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Recently during an evening with my parents and a couple I consider my second parents I asked them if they remembered learning to drive and what that was like.  We all started laughing hearing each others stories!  Even though I’ve known these four my whole life I’d never thought to ask that question but I’m glad I did because it was really humorous.  It was also insightful.

My mom’s parents weren’t even willing to teach her.  Instead her dad hired someone else to do it haha!  My dad’s older brother taught him on some back road and my dad almost gave him a heart attack from what I heard.  Someone else mentioned trying to learn on a gravel hill…stick shift.

I certainly remember learning to drive.  My dad took me to a parking lot and was very patient.  Then one day my mom just gave me the keys even though I’d barely driven and told me to drive home from piano lessons.  I thought she was joking but alas no.  So there I was on back winding roads trying not to kill us.  Now you see, I’d thoroughly read the pamphlet you have to read to pass drivers ed and it said you needed to check all your mirrors every few seconds.  Well I was obedient to that and it didn’t go very well.  I was having the hardest time staying in the middle of the road.  When I mentioned my frustration to the gal that lived with us she said something I’ll never forget. “Stop looking in the mirrors so frequently.  If you look straight ahead you’ll go straight.  Where you look, that’s where you’ll go.” Hello light bulb moment.

You see I was trying to drive by looking behind me in the mirrors.  But reading a pamphlet and driving are two different things.  What I really needed to do was focus on what was in front of me.  I needed to look at the road ahead of me and see where I wanted to be.

The same thing happened when I was learning to ride my bike.  I kept looking at the pedals.  Finally my brother and his friend (who were teaching me) figured out the problem and told me to look ahead.  That’s when I felt the rush that comes from the first hands-off-no-training-wheels-freedom of riding your bike all by yourself.  Again I needed to look ahead of me at where I wanted to go.

I think in life it can be so easy to look in the past.  Or you may be one of those people who can’t envision where you want to go.  Until we can look ahead and have a vision for something we want to accomplish, we will have a hard time getting there.  

“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14

It’s the middle of the year and many goals and visions have been cast off since January.  That’s okay.  It’s never to late to start looking ahead.  What goals do you need to refocus, scrap, adjust, plan, or surrender?  What do you want to accomplish in the next six months?  I hope today you can put aside the past six months and press on with new vigor and vision.  If you want to tell someone your goals leave a comment below and I’d love to hear about it.  Or if you’re struggling to figure out what your vision is let me know that too. 🙂  You’ve got this my friend!

{Photo by: Paige Whiting}

I was sitting there scrolling through Facebook and just about to click off when I saw an article that looked interesting and I clicked through to read it.  In many ways the article had nothing to do with me but the last point struck me hard.  The author boldly proclaimed that God likes me.

Now here’s the thing.  We’ve all heard that God loves us.  It’s true, He does!  We know that He died for our sins and that He cares deeply about His people.  And wow is that ever amazing or what?!  But have you ever stopped to think about the fact that God LIKES you?  I’m not talking about a quickie Facebook like.  I’m not talking about that guy that likes all your pictures in the hopes that you’ll notice him.  I’m talking about the fact that God delights in you.

Stop and consider with me a moment.  Here’s this infinite, beautiful, all powerful, holy, perfect, satisfied God and he decided that he wanted to express all that glory and beauty as an overflow of who He is.  So He creates humans, you and me and the multitudes of ages past, present, and future, in His image to reveal it to.

When He looks at you He sings over you my friend!  “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17  (emphasis added)  Now tell me, do you sing over something you don’t like?  No, of course not!  But when you really like something you do.

God likes your personality that you sometimes think is too much or not enough.  God likes your body that He designed and handcrafted.  God likes the way you get excited over things other people find odd.  God likes the way you love your friends and family.  God likes the many ways you reflect a part of His heart, His creativity, His intelligence, His wisdom, His strength, His vision, His purpose, His grace, His love.

He sees you, He likes you, and He knows you better than you do yourself and He’s calling you to embrace the way He’s made you.  When we embrace the way God has crafted us we give thanks for who HE is.  When we see that God likes us it should turn our hearts in praise to Him.  How amazing that He likes and loves messy people.  He likes and loves the sinner and the tax collector and the prostitute.  He shocked everyone when He picked Zacchaeus’s home to go eat at.  He stopped and engaged in a conversation with a blind beggar.  He let a prostitute touch him and praised her for her gift to Him.  He’s a God of mercy and grace.  He’s a God that doesn’t throw out broken people but heals them and makes them whole in who He is.  If you’re longing for a God that likes you then come to Jesus just as you are.  As we say in our family, “I love you and I like you.”  It’s the same for God’s family, He loves you and He likes you.

