Home...

 You know in my life I have moved about 47 times... It is a deep cry from the bottom of my heart finding a home. A good friend and I were talking the other day that, home is more than 4 walls it is people who encompass those walls, that fill with laughter, love, sometimes tears and little moments of joy. 

It is waking up on an average Saturday to the smell of cinnamon rolls waking you up because your eye lids open. It is the sound of laughter when your toddler makes the weirdest statement, it is the tears dripping on your kitchen table with joyful news and news that will break your heart into a million pieces. It is watching your dog become a senior from when you have had him since a puppy. Home is more than 4 walls. What if I told you home is where your heart is? 

Sometimes our hearts can be so loud, so noisy we forget to slow down even in our home life. To make a house into a home to have a touch of love that someone to walk in says this is a home not just a house. 

What you pour heart into people will notice. Not merely so the home you dwell in, where you rest your head to lay at night but what about your heart? 

Do you let people in, do you rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn to those who mourn? Do you feel and show people your heart can be a home. 

When I think of the word home I think of the word Hospitality, I remember when I was little I would think that word meant hospital maybe in a small sense it does, it means bringing people into your home and letting their wounds be vulnerable. It means to let a stranger have a place at your table being welcomed with all they carry and saying you are not alone in this welcome to my home where you will always have a seat at my table. I will feed you not to only nourish your physical needs but also your spiritual needs. I will pour into as I have been poured into. 

Where your tears matter, your stories matter and who you are as a person matter. I have always loved this song "Crowded Table- The Highwomen" Take a listen one of the core lyrics "I want a crowded table 

"I want a house with a crowded table, and a place by the fire for everyone. Let us take on the world while we are young and able, and bring us back together when the day is done. If we want a garden we are going to have to sow the seeds, plant a little happiness and let the roots grow deep. If it is love that we give then it is love that we will reap." 

Too many people now a days don't even know there next door neighbor. With my most recent move I have been able to get the pleasure of knowing my next door neighbor, we have usually 2 hour conversations weekly. Home isn't found in an electronic device, home is found in your heart, intentionally building community, intentionally showing people they have a seat at your table. 

I want to show people my table is open, I want my table to be welcoming, where no one has to put a fake face on at a seat in my home. I want my home to reflect my heart. Because the heart is the truest home. It doesn't matter if you are in the cold winters of Idaho, or the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, or the desert air in Tri Cities WA. What matters is your heart is it a place of home for others, or are they met with coldness, isolation and no one enters. 

When I think of home too, I do think of my Grandma Basehore: I don't think there is a day that hasn't gone by that I don't miss her and wish I could hear her voice one last time. My Grandma Basehore during the lifespan of my life lived in two houses but that isn't what made it a home it was truly the heart of my grandma, it was the smell of her coffeecake, it was the love she poured into me as her granddaughter. It was the deep conversations from Jesus, to stories of her in the navy, to stories of her growing up, her college years, her prayers. Just being with her even sitting in silence just holding her hand. Singing and playing piano for her. Her teaching me to bake. Laughing together and a few tears together. Most important I will never forget how welcomed I felt there. I want to leave that legacy not some grand one where millions of people remember my name but a simple matter. Simple Hospitality knowing every one has a seat at my table. 

Because isn't that what Jesus did? He brought the people society forgot, people that the world say you will never go far. Yet they did leave a legacy, even if it was quiet and simple. Jesus was home to many who were orphans. Orphans are those who don't have a home. Yet Jesus sees them and picks them up and says welcome home. 

I don't ever want my heart to not be a home to people. You never know what kind of "house" a person grew up with and many smiles are a facade to what really happened in the house they grew up in whether they had to grow up to fast, or endured things no child should ever endured, or grew up crying in fetal position in the closet, because that house didn't feel safe. 

I have learned deeply in this life that you have to choose to make your heart a home, you have to choose daily to rise above your pain, to let people have a seat at your table. The more you let your past, your trauma, your pain from the house you grew up in shut people out you will end up alone, you will end up with not a single person sitting at your table, and in the end it will be all your fault for not letting people in. It will be no one to blame but you. Any trauma you endured was never ever your fault however the healing is. Healing is your responsibility, to help you make your heart into a home. To let people see. 

