karisa moore Archives - Page 11 of 20 - Turning the Page on Suicide

Posts Tagged: karisa moore

Clocking In

Posted February 6, 2020 | Karisa Moore

I didn’t quit my job of loving,
When you stopped punching your time card.
I clock in to life,
Heart uncallused by the rough, 24-hour, work of losing.
I freely hope, with splinters of grief digging deep into my soul.
Faith, joy, and compassion embrace the world
With a work ethic that suicide cannot render unconscious
To the world around me.

A poem from Broken Butterflies Emerging Through Grief

Turning Your Page

Your story is powerful. Knowing what caused you to turn the pages on the hardest day of your past can help you to turn the page on the hardest page now.

Meditate on the verse: ” Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people” (Philemon 1:7 NIV).
Journal about a day that was difficult as a child, adolescent, first job. Identify the elements that made it hard. Did someone hurt you? Were you in constant physical pain? What did you believe about yourself at the moment?
What helped you to move forward to take hold of the next day?
Did someone encourage your spirit or stand up for you? Did you take a walk? Sleep on it? Speak truth over the situation?

I will be on Facebook until 7:30 pm.

Set Free Indeed (Haiku): Poetry Prompt

Posted January 30, 2020 | Karisa Moore

Dirt shaken hope, rise.
Grave freed soul dance unhindered.
—arms bathed white in life.

Poetry Prompt: Freedom

Haikus became breath prayers for me after my son’s death. They were a way I could acknowledge both the depth of my sorrow and the saturated color of God’s abundant answers.

Meditate on John 8:12:

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”.
John 8:12 ESV

Write a haiku, 3 lines of 5-7-5 syllables, or another short-form poem in response. Focus on your senses and describe how you observe freedom in nature, death, and life. How does God describe the freedom he gives to you?

Leave the link to your poetry response in the comments or pingback to this prompt.

Fight Dirty for the Depressed

Posted January 28, 2020 | Karisa Moore

“God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God”.
“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us”.
2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:5

Turning My Page

When was the last time you fought dirty for the ones you love? Or for an enemy? I’m not talking cheating, I am talking about getting dirt under the nails, sweat on the brow, and dig deep into all you’ve got and then give more. Love the spouse who hurt you deeply. Treat the bully at work with kindness. Fighting dirty is not based upon changed behavior, it is deeply rooted in who Christ is in us.

We love because he first loved us. God didn’t just give us a list of do’s and don’ts, pat us on the back, and send us on our way. We can’t give those battling depression a toolbox of mental health solutions and leave them to figure it out.

God was and is involved since the creation of the world. He formed us with his hands. Nothing else in all of creation is described that way and even when Adam and Eve left God’s perfect plan, he stayed involved. So much so, that at just the right time, while we were still sinning, he came to earth in the form of a human child.

Jesus experienced rejection, sweat, felt thorns dig into his skin, and bears scars on his back from loving us. He knew our struggle with temptation. He knew we were oppressed, and he knew our depression. He fought dirty for us. Jesus told the disciples when he returned to heaven, he would still be with them through the Holy Spirit and that was enough for them to get their own hands dirty with humanity.

Depression, suicide, hopelessness is a dark and dingy place because hopelessness is wrapped in lies about our identity and the character of God. I was once smothered in those lies and my poor sweet son died in those lies. Children counter such a devious and destructive attack that often begins in their early development. I don’t accept that I’m helpless to fight back. My weapon is scripture. Know the character of God and act on the hope he offers to us.

When I didn’t know much about God, reading scripture was like having him sitting across from him and hearing him tell his side of the story. Prayer became a constant conversation–both speaking and listening–to God. Time with other believers encouraged, challenged, and brought me out of my shell. This is my foundation. As a result, I can’t sit idly by and put on blinders to the suffering of others. My hands in the dirt of humanity. Be all in because God was all in for us. Get your hands dirty.

Turning Your Page

Think of souls as gardens. The apostle Paul described ministry in this way: Some plant, some water, but it is God who causes them to grow (1 Corinthians 3:16). Use the skills you have to be present in the life of someone wrestling with despair. Love is something we all have.

