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If He is for us

What I’m learning now is that what my eyes see as a winding highway to ‘my destination’, God laid out as a straight path there. What I think are several pit stops along the way to the “job of my dreams” are actually the tools… those learning experiences I need developed by the time I get there. He doesn’t divert His plans. It’s when we take our eyes off Him that we sidetrack ourselves. So my strategy is to just stay focused on Him and not let the ‘little stuff’ get in my line of sight or worry me or distract my thoughts with negativity.

The truth we can all cling to is… He is good and He is for us and that’s all I need to remember.

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Patience = Provision

I’ve been pursuing a career of my dreams with Dave Ramsey. Helping others help themselves… that’s one of my passions in life. God directed me to leave my home and follow this dream, my perception was that the job would fall right in my lap. I realized after 4 weeks, God had other plans as I tried to push myself through the doors. That’s one of the great mysteries in Gods work, it rarely happens how you think. Reminding myself His way is always best, I gave up trying so hard and gave in to wholeheartedly pursuing God first.

Theres a statistic that reads “Hiring rate is 1% at Dave Ramsey; Harvard’s acceptance rate is 6.9%”. I suddenly felt so small in such a large sea of applicants. But I reminded myself, God is so much bigger than all of this… and He surely can handle a meager 1% statistic. About a month later, while sitting on my porch on a hot day in deep reflection, I got a call from Dave’s office, out of the blue. “We’d like to talk to you,” they said. Tears flowed down my face as the first and only thing on my mind was to get on my knees and thank God for the opportunity.

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He provides

I’m on a journey. Following the promptings of God in pursuit of the place He has set aside for my hands to work. With most of my belongings in storage, I traveled with just my car, a few outfits, books and a computer. A friend and her roommate graciously allowed me to stay on an air mattress for a couple weeks. Things have taken longer than expected as the third week is coming to a close and I am still empty-handed.

Last night I received a voice message. The place I was scheduled to move into today, is no longer vacant. My heart sank. I’ve been feeling the weight I’ve placed on my friend by allowing me to stay this long. So I crawled to my knees with a hurting heart in need of His healing and provision. I cried out for His mercy and wept in praise as I felt His arms holding me. As I left the floor to shower up for the day, I heard a chime from my phone. An email said “We’ve found a match for you” from a roommate search website. Confused as to how they found me, I opened it. A woman my age is looking for a roommate to move in today. I responded and tonight I hold the keys to a room I can call my own 🙂

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Ten Commandments For Crisis Control

I stumbled upon an article containing tips to control a crisis with a brand. As I read the list, it became evident these tips are relevant to more than just a job; this is a good list for anyone enduring and trying to survive a relational crisis as well.

1) Disclose Disclose Disclose
Everything that can come out will come out. All to often its not the “crime” but the “coverup” that causes most of the lasting damage.

2) Give ’em The Full Monty
Original actions may seem insignificant compared to mistakes made after the fact. Seize the moment to put out the entire story.

3) Stop Digging When You’re In A Hole
Its human nature to succumb to the pressures of the moment that invariably push you into making the situation worse. Resist the pull.

4) Know Your Audience
Identify the most important person you’re trying to reach and pitch your message to them. Every successful stand-up comedian knows this cold.

5) Repeat Repeat Repeat
Determine the key points to get across and stay focused on them. Reiterate your message at every opportunity. Discipline is crucial.

6) Think On Your Seat, Not On Your Feet
Be prepared with detailed answers to some tough questions. The smallest discrepancy can get magnified into the biggest problem.

7) Be Straight About What You Know
And about what you don’t know. Your credibility is at stake–and others can easily discern hedged answers and half-truths.

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heart condition

I was speaking with a friend this morning about a mission trip he recently returned from. He & his wife talked about the disgust for how ‘we’ try to Americanize other cultures by bringing people in need our money and gifts. Its as if we throw an offering their way and carry on with our day. And what does that teach people? Well, it creates ‘beggers’ for one. Children have caught on to the ‘missionized’ way of life, thus they cling to foreigners for the things that will turn prosperity for their families. But I believe really what we’ve done is tried to ‘humanize’ other cultures, just as we ‘humanize’ each other.

In today’s fast pace, platonic way of living, when someone is in need, don’t we jump to this conclusion that ‘stuff’ will fix it? Money, a house, a car, maybe just a bag of groceries, if we could just provide these things for someone in need, we’d be helping them out. But think about it… as a creation in God’s image, it’s not really more ‘stuff’ our hearts are yearning or longing for. Our Heavenly Father, the model for our design, doesn’t want the ‘good works’ and things we can give over to Him. God longs for us to spend time with Him, to desire sharing our lives with Him. And as His children, we too have been born with this innate longing at the core of every need we have. We were created for relationship with each other… to have others long to spend time with us, to desire sharing their lives with us. And yet, there’s this perceived lack of time that prevents us from doing this each other, just as it hinders us from also sitting down with God.

