Connections that count!

Quote: Disconnect people can never be whole.  Vulnerable and painful though it may be, a community of people whose lives are tied together by the tender strings of the heart is life the way God meant it to be lived.  Beth Moore

This quote from our homework leaped off the page and put a knot on my head! 

  

So this got me thinking............

It is the “vulnerable and painful” part that keep people from connecting.     Most of us understand that side of it.   It is inevitable that once you do connect to people, the potential for pain is there because of our human side.   This blog is about the flip side.

What would cause a community of people (friends) to walk together with minimal pain?

Can it be accomplished?   I personally believe it can!

John 15:13 Comes to mind: Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Outside the thought, that I would lay down my physical life for someone, is the following thought.  Will I lay down my life in the sense of, my desires, my preferences, my very self, for a friend?

Laying down myself means “myself” doesn’t matter.   I will be unoffendable (is that a word?), nonjudgmental, honest and trustworthy.   I can love friends for who they are, flaws and all.   I can be truly joyful if they receive things that I don’t have, if they have more or less then I do.  The jealousy monster cannot rise up.   Remember I am laying MY life down!   

Can you imagine a community of people who “lay down their life for each other”?   I can!

Can you imagine the impact it would make for the world looking in trying to find something authentic?   I can!  I believe it can happen.

Last thought: If you look at the verses above John 15:13, you see foremost, I must be connected to Jesus (the vine) which will cause me to bear much fruit.  I must obey His commands which will cause me to remain in His love.   Vs. 12 says: Love each other as I have loved you.    Connection with Jesus, IS the prerequisite to connection with people.   There is no way around it!

Only when these words leave the pages of the bible and enter into our hearts as revelation, will we be able to experience connection the way God intended.

I am up for the challenge!   Will you join me?

Ruth

  

Really good thought

Hey there.  I came across this post from Steve Murrell, one of the founding fathers of Every Nation.  He is one of the most amazing, consistent, and wise leaders I've ever seen.  He birthed a church that is now thousands strong in the Philippines.  I follow his blog because he always has these awesome things to say.  

This particular post is talking about the difference between talents and gifts in our children and ultimately ourselves.  So good.  Been thinking a lot lately about the big picture in parenting.  Mostly because I'm trying to stay positive during this (hopefully) short phase of my children's lives and remember the goal at the end of the finish line, not just the grueling marathon to get there!  (This has been a particularly exhausting round of constant discipline and battle for consistency around here) So I really like to hear about people that have grown children that are amazing to remind me that all of the hard work is so worth the investment, that it didn't happen overnight, and to keep on staying strong!  Love to my peeps- Hope you enjoy this:

The Myth of the Gifted Child

 “Your sons are so gifted.”

I’ve heard it a thousand times…
-  at William's elementary school piano recitals - “wow, he has a musical gift”  (no, he’s practiced every day, since he was 5)  
-  at James' tennis tournaments  – “I wish my son could hit a forehand like that” (try training 7 days a week, for a few of years)
- when people see Jonathan's paintings -  “he obviously has a special gift for art” (you should have seen his "art" before we hired an art teacher to mentor him)

Yea, we have gifted kids – they were gifted with a mother who wouldn’t allow them to waste time doing nothing. And they were gifted with a father who was on a 10-year anti-TV, anti-video game kick during their formative years. That’s why they spent countless hours reading, listening to music and developing killer kick-serves.

My sons were also gifted with mentors/coaches/teachers who helped them discover and develop a few of the skills and talents that God hid in them. 

Gifts are free. Talents are costly; they must be discovered and developed. 

But sadly, most talent is never discovered, never developed. It is simply wasted while staring at a screen. Tragic. 

What are you doing to develop your gifts and talents? 
What are you doing to help develop your kid's gifts and talents?

(i'll never forget the tennis tournament when the father of a kid my son had just destroyed turned to me and said: "i bet you paid a lot of money for his forehand." that father understood where the gift/talent came from - dad's checkbook.  he was right, and it was worth every dollar/peso.)

Link to Steve's awesome blog : http://stevemurrell.typepad.com/

BTW- I don't know where all of the little lines are coming from- they don't show up until it posts and I don't know how to get rid of them!  Sorry, kind of annoying!

Blooming

"There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anais Nin

Happy Monday!  

