Love that will Never be Lost

Love can seem so evasive.  We look for it.  We think we find it, but then, just as suddenly as we found it, the feeling is gone.  Maybe that's because love is an emotion.  It's not visible to our human eyes.  We can't taste it.  Smell it.  Hear it.  Love is intangible.  In order to experience love at all we have to rely of the actions of other people.

I've been in love before and I've thought I've experienced the complete depth of love. I've cried because love felt so good.  But I've also cried because love heart so, so deeply.  In those moments of joy and pain, I truly believed that love was both the greatest and worst thing that had ever happened to me.

Before long those feelings went away and I began my search for love again.  Always searching.  Always hoping.  Always looking.  And always experiencing this deep seeded fear that love would never come to me again.

It felt, and sometimes still does, like love was over for me.  I had lost it and it would never be found again.

But there is one person's love that will never be lost.  We can't earn His love.  He just loves.  That's who He is.  God is love.  But understanding that--that there's nothing I can do that will gain God's love and there's nothing I can do that will remove His love--is so overwhelming.  Unfathomable really.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul describes what it will be like to see, to truly feel, God's love for the first time.  He writes, "Love never ends...but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away." (1 Corinthians 13: 8-10, NLT)

Obviously, there's no way to know for sure, but I can only imagine what it will be like to experience true love...God's never ending, never failing love.  Right now, I only experience love--this feeling--through the filter of my humanity.  Deeply flawed, I know that my "vision" of what true love looks like and feels like is wrong.  But one day, maybe soon, I will understand fully His powerful love.

And maybe it will feel a little like this...

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Beautiful Blooms

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"And do not let us grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

Galatians 6:9

If you follow me on Instagram you know that every year I anxiously await the return of peony season.  Their blooming season is so short but so glorious.  Almost as soon as they enter the market I'll be there, bag in hand, to collect a dozen or more.

I rush home to fill little vases all over my room and office with the blooms.  Over the next few days I watch them explode into fireworks of color and scent.

I believe my fascination with these flowers started many years ago as I thumbed through the pages of Martha Stewart Living.  The magazine would be full of pictures from her gardens and her parties. They were beautiful.  And I wanted to be just like Martha.  Naturally, only peonies would do.


My neighbor has a peony bush right in his front yard.  He planted for his wife before she passed away.  As Mother's day and the last days of spring approach I watch that plant.  Every year he prunes it's branches back to nothing.  Slowly, day by day, green branches and stocks begin to appear.  It seems like every night a new set of leaves is added and every morning they reach up to the sky longing for it's warm rays to nourish it's growth.

It only takes about two weeks for this bush to grow from nothing.  The next step in the blooming process seems to be the longest.  The bush that grew from nothing in two weeks suddenly reduces it's growing speed.  Storing all the energy this small plant can, it begins, internally, to create blooms.  Invisible to the eye, the blooms begin to grow.  They begin to suck their life from the long woody stocks.  But this growth...it can't be seen or felt or watched.

For weeks, I walk past that bush hoping against all hope to see a single bud, one flower, force itself forward and into bloom.  That's what I hope for...just one look.  But I also know peonies won't bloom--at least not in Tulsa, Oklahoma--for several more weeks.

And then, just when I'm about to give up hope that they will bloom, I see a single white peony burst open.  And then two, three, four.  So many more that I could count.  So many more than I thought possible.

Isn't life like that sometimes? 

It seems like you've seen so much of our hard work pay off...that our dreams are about to come true...and then the waiting starts.  You thought the waiting was over, but it's really just beginning.

In moments of waiting it's far too easy to give up or give in or just move on.  I've felt that way far too many times.

Encourage yourself.  Don't give up.  Know that the waiting will end.  

And when the waiting ends, you'll find all of that dreaming and all of that hard work has rewarded you with beautiful blooms.

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///missed opportunities

Memories are a funny thing. These little pictures into the past can bring so much pain or so much happiness. But one thing is certain, we can stay held captivated in these little masterpieces for hours, maybe even days, if we'd allow ourself.