Love is not based on feelings. It is a practice, it is a disciplined pattern. Start small. How has someone loved you well? Identify the elements of how they spoke life into you.
Identify a few people around you who need encouragement.
How can you give opportunities to listen and provide tangible hope? Try to be consistent.
Let me know your story in the comments. How can I fight dirty for you!?

Creater, you’ve had your hands in my humanity from the beginning. Give me a heart of flesh that I can love my family and neighbor more deeply. Amen

Dependent

Posted January 23, 2020 | Karisa Moore

You planted me firmly
in the desert of despair.
Why?

A comfort.
A witness.

Flesh is not my strength.
I am dust under the weight
of sorrow soaked hope.
Cracked souls remember
rain will come.
I grow rooted. Crave you. Secure.
Sustenance will come, you appointed
the season. I know it.

Striving quiets.
Your promises stored.

Though I stand here for a hundred years.
A drop of your love is enough for me
until you flood my soul with the
joy of presence. And I feel the steady
rhythm of revealed rain.

Deflate the Bed and Give Me Life

Posted January 21, 2020 | Karisa Moore

By Karisa Moore

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Turning My Page

My bed finally deflated. After three weeks of camping out in the living room, post foot surgery, I made the decision I would brave the stairs to sleep in my bed. I didn’t realize until I determined to press forward into healing how crippled I had become in spirit. Two nasty falls had made me terrified of reinjuring my vulnerable foot. Even when my family attempted to help or push me around in a wheelchair, I would grip the wheel or gripe that they were going too fast. I wanted control of the healing.

But I don’t get to determine how long the bone, tendon, muscles, or skin take to heal. I both need to be actively moving my foot to keep muscle weakness from setting in, and keep weight off it. Time, patience, and a willingness to allow others to provide for me are all necessary. Oh, how restless I become while dependent upon others.

God, I treat you with the same impatience. When I hear another person has given in to despair, I wonder where you are. When my own children wrestle with loss and health issues beyond their comprehension, I grow weary. Do something! I scream. I know you have a perfect plan, but this does not feel perfect. I desperately want to know my two remaining children will survive their physical challenges and thrive in life and faith. I want friends and family to know the compassion and grace of God, and I want the tide of despair in this world to turn.

And God agrees with those desires because at just the right time he entered the world in human form. We were sinners, longing for someone to rescue us from the cycle of destruction we seemed set in. Heal us from our sickness! Deliver my child from demons! Rescue us from oppression. Years and years Israel waited for the Savior and he didn’t come. They poured over scripture, neighboring nations heard of the promised one, and paranoid kings shivered with nightmares of a God greater than themselves. People suffered. Still, he didn’t come.

Just as God knew his one and only son had to be born at the exact time in history for Christianity to spread like fire, he enters our pain and reveals his good, pleasing and perfect will. Do some of us hear the message and reject him? Yes. He is nothing like I expected. He will never fit into my box of preconceived beliefs, but he expands my faith to recognize his will is that none perish. Healing came for all mankind.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/martyrs/dietrich-bonhoeffer.htmlI may never fully see this side of heaven the result of standing firm in faith when my legs are literally jelly right now. Are you standing in what feels like quicksand? Press into the fullness of God’s good, perfect, and pleasing will. His timing brings us stories like Isaac, Joseph, King David, Ruth, Esther, the Apostle Paul, Corrie ten Boom, Harriet Tubman, William Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Kanye West and my own. Add your story to this list. Be patient in affliction and wait expectantly for God’s will. Deflate the bed of fear and trust God’s good, perfect, and pleasing will.

Turning Your Page

Do you have a fear you need to deflate? Identify any fear that hinders you from moving forward and embracing life. There are so many heroes of faith. Study the ones in scripture, study the modern-day heroes of faith. Not even one of you is alone in fear, alone in circumstances, and or alone in faith. Take courage that you can stand firm even when your heart feels it can’t.