Rapid Repentance

Quote:  Almost invariably we discover the kind of "enabling" in a time of desperation when we can no longer depend on ourselves.       It then grows in a private place of prayer.

This week we had a situation in our family occur where this quote came alive.    We were in desperation and , in ourselves, didn't have the answer.   We needed to be "enabled" from up above.   Mark and I spent time in prayer and asked close friends to pray also.  The "enabling" came!!!   We were empowered by the Holy Spirit to handle the situation.    It was obvious that God is the only one to orchestrate the events that unfolded.    Was it hard?  Was it painful?  Absolutely!   But our relationship as a family just took a huge leap forward.    

There is one reason why this situation was short lived and not drawn out.......... repentance!

In our study: Ezekiel 33:11 - Turn from your ways and live!    It is true that repentance brings immediate life back in!  

As soon as we choose to repent, everything shifts in that one moment.    If we wait, then God will wait for us to go around the same mountain as long as it takes.    I have been reminded by a person that I love dearly, to turn as fast as I can and choose life!   

Risky Business "The Sequel"

My mind has been on a marathon for a week now.   I have been “wrecked” by God: meaning a collision is happening with my heart and mind.  There have been several  bouts of “baby crying” and nights of sleeplessness.    What exactly is it?   Well, I am not sure yet, but wanted to share some random thoughts going through my very active brain this week.    Maybe after you read them, you can share what you know.   I need to hear it!

It all started with our Esther study at a point that I have heard since I was a kid.   Esther entered the presence of the King, uninvited, which could mean death.   Her words leaped out of the page and started the collision.   “If I perish, I perish.     She took a “risk of faith,” not knowing the outcome.   For lack of typing space, I will not go through all the stories in the bible where people took “risks of faith” without knowing the outcome.   

Have you ever heard the saying “Faith is like going down stairs only seeing the next step.”    What if you can’t see the next step?  What if all you see if darkness?  You take the next step, despite the fact, for all you know, there’s nothing to step onto.  

True faith is not about the step; it’s about the One telling you to take the next step.

I step out of the boat knowing that if God doesn’t allow me to walk on water, I will drown.  I face the giant knowing that if God doesn’t give me His strength and power, I will die.

Great risk takers operate in faith in spite of their fear.   They experience God’s favor -- not because they’re better, smarter, were raised in a Christian home, know the bible, and have no baggage.    If these were the requirements for “God’s favor,” most of the bible heroes would have been disqualified.    Fear of failure is what stops “risk taking.”   Because of the gift of choice, what if God uses failure as a tool to mold us?   We see failure as a “self condemnation” tool.  “See, I knew it would fail.”“Nothing ever works out for me.” etc.   Failure should cause us to stop and consider, “What changes do I need to make in order to succeed?”     Taking “risk of faith” will absolutely stop any Pride from creeping in my heart, because it HAS to be all God and NONE of me.   

It is not just humans taking a “risk”.   God works with us, uses us, as imperfect as we are, to carry out His purposes.   Now that is risky business.   

Break Free of the Funk!! (The Blue Funk Part Two)

Hello, friends.  Well thank goodness for Ruth or this thing would be a sinking ship!  Well, at least we have the confirmed word of the Lord that's she supposed to be doing this :)  And a great job she's been doing, might I add.  I would like to revisit her blog The Blue (or Pink if you're Robbye) Funk....

First of all I have to agree.  What the heck is going on around here??  One of the reasons I've been so silent lately is that I have been clawing my way through my own funk.  It's hard to write about anything when you're not that inspired. My children drank the Blue Funk Kool-aid and have been a challenge to put it lightly.  We could speculate all day long about why everything's so crazy and weird right now, but why bother.  Ruth did a great job talking about getting out of it.  Here's my two cents for all it's worth: 

Friends, let us not be fooled by the enemy:  whether the source of our funk is ourselves, the enemy or God, the enemy of our souls will take full advantage of our distracted focus and try to derail us from the purpose of God in our lives.  Can I take it a step further and suggest possibly the reason everything is so funky is that he knows and senses that God is about to do something and he's getting a little nervous about it?  In my experience everytime a big breakthrough is coming it seems all hell breaks loose before hand!  All the more reason to stay determined to break free of that which so easily entangles us!  What if something huge is around the corner...I want to be ready and not miss it because my focus was distracted from my funk!  

