Meh.

This post is going to be a combination of my personal journey as of late, my thoughts of late and a devotional that I read this morning.  Amazing all are on the same line of thought.  Pretty cool God.  Like He's trying to tell me something eh?

For the two or three people who read this it goes without saying and none of you are surprised when I say that I may be a little high strung and wound a little tight.  This I believe is something that can work for my benefit, but more often than not as I lose control of it, it becomes a major detriment to me, my relationships, my ministry and ultimately the plan that God has for me in many areas in my life.  I've been asking God a lot lately why I am the way I am.  Don't get me wrong, I am fearfully and wonderfully made and God's masterpeice and all that jazz, but I've been wrestling lately with this as I can see some of it's damaging effects if I lose control of it. 

One evening over the weekend it was impressed on my heart "to be anxious for nothing" so I asked how do I do that.  The response was simple and quick.  Read the rest of the verse.  So here is what I was given:

Phl 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Phl 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phl 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

So I pray.  I offer thanks even though my brain takes me to "other" places and attitudes.  I realize that God's peace is beyond what I understand or comprehend so I don't have to get it.  Then I focus on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.  This is what I intentionally think on.  So I guess if I have "other" thoughts enter my brain I let them go or ignore them.  With God's authority in me... I can do that.

Then there was this morning... One devotional took me to Psalm 119 and God's Word being my source.  This is how I have the strength to ignore or reject those "other" thoughts... By having God's word firmly planted in my heart.. Awesome!

Then God went a step further and took me to another devotional and into the book of Colosians and the topic was "peace".  I'm thinking I'm a little thick and need some major repetition to get things.  LOL.
Colosians 3:15-17 says this:

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

2 quick observations from this passage.  Number 1 is that it says "let the peace of Christ RULE in your hearts.. ."  It doesn't say let the peace of Christ "exist" or "influence" in your heart.  It says rule.  Rule says that it's an all encompasing master and not just a part that is allowed to peek in and visit once in a while when it's convenient.  The peace must be there to stay and have dominion of our hearts.  This appears to be an act of submission on our part which could explain why so many of us are restless and not at peace.  We don't like to submit to anything or allow anything to have rule in us that we don't create. 

The other observation that caught me was the amount of times the word "thanks" or various forms of that word were in this passage.  I count three times and that tells me that the peace of Christ (which we don't always understand or have to for that matter) comes out of an attitude of gratitude.  If we are thankful for God's blessings, God's favour and what He's already done in our lives it's hard to complain about what we don't have.  Isn't that where our lack of peace comes from at the core?  We complain about what we don't have, what we would rather be doing, or what others get that we don't and all the while we get ourselves spun so tight that our words turn into a life of unrest, and definitely not a life of peace that Christ offers. 
I'll admit that this is a struggle with me as the little things and insecurity loves to creep into my mind and get me spun, but I am grateful that Christ is patient and is offereing me His peace and I don't even have to understand it.  To know that it is there and I can and will abide, live, rest and be ruled by His peace is a comforting thought.  I very much want to be a "meh" kind of person who is able to let the small things slide and be ruled by the Prince of Peace and by God's strength and guidance of His Word... I will get there. 

Grateful to God today.
Blessings and Love to you all...

Writer's Block

So let's begin with the typical "I know.  I has been too long. Blah, blah, blah."  Good?  Okay, let's move on.  :)

I've been thinking a lot about the story God wants to write in and with us again lately.  I love how God uses our lives, which includes the joys and pains (pump, pump, pump pump it up... sunshine, what else? rain! sorry.. squirell!!!) to tell a story and ultimately lead others to Him.  It never ceases to amaze me how God uses our story and without us even know most times, He interweaves our lives with others whom we can use our story with or they can use their story to bless ours.  The creativity of this I may never understand, but I find it unbelievably awesome.  Poor sentence I know, but how God does this totally wrinkles my brain.  I see my youth group (whom I love dearly) and I see a number of young people who have had a difficult story with which I can connect due to the struggles of my past.  Do I love dealing with hurts, seeing kids hurt and digging up my junk again?  Not so much.  Do I love that God can use my hurt and my junk to bring peace into young lives?  Oh my word yes!!!

So about this story thing.  My thought is this.  How many times to we take the pen from the author?  I am speaking out of a recent experience where I was in the midst of an amazing story that God was writing and yet for some reason I felt to take the pen and inject my little ideas in and see how things might go.  So people gotta learn the hard way I guess.  Sheesh.  Yet we do this often don't we?  Isn't it annoying when we show someone a picture that we've drawn, a song or poem that we've written and they take our pen or pencil and say, "Oh this is good, but..." or "Just let me change this and it would be great..."  Kind of makes you want to punch them doesn't it or as we Christians say, "Lay hands on them.."  I always hated in school when someone would do that to me.  It's a different story if I've asked for help, but them changing my story, song, poem or art without me asking is just plain annoying.  Yet again, I/we do this with God don't we? 

Long story short, I did this and as anybody could have predicted I fell flat on my face.  I fell hard.  So again I found myself brushing off the dust, licking my wounds and asking God what just happened.  Thankfully it became quickly obvious what I had done and the good part about being flat on my face was that it was a short trip as to where I needed to be before my God and the Author of my story. 

I think I must be getting old or maturing or whatever that is called because it has not taken as much time, as much whining or whatever else my routine use to be for me to get back on my feet, find my first love and give God back the pen and let Him continue writing my story.  Reality is only He can write the only story that matters in my life.  Only He can write the story in my life that will impact others.  Only He writes the story in my life that offers hope, peace, strength and love (true love) in the midst of a world that offers me temporary fixes, chaos and disappointment. 

Who's writing your story?  Who has the pen?

Blessings...
swl