The Human Condition (Pt. 1)

Hey friends!

Just to preface, I’ve had this topic on my heart for a year now.  I can’t seem to shake it, even after writing in vain about it 7-8 times.

So here is my *crossed-fingers* final attempt.  I’ve divvied it up into three segments for easier reading.  I hope you enjoy it & learn something like I did :)

~Summer

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

One day, I was laughing with my coworkers about the mysterious “Human Condition”.  We thought it hilarious that we could apply the phrase to anything:

“Getting on the subway is The Human Condition.  Dealing with incompetent jerks on the road is The Human Condition.  Having to slave all day to earn a paycheck is The Human Condition. Eating crappy tacos is The Human Condition.”

It was very funny and thought-provoking.  We hear so often about this part of our lives, yet none of us can define it.

Thankfully… God has given us a peek into our condition to help us understand!

We learn from His Word that we face 3 common enemies in life: Our rebellious nature (the “flesh”), Satan, and the world.  We could say, then, that The Human Condition is battling all three in our quest to know & emulate God.

But two of these threats are external (Satan & the world) – two things largely beyond our control.

Let’s focus on the one we do have authority over, with God’s help: The inward battle with our flesh.

What does God say about our flesh nature, or our “condition”?

“The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.

Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,
so is he who gets riches but not by justice;
in the midst of his days they will leave him,
and at his end he will be a fool.

A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary.
O Lord, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake You shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from You shall be written in the earth,
for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.”

~Jeremiah 17

Our hearts are wicked!  I’ve found that many people spend their entire lives running from this truth.

Why don’t we like to believe this?  Why do so many people explain away ‘bad behavior’ with paltry excuses?

Because we can’t fix our sinful hearts ourselves… and by accepting this, we’d have to give up doing whatever we want and give up proving our “goodness”, which many find unthinkable.

So instead, when we’re faced with mass shooting sprees, child molestation, & corporate fraud, we are quick to blame things that have no control over crime (guns, knives, medications, our mental state, moms & dads, lack of education) – instead of the perpetrators.

But bad childhoods don’t hurt, rob, and kill people - PEOPLE DO.

We can’t blame “politicians”, “corporations”, “gang members”, “black people”, “feminists” or “creepy old men”.  We, and our fellow humanity as a whole, are to blame.

Can we accept the fact that we’ve done wrong?  Maybe not to the level of some people, but no honest person can say they’ve always chosen good over bad.  Even as adults, we must discipline ourselves to do the right thing (& it doesn’t always happen).  It doesn’t come – dare I say it – naturally!  It goes against the grain of our natural state, the condition we’re all in.

We gain great FREEDOM and wisdom when we admit this about ourselves & about each other, and when we quit running from reality.

Many educational programs require ethics courses.  My question is, can you force people’s moral behavior?  These classes have their place, no doubt, but *at best* they encourage people to do right by threatening consequences for unethical behavior (or promising benefits when we abstain from it).

Ethics classes don’t make people more ethical, any more than bribing kids with cookies keeps them from throwing future tantrums.  They simply entice people to play nice for a reward/to prevent punishment.  A class can’t change people’s desires – or the condition of their hearts.

As they say, You don’t have to teach kids to be bad. You have to teach them to be GOOD. 

So why are we surprised when kids grow up to be adults who continue being bad?  And why are we surprised when we find OURSELVES behaving badly?

Many people talk about seeing the “good” in everyone, which was my default mode growing up.  I loved my rose-colored glasses because it made my world a much happier place. “You see what you wanna see,” I’d think about pessimists.

Then life comes along & clobbers you in the face. The people you trust backstab you. You go into business with a person of ill repute, ignore the raging red flags, and are surprised when you’re ripped off.

“A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on & suffers the consequences.” ~Prov. 27

“The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, But the naive go on, and are punished for it.” ~Prov. 22

There are inconvenient truths I don’t wanna face about people and MYSELF every day.  I can turn a blind eye, but that would make me a fool and an easy target.  There are people in the world who do not have our best interests at heart.  Sometimes we don’t have their best interests at heart either.  If we refuse to believe this, we will walk a rocky road of consequences.