I had one of those memories today.  It wasn't actually my own experience, but I still remember just as clearly as if it had been...

Oklahomans can be characterized in a few words--three to be exact--God, Country, and football.  So naturally one would think when my sister, Dalayna, came in from the bus announcing the arrival of a famous ball player to her class my parents would have rushed to Wal-Mart to purchase a football.  Instead, they rushed to Wal-Mart and purchased a baseball.

I can only imagine the questioning looks when Dalayna walked up to the Seattle's Seahawks Hall of Famer, Steve Largent and hands him a baseball of all things.   His response?  He snatches up the ball, rolls it in his hand, and signs it...right on the sweet spot.

Over ten years later, that ball is still around somewhere, collecting dust, a testament to a missed opportunity.  Out of curiosity I found myself searching for the price of Steve Largent signed memorabilia.  You know, if Dalayna had taken a football that day instead of a baseball there's a good chance she could have made some money off that thing.  People will pay the most ridiculous prices for things like signed footballs and autographed helmets and original jerseys.  But we don't have a signed football or helmet or jersey.  No, we have a signed baseball.

It's easy to get side tracked in our memories especially the memories of missed opportunities.  Haunted by these pictures discouragement seizes it's opportunity.  Because we're discouraged we lose hope.  And because we lose hope we fail to remember who God is and what he wants us to do and who He's called us to be.  Hopeless, lonely, doubtful...anger just tends to become who we are.

But I challenge us to look past the hopelessness and the loneliness and the self loathing to see the truth.

Psalm 46:10, 11 (AMP) says this, '"Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God..." The Lord of host is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.' (emphasis mine)

Reality is every missed opportunity is gone.  It's not coming back.
Reality is missing opportunities brings us disappointment.  But disappointment can only paralyze us if we let it.
Reality is there's no going back.  There is only moving forward.

But in moving forward I have the assurance that God is with me.  In moving forward I know I have a refuge.  Let it be.  The past is gone.  Let it be and then be still and know that God is fighting for you.  There's no one better to fight for us.  He's the one who works all things for good to those who love Him. (Romans 8:28)

We don't have a signed football or helmet or jersey.  We have a signed baseball.

But I don't know anybody else who has a baseball signed by the Football Hall of Famer, Steve Largent.  Do you?

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/// my word of the year

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Learning to say "no" is quite the challenge.  For me, I supposed this inability to say that little word comes from some sort of pride...to think someone needs me.  If I don't come through no one will.  And besides, no one will do it as well.  

How egocentric is that?!

Reality is much different than the thoughts that run through my mind.

In reality, I'm just one person.
In reality, many people can do what I do just as well.
In reality, life should not be about hopping from one task to the other.
In reality, life should not be about doing everything for everybody else and wasting the calling God has on my life because I'm too tired or too spent.

In reality, "no" is not a dirty word.  (It doesn't even have four letters.)  "No" is just a word.  It brings balance into our lives.  It brings rest to our minds.  It frees other people to do what they're called to do.

I think my pastor, Mike Buie, said it best.  "Sometimes we have to say 'no' to good opportunities so we can say 'yes' to God opportunities."

Truthfully, for me, this is very difficult.  I want to change the world so much more than I have and experience so much more of life than I have and be so much more than I am, but reality has to rule here.  If I'm so busy with good opportunities, more than likely I'm going to miss the God opportunities that are passing right in front of my eyes.

Leonard Ravenhill once said, "The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of that opportunity."  That's the thing...opportunities will pass right in front of our eyes.  They can slip through our fingers.  We can run right past them with every intention to return.  But when they are gone, they're gone.

In the past, I've missed opportunities.  I've missed some because I was scared to jump.  I've missed some because I was trying to be submissive.  I've missed some because I was just flat out lazy.  I've missed some--many--because I was too busy to recognize those opportunities as defining moments.

I've written about this truth before, but let me just remind you of Paul's words in a few of his epistles.

Ephesians 5:15, 16

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Make the best use of your time.  Make the best use of your God opportunities.  Say "no" to good opportunities so you can say "yes" to God opportunities.

