Season of Hope!

HOPE - by definition is a feeling of expectation. A desire for something to happen. 

I love the beginning of Advent.  Or, really the entire season.  What if we started every month like it was the beginning of Advent?  The first of every month we would remember to have HOPE.  We would all have the desire for something great to happen. 

Great things don't always happen when we want them to.  Great things usually happen after we've had some feeling of despair while we are waiting for the next good thing to happen. 

I've never felt like God has given me more than I can handle.  In fact, I've handled everything that has come my way.  Maybe not gracefully, or the way I wished I had but I've been able to live and tell stories that contained HOPE throughout my journey.  I don't believe that God will ever give me more than I can handle.  So many times I've felt the desire to throw in the towel.  I figure that God sent his son here for me to be like him.  He laughed, he cried.  He had HOPE and disappointment.  He was joyful and saddened.  So, to I think I'm on the right track of imitating the emotions that he put before me.  I'm on a roll!!! 

I figured if the Psalmist can be afflicted to the point of death, then I'm pretty much okay.  So many times they prayed and God did not give them the answer their heart desired in the time they desired.
I've felt that same way so many times in this past year. 

However, We are to pray and the speak good things. Be still and await.  Good things will come to those who wait.  Silently.  Pray and be hopeful that good news of great Joy will await you.  No matter what the answer is. 

Normal is not what we make it, but rather what God makes it.  In a new year of new normal in my life, I HOPE that my walk will be one that imitates God and what he has in store for me. 

Life Is.....an experience.

Life is good. Always what it's supposed to be. Laughing, smiling, singing, loving every moment of every day. Life is good. I've done things right...righted some wrongs, been forgiven, freed, and blessed. It's adequate, excellent, and just plain peachy!  Life is good.

Life is great. Happiness surrounds me. Looks me in the face and tells me "you are great". Greatness is releveant to how great I feel. Life looks at me and says "you mean something". Life is excellent, brilliant, superb, a fabulous. Life is great!

Life is change. Change in directions. Taking turns against the wind. It cycles, drifts and bends. In time. In seconds. It shifts in unexpectedness, unanticipated paths. For what you planned is now unnatural. Bizarre and uncommon.

Life is scary. Too scary for words. Words of anger and words of fear. It becomes alarming in seconds causing doubtness and fear.

Life is dreadful. Dreading the moments of today and the next...and then the next, for what other words will I hear today? Gahstly I say! Gahstly! No more good, no more great. Fear. Just Fear!

Life is unfair. Unfair in it's very nature of our human sinfulness. It's deceptive and deceitful. It takes biased twist and turns that are unexpected cliffs in our lives. Narrow, slanted, obstinate life. Life is amiss. It is flawed. I am flawed. Done. Out of order.
Life is a secret. One big secret. Something unfair to go unpubished. Camouflauged to hide the fear. To hide the pain. Life is cryptic, private, covered by a blanket of darkness. It is hidden. It is restricted.

Life is Choking. Smothered with all the secrets and unfairness of the world. Too scary to talk, to unfair to be seen. Gagged! What once was great and good is now suffocating the very thing that was loved in the beginning. Life! A good life! Struggling to catch a breath at any moment. Ashypxiated. It is hidden. Life is restricted.

Life is hopeful. A moment of longing. Determined by the driving force of truth and justice. Hope is the voice of concern and a small light at the end of a tunnel. Hope is where you find reward. Where you once would daydream is now your gain and fortune. Hope brings life to reassurance and faith. Life is bringing light back and giving high hopes. Hope is a promise.

Life is justice. It is an authority that brings integrity and legalization to my breath. It is truth and goodness. Life finds the corruption and unfairness. Life institutes the justice to the unfairness I am living. Life is honesty and truth. Justice is life.

Life is breath. It is not gulping or gasping. It is not the expiration of inpiration. It is a blast of fresh air. It is the wind! It is the very thing of which we survive on. Life and breath. The very thing we longed for is now a dynamic force within us. Living, breathing, moving within us beyond our control.

Life is a smile. When the muscles in your face are not longer forced to frown. A beaming expession of delight and happiness. That moment when the air or life that you are breathing is clean again. No choking or suffering. No restrictions. Life is a smile that shines happiness. Not one that is just animated for character. But one that speakes truth and light. The smile that lights the tunnel that was once dark....due to those ever changing experinces, in life.

Life is freeing. It is releasing those things that bind you. It is the delivery from evil. It is the refreshing breath of air. It is the redemption of things gone wrong.
Life is great.
Life is good.
Life is...an experinece.

They've got it down already!

Teaching middle school kids about the Holy Trinity can be....well...like seriously teaching about a ghost. Literally! I've come to 2 conclusions about class on Sunday. #1, they either alreday know this stuff and I wasn't adding anything new, Or #2 they thought I was out of my mind and just killing time until they had to go to worship. I'm going with #1 in this case. I love how much the kids "acted" like they already knew what I was talking about. When I asked a quetion, it just seemed like they were anwering me with a question as if I was the ONE who didn't know the answer. Ha! This is like when little kids learn to say the word "no" but they say it in the for of a question just to see what your reaction will be if they say it. "No????" vs "No" Kids seem to love hands on activites, and they work well at application. However, these kids looked like THEY could teach the class on this. Which really makes me stop and think we have done a great job at teaching our kids at a young age how the spirit works inside of you. How God really is 3 in one. Maybe that was His lesson to me this week. We'll see.