I saw a quote yesterday, and I am forgetting from who..(so don't call out the mob to get me for plagiarism) But it said something like "When WE want to do something we usually go for it right away but when God wants us to do something we usually ask for signs".
How TRUE. I first read it and wanted to say that it did not apply to me but sadly and all to often it does. WHY? Why would I, a woman who has had God deliver her from so much and had His hand guide my life through so much be so silly as to have to get signs..many sometimes.. to do what God calls me to do. I mean, it is not like when I go to brush my teeth in the morning I ask God to have the counter around the toothpaste be wet and the brush be dry if I am to brush my teeth and then reverse it the next morning. I brush my teeth. I don't ask God to have a pillar of smoke rise above Starbucks if I am to order my iced passion tea and apple fritter.. nay nay, I order the suckers and get on with my morning. But if I am in line at a store and I see that the woman in front of me is handing over 23 coupons, has 4 kids tugging at her, she is literally picking change out of the bottom of her purse to try and have enough money I have to PRAY and ASK God if I am to help her out and give her some money. Hmmmm... I am perplexed at my own double standard. It really IS as simple as that. I mean, the Bible tells us in Matthew 7:12 "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Well, I do not know about you, but when I am struggling financially and in a bind, it would make my DAY to have someone help me out. The Bible(Jesus Himself even) also tells us in Luke 10:27 He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" I am not fully aware that I am over"thinking" what I am told to do. I am acting as if the simple things that Jesus said we are to do are things that I need to have a week long prayer meeting and intercessory prayer for. I think that illness, family problems, death,etc would be stuff that would warrant such things...and even with that our "actions" during those times are still not what we are "praying" or "seeking earnestly" about it would be the situations.
Anyway, I am just mulling all this over and thought I would jot a line or 200 down about it and share it with you all. I mean, Thanksgiving is next week and I just know that I am so thankful for all that I am blessed with. There are people who will not have food or family. I want to make the effort to serve them and to pray for their situations not pray and ask if I need to help them.
And for those of you who are curious, no, God did not answer my requests about the toothpaste and yes, I DID brush my teeth anyway.
heather
Friday post on an empty stomach but a full heart...
Friday, November 12, 2010
I don't have the intention of coming off as "negative" or "judgemental" (just a warning for those of you who may just decide at this point to just not read THIS blog post: )
Having lunch today and got into a discussion about church.. and all the "politics" that go along with it...don't hate.. we ALL know it it true.. it is not bad..it is just a reality. A reality of life really, I mean in any situation you find yourself in there is a hierarchy and "rules" spoken or unspoken. We got rather heated and passionate in the discussion and I found myself really trying to not get too emotional and just ..well.. ahem..(keep in mind I AM Irish) well.. go off about what I think is right and wrong and all that stuff. It gets to the point of no return and I am standing on the edge of a verbal cliff, with what I might add was a BRILLIANT statement and argument, when I felt the urge to not say anything. I just kept my mouth shut..which for many of you who know me is truly an act of God Himself. Let me just state that nothing in this discussion was bad, nothing was untrue, nothing was anything that would not have been said in any other setting. But, in this instant I remained silent and found myself.. even now..trying to figure out what got me so riled up. I think it boils down to this. We are the Church..right? We are here for the purpose of reaching out to the lost, helping the lost know Jesus, disciplining those people and training them up to then repeat the whole cycle. I find that too often in "churches"(mind you not ALL churches... so save the hate mail and nay nay's for later) we get into out little grooves and our own worlds that we find it more important to do other things with our time and our money. Let me head off at the pass all of those who are going to comment about family first...I know ALL about family first. I lost a child and have made it my mission to not waste any of the precious time given to me with my other two children. But my BIGGEST job and responsibility that GOD has given me for my children is to teach them who HE is. And God, my friends, is LOVE. That is what 1 Corinthians 13 tells us no? So if God is LOVE and in 1 John 3:18 it tells us to LOVE in action and in deeds not just in words.. then I have a responsibly to not just TALK about God but to actively WALK OUT my faith so that my children SEE my faith in action. Part of that is not just making them come to church, attend weekly functions and get their fill of action Bible man, or princess Jesus girl... it is about them WANTING to KNOW God and WANTING to BE the hands and feet of Jesus themselves.