This next year, 2015,  I'm not making a resolution.  I'm working to adopt a word.  Purge.  Purge the things in my life that clutter my attention.  Purge things that distract me from God's purpose for my life.  Purge so I can make the most of every opportunity.

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this should not be

Let's face facts. Relationships are difficult. Friendships cost us something. People can be mean and selfish. People can hurt us. But, to quote the epistle of James, "...my Brothers {and Sisters} these things should not be" {James 3:10b}.

James is right. We should bless our brothers and sisters. We should love them, encourage them, strengthen them, fight with them, fight for them.

I grew up in a home with two other sisters.  We love each other very much, but we can tear one another down more than anybody else. Maybe it has something to do with living in the same bedroom for the majority of our lives, or maybe it was sharing the bathroom (ugh), but there are few people that can hurt me worse than my sisters. 

The same is true for me. I've hurt my sisters many times. Sometimes I knew I was hurting them.  Other times it was a complete accident.  But every time, our relationship was strained and painful to resolve.

Ultimately, our discomfort has always lead us to resolve our problems, but I think it was mostly because we did share the same bedroom and same bathroom for the majority of our lives.  We couldn't escape each other. When it comes to relationships outside of our family, resolving issues becomes increasingly more difficult.  It's much easier to ignore the problem and hope that it will go away.  It's much easier to not invite someone to the party.  It's so much easier to criticize and tear down than to build up and love and help.  

I am guilty of this.

But as James said, "this should not be..."

When we exclude people from our lives we are isolating them from community.  We're leaving them to try and make it on their own.  Worse, we are isolating ourselves from community.  We are not allowing the Holy Spirit to use relationships to mold us into His image.  We are limiting our influence all because it's easier...it doesn't hurt as much.

Here's the problem with that, "Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgement" {Proverbs 18:1}.  So when we exclude ourself or someone else from community we put our own desire for comfort ahead of what God's desire is for our life.  

God wants us unified, sharing in love and grace and mercy, with each other and the world around us.  This action alone makes us a city on hill that cannot be hidden.  And it gives our lives saltiness that flavors the world around us with good. In a world that desperately needs good, this action demonstrates, more than anything else, God's great love.

So, my friends, this fighting--these petty arguments--this back biting--"should not be."

But how can we move forward from here?  How can we move past this?

We have to humble ourself. We have to say we're sorry. We have to recognize that there are two sides and whether we realize it or not we are part of the problem. Here's the fun part. If we're part of the problem, we're also part of the solution.  

Look at what Paul wrote in Romans 12:

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live peaceable with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God...Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Let's look specifically at Romans 12:18.  "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all."  In other words, do everything you can to live at peace. Peace is important to God, so important, in fact, that Jesus addressed this issue in the Sermon of the Mount. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" {Matthew 5:9}.  

I love being "right."  I highly value my opinion.  I honestly think that if people would listen to me I could help them. (Egotistical, I know, but just go with it.) But, for myself, I can say that being at peace with God and man is more important to being "right."  I can learn to accept another point of view.  I don't have to agree with it, I don't have to condone it, but I need to hear it and then I need to choose live at peace.  If God Himself lets let's us have the free will to decide what we want to do with our lives, how in this world do we think we--humans--are ever going to control someone else's decisions?  

That's foolishness. 

If you want to be upset because someone thinks you're wrong, then do that, but I just have say it's better to let God do the changing and you do the loving.  That's how you become part of the solution.  That's how you find peace.

Unity is a gift.  It's a gift that we have to work for, it's a gift that we have to sacrifice for, but there is no greater gift that we can give to each other.  

I challenge us. Let's live the life God wants for us and quite isolating each other from community. Let's encourage one another through our words and actions and stop tearing each other down because of opinion. Let's walk in grace and mercy and love and divorce ourselves from all forms divisions. Let's open our arms and our hearts to each other and realize humility is a sacrifice worth paying.  Let's accept that we have different opinions and recognize that God doesn't care about our opinions anyway.  If we will, we will become the city of the hill, the light that cannot be hidden, and the salt of the earth.

