Ready

I come to my friend's blogs ready.

I come to my email inbox ready.

I even come to Face book (somewhat) ready.

Ready to receive encouragement. Ready to find inspiration. Ready to be challenged. Ready to have fellowship.

Do I open my Bible ready?

Do I fold my hands (or fall to my knees or lay on the floor or cry in the rain or sit on the porchswing) ready?

Do I come to Jesus ready?

He is the ultimate source of encouragement.

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement..." Romans 15:5a

He is an unending road of inspiration.

"I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint." Jeremiah 31:25

He is never devoid of a new challenge.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

He is the fellowship I most desire.

"You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand." Psalm 16:11

Am I ready?

What if God is the Painter and I am His canvas?

What if God is the Architect and I am His tower?

What if God is the Sculptor and I am His clay?

What if God is the Designer and I am His fabric?

What if God is the Author and I am His page?

What if God is the Musician and I am His instrument?

What if God is the Photographer and I am His camera?

What if God is the Chef and I am His dish?

What if God is the Teacher and I am His words?

What if God is the Farmer and I am His seed?

What if God is the Water and I am His cup?

What if God is the Love and I am His hands?

Am I ready?

Bloom! and That's Okay

Bloom! Magazine is here!

"This magazine has been created as an online, Christian magazine specifically for tween and teen girls. We want to provide this magazine to the public as a magazine that can encourage and inspire girls to use their talents and gifts for Christ."

The first beautiful, wonderful issue has been published with awesome pictures and articles meant to inspire and encourage. Hop on over, join up, and download the first issue to read at your leisure.

You'll even find an article by yours truly on page six entitled "That's Okay."

Lessons from My Dresser

I love rearranging the furniture in my room a couple of times a year. On a smaller scale, usually when I’m dusting, I’ll move a picture frame here, and a vase of flowers there. It goes without saying that there are books scattered everywhere in my bedroom.

Books are such great decorating tools!

What is it about a little change that freshens up a space?

It’s almost as if a little change gives the whole room new life.

Why can’t real life be like that?

Why is it that every time God rearranges the pieces and parts that comprise ME, I rarely seem to enjoy it?

When He moves something around

or plays with putting something in a different spot

from where it feels like it has always been

(and if it ain’t broke, why fix it, right?)

Why, oh, why do I balk, rebel, and pull away from His loving, gentle, but firm Potter’s hands?

Maybe I should remember when God does a little life-changing, how many times in the past God has moved and rearranged me before…and how it has always, always, always, turned out for the better.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." James 1:2

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

Maybe I should take some lessons from my dresser. It always seems in such a cheery mood when the basket of hair-scrunchies moves from one corner to the other and the rose bouquet sits next to the pictureframe holding the photo of me holding the keys to my truck.

Perhaps instead of rebelling against the changes God brings into my life, I could cheer up and trust that He, as the master designer, knows what He’s doing.

A New Opportunity and What God Really Wants

It had been a long day at work and I collapsed into my desk chair, ready to turn off my laptop for the night. Checking my emails one last time, I cocked my head.

Could it be true?

Was I seeing things or was this for real?

It was.

I have been invited to join the team of Meditations of His Love.

No longer tired, I was floating on air that night, excited about this opportunity to write regularly for a ministry that has been a blessing to me.

My first post for MOHL is entitled, "What God Really Wants."

"As "spiritual" as we may feel teaching Sunday School, telling others about God, or helping a needy person, all God really wants is..."

Read more.

Anytime, Anywhere

I started college last month.

I am learning so much more than how to use a graphing calculator or the many, many verbs there are to conjugate in Spanish.

This month, the freedom of homeschooling I've enjoyed for 18 years flew right out the window.

I learned what homework really is.

The freedom of rising early in the morning to spend leisurely time with God flew away as well.

I learned what desperation really is.

Best of all, I learned just how close God is.

How easily He can be found when my heart is seeking Him.

How He sees me.

How He watches over me.

How He loves me.

I learned what a quiet time really is.

Vital to my soul.

Crucial to my well-being.
Necessary for my heart.

The supplier of energy for the dance.

A quiet time can happen anywhere.

At my desk.

Propped up on pillows in my bed.

