“I will allure her into the desert, and speak to her heart” - Hosea 2:14 Lead, Kindly Light, Simon Dewey Hey friends! As we all know, our world is filled with uncertainty, confusion and discomfort, and maybe your heart is looking like that as well. I know for myself I have experienced a lot of that same chaos reflected in my own heart, but I also know that that is okay. We are not perfect people and nothing we could ever say or do can ever diminish the Father’s love for us. I wanted to share with you something that has been very dear to my own heart, and to speak into the chaos of our lives, the truth and peace of the one thing that is always constant in this world where nothing is constant, especially at this moment in time. It took me some time to realize how much I needed the love and peace of the Father, and to allow Him to bring me to that place of safety and rootedness in Him. In sharing my story with you, I hope that you too might be able to experience and re-encounter that same love and peace within your own hearts of a God who relentlessly pursues His children. I grew up in a large Catholic family with beautiful parents who encouraged us to grow in our faith by their own example and the love they had for us. For most of my life though, I think I kind of took that life I was given for granted. I loved going to church, being a part of youth group, praying with my family, and really just growing in my faith. I thought I had it all figured out and for many, it looked like that too, but inside I knew there was something off and while I acknowledged it, I never did anything about it. Although I knew of the Father’s love for me, I allowed so many things to get in the way of fully experiencing and allowing Him to pursue me. In particular, I struggled with body image and falling to the enemy of comparison. I began to look at my friends around me and say that I’ll never be like them. I was always that girl who I thought was too big, not pretty enough, was only wanted for what I could do for others and the one who no guy would ever want. As someone who has never dated, while all of my friends did for most of high school and college, I thought there must be something wrong with me. No guy ever even showed an interest in me, so I assumed that I was messed up. As I let those thoughts of being unloved and unseen by a man and even other girls consume my life, I stopped loving myself as well. I would pick out every one of my flaws and every part of me that I thought was bad and so I began to hate myself. I was able to find a place to reset myself starting the summer of 2018 at ECHO. There I found happiness and peace. It was a space where I was reminded of my identity as a beloved daughter of God, where no one cared about how I looked or what size I was – they did not see any of the flaws that I saw in myself. They simply saw me and loved me. Whenever I would leave that place of security, things would spiral out of control again. Just when I thought everything was good and I was happy, I allowed myself to believe the lies again and again. In my heart I knew the love of the Father and that I did not need the love of a man to make me feel or be worthy, but I continued to let those lies from Satan about being worthless and unlovable remain at the forefront of my mind. It wasn’t until this past spring that I truly began to allow myself to see myself for who God created me to be. Like many of us, being thrown in quarantine was frightening, uncomfortable, and unwanted. I had so much I could be upset about and wanted to be, yet I felt God calling me to slow down and to trust Him. During an online silent retreat that Ascension Press put on this past Lent, I experienced a radical change in my heart. We were asked to read and meditate on a Scripture passage from Hosea. “I will allure her into the desert and speak to her heart” – Hosea 2:14. This passage spoke so much truth to my heart. I felt in such a new way, the love of the Father and His desire to pursue me. God was asking me to take this time to slow down and rest in Him and allow Him to love me. I had desired so long for someone to pursue me, thinking that if at least one guy showed an interest in me, that then I would feel worthy of love. All the while, I was neglecting and denying the pursuit of Someone far greater than any man on this earth. In various ways, things that had originally been hard for me, became something beautiful and easy. For the first time ever, I was able to journal when I had previously struggled so much to journal. God was nudging my heart and continuously showing me how much He longs for intimacy with me. All of a sudden, I was seeing and experiencing so many obvious proofs of God’s love for me. Through music, various books and so many beautiful people, God has been steadily pursuing me and reaffirming my true identity in Him. One of the themes of the past few months of my life has been intimacy and romance. Such a huge desire for intimacy with the Lord has risen in my heart and I see so many fruits of that coming forth in my spiritual life and in my relationships with other people. By allowing Christ to pursue and to romance me as He has so desired, I have freed myself not only to love others but to love myself as well and to continuously desire to see myself the way He sees me. As a missionary this summer with Dumb Ox, I have continued to grow in my relationship with the Lord, placing my identity in Him rather than what other people think of me or my own opinions about myself. Being in a community of brothers and sisters who do not see me for my failings but see my beauty and dignity as a daughter of God and constantly reaffirm that in me, has allowed me to experience the fullness of God’s love in a radical way. While I definitely do not have it all together, and there are moments that are harder than others, I have that place to go back to, where I am reminded of God’s tireless pursuit of my heart in His own unique way. Looking back now, I see how great a blessing it was for me that quarantine occurred. Without that time wherein I was invited to be still and let the Lord love me as I rested in His heart, I would have missed this opportunity to experience His love and to have the image of myself redeemed. As I was praying about what to share with everyone, the Lord put on my heart a song I had never heard before and I felt the desire to share it with you all. When I listened to this song, I couldn’t help but recognize yet another way in which God was intimately pursuing me. His love is ever faithful and He never tires of pursuing His beloved sons and daughters.
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