My friends, this should be.

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Short & Sweet

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Putting myself to bed is much easier than putting my mind to sleep.  But there's nothing I can change by worrying.  There's no problem that will go away by lying awake at night.  The best thing is to just go to sleep and trust God to take care of the rest.

I haven't mastered this and maybe I never will, but I'm working on it.

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Short & Sweet

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I was just combing through Pinterest.  Just enjoying my morning.  And then, BAM!  Instant tears.  Instant regret.  Instant action.

Life doesn't have to be boring.  In fact, that's the last thing God wants for us.  He want's us to live a dramatic, full of life, adventure in Him.  It's not easy.  It's not supposed to be.  It might even kill you, but it's an adventure.

For now, all I can say is that I'm working on it.

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clean heart ~ a look at Psalm 51

Probably my favorite psalm is Psalm 51.  It’s my favorite for a lot of reasons, but mostly because it is a song of repentance.  If you grew up in church, or even if you didn’t, I’m sure you know the story of King David’s fall into sin with Bathsheba.  The Bible describes in 2 Samuel 11 a time when David lusted after a woman, Bathsheba, impregnated her, lied to cover it up, killed her husband, and then broke Jewish tradition and married Bathsheba.  I’m sure the day he married Bathsheba he breathed a sigh of relief.  The secret of his sin was safe.  That is until Nathan, the prophet, openly rebuked David for his sin. 

As a result, David was broken, embarrassed, ashamed.  But he was also repentant.  During this time of brokenness he wrote, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from Your presence, and don’t take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and make me willing to obey.  Then I will teach (or sing, or declare, or play) Your ways to rebels, and they will return to You…You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.  You do not want a burnt offering.  The sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” (Psalm 51:10-17, NLT)

I can’t even imagine how humbling this experience would have been.  I can’t imagine the depth of David’s brokenness.  I can’t imagine the pain.  But David’s brokenness came as a result of his own personal exultation.  David got a little bit too big for his britches.

After all, he was David the giant slayer.  He was David the conqueror.  He was David the King of the greatest nation of that time.  He could do whatever he wanted.  He was the chosen one.  God chose him.  God deposed the first king, Saul, and established him as king.

But now, David, nothing more than a broken man, crawls in humility to the throne.  He asked for forgiveness.  He asked for mercy.  He asked for grace.  He repented.  He changed.  And he found God again.

I see myself so much in this story.  I’m not talking about the adultery, but the haughty, puffy attitude that David showed.  God forgive me for having that attitude.  

Every position we have...every gift God has given us...every talent He’s placed in our hands...is a responsibility.  It’s an obligation.  It’s a calling.  It’s a mission.  That gift is not for our own glory.  Even if we use our talents outside of a church building—which we should by the way—it’s still not for our glory.  Everything He has given for our hands to do is to point people back to God…to His love…to His truth.  It is our primary objective to lead people into the presence of God.

David had a calling on his life.  God chose him to be king because He trusted David with His people.  God has a calling on your life.  And you know what, just like David you're going to mess up.  If you're called to be a mom, you're going to yell at your kids.  You're going to have arguments with your spouse.  Of course you are.

Our ability to fail is not really an option.  It will happen.  Our response to our failures will define the outcome of our lives.

Let God use the brokenness in your life to reform you.  Run to Him and you will find Him.

"...when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  I will be found by you...I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes..."

Jeremiah 29:12-14

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Short & Sweet

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Playing nice can be really difficult when you're working hard.  Let's just be honest.  Fatigue doesn't just weigh on our physical bodies.  It limits our emotional and mental strength.  (And to be more honest, sometimes my mental and emotional strength is not that strong.)

2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me."

I'm so thankful that even in my weak moments Christ is strong.  He's strong in me and He's strong through me.

Special thanks to shopruche.com for the use of their image.  They are having a sale through tonight.  Get an extra 25% off your entire order with the code BIRTHDAY25.

May we become ever more weak in ourselves and ever stronger in His grace.

