Blessed by The Holy Spirit

    In December 2022, God put it on my heart to read The Bible chronologically starting in the new year. On January 1st I opened up my Bible app and found a reading plan and have been faithfully following it since. While I was in Exodus and reading about Moses. God reminded/retaught me how the people in the Old Testament did not have access to Holy Spirit the way we do today. Of course, I knew that. God the Father speaks to the people through the prophets and priests in the Old Testament and then sends Jesus to earth in the New Testament. Jesus sent Holy Spirit to help us after Jesus ascends into Heaven after His death and resurrection. I felt so blessed when God showed me this revelation. Because I get to talk to God every day all day through Holy Spirit. I do not need a priest or any other human middleman. Holy Spirit lives in me and is my direct connection to The Father. To the One who created the Heavens and the earth. Hallelujah. If that doesn't spark joy and excitement in your heart, I do not know what will.

    It then occurred to me just how exhausting Moses and the other priests and prophets would have been. Because they spent much of their time helping the people to communicate with God.

    Fast forward a couple of months. I was listening to a podcast, and one of the hosts asked the other host if they would rather have Jesus on earth or have The Holy Spirit in us. I do not recall their answer. My answer was to have Holy Spirit in me. My reasoning at this time is that Holy Spirit lives in me and thus I can talk to God any time I like. Where if Jesus was on earth like He was during his growing up years and ministry, I would have to go see him. At least, that is my understanding of theology. Yes, my goal and desire are to be in Heaven with The Father and Jesus one day and be in constant communion with them. But while I am on earth, I will gladly take Holy Spirit.

    Then one day at work I was talking to a Mennonite believer about our faith and comparing our beliefs and understanding of our faith and learning about the differences. I mentioned a conversation that Holy Spirit and I had one day. She was a little surprised and taken aback by the fact that I talk to God regularly and hear His voice.

    A week or so later I was talking to a family member about our ability to speak to and hear from Holy Spirit and what a blessing it is. Through that conversation, I realized that the gift of being able to speak to and hear from The Holy Spirit makes up about half of my relationship with God and just how alone I would feel if I did not have that gift. Then I thought of some other believers that I know who have struggled over the years to hear from Holy Spirit. This led me to feel a whole lot more sympathy and compassion for those people than I previously had, and it stirred up my desire to pray for them even more. Praying that God would show them how He speaks to them. Because He speaks to us in different ways, and sometimes we do not hear His voice because we do not recognize it because we do not know all the different ways that He can speak to us.

    So thank you, Jesus, for living in my heart and for sending Holy Spirit to be my helper in talking to The Father until it is time to head to Heaven. Amen.

God Bless

~Hannah

 

Practicing still life photography with a few of my favourite things.

Easter Thoughts

    "It's Friday, but Sunday is coming." is a common phrase we say in the Church during Easter weekend, and it's true. But we cannot forget about Friday. We had a guest speaker for our Good Friday service yesterday, and one of the many things he said was, "Thank God for Friday." (Not a direct quote, I don't remember the exact sentence. Just the point behind the sentence.) We tend to think of Good Friday as a sad day, and in some ways, it is, but it's also so good.

    Yes, Jesus went to the cross for us and died a horrible, painful death. But, He did it for us. He did it for you and me. He obeyed The Father and died in our place. That alone brings me to tears. He took my sins to the cross and washed me white as snow. God loves us so much that He gave His one and only son to die in our place.

    Maybe it's just me, but I think the Church at large needs to spend more time reflecting on what Good Friday means and not simply say, "It's okay. Sunday is coming." Again, maybe it's just me, and your church does a wonderful job of acknowledging what happened on Good Friday. I'm also not criticizing my church either.

    Because without Good Friday, we can't have Sunday.

    It reminds me that when we are in a hard season of life, we are often reminded that it's darker before dawn and that Hope comes in the morning. Which is also very true. The day that Jesus died was a hard day for His family, both on earth and in Heaven, His friends and followers.

    When I was a child and asked my dad what the weather was going to be the next day, he would always say, "Darker tonight, lighter tomorrow." It drove me nuts because it was not helpful. It was true, but not helpful.

    Anyways, Holy Spirit reminded me yesterday morning to take both Friday and Saturday and remember what Jesus did for me on Good Friday. And tomorrow, with the rest of my local church and the Church at large that He defeated death and rose to life again, and because He rose again, He is not just a man, but my Savior.

    Thank you, God, for Good Friday. Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for me. Your one and only son.

Happy Easter, Friends.