There’s no need to be skeptical of everyone, but to continue skipping through the meadows with people bent on doing evil is to invite destruction into our lives.

We need to be cautious when we see warning flags about other people, and we must acknowledge that we aren’t above any temptation or sin either so that we can be on guard against falling into their behavior ourselves.

I’d like to leave us with two action items:

1. Accept that we share a common enemy: Ourselves.  If you need help overcoming something, seek God’s help and other people’s assistance to overcome it – don’t try to do it on your own!  There’s a reason you haven’t overcome it alone: You need someone stronger than yourself.
2. Accept that some people choose to NOT restrain themselves and do evil things!  Heed any “red flags” you see in other people’s lives, and guard yourself accordingly.

I’ll post Part Two soon.

God Intended It for Good

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”  ~Genesis 50:20 (NLT)

This very night eleven years ago marks a very important, transitional point in my life.

On November 9th, 2001, I was 18 years old, a newbie college freshman and newly-inducted sorority girl at my state university.  I was enjoying life with tons of new friends and a whole new world opened up to me.  I was doing well in my classes and partying a bit and living a great life.

Then that autumn, my life changed quickly.  And with it, the hope of my heart seemed extinguished for the next decade.

I can’t describe the events that led up to that day or the hours, weeks, & months that followed, but life has never been the same for me.

Yet despite the hardships that have come my way, do you know what I’ve found myself saying and thinking and truly believing this past year?

Thank You, God.  You rescued me.

Yes, I knew better than to party.  I grew up in a very caring, God-centered home. No family is perfect, and mine was no exception, but I had GOOD parents who cared DEEPLY about all four of us kids – and it showed in every decision they made.  They wanted a life for us that they didn’t quite have growing up.

I strayed from the well-beaten path laid out before me, and God kept catching me and redirecting me back toward that path.

But at some point, He must’ve known – as any parent has to when their child’s been warned enough times – that I was hell-bent on getting my own way, doing my own thing, rebelling from what I knew to be right.

I was most certainly in that place the day, 11 years ago, my world changed so profoundly.

Do I think God lets bad things happen to good people?

Yes, yes I do.

Do I think He allows it because He hates people?

Not at all.

God lays before us blessings and curses and tells us to CHOOSE LIFE.  Don’t rebel, He whispers; it’s foolish and always results in brokenness.

But at some point, many of us can get cocky and believe that we know better than our dear parents (and our loving Heavenly Father!).  I certainly thought so back then – I felt all those rules and restrictions that had kept me safe for most of my 18 years were actually hindering me from true freedom.

I couldn’t WAIT to grow up and be on my own.  Then I’d do……. whatever my heart desired!

And when I “broke free” back then, I did just that.  I remember watching MTV for a week straight (lame, by the way), surely the result of growing up in a cable-free home.  This was my first of many acts of “rebellion”: Forcing myself to sit through Real World marathons and hating every minute of it :)

I also recall drinking beer for 7-8 days STRAIGHT.  I know, Rebel Alert!!!! I’m not sure how the world handled my wild ways?!  ;) But for me, these were BIG deals.  And more than anything, they were a reflection of my heart: I wanted to do and experience a multitude of things I’d been protected from up until that point, and I viewed warnings as dares to explore unknown territory.

And explore I did.

There were much stupider choices, but I’ll spare us the rehash. Each week seemed to bring new opportunities to compromise and be foolish, culminating in tragedy for me.

I want to be perfectly clear.  I do not believe I caused my tragedy, but I assure you my rebellion and refusal to heed the voice of wisdom put me in precarious scenarios that proved to be disastrous.

I also do not believe God struck me with ‘lightning’ my freshman year.  He warned me – heavily – and extensively warned the people around me of the unwise path I was taking, but when we refuse to listen, we don’t know what awaits us on the other side of door number three… but I’ve learned that God doesn’t warn us for no good reason.