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Recently I had one of those weeks where you just feel so frustrated you want to explode.  It wasn’t like everything was terrible.  In fact my life is pretty awesome.  Yet there I was with all this pent up irritation.  Some of it was directed towards this blog, a lot of it was directed at myself.  Can I be honest?  (I know I can because you all are so wonderful.)  Sometimes I wonder why I’m blogging.  I loose sight of the goal.

And then I got a note from a reader.  Actually I got a few all within 24 hours.  That rarely happens so to get three was a wake up call.  Each of those notes was like a breath of fresh air.  One girl spoke the words back to me that have been a theme on this blog and that I needed.  I needed someone to remind me of all the things I long to remind you of on here.  Because most everything I say on here is really a letter to myself to remind me of who God is and who I am in him.  I’m on here writing because I love God and I love people.  I’m on here writing because you matter.  I’m on here writing because just like a sweet reader reminded me “bloom where you’re planted.”

Here’s the thing.  I’m actually a pretty weak person.  I need to be reminded of the truth daily.  I need to refocus and feel refreshed just as much as the next person.  So the next time you don’t think you have something to offer someone remember that you do.  Please remember that even if you feel cracked and broken and useless that that just isn’t true.  You’re still a vessel and while you might not be being used the way you want to it doesn’t mean you’re not being used at all.

Years ago I was very sick.  During that time I had a mental picture given to me.  There was a a clay jar with a simple design, full with large gracefully curved sides and a small opening with a little lip on it.  It was in a dark room and it was badly cracked.  In fact it was quite broken.  Yet it was held together by some unseen force.  And shooting out of every crack was shimmering, radiant, glowing beams of light.  You could see the translucent shine coming out in rays in every direction.  The brokenness of the vessel allowed for the light to be revealed.  In that moment God reminded me that that’s what we are like.  The more broken we are the more his power and light has the opportunity to shine out of us.  And let me tell you it’s crazy beautiful.  I’ve carried this picture with me for almost ten years now.

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” 2 Cor. 4:5-7

So my friends if you are feeling useless and broken I want to tell you that you do have a purpose.  I want you to know that you’re so loved and valued.  I want you to know that your faithfulness to keep on matters.  When we are weak Christ makes us strong.  When we’re broken let’s allow the light to seep out.

Lights out.  Head on the pillow.  Relax.  I was just about at that point where you drift off to dream land when, BUZZZZZZZZ right in my ear.  ::thump:: I whacked my head, sat straight up and turned the light on.  (This is highly unpleasant at late hours of the night.)  I knew that sound immediately.  It was a mosquito.  A large one.

There I was lying in bed with the sheets up to my eyes wondering when the little monster would strike.  I couldn’t sleep thinking that he wanted me for his dinner.  Then I saw him on the ceiling.  That attempt to kill him was unsuccessful.  As was the next one.  Finally I killed the mosquito after about 10 minutes of nervously searching my room.  Even though the light was now off and the mosquito was killed I was still wide awake and thinking.

My sin is like that mosquito.  It wants to suck the life out of me.  It’s small but it leaves a mark.  One mosquito doesn’t sound that bad but if you let it stay it will hurt you.  Your sin may seem small but it is deadly.  I Googled “How many people are killed each year from mosquito bites?”  I was shocked with the answer.  Mosquitos are the deadliest animal.  They are so small yet their bite results in literally hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.  The majority of these deaths are caused by the diseases that mosquitos carry.  My sin is a disease and it can spread.  Thankfully God in his mercy has forever crushed the power of sin and death but are we using that as an excuse to abuse grace?

In the middle of writing this I had to set it aside.  In the meantime I ended up going to sleep and lo and behold the same thing happened again last night!  Yeah sin keeps coming back.  But this time when I heard the mosquito and turned on the light I knew what to do.  I knew how to kill it.  I knew how to kill it faster too.  Once we start actively putting to death the sin we see in our lives, by God’s grace, we get stronger.  Recognizing sin is a gift of grace itself!  The fact that we can see sin at all (that I could hear the mosquito…) means that our senses aren’t being blinded.

“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.”    (Romans 6:15-19 ESV)

My hope for us is that we would be aware of the sin that’s poisoning us and put it to death by knowing the victory Christ has already won.  Friends, we get to win this battle!