What fears are currently plaguing your life and crippling action? List them on paper and then pick one or two verses addressing fear to meditate on.
Observe others who wrestle fear. What actions do they take to move forward, what encourages them?
What positive habits do you have, or will you have that are not based upon feeling? Pick a few to do every day without fail. These are nonnegotiable.

Lord, I am paralyzed with fear. Reveal the clear next step and help to stand firm when I feel I cannot go further. Amen

Join our Facebook discussion on fear at 7 pm EST.

We’ll talk about the reality of fear and the weapons we have to fight, protect, and take new ground.

I Cannot Stop the Impact of Evil, But I Can Trust God

Posted January 16, 2020 | Karisa Moore

“So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:6-8, NIV).

Sara cradled me as she braced for impact.

I was only a toddler and the seatbelt laws had not yet been implemented. It was News Year Day and my parents were driving back from a party with their friend holding me on her lap in the back seat. As we drove through a four-way stop another car broadsided us sending Sara and I flying against the opposite door. I was safe in her arms, but Sara’s collarbone was broken by the impact.

I have no memory of the traumatic event, but others do. Sara’s only thought, as she saw the oncoming headlights, protect Karisa. She sacrificed her own body to keep me from harm. I couldn’t stop the evil that occurred that night. I wasn’t even aware of it. The driver of the other car sped off and never seemed to experience justice for hurting us.

Sin has an impact but does not have the final say. For the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23). Everything in this life is working towards that end, but Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the fullest (John 10:10). His sacrifice on the cross and resurrection has always given the opportunity for an abundant life. The choices are: Come into agreement with death or embrace life.

I hated my life and came into agreement with Satan’s plot by attempting to take my own life. Growing up I accused God of neglecting me and harbored anger towards him for not stopping the evil of abuse in my life. Yes, sin had an impact, but God protected me from the consequences. I now know the only difference between Judas, the betrayer of Jesus and Peter the betrayer of Jesus is, Peter did not take his own life. He turned his page of betrayal to see the resurrection. God built his church on Peter.

God is building his church on me. I thought I was worthless, unredeemable, and God too distant to care about me. God protected my purpose in the loving arms of a woman who bears scars for my sake.

Jesus bears scars for our sake. We may never know all of them, or how deep they are, but he has a mark for every evil done to us and every evil we have done to others.

I am reaching through these next words and cupping your tear-streaked face in my hands and declaring: Your life was purposed since the foundation of the earth. How many times has God redeemed and protected your purpose? He knows you, he created you, and no matter how much evil impacts you he is trustworthy.

I realize I cannot stop the impact of evil, but I can trust God. Yes, evil takes precious things from us, but there is so much more to the story. Don’t stop living it. There is resurrection. There are changed lives. There is hope that does not disappoint. Don’t stop standing firm in the midst of evil. Come to know the one who wins and resurrects every heartache we experience and give crazy, amazing and abundant life.

Dark Side Lightened

Posted January 9, 2020 | Karisa Moore

I benefit from this anguish.
Your judgment that finds faith
lacking. You reveal secrets.
Pull truth from my heart like
a colorful magician’s scarf. I choke
on the hate. Vomit anger, and
bite down on the bitterness of repulsive
slavery. I weep.

And still,
you empty me.

Remember my image to me, the
heart you canvased in my mother’s womb.
Calmed,
Loved,
Purposed.
Brushstroke light, concealed in
despair. Display
a masterpiece through the shadows of my suffering.

Dedicated to the many children who experience abuse.

In the Lion’s Den of Fear

Posted January 7, 2020 | Karisa Moore

“Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.” … “So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!” (Daniel 6:3. 10).

Join me to study fear at my Facebook page: Karisa Lynn Moore

How did things change so drastically for Daniel in the matter of 7 verses?
Where is God in all of this?
How do we respond to fear and drastic changes in our circumstances?

To Know God by Guest Blogger Amy Malcomb

Posted December 24, 2019 | Karisa Moore

Have you ever completely geeked out over a celebrity? I have. It was 15 years ago when my husband and I attended a Toby Mac concert. We were huge DC Talk fans and seeing Toby Mac perform with his new band Diverse City was just as exciting.

