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.

Never knew I'd feel this way

I'm not really a dog lover. I don't mind playing with them and being around them, but I'm not very good at raising them. But we've always had one. Last week we put our precuious Lady to sleep. It was by far one of the hardest moments in my lifetime. I can't recall a moment that I have ever cried so hard alone.....but this time I cried in front of people. There were no wiping these tears away. Just before we laid her down at our laps, she came over and licked my tears off my face. I'm not a fan of doggie kisses, but these were priceless. I think she was telling me that she knew I wasn't good at this, but she still loved me anyway. She was telling me it was okay. She wasn't the greatest dog ever. She tore up the back yard, ate the cable lines, made more poop than any one dog ever should. But when I commanded her, she listened. She sat. She laid down. She fetched. She walked beside me. And to think, she was really Ian's dog. Not mine. But she treated me like she loved me. It was hard to watch Ian let his best friend go. It was hard to watch his heart shatter. It was hard to have to see him feel like his decision was not right. But we all knew it was. We no longer wanted her to suffer. I don't know why, but I don't believe I'll see her again. I don't believe animals go to Heaven. I believe they are here on earth to serve an earthly void that some of us may have. I could be wrong, and if I am, I'll bring a yellow tennis ball and yellow bat with me as those were her favorite toys. And if not, then I know that I had 13 good years with her by my side watching over us and being the best friend to my kids that we've ever had.

Trusting Pain

I think 2014 will go down in record for being the worst year of my life. So many things happening that make me question "why"? I don't really get it. In this year my heart has been forced to hate, instead of love. My heart has grived instead of been joyful. My mind has been busy, rather than resting. And all in all, there are so many things to be joyful for. I admit, there are times I want to throw up my hands and say "Satan, you win". The war he is waging against us is too difficult to fight. My faith struggles. I struggle to find the good in evil. God said to hate what is evil but love one another. I can do the first. I can't do the second. Someone once said to me "Pain is what you make it". I don't believe that. I believe pain is 2 things 1. A body ache 2. An emotion which rips the heart in two. Healing both of those takes time. Most of the time, the body heals from the inside out. Wounds are sometimes left open so that the body has time to allow the tissue to fill in the gaps. This takes time and is very painful. There are times where we put on a wound vaccum to make this process a bit faster. I've never seen a wound vac for the emotion that breaks your heart. Matter of fact, I think it takes longer to heal those wounds. With the healing of broken hearts come trust, forgivness, self control, love, etc. When you are pain, you are blinded by doubt, pity, rage, and hatred. A band aid won't fix any of those hurts. My heart misses smiling. It misses joy. It misses all the things that it once had. The places I use to find peace, I no longer feel it. Where I would find joy, is gone. All I can think to do is to trust in the pain that we go through. How stupid does THAT sound? Trusting pain! It hurts. We want to trust what feels good, not what brings us down. Pain is work. It is greiving. It is work!!! And through work we become exhausted. The only way to ever heal is to trust the process. You must trust in those very things that hurt you the most and trust that they are not there to harm you, but to grow you. We don't go through life just moving on. We move through it. Good or bad, we keep going. The good thing in all of this is that I'm not stuck. Emotion is moving. It's flowing. As long as it's not stuck in one moment....and it's BOUNCING around all over the place, I'm good. However, it does make one think they may be bipolar! :) So today I am not going to tell myself it will get better. Today I will tell myself that I am going to survive this.

Something about this song I heard on the radio really grabbed my attention. Especially when I hear teenage girls singing it. When talking to them about it, I was shocked to know their feelings about it. It seems they aren't feeling like they are in a dark place or have a dark side, but yet, they believe this communicates the committment one might have to another who is less than perfect and we should all love each other, even with our dark sides. We are all less than perfect. Amazing what you can learn from a 12 year old that is belting out the lyrics to something like this. Glad to know what she's singing isn't the message that some might hear in these words but communicating a greater message of what it could really be.


There's a place that I know, It's not pretty there and few have ever gone
If I show it to you now, Will it make you run away, Or will you stay
Even if it hurts, Even if I try to push you out
Will you return?
And remind me who I really am, Please remind me who I really am
Everybody's got a dark side, Do you love me? Can you love mine?
Nobody's a picture perfect, But we're worth it, You know that we're worth it
Will you love me? Even with my dark side?
Like a diamond, From black dust
It's hard to know, It can become, A few give up, So don't give up on me
Please remind me who I really am
Everybody's got a dark side, Do you love me? Can you love mine?
Nobody's a picture perfect, But we're worth it
You know that we're worth it, Will you love me? Even with my dark side?
Don't run away, Don't run away, Just tell me that you will stay
Promise me you will stay, Don't run away, Don't run away
Just promise me you will stay, Promise me you will stay

Containing myself....

You ever have something that's happening that you are so excited for?  And not even excited for yourself, but for others?  Sometimes I feel like I can hardly contain myself.  I want to get excited and jump for joy, but something holds me back.

For several years I have had the opportunity to be a part of some exciting things.  But Satan sure finds a way to steal that joy. So much so that I fear I can't share my excitement with others. I have to contain it, bottle it up, and keep it to myself for fear of the reaction and feelings of others.  I don't want to hurt anyone or offend anyone. But.....God has given me more than ample amounts of opportunities that I should be allowed to get excited over.....but Satan comes in and destroys that.  How is this even fair? 

But wait....what if....it's not Satan that is doing this, but God is wanting me to learn something. 

Satan comes in to steal our joy and destroy things that bring glory to God.  Right?  What if.....God is teaching me to be humble in these situations?  Teaching me humility?  Teaching me how to find the joy in all situations.  Just because I can't shout it from the roof tops doesn't mean it can't bring glory to God.  But...what if God DOES want me to share my joy that I have because of Him?  Then am I taking away opportunities for how incredible He really is?  How am I to know? 

Proverbs 12:23 says Smart people keep quiet about what they know, but stupid people advertise their ignorance.

1Thessalonians 4:11 says, "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands."

Just what if....He wants me to do His work quietly?  What if He's working on my ignorance and making me smart?  So many verses speak to how I'm feeling today, where I've been, and what it is that I want to become.
Guess I'll continue to be that work in progress.