I was sitting by the river when it came to me in a flash.  It was that moment of rest where I was just soaking everything in.  I wasn’t really doing much except reading when I knew that my word for 2015 was present.  It’s hard to explain but I just knew.  This word can have a few different meanings but I was taking it as the act of being fully where you are.

You know what?  Being present is hard work in this day and age.  I don’t know about you but there is always a lot on my mind.  It’s hard to focus on one thing.  Even as I’m writing this it’s taking everything in me not to think about my to-do list and the craziness of yesterday and and and…  Distractions abound in our lives.  We’ve come to believe that if you’re not multitasking you’re doing it all wrong.  But what if we were never really meant to multitask?  Did you know that the word multitask was originally used in reference to computers/machines?  It wasn’t until around the 1990’s that it became an adjective to describe humans.  Mind blowing right?

Really it should be surprisingly simple, this act of being present, yet I often find it’s not.  Being present usually means doing less because you’re just focusing on what’s at hand.  Being present means fully embracing the moment.  We’re missing out if our brains are in more places at once than our bodies are.  Recently I received an email and there was a phrase that stood out.  “Be where your feet are.”  Simple but profound.

Are we really here?  Are we embracing these moments?  How often is my mind a million miles away even while my body is sitting there staring at someone hearing the words coming out of their mouths but not actually listening? Ouch.  Today my four year old nephew was over and I was physically sitting there watching him eat his lunch but I was totally distracted by “all the other things”.  Thankfully I had a wake up moment and realized I needed to just focus in.  When I did it was so beautiful.

I saw my nephew’s smattering of cute freckles and laughed as he tried to eat a dried mango.  I saw his long lashes and bright clear eyes and I saw that smile of his that melts me.  I was all there.  I was all there when he picked me to be on his team for the game.  I was all there and I hope he felt loved.

So maybe my word for 2015 was present but what I’ve learned is that it’s a life long word.  It’s a lifetime practice this act of being present.  When I am present I get the joy of having the sweet gift it gives of soaking up this time and not having a discombobulated existence.  Friends I hope you keep your head where your body is.

She walked in the door and I could see that it had been a rough day.  Tears were close to the surface.  It was one of those days you dread but you know you have to go through anyways.  She’d done the hard thing though and I was so proud of her for it.  Victory

Another friend called almost in tears she was so upset about some relational things going on in her life.  But she’d made it through the week and I was proud of her.  Victory

I sent a birthday message to a sweet friend and I knew it was a hard day because another birthday for her just marked another year still sick.  I was so proud of her for persevering.  Victory.

I’m part of this awesome blogging group on Facebook.  Someone posted today that her post had been pinned by someone else.  She was excited and rightly so.  Day after day I get on there and I see people celebrating things like getting to 400 followers on Instagram or figuring out how to run a new part of their blog.  Everyone joins in on the fun.  Here’s what I’ve realized through all these posts.  I’ve realized that celebrating the little things is super important.  I’m learning that we need to celebrate even the seemingly tiny wins.

So when my friend walked through the door almost in tears (and after a good long hug) I pulled out some fancy glasses and a bottle of Martinelli’s.  “We’re going to celebrate!”  “Celebrate what?”  “We are going to celebrate the fact that you did something that was really hard for you even when you didn’t want to do it.  And we are celebrating that it’s behind you!”  “Now?”  “Yes, now!”  So we poured the Martinelli’s and immediately her demeanor started to change.  We may have even pulled out some chocolate too since we wanted to make sure we really celebrated. 😉

Tears turned to laughter.  My friends, life is hard and messy and can cause a lot of pain.  Sometimes it’s easy to just get bogged down in all that but today I hope you don’t.  From here on out I hope you find the little things to celebrate even if it’s just getting out of bed.  For some people that’s a huge accomplishment.  (I know from years of being sick in high school or from others who’ve been through depression.)

You see it’s the little things that go unnoticed that actually end up making the most impact in how you live.  To some people having 400 followers on social media or making it through the week might not mean much but to others it could actually mean a great deal.  Instead of always wanting the next big thing what if we celebrated the little victories right were we are?  What if we chose to see that all the little victories add up to a life that celebrates that we get to be here.  You can either look a the glass half empty or half full but I hope you look at is as half full of Martinelli’s.  I hope you keep a bottle of it in your fridge at all times so that you’re prepared to celebrate the little wins.  I promise it will change your perspective.  Find something to celebrate today.  Find a friend that needs some encouragement and celebrate them.  It really is the little things in life that make the difference.  Cheers!

P.S. I just want to say to any Christians that since Jesus defeated death and we are now his there is ultimate victory in what he has done.  Let this fact cheer your heart today!