My insatiable curiosity beckoned me forward, and I paid the price.  Though my experience is absolutely not my fault, my decisions set me up for pain.  Likewise, I would NEVER blame God for someone else’s actions because He isn’t controlling other people’s lives just as He’s not controlling mine.

I’ve learned, though, that He steers our lives more than we know in the direction of hope and beauty.  He doesn’t leave our lives a disaster, even when we or other people train-wreck it for us.

Tune in for a moment as I recount once such journey!

Joseph’s Story

The biblical Joseph had one of the toughest lives in Scripture.  His dad’s unrivaled favorite among 12 sons, Joseph was sold into slavery as a teenager by his jealous brothers and lived as both a slave then a prisoner for the next 17 years.  He went from being a beloved son to a SLAVE overnight, was falsely accused, and was forgotten in his prison cell by those who promised to help free him.  He had his hopes dashed on more than one occasion.

Can you imagine spending half your young life in bondage, all while serving God and doing the right things?  That was Joseph.

Yet throughout his ridiculously unfair sentence, Joseph praised God and kept his integrity!

Eventually this man was freed and had the immense opportunity to face the very brothers who’d betrayed him so many years ago.  Through a sequence of amazing events, Joseph was given the No. 2 position in all of Egypt, and during a 7-year global famine was tasked with dispensing food to the surrounding countries.  What a job!

When his brothers came before their unrecognizably older brother, they pleaded with him for bread.  Joseph was literally their only hope for provision, and he knew it.  Placed in such a position of power and palpable vengeance, Joseph had a choice to make.

Do you know how he responded to their pleas?

“Heck no, I won’t give you bread – y’all ruined my life, so now I’m gonna ruin yours?”

Nope!  After revealing himself to his long-lost brothers, Joseph – in one of the most gracious acts of Scripture – replied:

“‘Don’t be afraid of me.  Am I God, that I can punish you?  You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.  He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.  No, don’t be afraid.  I will continue to take care of you and your children.’  So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.”

Displaying incredible wisdom beyond his years, Joseph understood that GOD Himself had allowed him to experience slavery – for a higher purpose.

Many people, Christians and non-believers alike, stop at this point of the story and shake their heads in disgust.  I can understand the sentiment.  No one wants to believe that a loving Father would ever allow suffering or hardship for His own, especially when He’s God and can effectively control all things.

We want to think God would pave the road for us in perfection, blessing us with only lovely and happy gifts (and He does give those, I promise!).  But who am I to say that something hard isn’t a blessing in disguise?

Could Joseph ever have predicted that his brothers’ selling him into slavery to Egypt would have been his (and their) saving grace nearly 2 decades later??  If Joseph had remained behind with his brothers, he wouldn’t have been in the position God placed him in to influence Egypt’s ruler and warn him that a severe famine was coming on the land.  God opened Joseph’s eyes to this fact, so Joseph warned the Pharaoh to store up food and provisions ahead of time so they would have plenty during the famine!

That’s just what Egypt did, and that’s precisely why – when the famine struck – Egypt was the only nation prepared to survive it (and with enough food left over to aid other nations!).

Families came to Egypt from all over the world to obtain bread during the 7 year famine, including Joseph’s.  And because God had prepared the way ahead of time through Joseph, untold numbers of people survived, including Joseph himself and his dear family!

I’m not Joseph, second in command of a great nation, and I don’t have his integrity or complete heart of forgiveness quite yet… but I do know that God derailed my “perfect” life path at the young, impressionable age of eighteen because He knew it would save my life for the better, and I really believe in my heart, the lives of others in the future.

Sitting here 11 years down the road, I reflect on the changes God has made in my life, my heart, and my life’s path since I was 18.  I was on a highway to hell so to speak, in great rebellion and with no plans to stop.  I wanted very little to do with God, considering Him to be Someone I’d turn to “later” in life when I was ready to settle down and marry.  NEVER would I have chosen His narrow path when I felt my “real” life was just getting started!!!

Yet that’s precisely what I began doing.

Why?

