My City pt 1

It's been two months since we started our journey of 2,000 miles cross-country and moved from California to Tennessee.  I lived in Nashville years ago, so part of this move has felt like a strange homecoming of sorts for me.  If any of you are sci-fi fans, you can appreciate the thought of this process feeling like I was entering into an alternate universe (think, Fringe-style).

It is familiar, I can remember my way around...and then all of a sudden I will see new buildings out of place, or a renovation of something completely new, or old spaces filled up with unrecognizable structures.  It's been a weird, comfortable-yet-uncomfortable combination of getting to re-learn this city I once knew.

I can tell you this, we're right where we should be.  We're home, and that's probably the strangest comfortable-yet-uncomfortable feeling of them all.  I fit in here.  My spouse and children fit in here.  My family was a wandering puzzle piece that is slowly completing the picture of what this city should look like.

I say that seriously, because I truly believe God has HUGE plans for using us Pardys in this city, and why not dream big?  We're only beginning to settle into this pond that God will generate a ripple-effect from.  Since we're handing this vision of impact over to Him, I'm not limiting its boundaries!

When one of our dearest friends visited last week, we got to finally (after weeks of unpacking and healing and settling in) GET OUT and see this city.  It was time to show off Nashville and sink our teeth into some of the many fun things this city has to offer.

Now, I can't show you everything - that would take years (which I slowly intend on doing through the course of my time here).  But, starting tomorrow, I'll virtually give you all a little tour of our new city, Music City and some of my very favorite spots.

Sure, I've only been back a couple months - you can probably get more information from Yelp or Travel Advisor, but stick around if you want the ten-cent-Pardy tour.

Welcome to Nashville, y'all.

Lifted

Last week, we had the extraordinary privilege of hosting one of our dearest friends for the week.  She flew out from California to visit us, to see our life here, and see Nashville for the first time.  


After a rough several weeks of "breaking in" our new home, it was refreshing to open up our doors to a familiar face who was genuinely there just to love on us.  Her presence offered a tangible reminder to me about the importance of friendship.


Friendships are an imperative gift in this life.  I use the word imperative on purpose; it's first definition being: "absolutely necessary or required; unavoidable" which I think friendship is all of.  I suppose one could try to avoid it, but we all need someone eventually, so the strangest of humans still end up befriending someone in this life.  

It is unavoidable, it is absolutely necessary, and a requirement for truly experiencing life.  Even Jesus (who, we can all argue didn't require anything from this world) had friendships.  And, while Jesus may not have "needed" friends, He used friendships to show us the utmost of applicable lessons:  how to BE a friend.


Here comes the bumper sticker:  Jesus is my BFF.  Right, well, something like that, sure.  I may say that tongue-in-cheek, but the reality of it is actually true if you can cut through all the cotton candy, I'm-only-here-to-sugar-coat-life-for-you, fluffiness that we've all-too-often whittled friendships down to these days.  




Let's break it down for a second.  I'm not talking about friendships that share half-broken heart necklaces, or friendships that just post a smiley face emoticon as a facebook comment, or friendships that re-tweet verses at you when they don't have the words.  Those are all fine - those are sometimes necessary too (hey - I'm the first gal that will hug you when I get a RT!) 
But, this past week I've experienced something far deeper than cotton candy friendship.  I've been loved on by some true Jesus-oozing-out-of-their-pores people who are just being honest and vulnerable and loving the only way they know how: as Jesus did.  
Because, sometimes you don't have the words to tell your discouraged friends, so you just say "I love you, I'm praying for you." Sometimes you can't find the right emoticon on your iPhone that says "Sorry life sucks for you, but God is bigger" and so instead you get honest and just let them know "You are not alone in this".  I know, because those are the hugs from near and far that I got this last week.



Friends, all of you, you matter to me.  Some of you have sat with me as I cried on your shoulders.  Some of you are reading my blog for the first time (Welcome! Grab a Kleenex and a latte!) Some of you emailed me your own prayer requests, and I want you to know that I LOVE THAT.  I will also let you know that I count it an incredible privilege to pray and speak to Jesus on your behalf.  Please, always know that I genuinely answer all emails and will lift up your burdens to God just as you may have done for me.  

