Megan Abbott's Perspective Archives – Page 2 of 4

Finding Freedom on the Road to Calling

07.21.2020 by Megan Abbott //

Hey friends! I hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday! This month, we have each been digging into freedom and calling, and how those two have played out together in our lives. I pray that you will join in along with us and see where God might be bringing you towards freedom. Check out Tracy and Jen‘s posts from the last couple weeks, and next week, please come back to welcome our guest Charlotte! I am trusting that God will speak to you through the words we have each shared over the past month, and that ultimately we will be able to freely live out our calling.

The last couple months have been so heavy. Part of me wants to explain, but part of me believes a lot of us feel it. There is this pandemic, the stress of changed life rhythms, sickness, racism, and so much injustice, everything just feels so, so heavy. Our world is more connected than any other period in history. Take one minute to watch the news or to scroll social media, and you will find at least one more thing to add to the list of things needing care. Right now, the list of things needing care or concern far exceed my emotional capacity.

Squishy-hearted Spiritual Gifts

I really started digging into my faith in college. I remember at some point taking a spiritual gifts assessment, where I am sure it ranked my gifts, but I really only remember that mercy was at the top. It wasn’t surprising. I always felt kind of squishy-hearted; it was something I could see in my life, and thought I understood how to use. A few years into my walk with God, there was a period of time where I remember sitting on the front porch of the house just crying. I cried for hours. I came back inside and got a tissue, some water, and went back out and cried more. There was just so much suffering, and so much to care about. So many people needing love, and care. It was heavy. It was paralyzing. I remember praying and asking God to take it all away. In that moment, I wanted any other gift; mercy was just too much.

For a while, I felt like God had essentially just taken away the gift. I was still me. I still was keenly aware of suffering and injustice, but my heart was not overwhelmed with mercy. I wasn’t numb, but I wasn’t an emotional mess. Over the next few years, God slowly brought it back, little by little. I was working in a really difficult placement during those years. Among all of the good and beautiful, my friends and community were experiencing poverty, abuse, loneliness, human trafficking, sickness, and so much confusion. So much more than I was processing that day sitting on my front porch at college, but somehow, much less paralyzing. God had given me space to grow into my gifting.

Finding the Freedom

I recently retook the spiritual gifts assessment. Wisdom, mercy, and discernment. I look at that combination today, and I praise God for giving me something to balance out all the emotions. I’m not sure if that was His plan, but I see His grace in it. Even years down this road, mercy is an easy one for me to let get out of balance. There is so much “heavy”, so why would an abundance mercy ever be a problem? Looking back at my 20-year old self sitting on the porch utterly paralyzed by mercy, I can see the freedom provided in boundaries. I needed space to be free to grow into my gifting. Instead of trying to run the marathon, I needed to crawl, then walk, then jog, and then train for the marathon.

In this season of “heavy”, I have to work to keep myself in a place of freedom. There is so much to take in, so much to act on, and so little time of restoration. How can I care enough simultaneously about my health, the pandemic, racial injustice, my friend’s heartbreak, my friend who is incredibly sick, the human trafficking I heard about on the news, the massive amounts of unemployment…? I know God cares for them all, and I know my heart was created to care like His, but I just don’t have the capacity. Regardless of the guilt I feel, the Spirit reminds me I was not made to carry every burden.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good… All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” -1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 11

Our gifts are only good to the point God asks us to use them. They are empowered by God. This has been an important reminder for me. I am one of millions with the gift of mercy. If I acted on everything in the world requiring mercy, or even just the things I am aware of, I would be of no use to the Lord. Rather, I am empowered by the Spirit for the service and activities He has for me, just as you are empowered for the service and activities He has for you. I am thankful for a God who loves me enough to help me find the boundaries that provide me with freedom from guilt, exhaustion, and overwork. I am thankful that God is working with me to help me find the balance between information and engagement overload, and ignoring everything.

While your gifts may be something entirely different, I believe there is freedom to be found as we grow into our gifting. Over a lifetime, the way you use your gifts may change once or twice, or hundreds of times, but the same Spirit is there to help you find freedom in using them.

Where do you need to find freedom as you live out your calling? Join us in the comments, or on Facebook and let us know!

Royal Community

05.19.2020 by Megan Abbott //

Hey! Welcome back friends. I hope you are all doing well this fine Tuesday. This month we are talking about the Royal Treatment. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Tracy’s post, you are missing out. Take a minute to go check out the awesome message she shared from Esther. You will get a surprise post from Jen sometime soon, and an extra special guest next week, so keep checking back! I pray that God will bring you joy this week, and that the words shared in this community will be encouraging to your hearts.

Lately, I find myself thinking a lot about community. I am going to take a wild guess and say it is because this is week 9 or so of the stay-at-home order and actual face-to-face community is something my heart craves daily. I have Zoomed, FaceTimed, texted, and called, but just nothing is quite like 3 dimensional friendship. As in-person community has dwindled, and I have had to learn new ways to communicate, and become a lot more intentional in my relationships, I have been reminded just how much my friends help straighten my crown.

The Crown

While I do have a crown, this is not me claiming that I am Princess of Genovia, or anything of the sort. In fact, when we started bouncing ideas back and forth for this month’s topic, the word “princess” was said a few more times than I would have liked to hear. I cringed every time. I’m not a fan. There is something about being “God’s princess” that does not resonate with me. It feels too froo froo, too fairy-tale, too fake. Maybe it is the desire to be strong and independent, and I can’t quite reconcile the two.

The reality, though, is they can be reconciled. My God, my Heavenly Father, is also the King of Kings. He is full of majesty. He reigns over all the earth, and He also calls me His daughter. I may not be an actual princess, but I am something better – I am a chosen, beloved, daughter of THE King.