After the concert, he set up a table outside the auditorium to sign autographs. We didn’t feel like standing in line so we went across the street to Wendy’s and bought some food. At the last minute, we bought some extra food to give to Toby Mac. When we returned we only had to wait a few minutes in line before we were able to talk to him. We gave him the extra food and then had a great conversation about race relations in the church and adopting biracial children. I think I managed to stay calm during the conversation but afterward, whenever I would talk to anyone about it, I would become overexcited and talk very fast. Many years later it is kind of embarrassing to think about how I was on cloud nine simply because I had a conversation with a famous Christian musician.

Oh, and don’t get me started about the fact that I graduated from the same high school as Jennifer Garner. My kids groan whenever I start to mention it. They have heard it too many times before.

Here’s the thing though, Toby Mac and Jennifer Garner are just everyday people, sinners like everyone else. It is only our culture that has elevated them to the high caste called talented and famous. And if I can be honest with myself, I know they aren’t above anyone else despite what our culture leads us to believe. I also know that Jennifer Garner has never met me and has no idea who I am. Likewise, I am fairly certain that Toby Mac does not remember me, the conversation or the meeting.

Sometimes we become excited about meeting someone simply because they are famous, rich, powerful, or popular. Even though in our heart we know they are simply human like us. We might wonder what it would be like to be friends with them. We think it would somehow make our lives better if we were to have them around.

Let me share something astounding with you. There is someone who is rich, powerful, strong, and wise who desires a relationship with you. In fact, HE wants more than just a casual friendship or a shallow comradery. He wants an intimate, loving, no holds barred, kind of relationship. He wants to not only know about you, but He wants to be known by you.

Amos 4:13 says this about Him:
He who forms the mountains,
Creates the wind,
And reveals his thoughts to man,
He who turns dawn to darkness,
And treads the high places of the earth-
The Lord God Almighty is his name.
It is mind boggling to think about this.

Someone who formed the mountains desires a relationship with you. The one who creates the wind, he reveals his thoughts to man!! (That is, you and me.) He treads the high places of the earth, causes the sun to rise and set and he reveals his thoughts to man!!! Talk about having friends in high places, that is a truly powerful friend.

Jeremiah 33;2-3 says “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it- the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” So yes, the Creator of the world wants us to call out to Him, to seek Him, and to ask Him questions.

Try to grasp the big picture. He wants to have a relationship with you! He desires to share things with you. He also cares about you, though. Did you know that Jesus said in Matthew 10:30 that his Father knows how many hairs are on your head? Is it sinking in yet? He wants to be a part of your life, not just on Sunday morning, but every day, every minute, every second, all the bad parts, all the mundane trivial parts, all the exciting events. He wants to be there.

God in his infinite wisdom though, knew it would be difficult for us as humans to know an abstract being on a deep level. He wanted us to understand that he was a compassionate, powerful, and just God. And he wanted us to know Him on a profound level.

Philippians 2: 6 explains his solution. (Jesus)” Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness”. He came to be our Redeemer but he also came that we may know him and understand him better. He left heaven to walk on this earth for you and me. He experienced cold, hunger, thirst, cruelty, and temptation in a human body so that you and I might know him fully and so that he could more fully understand us.

As this Advent season winds down, keep your eyes focused on him. The next time you feel disconnected from your co-workers at an office party, or feel like the black sheep at a family gathering, or if you just feel anxious or lonely because the holidays aren’t quite what you thought they should be; remember Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Christmas is a celebration of Emmanuel – God with us.

Jesus’ greatest desire remains the same as it was 2000 years ago in the crowded town of Bethlehem. He desires to be with us no matter who we are, what we have done, or where we are. Praise God! He is with us, He knows us, and He loves us! That is worthy of a celebration!

Finding Sunshine in Despair

Posted December 5, 2019 | Karisa Moore

I search for sunshine among shadows.
And find you, creator of dark and light,
dancing with fireflies under
the spotlight of moon and stars.

Posts Tagged: karisa moore

Turning Your Page

Poetry Prompt: Freedom

Turning My Page

Turning Your Page

National Suicide Hotline