Because I learned on that November night why the world’s promises of “freedom” and “no boundaries” are so empty and full of despair.  Yes, I had to learn the hard way, and I’m sure some of you reading may think I’m CRAZY for believing these things about my past experiences, but I genuinely know that they were FOR MY GOOD.  

God alone knows the destructive path I would’ve taken if He’d not so lovingly deterred me eleven years ago.  I am so very grateful, from the bottom of my heart, for the journey He’s placed me on.

It’s cost me dearly, but I don’t believe scales could measure what it would’ve cost me had I stayed on the path I was on.

I wholeheartedly believe that when God changes one person’s life as radically as He has mine, that others’ lives will be touched, too.  You can’t walk through bondage that I’ve walked through, darkness that I’ve been enveloped in, or despair like I have without God rebirthing something much bigger and newer and more wonderful in and through you.

His plan often begins with death first – of our dreams and plans – so HIS new life can spring forth.

And as I sit here in recent days and ponder the future of what America will stand for after this year’s very-pivotal election, and wonder about the course our country will continue to take in years to come, I can say with confidence that whatever our God may allow us to walk through, that He’s doing it with our absolute best in mind.

He’s done it in my life, He did it in Joseph’s, He’s likely done it in your own.  And I believe He will do it in America’s, too.

Because we are His, and those He calls His own He lovingly chastens… so that one day we can experience full-circle the outpouring of His blessings in our lives.

Amen!

Called to Shine!

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”

~2 Cor. 4:7

This scripture is kind of famous :)

I’ve heard people suggest that the phrase “earthen vessels” indicates human weakness, as in When we mess up, it gives God glory (praise) because it shows people that any good in us must be supernatural.

And until recently, I’ve thought the same.  I believed God was honored when I lapsed into my old lifestyle because then any “goodness” I otherwise displayed would clearly be from Him.

But it seems like God may be challenging this belief of mine.

Have you ever wondered…. what are our “earthen vessels” really?  Do they refer to our bad behavior?

Does God, who put His precious treasure in me, receive any honor when I act selfishly?  Or does my hypocrisy hinder Him from being revealed to the people around me & honored in the eyes of men?

Yes, I’m a frail “jar of clay”!  But perhaps my frailty doesn’t refer to when I act how I did before Jesus came into my heart and transformed it.  Perhaps Scripture means my weakness is something else.

God put His Spirit inside of us so we’d be different… and so that this difference would draw others like a light.  The whole chapter of 2 Corinthians 4 talks about this very thing:

“The god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ…

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. 4:4-8

Light is what attracts people, not darkness.  Our world is already brimming with that.

My earthen vessel, then, seems to be my limited strength, my tendency to get weary (physically & spiritually), my lack of outstanding mental & physical traits - NOT MY SIN.

When a normally weak person can suddenly forgive his haters, persevere through great pain, or speak amazing wisdom beyond his years (like the disciples, a group of uneducated fishermen)… that grabs people’s attention.  Why?  Because it goes against the norm.

Reminds me of a powerful prayer Jesus prayed:

“Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will.” ~Matt 11:25-26

And elsewhere, in Paul’s famous Corinthian diatribe:

“Where is the one who is wise?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?… Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” ~1 Cor. 1:20-29

God reveals Himself through young children, unlearned men, and life’s biggest rejects: basically the weakest links.  Not the strongest.

People want to witness God’s power in spite of us, even through us, and be amazed.  They won’t see His reflection in us when we display sinfulness (as some say our weak vessel is).  Henry Blackaby taught this: that people are drawn to what no human can do in the natural – only what God Himself is doing through His limited creation.  They want to see miracles.  Our sin doesn’t make the cut.

My backsliding into old & destructive ways helps NO ONE (including me!).  It doesn’t give God honor because He’s put a gift within me that I’m refusing to let shine.  When I shine, people are drawn to this light – Him in me!  When I sin, they walk away disappointed and disillusioned, still searching for what I could have given them.