Lying on the floor.

Sitting at a picnic table on campus.

In my front-porch swing.

It can happen at anytime.

I used to be really stuck in my ways as to how I spent time with the Lord in the morning. I was borderline legalistic actually. I didn't realize this until classes began and my schedule cramped up. The majority of my quiet times began to occur at night

...and I didn't even care because I was just glad they were happening at all.

I still think it works best for me to set aside an hour of 100% distraction-free time in the morning to be with my Lord.

But who am I kidding?

In a perfect life maybe there would be no last-minute exams, harder-than-expected projects to complete, library books due when I've barely begun to skim them, and colds which rack my body and fuzz up my brain.

I'm incredibly thankful for the six years that I've exercised this daily discipline that I had the freedom to get to know God

...slowly

...sincerely

...early.

And now I'm learning that no matter what the God I've come to know is with me whether I know it or not. That's freeing.

He doesn't love me more when I spend an hour at His feet.

He doesn't love me less when I stumble around all day and all I can pray is, "Help me."

He's there.

He's sitting beside me when I stare wide-eyed at my profesor, trying in vain to convert the Mathamatese she is speaking into something I can hope to understand. He's patting me on the back when I make an A on my exam. And He's there on the days (which are happening less and less frequently, praise Him) when I fall into bed exhausted and realize I didn't even open up my Bible today.

This morning I was propped up on some pillows in bed, tissue at the ready to defy this annoying cold which kept me home from church, and Bible in hand.

Quiet times with God are such a mystery.

Anytime.

Anywhere.

But God is definitely someone I cannot live without. So I keep coming. For a minute or an hour, when the sun is rising or when the moon has taken its place. All I need is my Bible and an open heart.

Watch the Walls Come Tumbling Down

"My quiet time that day started out like any other. A quick prayer left my lips for God to bless my heart as I sought Him. I opened the Bible study book I was currently working through. And an eye-opening, heart-rending hour began."

Read more.

"When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city." Joshua 6:20

Sound your trumpet, my soul. Shout with all your strength, my heart. Welcome the blast of the horn! Give a loud yell!

And watch the walls come tumbling down.

Spirit of God, charge straight in

and

take

my

heart.

Real and Lit

"Don't you understand? The Glory flows into everyone, and back from everyone: like light and mirrors. But the light's the thing."

"Do you mean there are no famous men?"

"They are all famous. They are all known, remembered, recognized by the only Mind that can give a perfect judgment."

C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

I don't want to live beneath a facade. I don't want to live behind a mask that I smack on when I smile my toothpaste-ad smile. I don't want to put on a front that I use to convey to the world my image of Jesus.

I want to be real.

I want Him to be real in me.

"Whether or not I am ever famous in the world's eyes, I am known by Him, and that is enough. More than enough, actually. It is astounding!"

"Lit. Illumined; awake; aware. It's what my heart desires, even faints for: this kindling touch of Light and Life that is outside of me entirely and yet, miraculously, inconceivably within me by the presence of Jesus Christ in my life. The age-old Incandescence that sets souls aflame with life and selfhood; the Light which is there whether I am or not, loving the world without stint, and without which I cannot live. I want to see it in its glory, be made brave by it for the nameless sufferings and unbearable beauties it reveals."

-Lanier

I want to be lit.

"If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen." 1 Peter 4:11

Peace

Radical Revolution has published my devo, "Peace."

"Have you ever been scared out of your life, as the disciples were that Sunday morning? Have you ever experienced the terror that streaks through you when a loved one is in an accident or receives bad news from the doctor? Or when your parents announce they are getting a divorce? Did you know that even in those situations, God offers you His peace?"

Read more.

You Can

You can do something for the children around the world who need compassion. You can make a difference. You can educate yourself about children in poverty. You can pray. You can see what God has to say. You can tell others. You can write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper (I did, and it was published).

It may seem like a single drop in the ocean, but it's something.

Do something.

I dare you.

Supreme Importance

What do you think is of supreme importance? What are you following? Who are you living for?

My question-filled article, "True or False," has been published at Meditations of His Love. Born on a day when I was reexamining priorities and crowning the Lord of my heart, it stirs my heart. What is true and what is false in my life?