So, all this ranting (on an empty stomach I might add for pity and grace) is to say that I am again calling to ACTION all of us who call ourselves Christians...Christ "followers" to "follow" is an ACTION word..let's not be content to just allow the church (the pastor, children's director, youth pastor, music people) to "tell" our kids "about" Jesus.. let's be willing to WALK OUT our faith in order to SHOW them who He is and what He has done in our lives.
And now... food and merriment. :)
Happy Friday <3
heather
Having lunch today and got into a discussion about church.. and all the "politics" that go along with it...don't hate.. we ALL know it it true.. it is not bad..it is just a reality. A reality of life really, I mean in any situation you find yourself in there is a hierarchy and "rules" spoken or unspoken. We got rather heated and passionate in the discussion and I found myself really trying to not get too emotional and just ..well.. ahem..(keep in mind I AM Irish) well.. go off about what I think is right and wrong and all that stuff. It gets to the point of no return and I am standing on the edge of a verbal cliff, with what I might add was a BRILLIANT statement and argument, when I felt the urge to not say anything. I just kept my mouth shut..which for many of you who know me is truly an act of God Himself. Let me just state that nothing in this discussion was bad, nothing was untrue, nothing was anything that would not have been said in any other setting. But, in this instant I remained silent and found myself.. even now..trying to figure out what got me so riled up. I think it boils down to this. We are the Church..right? We are here for the purpose of reaching out to the lost, helping the lost know Jesus, disciplining those people and training them up to then repeat the whole cycle. I find that too often in "churches"(mind you not ALL churches... so save the hate mail and nay nay's for later) we get into out little grooves and our own worlds that we find it more important to do other things with our time and our money. Let me head off at the pass all of those who are going to comment about family first...I know ALL about family first. I lost a child and have made it my mission to not waste any of the precious time given to me with my other two children. But my BIGGEST job and responsibility that GOD has given me for my children is to teach them who HE is. And God, my friends, is LOVE. That is what 1 Corinthians 13 tells us no? So if God is LOVE and in 1 John 3:18 it tells us to LOVE in action and in deeds not just in words.. then I have a responsibly to not just TALK about God but to actively WALK OUT my faith so that my children SEE my faith in action. Part of that is not just making them come to church, attend weekly functions and get their fill of action Bible man, or princess Jesus girl... it is about them WANTING to KNOW God and WANTING to BE the hands and feet of Jesus themselves.
So, all this ranting (on an empty stomach I might add for pity and grace) is to say that I am again calling to ACTION all of us who call ourselves Christians...Christ "followers" to "follow" is an ACTION word..let's not be content to just allow the church (the pastor, children's director, youth pastor, music people) to "tell" our kids "about" Jesus.. let's be willing to WALK OUT our faith in order to SHOW them who He is and what He has done in our lives.
And now... food and merriment. :)
Happy Friday <3
heather
salt water rinse...
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
we offer
not
the truth
but a shaded
outline
of who we
wish
we were
I sing
I dance
I paint
I write
I
I
I
I
vomit
in the mouth
of a salt water rinse cycle
that seemingly
does not
cure
the oozing sore
of
what is
what we
call
our
"relationships"
Indeed
I write letters
to myself
not just
to
the vast void
of
nowhere land
that is what captures
our attention
and steals our true identity
day in
and
day out
we flock to a flickering
icon
and click
away our time
to feel something
about ourselves
that we dreamt of
when we were little
and now
technology
gives us the tools
to attempt to "live out"
our fantasy
how dull
how apathetic
how pathetic
have we become
that it is more entertaining
to sit
and stalk
and type
and click
and come up with clever things to
"like"
or update cryptic messages
so that our comment box will be full
to the brim
screaming to the "world"
look at me
i matter
i am popular
with the other lemmings
that are leaping over this ledge with me
all while texting
and updating their status'
not
the truth
but a shaded
outline
of who we
wish
we were
I sing
I dance
I paint
I write
I
I
I
I
vomit
in the mouth
of a salt water rinse cycle
that seemingly
does not
cure
the oozing sore
of
what is
what we
call
our
"relationships"
Indeed
I write letters
to myself
not just
to
the vast void
of
nowhere land
that is what captures
our attention
and steals our true identity
day in
and
day out
we flock to a flickering
icon
and click
away our time
to feel something
about ourselves
that we dreamt of
when we were little
and now
technology
gives us the tools
to attempt to "live out"
our fantasy
how dull
how apathetic
how pathetic
have we become
that it is more entertaining
to sit
and stalk
and type
and click
and come up with clever things to
"like"
or update cryptic messages
so that our comment box will be full
to the brim
screaming to the "world"
look at me
i matter
i am popular
with the other lemmings
that are leaping over this ledge with me
all while texting
and updating their status'
Jesus did not give His life for a "club"...
