Category: potential

Potential: Expressing Possibiiity

 

 
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
(Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message)
 
 
“Living deep in God’s “good” ness, I will seek to travel with others toward peace and deep joy while diligently tending to my own garden.” (Juniper Gillian)
 
 
 
 
This week as I have been contemplating potential, exciting things have been expressing themselves in my soul. I cannot explain how the good news grows from a seedling of faith into a full blooming flower of joy. I have been on a journey with Jesus as my central love, sometimes ardent, sometimes wavering for more than four decades now. He never ceases to surprise me with joy and hope and peace and things sprouting and flourishing in my soul that I don’t even remember being planted there.
 
Over the last twelve years, I have been dreaming about what I want to be when I “grow up.” When our boys were in high school, my husband and I spent three days with a couple to look at our lives, to see where we had been and where we were going. Here is the statement, which I wrote about my personal significance in the summer of 2005:
 
Personal Significance is…
 
Minimum of a two year college degree
Written and published at least one book
Created and maintained a website for spiritual encouragement
 
In many ways, God has exceeded the desires of my heart. In December 2011, I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in English and we self-published a book of devotions, titled Defining Moments: Overflowing with Living Words. And since 2008, I have maintained this blog, Nourishment for the Soul: A Place to Feed on Words.
 
This journey has proved to me the value of writing down our dreams, capturing them in a visual medium and sharing them with others. Through learning to lean close into God’s goodness everyday, He is leading me in ways I never thought possible.
 
And now, He is opening doors for me to experience more impossibilities. By the end of the summer, I plan to have a website that hosts the blog, promotes creative soul workshops and potentially the unveiling of spiritual adventures. Please pray for me as I branch out and take steps of faith to bring this possibility into actuality.
 
For now, I’m going to keep the name of this enterprise a surprise to unveil with the website. So stay tuned!
 
(Many others besides, Don and Sherie Zimmer, who we met with in 2005, have been influential in this dream becoming a reality including my husband, who defies enough superlatives to ever express my true heart towards him, our two sons who have grown up into renaissance men, my mom, who gave me life and confidence, my sisters, Juniper Gillian, Michelle and Dani, who love me and cheer me on, my Magnificent Friends (you know who you are),  my journaling friends and mentors, Lynn D. Morrissey and Mary Ann Kuechler, my writing friends and journaling friends (hugs) and my friend and life coach, Tracy Flori! And now I feel like I’m at the Oscars and I just know I’ve forgotten to thank someone…I am thankful for all the friends and teachers over the years who formed who I am today. Dreams take a lot of work and support and I so appreciate God bringing each one of you into my life.)
 
May God enable each of us to express our possibilities (and impossibilities) in order to create space for His goodness to flourish as we each, “Live out our God-created identities, living generously and graciously toward one another, as God lives toward us!” (Matthew 5:48 The Message)
 

When’s the last time you recalled the good news alongside the goodness of God?
 
 
Linking up with…
 
 
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 6

Potential: Capable of Development into Actuality

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
(Ephesians 2: 7-10 The Message)
 
 
 
When I look at a blank canvas or a blank page or a blank screen, I see potential. It may look like nothing, but really it’s a space waiting for expression. I love how God created us to be an expression of His salvation. He saves us. He showers us with grace and kindness. He invites us to join in His work. God gives us the capabilities, the energy and the creativity to do what we were formed to do. Each of us has a unique set of skills, strengths and experiences to offer. No two of us have the same role. Each one of us is honored to be here, now for His purposes.
 
 
As I look at the potential of the empty spaces in my life, I wonder what does God have in store. Where will He lead me next? Will he add a stroke of fiery orange or mellow yellow? Is there anything He needs to edit in my life? Does He look for a better synonym to describe who I am in order to communicate His love and grace? What reality am I missing out on because I am so consumed with my current troubles instead of gazing into His beautiful face?
 
