S4 Episode #10- Amanda McMullen
THE ONE WITH AMANDA McMULLEN
Amanda McMullen is a teacher, singer, and artist who is passionate about knowing and sharing the love of Christ. She runs an art business and ministry, Asher Marie Co., where she encourages women going through infertility, miscarriage, and other painful seasons of waiting and delay.
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LAMENT
Sometimes God places specific people in our lives in certain seasons to draw us closer to HIM.
In the early years of knowing the Lord, Amanda felt an abundance of more healing and joy each day. When she turned 28, she began to try to get pregnant, and they began to struggle with infertility. She felt blindsided by The Lord. She said, “Lord, why didn’t you warn me? … I had this disease eating away at my body for many years, but I didn’t know.”
This sent her into a ‘dark night of the soul’ as she has walked through this for 5 years.
As an Enneagram 7, Amanda could not see the bright side of this situation. Her natural tendency is toward optimism, but for the first time in her life, she saw God showing up in lament. For the first time, she saw God showing up in sorrow and she had to sit in it like never before.
“Lament is the bridge between a hard life and worship.”
Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament by Mark Vroegop
Amanda was in a time when she learned that God gives us permission to grieve. Her fear had been that she would be trapped in emotional pain if she was really honest with God about the pain she felt. She felt angry and betrayed by God. She was in the pit and worried that she would never get out. BUT, God showed her that lament is a bridge– it is not a place where we get stuck, it is a place that leads us to deeper worship.
Don’t be afraid to tell God how you really feel. Don’t be afraid to cry out to Him.
Psalm 13– “How long O Lord will you forget me…”
You can pour out your feelings to God. You will not get stuck there when your heart is really for Jesus. You cannot worship in Spirit and in Truth, if you are not really being truthful in the first place.
CHARACTER OF GOD
The Psalms of Lament always follow an arch of crying out to God, then transitioning to an ask, and ending with a declaration of who God is.
When we cry out to God, He is OK with our pain. We do not have to get over our pain in order to be close to Him.
As Christians, we often fall into the pattern of trying to fix each other’s problems. Yet, someone who is in grief can often be closer to The Lord. This is not something that needs to be “fixed”.
God is our Father. He is a good Father. He loves us, He cares for us, He is present with us. He may not always give us what we want, but a good Father doesn’t. A good Father gives us what is better for us than what we think we want.
It’s easy to believe the lie that God is doling out good gifts to everyone except for you. This is not true!
There are so many times when we wait and wait and wait and still don’t see our prayers answered. Yet, John 9 tells us, “It’s not because of his sin or his parent’s sin– it’s so the glory of God can be revealed.”
Cling to the fact that the glory of God can be revealed through the current season of waiting that you find yourself in.
ASHER MARIE CO.
Everyone is groaning for something. We all long for something that is lost to be recovered. Amanda’s company started out of her desire to share the grief and story that she was in the middle of. As believers, we must hold each other up through the hardships.
Asher= Joy + Laughter
Marie= Bitterness
The name of her company represents her passion to put joy over bitterness. Her work has a lot of themes of grief and suffering, but it is all covered in hope and bright colors.
CREATE SPACE FOR JOY
In the midst of struggle, we can always find space for joy.
Shift your focus to thankfulness and remembering what you do have, instead of staying so fixated on what you don’t have.
Choose to see the ways that God is showing up for you right where you are, even though it may be different from where you hoped to be.
The hard things you are walking through are going to benefit someone in your future in ways that you could never have imagined. Often wisdom is forged through the hard times that we walk through in our lives.
Continue with the Lord through the hard times and He will forge wisdom in you. We will share in His glory, provided we share in His suffering.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There is such a freedom to ask The Lord for whatever we need. HE is the one who can provide for all of our needs. Meditate on the character of God and be persistent in your pursuit of the truth of who He is!
There are treasures in your life– in the hard place– where God wants to reveal new aspects of His character.
Don’t give up hope!
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The Collected Podcast is produced by Jes Biondo and edited by Jacob Early. Cover art designed by Ben Biondo.