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Half Full  
 
July 18, 2018 
 
 
Since the "H-word" (Harvey) hit H-town 11 months ago, I've pared way back on possessions. When your home takes on a foot and a half of water overnight and you evacuate with next to zero preparation, life changes.   
 
For months I lived with generous friends, toting a very adaptable dog and a rolling suitcase. What household possessions survived the flood were parsed out to friends in boxes marked "important papers" or "dry clothes" --and there weren't many of those. The bigger stuff that made it was stashed in an 8x8 storage unit kindly rented for me by my church. I didn't look inside once until I moved its contents back home again.   
 
The moving out overnight was traumatic. I won't lie. But moving back 5 1/2 months later has become life-giving in a way I didn't expect. After getting past the first few weeks of "Where's my...." followed by "Oh, well...it must be gone," I've discovered the joy of closets and pantries and drawers that are only half full.  
 
I know it sounds crazy, but I'm comforted by the "room" that's been made by heartbreak. I don't miss what's missing...or yearn to fill the space left by it.  I've given even more of what remained away. I might just be learning to love half-full.   
 
I'm wondering if my heart might be a lot like my house. If maybe instead of stuffing it so full of "padding" to avoid whatever momentary ache might threaten, I could welcome its "empty spaces" instead. If I might come to see them as opportunities for God to further clear, or refurbish or fill as He sees fit, and in His time--not mine.  
 
There's a beauty in half-full that I never realized before...and more room here than I imagined for Him to do a new thing in me.  
 
   
"...that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
 
(Ephesians 3: 17-19,ESV)   
 
 

     
     
  
 
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  "Speak what you feel, not what you ought to say."

© Leigh McLeroy, 2018


This week @ Amazon my latest book,
A Minute of Presence, is on sale for $11--$4 off the regular price.

That's a year's worth of devotions to give or enjoy for a few pennies each day!


You can begin it on any day of the year and read for a full year--so no need to wait until Christmas to order...or you could stock up for Christmas now while it's on sale.

Giving Hint:  Insert a handwritten note, a photo or bookmark on a day that's special to the recipient to personalize it just for them. (I gave a copy to my favorite doctor at our last appointment with a note of thanks that said, "P.S. You're the absolute best...and you're on page
215 and 237!") She didn't mind.