See the beautiful think about vulnerability, is that when you open your heart to let someone have a seat at your table they will open up too. Home is a place some people will never experience in a life time so why not create that home for someone? Be brave take a step... Invite them over. I get that "Oh I have social anxiety" I get that more than you realize. But sometimes the best way to over come social anxiety is having a seat at someone's table. 

I will never ever forget my mentors I had in my life they lived by that motto, if you are blessed build a longer table not a taller fence... 

I want my life to reflect that I want people to have a home that may have never had a home, to be fed a nourishing meal, to laugh, to encourage and yes maybe a few tears will be shed, to be a family to those who don't have a family. 

To my beloved readers, you will always have a seat at my table. 

with love 

Makayla Chalee 

Eb and Flow never Stagnant

Take a moment to listen to the song "Canyon"-Ellie Holcomb 

I have always loved this song the lyrics my goodness touches the depths of my inner most being...

"there is a river running through my deepest sorrow... there is a river running through my deepest pain...there is a river running through every dream that didn't come true. Made me a canyon but there's a river running through." 

Rivers are ever flowing they are never stagnant... they keep going sometimes they flow more and sometimes they flow less. You know when I was little, I had the great pleasure of visiting the Grand Canyon one of the vastest canyons you will see in this lifetime. A canyon that was formed by a deep river. 

Rivers symbolize Life and Healing... a lot in the bible and I think of my own life growing up in Tri Cities WA, the Columbia River is what flows through the 3 cities it is well known and well appreciated, I remember so often when I would get overwhelmed with the worries and troubles of life I would go sit down at the River and pray, ponder and reflect. There is something so calming about being around a body of water, Rivers are different than a lake or an ocean. Rivers especially in biblical times were used for baptism a symbolic of washing away the old and bringing in the new. What in your life needs to be washed new? What river need to cleanse the pain of your heart? Rivers bring life.. rivers nurture, rivers a huge thing for the eco system. 

Eco-system wise rivers are vital for fresh waters, support life... is a river flowing through your heart, your past, your future or are you in a drought season? 

We now look at some scriptures Jesus calls himself the living water... How deep can he touch your heart and wash the pain away to reach the dryest parts of yourself and bring revival to the parts you thought were going to stay in the drought season forever. 

Not only can a river benefit you, but it can also benefit others. Rivers bring nourishment to others. We look at John 7:37-39. Jesus said those who believe in him will have living waters flowing through us to help other believers. Let's go deep now. Do other people feel the effects Jesus has in your life. Are you asking others to join you on this ride call life? Where can they experience the true and living waters? Waters that revive, renew and rehydrate? 

A healthy river is always flowing; it doesn't become stagnant... likewise our lives need to keep flowing with the Holy Spirit toiling our rocks in our hearts and to provide fresh springs to grow new life in our lives. 

Life... Renewal... not stagnant. I don't ever want to be stagnant in my walk and I know there has been seasons where I have been but God... He is faithful to pick us up and renew us. Keep us going with the flow the eb and the flow of this beautiful ride called life..

Rivers wash away the pain and then eventually lead it to the depths of the ocean where it will never be seen again, or our pain will produce something even more beautiful in the ocean a pearl. Pain produces pearls. 

So enjoy the ride, yes the flow may be so hard at times you may feel like you are drowning at times but my dear child, God hasn't forgotten you. He is right beside you on this river of life. He will never let his grasp go of you precious child. You are holy, chosen and so dear to His heart. 

May you be blessed this week and know always I am here for you if you ever need to talk or pray. 

With Love 

Makayla Chalee 

Hymnals of the Past but So Present

 On this Monday Morning: I am sitting here thinking of the beautiful hymns of the past. But they ring so many truths of the present. 

Some hymns are sad, some are joyful but every one of these beautiful poetics, songs from the depths of the hearts that wrote them point to a bigger picture than us. Hymnals that were written in the 1800's as some of the deepest pain. 

You wonder sometimes the pain that they were feeling but nevertheless turned their eyes from the beautiful gaze of Jesus. 

Some of my favorite hymnals:

Come Thou Fount-Dated 1755 

Be Thou My Vision-Composed in the 10th or 11th Century 

Rock of Ages-Dated 1778 

These lyrics ring truth when the darkest of nights seem to cripple you to the point of tears streaming down your face...Asking God to take the pain, take the crippling grief of the waves of life that unexpected came in your life tossing you in a hurricane of emotions till you are drowning in the ideations, the dreams and the scenarios you thought your life would be like. 