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Short & Sweet

This quote has it's roots in a famous quote by Anna Gould.  She said, "Be beautiful if you can, wise if you want to, but be respected-that is essential."  While I don't completely disagree with Ms. Gould she did get some things wrong.  You can only earn respect and respect is earned through being gracious.

Take time today to defend the defenseless...to stand against injustice.  Use every gift in your arsenal, wisdom, wit, and beauty, but always remember--never, ever forget--that respect is earned.  It's earned when you are full of grace.

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all these things

The last couple of weeks I've found myself cleaning out my life.  All of the things that I've put in piles and boxes are things that I loved.  I still love them.  I still think they are beautiful and nice and neat.  I just don't need them in my life anymore.

I'm sure my Facebook friends are getting tried of the online garage sale thing I've got going, but now that I've cleaned the clutter it's just sitting in my house with no where to go.  That drives me crazy too.  (Who am I kidding? It's a short trip to crazy for where I sit.)

Sure, I could take it to Goodwill or some other charity.  But if I sell it to my friends, I know who has it and how they'll use it.  I know that one day it will probably be in one of their garage sales, but until then it will be sitting on their mantle or hanging on their walls.  Hopefully they'll experience the same joy these things brought me.

And there's the problem.

Things will never really bring lasting joy.

For a while they'll be fun.  They'll brighten your room and when you look at them you might sigh just a little bit, but eventually, they're going to drive you crazy too.  They'll loose their esthetic appeal as your personal tastes change.  They'll got out of style.  They'll start to collect dust.  They'll end up in a box in the corner of your catch all room or in a garage or in an attic until they make it to your garage sale.  These things...

It sounds like a sad way to go to me.

But isn't that often how we treat family and friends in our lives.  They make us laugh.  They make us cry.  They bring true joy.  They get to stay.  But then, it's hard and we don't love them as much anymore and we replace them with someone new.

I can honestly say, "I've been there."  But sadly I can also say, "I've done that."

I resolve, and I hope you will to, to treat things just as they are: Temporary. Useful for a season.  They will change.  They will break.  They are unfixable.  And to treat people and family and friends as they truly are: Eternal.  A picture of the image of God.  Breakable, but fixable.

It's going to be a challenge, but all things in the world are never worth the people in your life.

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Cultivate Community

The older I become the more I realize we were never meant to live alone.

As a way of life, I love the freedom of being my own person. During creation God gave each of us free will. He gave us the freedom to choose to obey Him. He gave us the freedom to make decisions of our own accord. But, in all the free will and choices He gave mankind, He did not give us the choice of community.

In Genesis 2:18, after God has
created all of the earth, he looked at Adam and said, "It is not good for man to be alone.  I will make him a helper."  And then God created Eve.  Now, I know that in the end, Eve wasn't as helpful as she could have been.  But in the beginning God created her to be a helper for Adam.  God did not want Adam to be alone.

And He doesn't want us to be alone either.  He wants us to live together in community with each other.  I'm not going to lie.  Developing community takes work and a lo
t of it, but it will be worth it.

I like what Shauna Niequist wrote in her book Bread and Wine, "We don't learn to love each other well in the easy moments.  Anyone is good company at a cocktail party.  But love is born when we misunderstand one another and make it right, when we cry in the kitchen, when we show up uninvited with magazine and granola bars, in an effort to say, I love you."

No.  Cultivating community is hard work because we have to expose the deepest, ugliest parts of who we are and why were are the way we are.  Sometimes it hurts (1 Corinthians 6:1-8).  It challenges who we are (Proverbs 27:17). We are held accountable for our actions and our words (James 5:6).  But it's still worth it.

Why?

Because, in community, we find encouragement.  We find people who will pray with us.  We find people who will help us.  We share hardships.  Because, in community, we become more like Christ.  And ultimately, becoming more like Him should always be the goal.

So where do we start now?  How can we begin to develop community in our homes and in our churches?  In our lives?

