NEHEMIAH 8:9-10<\/strong><\/h2>\n

9\u00a0<\/sup>Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher of the Law, and the Levites\u00a0who were instructing the people said to them all, \u201cThis day is holy to the\u00a0Lord\u00a0your God. Do not mourn or weep.\u201d\u00a0For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

10\u00a0<\/sup>Nehemiah said, \u201cGo and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing\u00a0prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy\u00a0of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0is your strength.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We have been reading through a new children\u2019s Bible at our house. Why, you ask, would we need a new one? Because the blessed children literally ripped the last one to shreds in their frenetic zest for turning pages. You don\u2019t want to be in our house once the sun goes down.<\/p>\n

But, as in all things that seem disappointing at first, God worked it towards our good. This new Bible is amazing. It has given me a better perspective on so many stories I thought I knew.<\/p>\n

In Nehemiah, the Israelites have been led out of slavery, but they have still managed to forget how to live in light of God\u2019s rescue. And so, Nehemiah and Ezra step in to give a monster of a sermon that lasts all day and all night. Soon, everybody is weeping and tearing their clothes and the guilt trip has worked. The words hit home and God knew the PRECISE moment that they did, because He then has Nehamiah switch gears\u2014from weeping with sorrow to weeping with joy because now it is time to rejoice at all the good God has done once more.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the children\u2019s Bible put it:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019We\u2019ve blown it,\u2019 they cried. \u2018Now God will punish us!\u2019 They thought they knew what God was going to do. But they didn\u2019t\u2026Ezra looked at God\u2019s children. Great hot tears were welling in their eyes and streaming down their cheeks. He stopped his sermon\u2014mid-sentence\u2014and shut the book. \u2018We\u2019re having a party!\u2019 he shouted.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And they did. They celebrated all the goodness.<\/p>\n

I love this story for its pivot point. We all get stuck in lows. We all suffer guilt over sin or anxiety over our current situation or sadness over our past. But what I see in this story that I never saw before is God\u2019s ability to inspire us to LET IT GO. He can literally stir up the Holy Spirit like a holy wind and sweep the clouds away to give us a better, bird\u2019s-eye view. He wants us to understand and acknowledge when we have not trusted and followed Him. But then He wants us to celebrate, to stop worrying over it, and to \u201cbe happy\u201d as Bob McFerrin puts it (because of course I can quote God and Bob in the same Sunday Thought).<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s my call to action for you today: pivot!<\/h1>\n

Let God help you release the worry or fear or anger or guilt or sadness, if only for a moment, and pivot towards a place of trust and joy. Party it up, my friends, for we are already on the road that leads us home!<\/p>\n

P.S. The children\u2019s book is The Jesus Storybook Bible<\/em> by ZonderKids<\/p>\n

Sunday Thoughts Link Up<\/strong><\/h1>\n

It’s time for another Sunday Thoughts Link-Up! I know there are many out there with wisdom that could encourage all of us. As long as it’s faith-based, I’d love for you to join up and then read and comment on what others have shared. Please also leave a comment here. Think of this as a Sunday morning community group that comes to you. And grab the button if you like…<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Do not mourn or weep.\u201d\u00a0For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. 10\u00a0Nehemiah said, \u201cGo and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing\u00a0prepared. This day is holy to<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/2018\/04\/28\/time-to-pivot\/\"> …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13,22],"tags":[214,27,46,48,115,55,17,100,24,59],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mom-gene.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/pivot2-e1523381944960.jpg?fit=1920%2C1089&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ca5p-1k5","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5089"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5157,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5089\/revisions\/5157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mom-gene.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}