We are not alone in this.  Neither are you.


This last week I got texts, cards, emails, and real-life hugs.  People sent me verses and words that JESUS spoke aloud, and I felt them in my heart as if it were Him speaking them right in front of me.  I received encouragement from far and wide, genuine reminders that the body of Christ is real and ACTIVE and that this battle of life this side of heaven is far more effective when we join together.  


I'm reaching out to you.  I'm writing to you.  I'm SO GRATEFUL for you.  


You matter.

Lightness

Last week I wrote about how my family was feeling under spiritual attack.  We walked through our home and took turns praying over the various spaces of our home.  Spiritually, it felt like we were sweeping out the cobwebs of despair.  It seemed discouragement was lurking in corners we hadn't yet uncovered, and only the name of Jesus could clean out the crevices unseen to us.

Yes, there is something mightily creepy about all this.  I'm not denying the "creep factor" here at all.  It should be creepy.  Satan is real, and as bad as it gets.  The fact that he exists at all should render a constant creepster-hair standing on the back of all our necks.  Yikes, right?

I might just avoid the subject all together if it didn't effect me...but it does, and it will, and there is an answer.  And, so avoidance is not only impossible, it's futile.  So, we fought back.  We prayed.  We continue to pray.  I can have nights riddled with nightmares that have no founding except the evil that would love to keep me up worried at night, doubting the power of my God.  Then, my husband speaks the name of Jesus over me, or I pray aloud and ask for peace.  And peace comes, peace is available, peace is always there right in the midst of the cloudy chaos that surrounds me.

Life is a series of steps through light and dark.

Here's the truth, right after we gathered and paraded around our apartment praying like southern preachers preparing for a revival...a burden was lifted, and a lightness entered our home.  Personally, I was so amped up that I kinda felt like a kid who just walked off the bus from church camp.  God was real, and present, and the power of the Holy Spirit was part of the Pardy home.

Guys, I'm not really into "hyper-religion" or "super-spiritual" or "pentecostal apocalypse" happening around me all the time.  I don't speak in tongues or heal people.  I tell the truth.  I'm normal (even a little boring) and honest.  That's it.

So, believe me like you'd listen to your best friend telling you about the latest sale at Nordstrom when I say this:  Prayer has power.

I've loved Jesus for a long time.  I've been talking to Him for years now, and I still don't exactly totally absolutely without-a-doubt completely understand how prayer works.  I know God hears me.  I know He can relate and speak back to me.  I know He cares.  I know He interacts and intercepts and interrupts me when I need it, regardless of what I think I need.  I know prayer can change feelings and futures.

That's enough for me to know to get on my knees and keep being honest with God about all my thoughts and questions and desires and fears.  That's more than enough.

And, this new lightness in the Pardy home...well, it's hard to describe.  "On paper" nothing has changed since last week, really.  Daphne is feeling better (thank you, Lord) but, a job is still on its way and not in our grasp, we still have the same struggles as last week.  So, it goes without saying that technically we should be feeling just as discouraged as ever.  But, we're not.

There's a new lightness among us.  There's a divine presence of protection that we're constantly interacting with.  It's okay if this post weirds you out a bit.  It's also okay if you go home and pray aloud over your furniture and invite Christ to be part of your literal, tangible, everyday life.

Tomorrow, I'll move beyond furniture and share with you how the prayers of people are making a difference.  This lightness is extending far beyond the Pardy home...and I hope it finds you today.

Under Attack

photo cred to my 3-yr-old.
That's me, prayin over the chaos

My friends, I don't say this lightly when I tell you the truth: my family has been under spiritual attack.

I hope that you were able to read the previous few posts from last week regarding our "waiting season" of life at the moment.  How we up-and-moved across country.  How we took a leap of faith and settled into a new home.  How we're still waiting on the promise of a job for my husband to come through.  How we're living life on the frustrating fence built by trust and obedience that feels like it might collapse any day now.

We've lived in Nashville about 6 weeks now, and none of them have been easy.  It's not like we're facing life and death circumstances, I don't mean to belittle any hardships that others might be going through by any means.  But, our time since leaving California has been fraught with obstacles; and, well, their piling up into a ridiculous mess that can no longer be ignored.