Yes, we all know this.  Yes, we read each other's encouragements and agree.  But really and truly when you are in a funk you don't want to hear it, and you especially don't want to work to press your way through it.  Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday and hope that it encourages you a little.  I have been having one of "those" weeks.  I wasn't "feeling" it.  I didn't want to read my Bible or be an ounce of spiritual (shocking, but I am actually just like you), I was in a terrible mood, and my children were happily pushing me over the edge.  All I wanted to do was take a nap before church.  And guess what.  That was the day my kids didn't want to lay down (which is unusual because Cadence loves her naps).  Literally on the verge of tears and rage at the same time, I sat on my bed and forced myself to get in the Word.  FORCED.  Because what else was I going to do- I couldn't sleep!  My flesh was pouting, and my soul (mind, will and emotions) didn't want to have anything to do with it.  But even through all of what I was feeling, my Spirit was fighting inside of me telling me to do it because I needed it and it works, no matter how I feel.  I knew that truth, so I trusted in it and not how I felt. So I read the Bible.  Didn't feel anything. I didn't want to go to church that night ( Does this sound familiar to anyone else out there??) but guess what- I'm the worship leader!  I don't get a choice!  Hate (actually love to) burst any bubbles out there, but again- just because I do what I do doesn't mean I'm not just like you.  So I get to practice, trying as hard as I can to get my heart right.  I am reading the words of what we're singing, and I begin to feel something rise up in me.  I set me heart and focus on going after Him with all I had. I am worshiping right there in practice, throwing my worthless flesh right into the presence of God and letting Him take over.  We sing the song, "I Lay Me Down", and it just couldn't have been more appropriate.  And I do what is being sung out of my own mouth to do. And let me tell you, by the time service started nobody would have ever known about the battle I fought leading up to that point because I had broken through and was so filled with Him I was about to burst!  The end of that song says after I lay me down, I lay it down, and I lift You up, that freedom is now the song of my heart.  And friends, last night that's exactly what happened.  I needed that so badly.

So, my point is this:  Want to break out of the funk?  Keep doing the right thing, over and over.  Make yourself.  What can I say except that it really works!  I know some of you don't believe me, and I wasn't believing myself earlier this week, but just try it and see what happens.  Read the Bible.  Pray.  Don't miss church.   I don't care what you feel at that moment.  Keep doing it.  There is too much Kingdom activity at stake here for you to give up now.  Too much on the horizon.  And even after that glorious time in the presence of God, it tried to come back on me last night when I got home.  I'm not there yet. But I'm going to keep on going and doing what I am supposed to do. No matter how I feel and what goes on around me. Will you join me?    

Risky Business

Okay...  God won't let me wait to write another blog!  But I still desire you all to share on here.   

On the intelligence scale, I fall in the average range.   My freshman year in college, I almost failed out.   I won’t get into the sob story of why, but the main reason was because no one taught me how to organize my time and study.   I remember my meeting with my counselor, who told me that “college was not for everyone,” and how I needed to take another path.   Because of the “fear of failure”, I came extremely close to following through with that counsel.   That time in life, my determination won over!  I began to learn how to organize and study.  My first report card as a sophomore was one B and the rest A’s.

(rabbit trail)  Mark and I laugh about my graduation day.   We were all sitting in a line waiting for our name to be called.  I believe that everyone on my row had magna, summa, or just plan cum laude before their name.   Then they came to just plan ole me, Ruth Lewis.  HA!  It really was funny. 

Have I always been this determined?   No Way! I have walked in the “fear of failure” in the past , more times than not.  

As a follower of Christ, I am called to a risky business.  God is teaching me to take “risks of faith”; to let go of the “fear of failure”.      When I do fail, I want to learn and be determined to do what it takes to succeed in what God asks of me.   It is time for me to stop “playing it safe”. 

(mono tone) All of us have heard about all the famous people who failed and failed before they became famous.  (Edison, Oprah etc.)

Like all the other “life lessons” that I have heard over and over, it must have a collision (impact) with my brain and heart before it gets my attention!   

Esther had to go before the King and risk her life in order to save her people.  

“Esther did what she needed to do, clearly the will of God, but not as one perfectly collected and confident.” (Beth Moore)

I love this statement!   I never feel perfectly collected and confident!   I believe that God doesn’t want me to because then I am fully depending on him to work through me.   

My job is to let it happen!

Ruth