“Like a muddied fountain and a polluted spring is a righteous man who yields, falls down, and compromises his integrity before the wicked.”  ~Prov. 25:26

Why are people who don’t know Jesus drawn to people who do?  “Because they want more of the same dark, perverse world?”  Or because they seek God’s treasure in us?

People are thirsty & don’t need MORE OF THE SAME.  They seek in us what they need from God: Kindness, purity, joy, forgiveness, love, peace.  They seek Jesus!  Yet how will they find Him if they don’t see Him in us, His light bearers?

Our sinful self shames His name & us because we’re acting like the sinners we used to be… and there’s no light in sin, no glory that we reflect God’s way.

We give Him great glory when we’re obedient, when we rid ourselves of our selfish tendencies and instead display Jesus’s nature.

Let’s not give our world ‘more of the same’.  Let’s be the fresh, bubbling spring Jesus said people can drink from so they never thirst again.  We’re able to do this because:

“By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.” ~2 Peter 1:3

Don’t be afraid to shine.
Love Summer

Tribute to My Best Friend

My husband's surprise meal awaiting me after night class!

Through the years we’ve all (likely) gotten on and off various treadmills in our lives.

These treadmills are when we try to earn somebody’s love, attention, respect and admiration.  I think we’ve all done it–even when we were unaware that’s what we were seeking.  The driven executive.  The perpetually-busy housewife.  The promiscuous teen/young adult (or older).  The tough guy.  The trendsetter.

Of course there are literal treadmills–”Run run run, fast as you can…”  I’ve easily (and sadly) spent half my life chasing this dream.  Let’s just say I’m not succeeding.

Then there are other kinds of treadmills we gauge our success by.  I tried one (laughable) one: Best cook!  That was a briefer stint.  Short story?  Fail (but a happy one, as any well-fed cook can attest)  :)

At some point I set my sights on being “Most popular” with the boys.  This I succeeded at quite well, til one day I realized they weren’t always seeking my best interest.  So I ran away.  And built walls, lots of walls.  John Eldredge calls this the “tower” every knight must rescue his princess from, claiming that every lady’s built one [slightly cheesy, but no less true].  Mine was a fortress!

My husband is the only one who persistently broke down my defenses–in just a shade under four years.  [I'd label this endeavor of mine a successful fail: I got a fabulous hubby outta the deal, but completely apart from my efforts].

One of my favorite thoughts about my husband is that he met me at my worst.  I love it.  I was my most homely (which makes me smile :), my most bare-faced, anti-social, uncharming, and in my mind unloveliest.

Enter future hubby.

Somehow God veiled his eyes (?) and he became captivated by me–I mean really captivated.  He saw the quirks in my behavior yet pursued me anyway (example: our first full-fledged encounter consisted of him hanging out with me as I tackled Sudoku–for 45 minutes–in near silence.  Yes really).

He asked me out that night.

No part of where I was at back then captured me at my best.  No part.  I was unemployed for crying out loud and living with my parents.  I mean, does that scream “MARRY ME” or what?

Yet three-and-a-half years later, that’s precisely what he did.  Just a short block from the home we Sudoku-ed in “together”.

And in that very same place–my parents’ beautiful home–we celebrated our engagement, and two months later, our marriage.

Wow.

Last night I dreamt about my husband.  He was personified as a brother, someone who was always around, helping, being considerate, positive and generally awesome (per usual, if you know him!  And maybe not-so-usual for the average brother), but someone firmly in the “Just Friends” box.

Or so I thought.

At some point in my dream, he emerged from the Friend Zone and became the man who captured my attention and won my heart.  It was an amazing dream, paralleling what happened with us in real life and highlighting all his strengths and fantastic qualities–ones I greatly esteem and admire.

I woke up reinvigorated with love for my husband, who I said “I do” to just 9 1/2 short months ago: New Years Day 2011 (that’s 1.1.11 for you sentimental ones).

We didn’t even plan the timing.  But part of me thinks God did.

Another part of me thinks God knew what He was doing when He sent Brian to me when I stood on the lowest rung of the ladder of success.  A girl who based her worth on her “ability to perform” meets the man of her dreams at the apex of her failure.