Besides my freak accident of falling down the stairs (and being debilitated for a good couple weeks), we've faced annoying strife after annoying strife.   Just last week both our daughters caught the stomach flu.  I got a terrible cold the day after.  And the next morning, my two-year-old woke up with mysterious "bug bites" covering her arms.  After 72 hours of thinking we might have bed bugs in our house (talk about a panic attack) we see two doctors and finally get a diagnosis that she is fighting a virus that should be cleared up in about a week with Benadryl and a steroid.  (Poor baby!)

sick babies are just SO SAD

It was about this time yesterday, still sick with worry that my polka-dotted-baby might have something seriously wrong with her, that I began to ask God whether or not a plague was truly on our home!?!  I mean, I felt like I was trying my hardest to look through rose colored glasses that were smeared, stained, cracked, and barely hanging on my face any longer.  I'M TRYING HERE, GOD!  HELP!

Deep in the dark of nighttime, as I lay in bed and hold my daughters close (they slept with us the last couple nights as we had to quarantine their room) I felt a small voice of assurance echoing in my heart.  It sounded something like this, These are not signs of misdirection.  You face these adversities because you are on the right path, not the wrong one.  I never promised it would be easy.  I promised I would be here. I am.

It was the sound of truth, of Jesus, of the reality that I could no longer feel but could wholeheartedly recognize, nevertheless.  I have access to the peace that surpasses all understanding through the Savior, and that's the only thing I can cling to right now.  As my weeks are riddled with confusion, chaos, and the grief of another job rejection, I must rest securely in the unchanging TRUTH that Jesus isn't going anywhere.  Praise be.

Satan wants nothing more than to make us give up, or fight with each other, or to take credit for the job ourselves when it finally comes.  I'm thinking he must especially hate that I'm writing about it all - how I honestly struggle with finding God's goodness in this messy day-to-day struggle; but, then, I don't have to be the one finding it because God is constantly pursuing ME, seeking to reveal Himself in new and amazing ways.  I'm pretty sure Satan didn't like that I wrote all about the realities of unemployment last week - and how God is using that for teaching us to depend on Him more and ourselves less.  And I'm sure he will hate that my husband and I are growing closer and more in love through this time.

So, please, join me in not giving up.  Join me in praying openly and helping give glory to God through these hard times.  Pray for my family, that God would provide for us and protect us emotionally, spiritually, financially, and physically.  I'm not too proud to genuinely reach out and ask you to please pray for that job to find its way to my husband, that the right door would open or the right person would pick up his call.

God is using each of us, connecting us in amazing ways, building an incredible network that will somehow glorify Him to the utmost - and we are all part of that story.

Matilda, praying over the Dining Room

This evening, spawned by the encouragement from a friend, our family gathered in every single space in our new home and held prayer over that area.  We prayed against Satan and In Jesus Name spoke aloud a command to have anything evil leave each premise.

We prayed to specifically invite the Holy Spirit into each space - every bathroom, closet, bedroom, and so on.  If there was a doorway, we prayed over it.  We covered it in truth, and asked God to bring peace and thanksgiving and goodness into our home.

Some of you readers might find me kooky, or paranoid, or hyper-spiritual, or just desperate.  I'm cool with all those terms.  What's important here, what I want you to know about me is this - I'm nothing if I'm not transparent.  I'm telling you the truth about what I really believe.

I get upset, I get confused, I get angry - God knows all this.  I love Jesus and talk to Him all the time - yet, it wasn't until today that I finally put hands on my doorframe and spoke aloud my prayers openly.  Be specific.  Be deliberate.  Be fervent in your gestures and requests to Jesus.  I don't think something "magical" happens when you pray out loud or extend your hands - there is NOTHING we can do that changes who God is in any way.  But, it certainly changed ME, and it freed me of any burden I might feel in my home.  There is only one Master of the house around here in the Pardy home, and it felt amazingly refreshing to speak that out loud again and again and again.

Thank you for your prayers.  I feel them and know they are lifting me up each day.  I cherish them and welcome them and can't wait to share so many answers to those prayers as they come.