    Mile 1: Jesus

    • The Cross
    • My Savior
    • My Friend

    Mile 2: John

    • my beloved husband
    • the 43 days he was in the hospital and couldn’t run

    Mile 3: My Dad

    Mile 4: My Brother

    Mile 5: My Sister-in-Law, Cathy

    Mile 6: My Sweet 6 Month Old Nephew, Ryan

    Mile 7: John’s Family

    • My in-laws
    • My sister and brother-in-law, Jamie and Will
    • My niece and nephews, Georgia, Rod, and Jensen

    Mile 8: My Friends

    Mile 9: Burkina Faso, West Africa

    • Our trip in November
    • Our team
    • The people we will meet

    Mile 10: All People Who are Disabled

    • There was a long, tough, tough hill on this mile.  The young man I met last week, and thoughts of all the people in the hospital got me up this hill.

    Mile 11: Those Who are in Slavery/Human Trafficking/Oppression

    Mile 12: Me

    • My vocational calling
    • My relationship with Jesus
    • My forgiveness

    Mile 13: Jesus

    • The One who carries me
    Thank you, Jesus, for this body and for my health. 
    May I continue to honor you with it and bring you glory through it.