“You don’t run from the people who need you. You fight for them. You fight beside them. No matter the cost. No matter the risk.” -Rick Yancey

This last weekend I had the rad opportunity to attend our churches women’s retreat. Now, understand this. I have never been to a women’s retreat & wasn’t planning on going to this one. I am still nursing my babe in the night hours & throughout the course of the day & so to dedicate a weekend to something like this was not something I wanted to do or could do very easily. And to be really honest, I am not a “big group” person. I am an introvert, so “events” like this are NOT my favorite. However, I DO believe SO strongly in community & fellowship & growth within the body of Christ & being part of things like this are GOOD. So, with all of these things being juggled, making my decision was hard. Basically I had to figure out a way to be both there & then run home in between each session, scarf down some food & nurse Sebastian, kiss my girls & my amazing husband who was holding down the fort & loving our kiddos so well & then jump back in the car to zigzag back up a mountain to the next session. My mom helped me with all of this & attended the retreat the same way I did. I don’t know if I could have done it without her, so thanks Mom!

All that to be said, I am SO GRATEFUL I went. It was vital for my heart & to be part of something like that with so many other amazing women & to watch the Lord work in such personal ways for each person there, it was just beautiful.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” -Helen Keller

There was lots of gold taken away, but one of the things that has been sticking in my mind & heart this week was about the important of LINKING ARMS. What do you picture when you hear that? Linking arms? Here’s the point. You can’t link arms with other people if you are holding onto your own junk. You physically have to set things down in order to wrap your arms around others standing next to you. They have to do the same. The other thing that happens when you do this is you face towards something, standing side by side. Your focus turns to the same place. Your mind has to set things down too. You have to set down your whining & complaining, your offenses. You have to set your mind on a singular goal that is the same as the person next to you. When you do this & they do this, when WE do this, we become POWERFUL. We become a force to be reckoned with.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” -Edward Everett Hale

We help each other as we operate as a singular force in a position like that. We have to have each other for success. Isn’t this just like life? Sadly, we are losing more & more of our willingness to link arms. We are removing ourselves because of offense, preferences, bias, whatever. This. is. not. alright. We have to link arms & fight for the people on our right & on our left. We have to put our differences aside & chose LOVE. I feel like as I write this it sounds so cliche, but it’s absolutely vital. If we continue to nitpick & harbor offense, judgment, selfishness & all the other yuckiness that we ALL have instead of choosing to fight for love, we will lose. And lose BIG. We are all here for a purpose guys. And it’s not about getting our dream car (like for me the VW bus is coming out with an electric version in 2022!), but it’s about fighting for our fellow man, it’s about being love to the world around us. It’s time guys. We HAVE to set aside our differences & link arms with humanity.

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” -James Cash Penney

This is all being shared because of a dream from ten years ago. The leader from our women’s retreat had a dream that has continued for the course of a decade to remind her (& now all of the other people who have had the dream shared with them) of the importance of this. I am sharing all of this with her permission. In this dream there was a group of people at the bottom of a mountain grade facing the valley. They were being prepped for an attack coming from that direction. They were all standing in a group but were not happy with the way they were being moved around by the commander. In this dream the commander was Jesus & the people were the body of Christ. People were being positioned & repositioned & other’s were grumbling about the decisions being made because of their own offenses & opinions, whether they were big or small, with “those” people being shuffled around including themselves. The woman having the dream, however, was getting a birdseye view of this from above & was totally understanding the strategy of what was happening. The people on the ground didn’t have this view, they could only see what they were surrounded with. After a bit, someone asked the commander how much time they had to prepare before the attack & He told them to link arms because there was no time. They HAD to set aside their differences right then & there to link arms because there was NO time to prepare or process or work things out. They had to stand & fight for each other, right then. IF they had been able to see from above, see the strategy in why they were positioned the way they were, it would have been easier to see that offense was hindering their progress as a group of people fighting for the same thing. This is life! The time is now. We have to set aside our differences, know that there is a bigger picture & fighting alongside the person on our left & our right for a singular purpose is SO much more worth it then letting “issues” we have with them or others prevent us from moving forward. I hope this makes sense.

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

We live in a world today that is foggy & jaded & divided. We fight each other instead of fighting for one another. We need to stop this. I am so tired of the news, I am tired of the hatred & hurt that moves people to do things that cause more hatred & more hurt. I am tired of people tearing each other down for their mistakes or because they have their own insecurities that they aren’t dealing with. It’s time you guys. Love needs us. It’s time to fight for something bigger than ourselves. Let’s grab arms with the people we stand in line with at the grocery store, the neighbor who we pass everyday, that person at work who bugs us. Let’s grab arms with our kids & our spouses, with our friends & with others we don’t even know. Let’s fight for love & for humanity. Let’s let go of our own issues & chose to see people with eyes of mercy. It WILL change things. It has to. This earth is full of people who need people. I need people. So do you. I want to link arms with you. I need you to link arms with me. It’s so much better this way!

Thank you for doing life with me. I’m here for you. Let’s let go of offense & fight for love.

“Let us be bold. Let us be brave. Let us be together.” -Brad Henry

 

Cheers,

Katie.