Monday, November 8, 2010
Just got back “home” from a full week of travel. I was in Ohio at Malone University Monday and Tuesday and then home for Wednesday and Thursday then an EARLY flight out Friday morning to Washington DC. In all of this hustle and bustle I try to take the moments when I am sitting in a plane flying high above any care or concern I might have 35,000 feet below me and be still. I know it is childlike but I imagine myself “closer” to God up there in the clouds. “It is almost like being an angel” my daughter, Skye once said while on a flight with me. She is right; you do feel like an angel up there flying.. it is peaceful. Besides the few bumps and the occasional “excuse me” and “would you like something to drink”, you are pretty much left alone to do what you want.
This last trip to DC was so much fun for me. I am such an American history nerd and dare I say an emotional wreck when anything patriotic happens. I even cry at the star spangled banner (with exception to a really, really bad rendition that leaves me laughing). So, being driven around by Chaplin Terry, who served as honor guard to Regan, George Sr. and Clinton. I was in nerd geek out heaven. The monuments and memorials were that of the still solemn feeling you get when you attend a funeral of a very good man or woman. My favorite spot was the Lincoln memorial. With each step I took up to the top I thought of the struggle this man had to go through. The hardships… I find him so endearing not just because of the great things he did as president but I connect with him because of his losses. This man lost two children. One while he was in office. What a tremendous agony to bear while trying to keep the union together. Needless to say I stood before his overwhelmingly large statue and got teary eyed. The Gettysburg address is engraved to his right and the words got me to let the tears that had brimmed up fall on my cheeks. It was a beautiful moment. You turn then to the front of the monument and look out over the capitol, the Washington monument and the national mall. It is really a moving experience. I highly recommend it to anyone. I was still on this “God bless America” USA!USA!USA!” kick the next morning when I was driving back to the airport to head home. The traffic in DC is pretty crazy. It has been a while since I lived near a city and the busyness got me a tad frazzled. I was a red light slapping the woman in my GPS when out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was a pile of old clothes laying in a heap on the street corner. I only looked twice because I saw a person waiting to cross the street and was curious why they had just walked past this pile of clothes. Then, I looked closer. under this pile of “clothes” was a person… sleeping. The clothes were old blankets and a very worn sleeping bag. The temperature was close to 30 degrees and I had even turned the cars heat on high for the drive. My heart began to literally ache. The light turned green and the GPS prodded me to go and so… I drove away from this person on the ground..covered in old fabric..sleeping on concrete. My mind was so pre-occupied with what I had just seen that until I boarded the airplane I was really somewhere else mentally. I was so mad at myself..Why did I not stop, get out and help this person? What could I have done? How could I have not seen right away that there was a HUMAN BEING in that pile of clothes I so curiously glanced at? The sense of hopelessness began to come to me. I boarded the plane, shoved my carryon in the overhead bin and sat down in my window seat and just stared out…blankly. I began to talk to God. Something like..God, what can I do? I am so ashamed that I did nothing. God, what can I do? We take off and there I am .. up in the clouds...“closer” to heaven and “nearer” to God. I begin to feel him whisper to me. I begin to ask forgiveness for my apathy, for my lack of action. I being to feel a fire growing in the pit of my soul. I wrote down some thoughts I felt were God inspired and am now sitting here at this desk on a “chilly” (by Floridians standards) morning typing out the following.