~Hannah

"Its always darkest before the dawn." Thomas Fuller, 1650.

The Priming Booth

    I have worked for Select Finishing for almost a year and a half. The majority of that time I have spent in the sanding booth and have become a proficient sander and have been blessed with my supervisor's respect, trust, and listening ear. She has assigned me a handful of people to train, and if she brings me a part to sand that is not worth my time and energy, she respects my answer and moves on. Life is pretty good in the sanding booth.

    Over the last month or so, I have been helping out in the primer booth and priming parts. The first step in the painting process for the body parts of the Spyder Bike we make.

    Up until recently, all I knew about priming was how to spray the paint on the part. I knew nothing about cleaning my primer gun at the end of my shift or any other steps in the clean-up process. Let alone the setup process. It wasn't bothering anyone, and I did not spend a lot of time there, so I gave it very little thought. Of course, the day came when it mattered, and boy, what a bad day that was. To make matters worse, my anxiety was also acting up, so not only was my stress acting up and I was compensating to the best of my ability, but my primer gun hadn't been properly set up, which caused a whole host of problems of its own which gave me even more anxiety. You can imagine how happy I was to get out of there at the end of the day and did not want to go near the booth for a day or two afterward. Thankfully the gun problems were resolved, and I have since learned what the problem was and how to set it up properly. It then occurred to my sanding supervisor that I did not have a clue about the technical side of priming and that it was time to fix that. Especially now that I spent a chunk of time in the priming booth. One minute I'm a full-time sander, and the next minute I am spending half my day in primer (the main primer is on light duties currently and can only prime for half the day). At first, I was unimpressed and thought, "God, I was happy in "my" sanding booth. Please put me back there." But God in infinite wisdom knew I had some growing to do, and the priming booth was where I was going to learn the lesson He had for me. You see, I like to be in control and do not like relying on others for anything. In the sanding booth, I am "in control." I know what to do, and if a problem arises, I know how to solve it or where to find the people who will solve it for me. In the priming booth, I'm not "in control" because until two weeks ago, I only knew how to spray the primer on the part and had no clue how to troubleshoot anything. Which stressed me out. Of course, this is the part where God started working on me. First, I mastered the clean-up process at the end of the day. Then I started learning how to troubleshoot problems and where to find the right people who would fix my problems and that not only do I have to rely on others in this department, but by the grace of God, I can rely on them.

    And finally, I am learning about the setup process and how to set myself up for success.

    It's funny, at first I was "kicking and screaming" to be left alone in the sanding booth, and now I enjoy the priming booth. Because I got on board when God said it was time to grow out of my comfort zone and deal with my control problems at work. The "funnies" part about all this is that I did not think I had control problems at work. I thought that they only came to life in my personal life. But as usual, God knows better and that is why He is God, and I am not. Please don't hear that as bragging. I have simply learned that when God says it's time to grow and learn something new, the sooner you get on board, the easier it gets. Believe me, God has dragged me kicking and screaming a few times and has metaphorically smacked up upside the head a time or two before I got on board. Now I get on board a whole lot sooner because I know He will win either way, so why bother fighting Him.

    Anyways, one of the pleasant side effects of priming so much is that I'm in the booth all alone with my music, podcasts, and God. Which was also part of God's plan for me. To get me quieter with Him and work on other things that needed attending to, like my at-work control problem I didn't know I had.

    God works in mysterious ways friends, and I would never imagine that He would teach me to "give up" and navigate my control issues through a priming booth.

    It has been a few more weeks of hanging out in the priming booth. I have spent almost all my time priming in the last two weeks. I haven't listened to much music or podcasts in the last two weeks, I now spend that time in prayer. The priming booth has become my "prayer closet" and whenever I am told that I am needed in priming, I now ask, "Okay God, what are we working on/walking about today." 

    This past Monday I said to God, "Please take me out of the primer booth and back into the sanding booth (my comfort zone). God responded with, "You don't grow in your comfort zone." I then responded with my arms crossed, huffed and said, "Fine." Right before this conversation with the Holy Spirit, I was trying to figure out why I still did not "love" the priming booth and why I would rather be sanding. Despite actually enjoying priming. Then this conversation took place, and I realized that the booth represents change, and I don't like change. I love the side effects of positive change, but who wants to go through the mess of change? Not me. Even when it is for my good and His glory.

    Thank you for joining me on my journey of becoming the woman God created me to be. I pray this blesses and encourages you on your walk with Christ.

God Bless

~Hannah

A beautiful winter sunrise.