For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 2 peter 1:5-8
I started on this journey many years ago and had no idea where it would lead me. I certainly never thought I would be where I am! I get multiple ‘inspirational’ type of emails daily. Many of them are from a Christian perspective, many are not. I truly believe they are all seeking to help me with their words, and they do in all different ways. Words are very powerful and st times I am inspired, helped, encouraged, filled with joy and laughter, entertained, discouraged, angered, saddened, broken and many other emotions as I read from all of these sources who are all so different. I love sharing all of these thoughts and perspectives and I soak it all up! I feel so blessed to be able to learn so much, and to be stretched out of my comfort zone, every day. To be able to share my own thoughts with others is a great blessing. I realize that my words may conjure up as many emotions, or more than those I have listed above!
I admire and respect everyone for who they are and what they believe. God as my helper, you will never hear me tell you that I have it all figured out! My goal is to make you think! I think about all the things I read and is seems, for the most part, they either give me a false positive – like I am a ‘goddess’, or a ‘diva’ – or they tell me I am a ‘sinner’ and ‘I stink’ with very little hope that it will ever get better. Ha What I have found to be true is a little different from either of these things, and to me, it makes all the difference to me.
My walk of faith has brought me to a place of confidence. When I did some research on ‘confidence’ a few weeks ago guess what came up? A whole bunch of people (some beautiful…some painfully not beautiful) showing their bodies. Why do we equate taking our clothes off to mean we have confidence? My confidence is not about what I look like, or my body image. It is not about being some sort of Wonder Woman who can save the world because I’m so awesome, but the exact opposite!
My confidence brings me to a place of rest, beauty and beloved-ness because of the love I have found in God. It is not about my struggling to be ‘Purpose-filled’ it is about me being enough. I have found I don’t HAVE to do anything! It is about me expressing my love from the place of who I am – just as I am – because I was created to be….me…just me! Amy Carol – beloved song of Christ. I am accepted, just as I am, and as I except that one precious fact, I begin to live the purpose for which I have been placed into this beautiful world – just at this moment – for such a time as this! It’s all about me (personal responsibility)…but it’s not at all about me (laying down my agenda for the light of God to shine through me)! Ha the amazing conundrum of grace!
This is what I believe. We are human. There is good and bad in each of us. We are all capable of wonderful, and/or terrifying, things. We are created beings – made from the dust. We are born and we die. We have been given freewill to choose what we will do with the ‘dash’ in between. The years we are given to enjoy between life and death matter very much. Every moment of every day we are faced with a multitude of choices – the choices we make are the deciding factors of who we become.
When Christ died for us – he did so because he loved us more than we can ever truly comprehend. God wanted more for us than that we would continue to live with the belief that we are only, always ‘sinners’. He gave us life abundantly. When he talks about the ‘narrow way’ and encourages us to choose it, he doesn’t say it leads to ‘heaven’, he says it leads to ‘LIFE’!!! We are here to live! To experience love, joy, peace, to shine, to enjoy. He binds up and heals our broken spirits so that we may overcome and so that we may KNOW – that we are beautiful, that we are beloved. We no longer need to fear death, or anything else that comes our way. We are no longer bound by our ‘sins’ – they are buried. They are gone! We are free!!!!
I am not suggesting we will never make mistakes. We are human – we do and we will! We need to be transparent with who we are – awareness! choice! openness! truth! love! These set us free! Our faults are many, but when we realize what has been done for us, who we truly are, what God wants for us – instead of hating ourselves, and concentrating on the ‘worm’ that I am, I must redirect all of my energy to celebrate the light which lives in me, and in all of us. I want it to blaze! I don’t allow the focus to dwell on me for any longer than I have to, because it might distract someone from that light in their own life! I move aside and allow God’s light shine so bright it draws people, not to me…who am I? I know that any good in me is all GOD! I want to show other people this light, which has done so much for me! Look, look to the light of the world!
When I REALLY KNOW that I am loved. I must realize, and want to give up, the selfishness of my unworthiness, because as I come into relationship, into true love and intimacy with God and Jesus, it can only be when I am at an equal place with them. I cannot have intimacy if I am not equal. I am a daughter of God, a lover of Christ! I live, give and receive as such! I become desperate for grace, and then I gradually am drawn to realize, as Henri Nouwen says, EVERYTHING is grace and I am overwhelmed by my glimpse of what is so much more than I could ever imagine!
