LIVING OUT LOUD

“I love the story of Edward Farrell, a priest from Detroit, who went on a two-week summer vacation to Ireland to visit his relatives.  His one living uncle was about to celebrate his eightieth birthday.  On that day, Ed and his uncle got up early.  It was before dawn.  They took a walk along the shores of Lake Killarney and stopped to watch the sunrise.  They stood side by side for a full twenty minutes and then resumed walking.  Ed glanced at his uncle and saw that his face had broken into a broad smile. Ed said, “Uncle Seamus, you look very happy.” “I am.”  Ed asked, “How come?” And his uncle replied, “The Father of Jesus is very fond of me.”

Do you believe that God really likes you?  Honestly?  Not loves you because theologically He has to….but really digs you.  I can tell you that for most of my life….really up until recently…..I figured I probably really annoyed Him.  I whine too much….struggle with unbelief……live defeated at times……fear most things…..am a jerk…..don’t love others like I’m suppose to…..am a horrible mother…..crappy wife…..unforgiving friend…..and the list goes on.  Basically, I must be a huge disappointment to Him.

Here’s the thing…..I would never tell you that.  Mainly, because I don’t believe it for a second.  I absolutely know that He adores you….lives to watch over you…..enjoy you…..be with you…..love you…..I just couldn’t believe it for myself.  So what changed?

I’m beginning to understand, in my old age, that I can’t change….Only Christ, who lives in me, can change me.  I can will it and white-knuckle it….but I will just fail again and again.  Absolute surrender…..of myself….my will…..my plans……complete and utter surrender to Him.  To take Him at His Word.  To choose to believe what He says about me, He means. Even when my feelings scream the opposite. This has begun that change…..deep inside of me.

Brennan Manning says, “God loves by necessity of His nature; without the eternal, interior generation of love, He would cease to be God.  But if you could answer, “The Father is very fond of me,” there would come a relaxedness, a serenity, and a compassionate attitude toward yourself that is a reflection of God’s own tenderness.” I love that…..

I’m so flawed….yet still I am deeply loved and adored by my Father in Heaven.  I choose to believe that He is very fond of me….and it makes me smile too! How fabulous to be liked…..to know that He enjoys me…..tenderly loves me….even when I’m a ding-dong:-)  I don’t have to try and be perfect anymore…..I already am in His eyes!

Many of you have had few words of blessing spoken over your life, if at all.  But, God speaks blessings over you day and night if you would only receive and allow them to go deep into your heart and soul.  This is my prayer of blessing for you this coming year….may you believe it, receive it and live it out in mighty ways!!!

So….. May the Lord bless you

May the Lord Keep you

May the Lord make His face to shine upon you

May God fill you right now with His mighty power

To get up from your mat…and that which holds you back

May you rise up to be the man or woman who God has called you to be in 2011

May you begin to understand that you are creatively and uniquely made and most deeply adored

May you know that your life has purpose….and that you were created on purpose

May you seize, grab hold, and have the courage to receive that which God has for you this new year

May you be free, in the name of Jesus

May God flood you with His joy

May God flood you with His love

May God flood you with His power

And May your cup overflow and spill out in abundance to those that you touch with joy, love and power

May you, this year, begin the process of receiving a deep and powerful transformation from the Living God

May you never be the same again…….

In Jesus’ precious, mighty, powerful name

Amen

(parts taken from a prayer, Pete Scazzero)

God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest – what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:

No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it – What God has arranged for those who love him.

1 Corinthians 2:7-9 (The Message Bible)

Do you realize, in your life, what God has arranged for you…..in His eternal purposes……what He has waiting just for you? Or are you stuck?  Angry?  Confused?  Scared?  What has God allowed to happen in your life that you think is a horrible mistake and you are upset with Him over?  What has He offered you that you just can’t wrap your head around, so you want to run away from the very thing that will radically turn your life upside down in the most amazing way?  Do you believe in a love so amazing…..so transparent…..that desires your ultimate best…..that longs for constant companionship just with you?  These questions I ponder……take before Him…..wrestle with…..just like you.

Where there is a little bit of faith and trust, miracles occur, transformation happens, life flows (Pete Scazzero). I desire in the deepest part of me…..miracles…..transformation…..life that continually flows with His peace…..an unshakeable belief in His goodness…..a radical love between my Creator and me, His creation.

So it continues…..this process…….of believing that He has arranged something so unbelievable, so outside “my box”, crazy fantastic, can’t even imagine it….. kinda wonderful……just around the corner……waiting to happen.  And even when I struggle to believe…..it never means it isn’t so……I cling to that!

Will you believe with me?  Cuz I am gonna believe for you……I promise!

Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do.

There can be no courage unless you’re scared.

~Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

“There can be no courage unless you are scared”.  Ummm, excuse me, somehow, I missed that memo.  I’ve been doing it all wrong!!! My goal has always been to never “feel” afraid again.  And, let me just say, I have worked a LIFETIME trying to accomplish just that.  The very notion that I must push through my fears to obtain courage is depressing to say the least. However, I know it is true.  How do I know this? I am having to walk it out on a daily basis.  More on that later.

Being brave sounds so romantic…..Did I ever mention that I’m kinda messed up? Probably not, because that would require me being brave……sigh!  John Wayne was once quoted, “Courage is being scared to death….and saddling up anyway!

So, writing scares me to death, but I’m saddling up anyway!!!  Look out….SHE’S BACK!

After a year and a half….but whose counting, right?  I’M BACK!!  A little older…..hopefully wiser……motivated……focused……purposeful….and slightly skinnier (40 pounds to be exact)…..I enter back into what gives me the most joy, besides my husband and children, the clicking sound of my keyboard as I write what moves me, makes me laugh, and turns my hair more grey than the previous year:-)  Where have I been?  We’ll talk about it…..missed ya!

What we love usually manages to get into our conversation.

What is down in the well of the heart will come up in the bucket of the speech.

Vance Havner

So what’s your bucket “full of”…….?  Be honest…..I will:)

WHETHER YOU THINK YOU CAN

OR

THINK YOU CAN’T

YOU’RE RIGHT

Henry Ford

Isn’t this the truth?   It seems so simple……but what we choose to believe about ourselves or the circumstances we find ourselves in…….really boils down to our thinking.  What goes on between our ears is vital to our contentment or dissatisfaction.  We choose.  I needed to be reminded of this…..how about you?