We are the CHURCH. We are not a BUILDING. If we cannot see past out own church bulletin and signs then we are blinded. What a travesty for us to gather together as believers and study the Bible together if we do not the PUT INTO ACTION what we study and learn. I am not content to sit in a pew, or stand on a stage or even stay in one place. God has placed a calling on my life to GO and BE love. GO and share what GOD has done in my life and what He can do in others lives as well. I am called to not just soak up the word, but to be wrung out daily, even hourly of it so that each time I am filled I am then again emptied out. What a beautiful picture of what our Christianity is. It is NOT about me… it is about JESUS and what HE did. I am calling on all of us who consider ourselves to be followers of Jesus to let go of our lines that we ourselves have drawn. To be free of the thought that our Christianity is just sitting in a “pew” or singing on a praise team or going to a Bible study…how empty that is! Why would we even “witness” to ANYONE if THAT is all we have to offer them! Jesus did not give his life for a club.
heather<3
1 John 3:18
This last trip to DC was so much fun for me. I am such an American history nerd and dare I say an emotional wreck when anything patriotic happens. I even cry at the star spangled banner (with exception to a really, really bad rendition that leaves me laughing). So, being driven around by Chaplin Terry, who served as honor guard to Regan, George Sr. and Clinton. I was in nerd geek out heaven. The monuments and memorials were that of the still solemn feeling you get when you attend a funeral of a very good man or woman. My favorite spot was the Lincoln memorial. With each step I took up to the top I thought of the struggle this man had to go through. The hardships… I find him so endearing not just because of the great things he did as president but I connect with him because of his losses. This man lost two children. One while he was in office. What a tremendous agony to bear while trying to keep the union together. Needless to say I stood before his overwhelmingly large statue and got teary eyed. The Gettysburg address is engraved to his right and the words got me to let the tears that had brimmed up fall on my cheeks. It was a beautiful moment. You turn then to the front of the monument and look out over the capitol, the Washington monument and the national mall. It is really a moving experience. I highly recommend it to anyone. I was still on this “God bless America” USA!USA!USA!” kick the next morning when I was driving back to the airport to head home. The traffic in DC is pretty crazy. It has been a while since I lived near a city and the busyness got me a tad frazzled. I was a red light slapping the woman in my GPS when out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was a pile of old clothes laying in a heap on the street corner. I only looked twice because I saw a person waiting to cross the street and was curious why they had just walked past this pile of clothes. Then, I looked closer. under this pile of “clothes” was a person… sleeping. The clothes were old blankets and a very worn sleeping bag. The temperature was close to 30 degrees and I had even turned the cars heat on high for the drive. My heart began to literally ache. The light turned green and the GPS prodded me to go and so… I drove away from this person on the ground..covered in old fabric..sleeping on concrete. My mind was so pre-occupied with what I had just seen that until I boarded the airplane I was really somewhere else mentally. I was so mad at myself..Why did I not stop, get out and help this person? What could I have done? How could I have not seen right away that there was a HUMAN BEING in that pile of clothes I so curiously glanced at? The sense of hopelessness began to come to me. I boarded the plane, shoved my carryon in the overhead bin and sat down in my window seat and just stared out…blankly. I began to talk to God. Something like..God, what can I do? I am so ashamed that I did nothing. God, what can I do? We take off and there I am .. up in the clouds...“closer” to heaven and “nearer” to God. I begin to feel him whisper to me. I begin to ask forgiveness for my apathy, for my lack of action. I being to feel a fire growing in the pit of my soul. I wrote down some thoughts I felt were God inspired and am now sitting here at this desk on a “chilly” (by Floridians standards) morning typing out the following.
We are the CHURCH. We are not a BUILDING. If we cannot see past out own church bulletin and signs then we are blinded. What a travesty for us to gather together as believers and study the Bible together if we do not the PUT INTO ACTION what we study and learn. I am not content to sit in a pew, or stand on a stage or even stay in one place. God has placed a calling on my life to GO and BE love. GO and share what GOD has done in my life and what He can do in others lives as well. I am called to not just soak up the word, but to be wrung out daily, even hourly of it so that each time I am filled I am then again emptied out. What a beautiful picture of what our Christianity is. It is NOT about me… it is about JESUS and what HE did. I am calling on all of us who consider ourselves to be followers of Jesus to let go of our lines that we ourselves have drawn. To be free of the thought that our Christianity is just sitting in a “pew” or singing on a praise team or going to a Bible study…how empty that is! Why would we even “witness” to ANYONE if THAT is all we have to offer them! Jesus did not give his life for a club.
heather<3
1 John 3:18
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