Category: #TellHisStory

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

Repent and Believe the Gospel Again

This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience—it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.
(1 Corinthians 13:4 J.B. Phillips)
 
 
 
Shake off your routines like bedcovers

Plant your feet on the ground
for the journey

Clear your eyes of sleep

Take in the sight of a new day
for loving your God

(Rachel G. Hackenberg)

 

I like my routines.  I get up every morning.  I brew a cup of coffee to sip and warm my hands, while I read my devotions. Then I find my pen and write in my journal.

In my journal, I start out with recording the day, the date, the time and the place.  I make some observation about how I feel or record something from the day before that stood out as important.  

And for Lent, I am writing love letters to God, which as I’ve said isn’t as easy as it sounds.


Last week as Lent began I received the ashes on my forehead. The words spoken that day jolted me.

 

And this week, the words, “Repent and believe the gospel,” continue to confront me.

 

I was expecting “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” and instead I was startled by the word, “Repent!” 

And the charge to “Believe the gospel,” initiated a spiritual crisis. Do I really believe the gospel? What does it mean to believe the gospel? Or more accurately, what would my life look like if I took God at His word that I am redeemed and forgiven?

Maybe I wouldn’t reach for the TV remote as often. Maybe I wouldn’t doubt God’s love. Maybe I would be more gracious towards those who disappoint me. Maybe I could stop being so angry. (I made the rash decision to give up anger for Lent. It’s not going so well. I need to get rid of it, but that’s my dilemma, I tend to hoard anger.)
 
Maybe, just, maybe I would get out of bed and greet each new day with joy because Jesus lives and loves!
 
Linking up with:
 
 

 


Posted on by kelrohlf 6