Royal Community

It doesn’t take a lot of digging to find mentions of community in the bible. In fact, it may take more digging to find absence of community. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus about the greatest commandment in Matthew 22, His first answer was Love the Lord your God. The second? Love your neighbor as yourself. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors. We are made to live in community. We see one of the reasons why in Romans 12.

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” Romans 12:4-5

We all belong to each other, many parts of the same body. As someone recovering from being pretty sick, I have to say, when one part of the body is sick, the whole body struggles. My legs were healthy and capable, but I couldn’t keep going on long walks because other parts of my body were sick and my legs can’t act independently. The same is true for believers. We are part of one body, and need to come alongside one another and encourage healing where healing is needed. All with grace and truth.

The Importance of Truth-Tellers

Healing doesn’t often happen in just any relationship. I have a few friends that instantly know when I am struggling. Whether it is from distraction, disappointment, anger, hurt, or something else, they know me. They know my heart well enough to see, and they have built the trust with me enough to speak life and truth back to me in those moments.

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” -Romans 12:9-10

In case I haven’t said it quite enough yet, we were not made to do life alone. I know when things start to get messy, it can feel a lot easier to disconnect from those friends who know us the most, those who share the truth with grace whether it is what we want to hear or not. The ones who really love us. However, those are the people we need in our lives. They are our truth-tellers. They are the friends that remind us that we are the daughter of the King of Kings, that He loves us, and that there is never a point where we have screwed up so badly our crown can’t be put back on.

I encourage you to hold tight to the truth-tellers in your life. The friends who will help straighten your crown when it is a bit crooked. If you don’t have this kind of community, I pray that as you initiate that vulnerability and truth with your friends, that God will cultivate an environment for your friendships to deepen, and flourish.

Join us in the comments below, or on Facebook and let us know what you God has been teaching you in this time of distanced community.

The Wilderness

04.25.2020 by Megan Abbott //

Hey friends! Welcome back to FACETS. We have been discussing what it looks like to have an enemy that is trying to silence us, and both Tracy and Jen had awesome things to share the past couple weeks. Take a look back at their posts here, and here. Whether we feel like we are battling the enemy mentally, physically, or even feel like we are wandering alone in the wilderness, we have a God who offers a way out. I encourage you to check back again next week when we get to hear from this month’s guest, Tammy!

I have been working my way through the gospels the last couple of months, considering how Jesus lived out His life and how that might change how I live out mine. Jesus demonstrated the importance of finding solitude with God. He showed us how to love the marginalized. He provided an example of teaching with authority. And He reminded us there is an enemy, an enemy that will try and separate us from God.

In Matthew 4:1-11, we find Jesus in the wilderness:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “`He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ “

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

There are so many things in these 11 verses: the Spirit, an enemy, vulnerability, testing, temptation, deceit, and ultimately victory. Jesus was victorious over the enemy! Praise God, It isn’t impossible, because sometimes it feels impossible!

The Wilderness

Wilderness: an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region (Oxford English Dictionary).

An inhospitable region. It is a place that is literally difficult to survive.

When the enemy sees us in community he must think “hey, this would be easier if I could get them separated first.” I believe we have a significantly different experience in the wilderness when we are divided or alone. There is strength in community.

Let’s take a walk together. Imagine we are wandering through a hilly forest preserve, full of trees, winding trails, beautiful flowers, and chirping birds. We find a spot where we can sit on some rocks and enjoy the view for a bit. We start walking back to our car as it is beginning to get dark. There is suddenly a loud snap of twigs and some rustling just next to us. We stop and look around to try and identify the noise.

Think of how you might feel at that moment. Now, replay the story, but you are alone. Wandering on your own when you hear the snap and rustling just next to you. You stop, and the noise stops. You look around and you don’t see anything. You move and you hear it again. You look around for reassurance, but all you have is what is running through your mind.

How were you feeling at that moment? Scared? Alone? Vulnerable? I think these are some of the wildernesses that the enemy finds us in, and then he speaks into those fears, magnifies the isolation, and exploits our vulnerabilities.

Surviving the Wilderness

If the enemy is ultimately trying to silence us, then how do we fight back? How can we conquer the wilderness – whether it be fear, isolation, weakness, grief, deceit, or any other lie that distances us from God?

Remember you are not alone

Whether you are in a community of friends, surrounded by strangers, or by yourself, you are never truly alone.

The Lord himself will go before you, and he will be with you. He never leaves you, nor forsakes you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8

Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

Seek Truth in God’s Word

Look back up at Matthew 4, and see how Jesus replied to every one of the enemy’s statements. He knew God’s word, and He filtered everything He was hearing through that truth. When the enemy offered Him a way out of His situation that may have sounded somewhat reasonable or at least tempting, He knew where to turn to find the whole truth. When it didn’t line up with what He knew, He could identify the lie.

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 it says:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

The more we become familiar with God’s word, and by associated God himself, the more we are equipped.

Call on God for rescue

What did Jesus do when he was alone in the wilderness? He called on the name of His father, the devil left Him, and the angels attended Him. Jesus came to earth, lived, died on the cross, and was resurrected, so that we too could have access to God. Not just Him. Not just those that are perfect, but any of us that believe can cry out to God, and we know He will hear.

Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.” Psalm 91:14-15

We have access to cry out to our Father for rescue, a promise that He will hear us, He will never leave us, and that we do not have to fear. Do you know what is great about being on this side of the resurrection? We already know the end of the story. We know God is ultimately victorious. We know He wins. We know the enemy is ultimately defeated.