 
What joy God must experience as He adds another layer of color to our life, a defining line and just the write word to finish our sentence. Let’s live out our God-created identities, graciously and generously living with one another, just like God lives toward us! (Matthew 5:48 The Message) I keep repeating that refrain to myself and to you, so that it will become an actuality and second nature to love like God loves. To love others and ourselves in our wondrous uniqueness!
 
 
 
Will you ask God to give you
a word that describes you to Him?
 
( I would love it if you shared that word in the comments, so we can see what God thinks of His daughters and sons!)
 
 
Linking up with Soli Deo Gloria Party
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 7

Potential: Existing in Possibility

Jesus looked at them intently and said, 
“Humanly speaking, it is impossible. 
But not with God. Everything is possible with God.”
(Mark 10:27 NLT)

Gardening offers many opportunities to observe potential. Like the other day, I noticed a rose pushing itself open, while myriad others appeared to be standing at attention awaiting their turn to bloom. Potential is beauty waiting to exist. Flowers don’t really push themselves open or even stand at attention, but as a striving human being, I personify the beauty surrounding me, rather than just absorbing their lesson. Rose buds become roses in their Creator’s perfect timing, wafting their sweet perfume across my secluded porch behind the rose-covered lattice.



Look at all that potential!



Gardens come in several varieties: the large family farm, the urban community plot or maybe a personal garden contained in various shaped pots. Being a suburbanite, my gardening feats happen around the yard and on the front porch. This year I had several options for my empty pots. I could plant flowers, herbs and even a few vegetables. My choices were as vast as the flora and fauna at our local plant nursery. The potential for combinations for the containers seemed infinite. I chose some vegetables, herbs and a few flowers. 

When I think of our human potential, especially as being created in the image of God, the options to impact this world appear infinite. I am a dreamer. So I like to dream and muse about what life would be like if we each had the time, energy and help to live out our God-created identities to the fullest, living generously and graciously toward each other, just as God lives toward us! (Matthew 5:48 The Message) This Scripture gives me a vision and informs my purpose as I understand the dream God is defining for this season of my life.

Last Friday, I made a vision board. Its inspiration came from the idea of plotting and marking off sections of a garden. I taped white strings across my piece of cardboard, wondering what God would inspire me to plant in each square. After the vision board was complete, I wrote some reflections:

I like to think of these vision boards as discovery collage. I gather images, some from my stash and others from a Better Homes and Garden magazine. I am drawn to the garden scenes in the magazine. Three phrases embody actions that speak to my dream: “a passion for planting,” and “corralling creativity,” and “pooling their resources.” These phrases resonate with my desire to help others discover what they can plant in the small spaces of their lives that will flourish and nourish their souls. My dream is to plant ideas and encourage creative approaches to live life collaboratively with Jesus always in sight. I add two images of Jesus, one is the Good Shepherd and Jesus with Arms Open in Blessing. I want to listen for His voice. I long for Him to lead me out the gate into His blessings to share with others.




Both with dreams and gardens, one must remain attentive. After I planted the container garden, the squirrels arrived to dig and play in the dirt. For a couple days, I would reset the plants that the squirrels displaced with their digging. I found a roll of screening in our garage, so I formed little tents around the plants to keep the squirrels out, while allowing the plants a place to flourish in the sun and rain. Since I took those measures, I have been able to enjoy two fresh salads from my lettuce pot. And I look forward to the celery, beets and peas later in the season. 

My dream for you, my friends, is that you will measure off some time and space to cultivate your relationship with God. I know that at certain times of life this is so difficult. However, God wants this time as much as you and I do. In love, He inspires creative ways to make it happen.
What will you plant in a small space 
of your life today to nourish your soul?

Posted on by kelrohlf 9

Potential: Capable of Being Developed

Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.
(John 12:25-25 The Message)
 
 

 
 
 
Please ripen me–
Omnipotent,
Tender,
Eternal
Never failing,
Totally capable,
Infinite,
All consuming–
Lover of My Soul.
 

 
Posted on by kelrohlf 2