What To Do in the Dark

May 28, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ' Colossians 2:2-3

It was a dark time, one of the darkest times I have ever lived through. A loved one was struggling through the shadows of depression and every day was a battle. Just getting out of bed and facing the mundane tasks of daily life took every ounce of my strength. The future was a wall of fog. The present was a slog through mud with a backpack full of rocks. It was all I could do to just get through today.

Maybe that is where you are right now, Dear Friend. I am so sorry that you find yourself in such a difficult time. One thing I heard from a conference speaker that helped me through my darkness and gave me perspective was this: Every trial will come to an end. As those words rang in the arena and resounded in my ears my heart knew that they were true. In the course of a time that seemed to last forever, I eventually experienced that truth in my circumstance. You will experience it in yours. You will.

But while you are in it, can I offer you some perspective? Something I learned from walking through my own fog? Jesus really is enough. He is!

All You Need Is Love?

May 21, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3:19‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“All you need is love.” So sang the Beatles. “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” Maybe you are too young to remember that one. I used to know every word of so many songs that were on the radio. Maybe you know a few, too! Popular songs are full of a desire for love, a recognition of the need for love. It’s true: Individuals need love; the world needs love. But, as many songs declare, finding love is illusive. We know we need it, but don't really know how to get it. And, if observation is accurate, we spend more energy trying to figure out how to get love than how to give it.

Yes, love is central to life, but love isn’t primarily something we are supposed to get. It’s something we are supposed to give. Jesus gave his disciples a command to love one another. He said that the world would know those who belong to Him by the way they love each other. (John 13:34-35) That’s a command to love. Not a command to search for love. The command to give love is the primary directive. Yet, it’s been twisted into the main thing everyone is searching for. What if we turned our focus to giving love rather than getting it? In the current culture wouldn’t that immediately establish us as different? In a world where everyone is looking for love (“in all the wrong places”, as a popular country song once said), what if the identifying factor of Christians was that we gave love away rather than seeking it for ourselves?

Are You Listening For His Voice?

May 14, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

No words of my own today, but some words from the One whose Word matters most. Are you listening for the voice of the Lord? What has He been speaking to you lately?

Psalm 29
A psalm of David.
1 Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings;
honor the Lord for his glory and strength.
2 Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
3 The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea.
The God of glory thunders.
The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic.

He Lives in You!

May 7, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory. Colossians 1:27 NLT

What do you do when you hear God’s voice calling you? Somewhere between marriage and my kids graduating from high school I recognized God’s voice calling me to ministry. I had always been committed to helping my husband move forward in God’s plan for his life. That was my job, right? But as I began to recognize God’s voice calling me, a seed of dissatisfaction began to germinate. Thankfully, it never fully blossomed, but shoots did emerge as I struggled through the question of how to respond to God’s voice. When would what I envisioned for my life come to pass?

The question gnawed at me continually, even though I couldn’t really articulate it. I knew that God had called me to do more than raise my kids and help my husband. Those roles were important, but I knew that there was more. Had I missed it? When would I have my opportunity? I felt left out and left behind. There was more to life than this, but no matter how far I stretched, I felt like I couldn’t grab ahold of it.

Perhaps you struggle with some of those same feelings, my friend. You know there is more for you, but you feel left out, left behind and less than. Where and when is your opportunity?

I want to encourage you. God has not left you out of His promise. You are included. When you decided to put your life in Christ’s hands, He made His residence in you. His presence is evidence that you are included in God’s plan. You have a part to play in the future glory of God on the earth. That is the truth! How do I know? I have seen that truth playing out in my own life. Those years of feeling overlooked and left out now seem far away. Don’t miss now! God is using your now to prepare you for your then. I know it! I am living proof!

Do you want to know the secret of living with passion and purpose now with hope for the then you can’t see? Remember that Christ Himself lives in you. He lives in you! Consider this: The fullness of God resides within the confines of the space that is you. When you gave yourself to Christ, He gave Himself to you and made His address in your heart. Why don’t you stop now to contemplate the implications of Christ living in you?

Faultless? That’s You!

April 30, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. ' Colossians 1:22

Have you ever heard the term “analysis paralysis”? Just in case you haven’t, it means analyzing a problem so thoroughly that you never make a decision. I can fall into this trap. In my attempt to make the best possible decision I try to make sure that I have examined all possible decisions. “ALL possible decisions” isn’t really the best way to go, is it? Could it be possible that pondering all the possibilities isn’t about deciding at all? Could it be that analyzing all angles is really an avoidance tactic? A way to stall actually deciding? Um…maybe…I’ll have to ponder that.

Fear of making a mistake has been one of the issues that has often paralyzed me. For most of my life I wasn’t aware of it, but I would say that fear of making a mistake is probably my number one fear. The only problem is that there is no way to avoid making mistakes. It’s part of the human experience, part of living in a fallen, imperfect world. You and I will make mistakes and we can’t let that fear be the controlling factor in our lives.