First, be friendly.  It sounds kind of obvious, but you might be surprised.  Don't wait to be invited.  Do the inviting.  Open up your home.  And then, actually care about the people who come in.  The world quite revolving around you when you could use the restroom by yourself.  (Harsh?  Sorry.)  Lastly, show grace.  Recognize that we are all on a path leading in the same direction.  Yes, sometimes correction is needed, but more than correction, we need to share grace with people.  We're all broken and we all need God's grace.

It is this kind of community that points spiritually lost people to Christ.  It's when we respond with grace.  It's when we act in His love.

So, I encourage you, open your door to a friend and you'll find you've opened the door to community.

...it isn't about perfection, and it isn't about performance.  You'll miss the richest moments in life--the sacred moments when we feel God's grace and presence through the actual faces and hands of the people we love--if you're too scared or too ashamed to open the door.

Shauna Niequish, Bread and Wine

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short and sweet

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Anything can happen to a person who believes what God believes about them.

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the lament of a night owl

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Mornings are really rough for me. I remember a time that I could stay up as late as I wanted without any worry of the morning, but not any more. The terrible part is I much prefer the night. No, not the darkness.  The night.  The night where the stars sparkle across water and streams and sky.  The night still glows--just in a different way. It glitters...and glitter has always caught my eye.

But that's beside the point.  Every night I practice the same routine. I do my devotions (because there's no way I'm going to be able to wake up in the morning with enough time to do spend with Jesus.)  Usually participate in some form of exercise.  And I always set my alarm to get up early the next morning.  Well, it's early for me.  But alas, when the sun peaks into my room and the sound of life returns to earth, I'd much prefer the comfort of my covers to the glowing reality waiting out there in the world.

Curious, I know. Right now, in this unending winter, there are few things I can imagine more prefect than the warmth of the sun kissing my cold skin except possibly the ocean's waves licking my toes.  Still yet, mornings are rough.

Oh, if only I loved mornings I could traipse around the fields behind my house enjoying the beauty of nature as she comes awake.

If only I loved mornings I could enjoy the cup of coffee seated and resting instead of on the road to my next destination.

If only I loved mornings I could glimpse the orange sun as her rays warm the hard wood floor.

But I don't enjoy them...not at all.  At least not before eight o'clock and then I enjoy them just fine.

For all the trouble that they are, there is one thing about mornings that makes them forever close to my heart.  It's the newness that they bring.

I can't change the past, but I can change today.  Right here, this moment and every moment still to come, is waiting for me to discover.  They may be already written in God's book of history, but I still win the discoverer's treasure as they unfold before my eyes.  The morning calls us to life.  The morning brings new hope.  The morning is about the future.

From what I know about mornings the future is looking pretty bright.  No, mornings are never easy, but they are always bright.

For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Psalm 30:5

Linking Up
Cornerstone Confessions

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in You I'm planted + free printable

When life is terrible and I feel tossed and shaken, I have to find myself repeating the words of David.

"Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on His law day and night.  That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither--whatever they do prospers."                         ~Psalms 1:1-3 

I have to plant myself in His Word...in His promise...in Him alone.

Linking Up With

Whimsy Wednesdays

Wow Me Wednesdays

Wow Us Wednesdays

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Closing the Week

Just two months from today, I will be in Paris for the very first time.  I'm extremely excited.  I can't wait.  I've never been to Europe so you can imagine the measure of my anticipation.

As I look forward to September, I find that there is still life happening around me.  A lot of life is like this...a looking forward to the future and forgetting to enjoy the life we have right now.  It's so easy to do.  I struggle with it all the time.  But I must remember that while the future is full of possibilities, the present is full of hope.  And without hope those possibilities will never come.

I so ofter just expect to wake up one morning and find that my entire life has changed.  Like in The Little Princess when Shirley Temple wakes up to find untold treasures from her beloved India.  Yet, life is not like that at all.

We become.

In everything we do,
we think,
we say,
we become our future.

As my weekend begins, I'm choosing to become.  To become more than I am and to enjoy today.

Here's what happened on the blog this week

I cooked up an Old Fashioned Shrimp Boil and I also crafted with some sea shells.  They're now my favorite color: gold.  I wrote about writing stories with our lives and sharing them with other people.  And, on top of all that, I introduced one of my favorite companies, Noonday.  I love their products, but I also love their purpose.

