John Reid

Average joe with 19 years of recovery and a Christian.

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

THE DESERT
Years ago, while on a mission trip to the Navajo people in Arizona, I would walk out into the desert for an hour, sometimes longer.
I tried to stay in an attitude of prayer.
At first glance, the desert can look empty.
Dry ground. Rocks. Sand. Heat. Miles of seemingly nothing.
But the longer I walked, the more I discovered something:
The desert wasn't empty at all.
There was life everywhere.
A small plant pushing through hard ground. A flower where you wouldn't expect one. An insect moving across the sand. A bird overhead. Things that were easy to miss if I was moving too quickly.
I had to slow down to see them.
I've had desert seasons in my life too.
Times when it seemed like nothing was happening. Times when prayers appeared unanswered. Times when I wondered where God was and why He wasn't doing something.
But looking backward, I can see that some of the places where I thought nothing was happening were places where God was doing some of His deepest work in me.
I just couldn't see it yet.
Maybe that's one of the lessons of the desert:
Don't mistake barren for abandoned.
God doesn't have to make the desert look like a garden to prove that He is there.
Sometimes He puts just enough life along the path to remind us to keep walking.
And perhaps instead of continually asking,
"God, when are You going to get me out of this desert?"
I need to occasionally ask,
"Lord, what are You trying to show me while I'm here?"
Moses had a desert.
Elijah had a desert.
John the Baptist had a desert.
Even Jesus went into the wilderness.
The desert isn't necessarily evidence that I've wandered away from God.
Sometimes the desert is where God teaches me to look more closely for Him.
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”
Isaiah 35:1 (KJV)

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

@HomerPavlos Thank you for sharing.

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

THE SCAR
I have a scar on my arm.
Years ago, while working around bakery equipment, my arm was badly cut. It required stitches, became infected, and took time to heal.
The scar is still there.
If someone notices it, I can tell them exactly what happened. I can remember the injury. I can even point to the place where it happened.
But the scar doesn't hurt anymore.
I've been thinking about that.
There are other scars we carry that nobody can see.
Some come from things that were done to us.
Some come from things we've done.
Some come from losses, failures, broken relationships and words that can never be taken back.
For a long time, I think I confused remembering with still being wounded.
They aren't necessarily the same thing.
My arm doesn't have to become unscarred for me to know that it has healed.
Maybe our hearts are like that too.
Healing doesn't always mean God erases the evidence that something happened. Sometimes the scar remains. I can remember the story without having to bleed from it again.
And forgiveness doesn't mean calling what happened good. It doesn't mean pretending there was never an injury.
It means the injury no longer gets to keep injuring me every day.
Jesus Himself, after the resurrection, still bore scars.
Thomas was even invited to look at them.
The wounds that once testified, “He was crucified,” now testified, “He is risen.”
Maybe that's one of the things God can do with our scars.
The scar doesn't have to disappear.
God can change what it testifies to.
Mine once said, “I was wounded.”
Today it can also say,
“I healed.”
“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”
Psalm 147:3

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

@LisaRayxx Throw everything away except a days worth.

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

@Irina_exh My first car was a '62 paid $100. 3 on the tree, straight 6

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

9-11-26
I have remembered this from time to time but never journaled it.
Listening to 660 AM this morning while driving to get my windshield replaced, I heard callers sharing their stories of where they were on this day 25 years ago.
Where was I?
I was at an apartment complex on Frankford Road. I worked for Central Fire Protection at the time. While waiting for the manager, I watched the television in the lobby and saw the second plane hit.
The reality of what was happening had not set in yet. But I remember having an urgent realization that the buildings needed to be safe and that a good inspection was needed. That was the responsibility in front of me, and somehow, on that morning, it suddenly seemed even more important.
Twenty-five years later, I understand the reality of that day much differently.
As I look at our nation today, I am deeply concerned about the direction we are going and about ideas and beliefs being embraced that I believe are contrary to the principles upon which we should stand, the election of those to office that embrace the ideals of the terrorists.
It makes me think about the children of Israel during the time of the Judges. Again and again, they followed God, wandered from Him, suffered the consequences, cried out to Him, and experienced His deliverance.
But before I point my finger at a nation, I also have to look at myself.
There have been seasons in my own life when I have not followed Christ as I should. I have wandered. I have made choices contrary to what I knew was right. And yet God, in His mercy, has continued calling me back to Himself.
So on this day of remembrance, I remember those who died, those who ran toward danger to help others, and a country that was forever changed.
And I remember to examine my own heart.
Where am I today in my walk with Christ?
May I not simply mourn the direction of a nation while ignoring the direction of my own heart.
Just some thoughts on this day of remembrance.

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

@AntiLeftMemes 10% would be 16.90 add that to the 2 plus they make and it's 19 plus an hour. Have a good day.

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

My Threshing Floor
Lord, bring me to Your threshing floor,
And separate the wheat from chaff.
Expose the things I've tried to hide,
The secret rooms, the wounds, the past.
Break the husk around my heart;
Let truth remain when lies are gone.
Shake from me what isn't You,
And finish what You have begun.
Though sometimes loss may feel like death,
Teach me that surrender can be gain.
Until the handful that remains
Is simply Christ—and not my chains.
So beat it out, Lord, beat it out—
Whatever keeps me wanting more.
I give You all that's left of me
Here on Your threshing floor.

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

@MattPinner_ 20 here

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

Were you hosed as a kid?

[John Reid @JohnRei99280951]

@lunadreaamy 81