So, what do we do about it? How do we get past fear of making mistakes? How do we overcome the lie that making a mistake is an indication that we are not worthy of love? We remember that in Jesus we are faultless.

When You Don't Know Why

April 23, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:21-26

So many tragedies. Watch the news for two minutes. Look around at the lives of your friends and acquaintances. Look back over your own life. No matter how hard we try we can't avoid the pain of life in a broken world. We hurt for others. We hurt for ourselves. How do we handle it? How do YOU handle it?

Most of us are not self-aware enough to recognize our own self-protective strategies. We can look at someone else and see how they are turning to work, or addiction, or TV, or shopping, or food, or anything else to avoid their pain. Yet, we don't recognize what we do to avoid dealing with the biggest of questions: Why does God allow pain, in my life and the lives of those around me, and why doesn't He stop it when He can?

I can't answer that question. Oh, I can give you answers. I've done it many times in the past. That is part of my self-protective strategy. If I can explain my pain, or someone else's, to some extent, if I can convince myself that in some way it makes sense, then it becomes easier for me to deal with. But it doesn't really answer the question of why God allows it. It just avoids truthfully bringing the question to God. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try to make sense of tragedy, it just doesn't make any sense at all.

So then, how do we handle this huge question of pain and tragedy? How do we acknowledge the question we can't truly answer and still maintain our faith? How do we keep saying YES to a God who sometimes allows hurt to come to us and those around us and doesn't give us satisfactory explanations?

Silent Saturday: Counting the Cost of the Cross

April 16, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

This post was first published on Saturday, April 19, 2019. The title has been changed.

“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” ‭‭ Hebrews‬ ‭12:2-3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It is Saturday of Holy Week. Good Friday has passed. Easter Sunday is yet to come. We wait in anticipation of that joyous celebration. But what did the disciples do on that Saturday after the crucifixion? They did not know that joy awaited them. They observed the Sabbath in obedience, but that day of rest from work was most likely anything but a day of rest in the mind. How could they do anything but continue to relive Friday’s horror and wonder how they would ever face, not only Sunday, but every day after?

It is in human nature to avoid the painful, but what if you and I took this Saturday to relive some of Good Friday’s pain? Might it increase our joy of the resurrection?

Know Who You Are Because of Whose You Are

April 9, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians 3:12 NIV

The YES journey is the grand adventure of life with God. We often think of our life with God as what we do FOR God, our devotional activity, our acts of service. But what God really wants us to understand is that our life WITH Him isn't really about those things. What it IS about is knowing and living in our identity in Christ. God wants you and me to be defined by our relationship with Him rather than all the other things that we look toward to tell us who we are.

How do you find out who you are? What criteria do you use? Is it what other people say or have said about you? Is it public acclamation or your accomplishments? Is it the opportunities that you may have received or not received? Perhaps you define yourself by your good behavior or religious activity. I can say that was my story. Yet, none of those things are what God uses to define us. Ephesians 1: 11 in The Message translation of the Bible says that "It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for." As you consider what defines you ask yourself if that is the measure you are using. Are you finding out who you are in Christ?

Reconciled: Finding Peace Amid Chaos

April 2, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

'For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. ' Colossians 1:19-20

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t believe that God existed. But to me He was “out there” somewhere, not personal, not close to me, not someone to call on. He was this cosmic force in charge of the universe. Untouchable. Inaccessible. He just was. Is that familiar to you?

But there came a point in my life when I began to wonder and hope that God was more than an idea or a cosmic force. I found myself feeling simply inadequate for life. My circumstances may not have seemed overwhelming to someone else, but they were to me. My emotions and thoughts were beyond my ability to process. I could not cope. Clouds of hopelessness overtook me. Although I tried, I couldn’t find within myself what I needed to survive and thrive. I needed more.

It was a night like any other as I was crossing Main Street in Geneseo, New York, heading back to my rented room at 16 Oak Street from the SUNY Geneseo campus. My soul was overwhelmed with the darkness that had encompassed me, darker than the night I was walking home in. Heavy. Hopeless. Heart-weary.

First

March 26, 2022 Cathleen Zahradnik

“Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.” Colossians‬ ‭1:18‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

The gun shot is startling, but expected. Feet begin flying over the ground. A trail of dust rises behind each participant, hanging in the sun-filled air. Arms pumping. Concentration etched into every face. Each pair of squinting eyes focused on the same point: the line painted across the track and the tape stretched across the width of it. Each heart overflows with the same goal: Break the tape! Get across the line first!

First. First means so much to so many. First across the finish line means glory and honor. It means success and validation.

First loves are often among the most influential relationships of our lives.

First in birth order for centuries has meant inheritance and prominence in family position. First.

What does first mean to you, my friend? Are there times that you have delighted to be first? Maybe you were called on first to give a presentation. That is not the first we want, is it? That first means anxiety and pressure and fear of failure or humiliation. First.

Scripture declares that Jesus is first in everything. So, what does that look like in your life and mine? Is Jesus first in your everything? How might keeping Jesus first in all things make a difference in your life? First.