Share with me your favorite post for the week.  Leave a link in the comments and I'll check it out.

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Stories of Redemption

source

I love telling stories. 

I’m not entirely certain why stories captive my mind.  Maybe it has something to do with the emotions that a story produces or maybe it’s just because I love the pictures my mind paints when I image the story coming to life.

I’m not entirely certain why I love stories, but I think that it’s because a story is where a person lives.  It’s a snapshot of who they are and what they believe and how they feel.  It describes the history that molded their future.  A story gives depth to the pictures we see of people in life.

God writes stories.  He’s actually writing a master story.  It’s called God’s plan for man. 
It started in the Garden of Eden when He created Adam and Eve and it continues on today.  The story of His plan has had several hiccups.

the fall man in the Garden

the tower of Babel

the flood

his convenient with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

the Hebrew children in slavery

the Exodus

the story of entering the Promise Land

his convenient with David

the stories of the kings and prophets

the exile of God’s people

the birth of Jesus

his life and His death

his resurrection

his convenient promise to the Church to empower us and make us His witnesses

All of these stories are within the Master story that God is writing.  He’s writing the story of Redemption.

We all have a story.  Even our very lives are a story.  We all have a beginning and we will all have an end.  And somewhere there in the middle will be the story of our lives…how we lived, how we acted, how we reacted, how we fought and how we retreated.  Forever imprinted on the pages of history will be our life, complete.  

And it will all be there in the story of God’s redemption.

The writer of Hebrews wrote of this life as a race rather than a story.  I’m quite certain that the majority of us are familiar with this passage of Scripture.  Possibly, you may have committed it to memory.  But the writer shares this in chapter 12 of Hebrews, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  For the joy set before Him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

When studying this verse it’s so easy to only focus on our own race…our own story.  But as we look to Christ as the perfecter of our faith, we have to look past ourselves and into the heart of Christ. 

Jesus said of Himself, “I did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).”  Jesus also said of Himself, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Looking to Christ as the pen on the paper of our lives, I have to say, I’m compelled to do more, to be more, to have more action on pages He pens.

There are a few characteristics of really great stories that make the pages of a book come to life.

First, really great stories always start with thorough research.  Even fiction stories must have an element of truth in them.  The same is true for our lives.  We have to have more than a simple knowledge of the Word of God and we have to pray more than over our meals.  If we want the Master author to write the story of the ages inside of us, we have to know the Master’s heart. 

The narrative we allow Him to write is directly related to our will.  And truthfully our will is evil and wicked.  On our own we are destined to be a tragedy--an exemplary tale of how not to live.  But when we’ve studied God’s Word and when we’ve spent time in His presence our heart and our will begins to be shaped into God’s will for our life.

Powerful narratives also have strong plot lines.  There is a raise and fall to the action, but it is never stagnant. 

Life can be so boring.  Our spiritual lives can be boring.  Taking the easy road.  Living on the edge of adventure.  I’m sure some of us prefer it that way.  Truthfully, there’s nothing “wrong” with staying “out of trouble.”  The less adventure there is the less trouble we can get in.  But if we always take the easy road, if we never challenge the enemy, if we never challenge ourselves, how we grow in the our level of trust in God.

Truthfully, God sends us challenges or God allows challenges to occur in our lives.  These situations might find us completely unprepared.  Think falling in a rushing river while canoeing through the Grand Canyon.  Nobody wants to almost drown.  But think of the story you can tell when you get home.

Glennon Melton says this, “Life is brueltal, but it’s also beautiful. So I call life brutiful.  I’ve decided to become a shameless truth teller.”  

I really like that…a shameless truth teller.  I want my life...my story...to shamelessly tell of God's brueltal life that He created in me.

There are many steps in writing a great story.  But of all the steps, the last one is the one that matters most.  Send that tale to the press.

