Now there are heaps of old pricker bushes and dead eucalyptus branches piled up by the road

The Lord your God wins victory after victory and is always with you. He celebrates and sings because of you, and He will refresh your life with His love. Zephaniah 3:17

Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life. Psalm 90:14

Twice a year I step into this twisted angst that sucks every last bit of gladness out of my days. The blue and white door tag arrives at 220 South Country Club, announcing The City of Tucson’s Brush and Bulky Collection in which big trucks will haul off up to 10 cubic feet of stuff from in front of our house for free. Take it all, please.

I feel so tightly squeezed a prisoner, locked behind the bars of my thinking. And buried under the heaps of stuff that fill every tiny space of my life. This has been the year of rattling the bars, trying to sort through the metaphorical jars and plastic containers of unclaimed and untagged keys that fill the kitchen drawer and that line up in the window above the utility sink. This has been the year of filling up black bags with red ties and hauling them out of my heart to dump far, far away. But like Eustace the dragon, the scab never scrapes clean.

I don’t want to be the crazy cat lady any more. The one that can’t even squeeze out the front door because every nook and cranny is crammed full of my burden, the one He longs to lift off of my shoulders and fit with His sweet yoke that is light and joyous.

And I think I know which key it is. Surely His word is clear on that one.

Now I will worship you and bring to You my sacrifice of praise, drenched with thanksgiving. Psalm 116:16-17

This morning the Cry Out prayer letter arrived, like it does every week. And this is the week of thanksgiving for all of the mighty works that the LORD our God did in the Near East during Ramadan. Really? That’s not what my headlines blare out day after day. I read more about decapitations and young children blowing themselves up in mosques and drone attacks. But indeed, the LORD our God has said, “Call to me and I will answer you.” And this mighty army of prayer warriors from all around the world, of which I am one, believes that He has heard and is answering.

·       Let us take time to thank Him for how He is working.

·       Let us in faith give thanks for the dreams and visions that have occurred all across the region.

·       Let us believe for a harvest of people encountering the extravagant love of God in this next season

Let me take time to thank Him for how He is working.

Let me in faith give thanks for the dreams and visions of hope and a future.

Let me believe in this extravagant love of God.