In this season of Lent, may we do all of our remembering in the light of the joyful fact that Christ came to set us free – so that we would not ever be under the law, or stay in a place of judgment, but that we would truly be friends of God, near to His heart – beloved. The great mystery of faith is that we must give up and keep letting go of everything we think we know, in order to gain the whole world! And that is, truly, much more than amazing grace!
Almost 22 years ago I asked God! I had no idea if God was real at that point. I sure didn’t see God in any of the people around me. Religion sure had no answers, and so I started on the path with a very heavy scepticism. I really had no idea of anything. I truly emptied myself, of all I had been taught all my life, and worked to challenge my thought process. I challenged and thought about everything that came into my life.
I determined only to follow what brought me peace and led me towards happiness. I knew I would make mistakes – because I had no idea what I was doing, but I determinied I would do my best to face what I did and not make those same mistakes again! I determined to take personal responsibility for my life and my actions and I started off on my experiment to find life. I was challenged to TRY to live as close to the principles I found in the words of Jesus in Matthew 5-7, The Sermon on the Mount.
It is interesting to me that over those years, when I struggled through this challenge that is humanly impossible, I struggled to feel the humanness of Jesus. I really had no idea if what I was doing was doing anything but leading me into brokenness and pain. I had to hold onto two things. The promises and hope of God, and the fact that I felt the personal, gut peace which no one else had access to. There was something bigger than what I could possible do happening! I was witnessing and aware of this. It was growing and so was my belief – no one could take away what I had seen, felt, tasted, experienced. Those miracles that came to me are more than evidence – they are my life-blood!
I now know Jesus intimately – after all I have been trying my best to live his words for the past 22 years! I KNOW HIM! I know his beautiful heart. I have lived his truth – it is my truth! LOVE!!! FREEDOM!!! RESPECT!!!! SERVE!!!
Yesterday I heard a sermon on Jesus as the Bread of life. As the crowd rejected ‘eating his flesh’ (knowing him intimately) his disciples were left alone with him. He asked them if they would leave also and Peter said, “Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life”. Yes, I echo that today. I have no where else to go – my experiment has turned out to be so much more than I ever expected. I am in love with Jesus! and it makes me glad!
I still know very little as far as the mysteries of God – I am so glad that I am not arrogant enough to think I can figure out the creator of this amazing world! I don’t worry about a lot – I am too busy falling in love, knowing the heart of love, figuring out how I can share that love with others who need it so badly!!!
But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. – Job 23:10-11
Gracious God, you who suffer for us more deeply than we can imagine, may we live and love faithfully in the name of Christ. Amen. ______________________
excerpt from today – used with permisson Steve Garnaas-Holmes Unfolding Light http://www.unfoldinglight.net
One of the things I enjoy most is watching someone doing what they love. When a friend, loved one or even a total stranger finds their groove in life, it just lights something up on the inside of me. I’ve had countless conversations with people, both young and older, about purpose, callings and passions, and one question always seems to come up, “How do I find my passion?” I answer that question with a question.
If you were independently wealthy and never needed to work for money another day in your life, what would you do?
Paying our bills, having health insurance and saving for the future are generally the reasons that keep us in whatever career we’re in now, whether we really enjoy our work or not. I’ve always wondered just how differently life would be if all those needs were taken care of and you could truly do what you wanted to.
So, what would you do if money wasn’t an object? Think about it and watch this video. I must add that I thoroughly enjoy Susan Isaacs and her book Angry Conversations with God. Here she shares about how to find one’s calling and what it feels like when you do.
Every action is either strong or weak, and when every action is strong we are successful.
Wallace D. Wattles said that, and he was right. You know when the action you take is strong, and you know when it is weak. You can tell in your stomach. Endeavor to take no weak action whatsoever. Run away from it. Reject it. Go for the strong action, the strong choice, every time.
You know, by the way, what is meant by all of this. You have been weak in some of your choices and decisions, and you have been strong. You have been both in your life. But no more, right? Only strong from now on, yes?
And you know exactly why you received this message today.
life: acoustic & amplified 