Some of these lyrics I will forever hold on too. 

Come thou Fount-by Robert R. 

"Prone to Wander Lord, I feel It, Prone to leave the God I love. Bind my wandering heart to thee. Here I raise my ebenezer." 

It is truly such a beautiful story; seeds of faith, pain and redemption. How often do we feel that in our own life, may a delayed promise, delayed hope and deep sorrow and anguish. 

An ebenezer in the Old Testament was stacking rocks one by one when the Israelites moved onto a new step where God was leading them to. It was a remembrance of who God was, what God has promised and the faithful ways God showed up when the impossible, when the tears streamed down their face. When hardships came and they had no idea how God was going to move or show up as the darkest nights were upon them. 

What about your life? What Ebenezers would you build? What stones would you stack in memory of every single time God was faithful that you didn't think were possible? 

My stones would reflect that my tears, fears and years were not wasted. So many times, God provided for me in ways I didn't think were possible. That of providing cars, jobs, housing, food in ways I didn't think was even possible. Tangible ways that it is only a miracle of God. 

Prone to wander Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. We are so prone to wander, to chase money, success, unhealthy relationships, hurts and things of the world. That touch a deep vast void in us, in the inner most being that only God can fill. Only God can bring. Only the true peace, the provision, joy and hope to hold onto another day longer. 

Be Thou My Vision-Translated in 1905 

Be Thou My Vision O Lord of My heart; Naught be all else to me save thou that art. Thou my best thought by day or by night. Waking or sleeping thou presence my light. 

God hasn't forgotten you dear one. Waking or Sleeping His presence will be your light. Nighttime is hard because it can be so dark, nightmares, night terrors and tears of loneliness. My dearest friend you are never ever alone though. Sometimes the darkest of nights is when his presence will be the greatest light you witness and will feel. You are never alone and you are so loved, the darkest nights show the brightest stars, they also bring out some of the most beautiful moths the Luna Moth, moths are just nighttime butterflies. To have the Lord over your heart, only Jesus. Only Jesus can save you nothing else we can chase, we can run, we can fill that void but, in the end, only Jesus can bring saving to the pain. 

Rock of Ages-Augustus T.

This whole hymnal is so beautiful the lyrics bring in a sweet, strong dependence on Christ solemnly. 

"Rock of Ages Cleft for Me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and thy blood from thy wounded side which of flow. Naked I come to thee for dress. Helpless I look to thee for grace." 

This composer wrote this song when a storm slammed him into rocks, and he sought shelter in a cave, a cleft in the rocks. Do we do that in our own life? When the waves of life crash us over, whether it be a loss of job, a loss of a career, a loss of a child, a loss of loved one, a loss of a relationship. Loosing what we thought our dreams and aspirations would be the dreams we had since a little kid. The waves of pain we feel we are drowning in begging God to make the pain stop, tears that flow more than the drops in the ocean. But what if those waves are slamming you into the Rock of Ages, a cleft, a hiding place to keep you safe from the storm.

We face some storms we will never share with anyone, we say pain is too vulnerable, we stay afar from people because pain, loss and disappointments make us push anyone who comes within a radius of your boat to help be with you in the storm away. We say, I don't need anyone, we build walls and then not let community be with us in the storm. 

Jesus was on that boat in the storm...I am no sailor, but I am sure trying to deal with a boat by yourself in a severe storm you will fail, it takes a skilled team to help weather the storm, to weather waves. When you are you let people help you in your storm, you can learn to rely on other people. It is always the Body of Christ that has come through for me in my life. They have been a support as the bible has called us to be as Christians, to help share each other's burdens, even Christ someone helped carry his cross us the side of the mountain. 

My dearest friend your pain, matters to God. He hasn't forgotten you, nor will he ever leave you. 

If you need a friend please reach out to me, you are never alone in this journey. 

May you know that God is faithful in every season even when waves of life crash onto us. 

May you be blessed and know you are loved. 

Grace and Peace be with you, may the love of Christ ever flow out of your heart and know you can rely on people.