I want to challenge you to use this crazy, this difficult, this overwhelming plot that God is writing in you for good.  Invest in other people the story of your life.  Share what God has brought you through.  Tell them how you had to lean on your church family when you lost your job.  Tell them what the Holy Spirit spoke to your heart when you were suffering from depression and thoughts of suicide.  Tell them how Jesus healed your life when you had cancer.  Tell them how Christ set you free from an addiction to pron or drugs or whatever.  

Tell them.

Tell those that are lost and in the dead of night.  Better yet, turn the page and allow God to write a new chapter--a chapter where you take your flashlight and head out into the cold rain looking for a fatherless child.  They are lost.  They’re dirty.  There isn’t much to their story. 

But the very adventure that you disdain is the excitement and the hope that they need to survive. 

Jesus said this, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.  And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well (Mark 16:15-18).”

Friends, if you are in a relationship with the Master author then He is writing a beautiful story of your life.  Your story, whether you like it or not, is a part of God’s plan…a part of His story…

of redemption.

Chances are, you won’t be asked to give your life as a martyr for Christ.  You probably won’t be asked to go to a foreign mission field.  You might not be asked to stand in front of people and share from the pages of your life.  But we have all been penned to be a living adventure of God’s redemption plan.  And a story is no good unless it’s told.

Tell your story and let Christ write stories of redemption through you.

Linking Up today with

Desire to Inspire

Into the Word
Weekend Wonders
The Friday Chaos
Frugal Friday

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my Prayer for you + a Printable

Today, this is my prayer for you.  May you find God's sweet peace, joy like you've never know.  May God's love surround you and may your heart be full of love.

To download, click on the image.

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New Mercies

Many times the only strength I have is knowing that God is with me, that He surrounds me with His love and care, and that tomorrow He is still walking beside me.

I am so thankful for God's grace and mercy.  I am thankful that, even when I am incredibly unfaithful, He is not.  His faithfulness will endure from everlasting to everlasting.

I know in these days hopelessness and desperation abound, but I have found my hope and you can too.  Hope is only a prayer away.

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a Surrendered Life

via

When I think of the word surrender more often than not I envision an army surrendering to another army who just gives up.  Sometimes I think of a person surrendering to the will of someone else.  But instead of thinking of the word "surrender" as a verb--as an action--I want to challenge you to think of surrender as an adjective.

I know that this goes against every rule in the English language, but hear me out.

God wants us to move past this action of surrendering into a surrendered life.  In other words, God desires us to move past the process of surrendering every problem as it arises in our life.  He wants us to move into a new realm of trust.  He deeply desires us to always live in this complete trust state.

continued on the next page...

Trusting completely without reservation is difficult, but when we recognize who God truly is and when we step into a realization of His sovereignty, trust does come much easier.  Nonetheless, this comprehension can only be achieved when we leave our understanding of God on an intellectual level and cultivate heart knowledge of who God is.  I love what J. I. Packer says in his book Knowing God.  He writes, "A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him."

I feel so deeply that God is calling His church, the very Love He died for, back to Him and back to a knowledge of Him.  Not who He is or what He did or what He's like or even what He can do.  He is calling us back to Him.

In Revelations 2, Jesus is speaking to the church at Ephesus.  Jesus commends the church for their love of good deeds and for their perseverance but Jesus says this, "I hold this against you.  You have forsaken the love you had at first.  Consider how far you have fallen!  Repent and do the things you did at first" (Revelations 2: 4, 5).

I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit saying the same to us today.  "I love how you love the broken and hurt.  I love how you show my compassion.  I love how value the poor and the needy.  You're doing a wonderful job at showing my compassion.  You're doing a great job at not giving up.  But you've forgotten to love for Me."

The Holy Spirit has put a hunger in my heart to know God again...to return to my first love.  I find myself missing Him and His presence.  I know who God is and I know what He's done.  I've seen Him work miracles and I've experienced His power.  But all of these signs of God are pointless without an understand in my heart.  I what to know Him.

Tonight I'm finding myself praying as the psalmist of Psalm 42 prayed, "As the deep pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, my God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When can I go and meet with God."

It's here, in this place of a surrendered life, that we can truly know God not for what He is, but for who He is.  And for that, my soul lives.

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