Just as we don’t seek God only for His blessings, the hearts of people in need aren’t seeking us only for what we can tangibly provide. We seek God to know Him… that is how we show love and faithfulness to our Heavenly Father. With this example we have been given, we must understand that at the core of a person’s greatest need is simply a longing from their heart for us to get to know them; a desire for us to listen, understand, sympathize, hurt and grieve, rejoice and share in the seasons of life. We need to recognize the parallel this concept shares between our relationship with each other and our relationship with God.

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sorrowful, yet always rejoicing

“A mingling of sweetness and sorrow. The sweetness so outweighs the sorrow that I have no desire to dwell on the pain. The root is deep, the covenant solid, the love is sweet. Life is hard, but God is good.

I want to be astoundingly enabled to labor on through sorrow, accomplishing more than would ever have seemed possible in a single lifetime. And people will say ‘only by God’ as they give Him all the glory and praise.” John Piper

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not just another sinful being

Tonight at bible study, we were discussing which seat of faith we sit in with God. Do we call ourselves Christians, but don’t really do anything about it? Do we call ourselves Christians, attend bible studies, talk about God and carry out good deeds and that’s the extent? Or do we call ourselves Christians and really know our Heavenly Father is such an intimate, unified way where we are one with our God? Interestingly enough, only until we stand before the throne in His perfection will we ever truly know our Lord in that manner.

What I found interesting though is that someone said “well I never feel like I want to read the bible though”. And someone else chimed in “well we’re all sinful beings so we’re never really gonna be able to get it right”. What? Am I even in a bible study right now? But isn’t that what the ‘Christian’ world does? We use our ‘sinful nature’ as an excuse to keep us right there in that place in life. And because of that, our mind doesn’t really ever grasp the fullness of what sin is and does. I’m not saying there is a person on this earth who is blameless, without sin. I am saying it’s not an excuse to stay where we’re at.

I found myself a little frustrated with this kind of statement. The reality is, before we entered this world with sin, we were all created in God’s image… His holy, perfect, sinless image. And you know what that tells me? That there’s hope! Why would God use his time to warn us of sin and speak wisdom on how to stay clear of it if He thought we would never be able to conquer the problems in our lives? And not just once or twice can we overcome the sinfulness within this world, but over and over and over again we can walk in His light… in His word… in unison with His presence to know our Heavenly Father in such a powerful, exemplified way.

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a prayer of my heart

I bring the full work of my Lord Jesus Christ-his cross and shed blood, his resurrection and his life, his authority, rule, and dominion-between me and that place of darkness, between me and all the people there… between the leadership of every place I’ve ever found myself in. I sever all spiritual ties between us, and I cancel any claims the enemy is making to me now because of my time spent with those people, in those places. I come out from under their authority.. from under the enemy’s authority. I consecrate my calling and my gifting to God. I cleanse my calling and gifiting with the blood of Jesus Christ, to be holy and pure and filled with the Spirit of God alone. I keep the work of Christ between us and forbid these ties to be reformed. In the name and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

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mountain of God

Thought that I was all alone, Broken and afraid, But You were there with me, Yes, You were there with me. And I didn’t even know, That I had lost my way, But You were there with me, Yes, You were there with me. ‘Til You opened up my eyes, I never knew, That I couldn’t ever make it, Without You. Even though the journey’s long, And I know the road is hard, Well, the One who’s gone before me, He will help me carry on, After all that I’ve been through, Now I realize the truth, That I must go through the valley, To stand upon the mountain of God. As I travel on the road, That You have lead me down, You are here with me, Yes, You are here with me, I have need for nothing more , Oh, now that I have found, That You are here with me, Yes, You are here with me. I confess from time to time, I lose my way, But You are always there, To bring me back again. Sometimes I think of where it is I’ve come from, And the things I’ve left behind, But of all I’ve had, what I possessed, Nothing can quite compare, With what’s in front of me, With what’s in front of me. – Third Day

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hiroshima

Not so long ago I found myself in a troubling situation… it feels like a bombshell out of nowhere. A person I cared deeply for betrayed me in such a tragic manner. I do not know what is to come, but the tears I’ve shed tells a testimony in itself. As I cope with my loss through professional counseling in the church, the world’s answer all say the same “run for your life”. But my mind is confused with the contradictions of what the world says and how scripture reads. I’m reminded of a story where God told Hosea to marry a prostitute and keep taking her back after she cheated. God did this to demonstrate how He keeps loving us, even though we commit spiritual adultery by loving the things of the world.

So if we forgive someone after cheating, God an use us to change him/her into a pure vessel. While it may seem like they don’t deserve it, our forgiveness will be a great testimony to God’s love and our own love. Jesus taught that if we forgive, the person will end up loving us more, because they have been forgiven for so much. So forgiving and realizing that God can use it to make us both have a better relationship in the long run is the way I may need to think about it. That’s totally not as easy as it just flowed out of my fingers.If in fact he confesses and walks in true repentance, then I am asked to forgive, reconcile and restore. But I have to see the change to believe it. For now, walking I’m still walking in the shadow of the valley and all I can do is seek God for wisdom on forgiving and reconciling the relationship. His word gives us truth… His spirit will confirm it.