Coincidence?  I’m beginning to think not.  One day I had this epiphany that reaching rock bottom meant ”It can only go up from here” with him.  That was a beautiful and freeing place to be.

God bless him.  Really!  God, please bless him, for nights like tonight…

I was struggling.  So my husband checked outta work early, drove home (while on the phone with Negative Nancy herself), and rushed to my aid.  He came in our room, where I was lying on our bed, and just hugged me.  Enveloped me.  Loved me when I was so incredibly down and feeling broken.

God, You knew what I needed… back then in 2007 when we ‘met’ at my parents’ home… and today in his parents’ home, the one we all share, when he said I’m beautiful and loved me at my worst.

How could that be?

On days like today when I think God can’t possibly love and accept me in light of my failures, weaknesses and bad (okay, terrible) attitudes, I see my husband’s love and accept the growing realization that God must love me, too.  Because how else could I deserve to be blessed with such a man in my life?  What did I do to earn his love?

I’m so grateful I’ll never know… because someone as incredible as my husband loves me at my worst, and one day (I oh-so-hope) he can love me at my best.

Thanks God for such a gift–a man who is loving me back to life.

Growing Bamboo Roots

I’ve been toying with a temptation lately, something that allures many of us in difficulty: the temptation to quit.  The stress of what’s going on in my life feels far beyond what I can bear (not trying to dramatize, just wanna be transparent on this blog thingy :)

I think we all value Authenticity–myself especially–yet I’ve seen myself grow increasingly fake as I’ve struggled to handle what’s happening in my heart.  How do I tell people?

Welp, I haven’t.

But I think bearing burdens together makes you grow stronger, not weaker like I’ve always feared.  Grief shared is halved.  Whenever I’ve opened up, I felt much lighter and free-er, and my struggle lost much of its power/grip on me.  And my fears–the ones that told me to give up–died when brought to light.  I began asking myself, What was I so scared of?

Today I stumbled upon a fantastic ditty on “Quitting”, written by a man named Stephen Diffy (with some additions/edits by me).  I hope his piece inspires you to keep going, to trust God when we’re hard-pressed, and to not give up either.

We press on.

xoxox Summer

———-

One day I decided to quit… I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality… I wanted to quit my life.

I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

“God,” I said. “Can you give me one good reason not to quit?”  His answer surprised me.

“Look around,” He said.  “Do you see the fern and the bamboo?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.  I gave them light.  I gave them water.  The fern quickly grew from the earth.  Its brilliant green covered the floor.  Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.

“But I did not quit on the bamboo.  In the second year the fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.  And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed.  But I did not quit on the bamboo,” He said.

“In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.  But I would not quit.  In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed.  I would not quit,” He said.  “Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.

“Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant… but just 6 months later, the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.

“It had spent the five years growing roots.

“Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.  Without deep roots, the bamboo would have never grown to be so tall–it wouldn’t have had the strength to support its massive height.

“Trust Me when you don’t see progress in your life.  I would not give any of My creations a challenge it could not handle or one without purpose.”

He said to me, “Did you know, My child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots?

“I would not quit on the bamboo.  I will never quit on you.  Don’t compare yourself to others,” He said.  “The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern… yet they both make the forest beautiful.

“Your time will come,” God said to me.  “You will rise high!”

“How high should I rise?” I asked.

“How high will the bamboo rise?” He asked in return.

“As high as it can?” I questioned.

“Yes,” He said.  “Give Me glory by rising as high as you can.”

I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.  Never regret a day in your life.

Good days give you happiness
Bad days give you experiences
Both are essential to life.

“A happy and meaningful life requires our continuous input and creativity.  It does not happen by chance.  It happens because of our choices and actions.  And each day we are given new opportunities to choose and act and, in doing so, we create our own unique journey.”  Keep going…

Happiness keeps you sweet,
Trials keep you strong,
Sorrows keep you human,
Failures keep you humble,
Success keeps you glowing,
but only God keeps you going!

Playing it (Too) Safe

Just turned twenty-eight.  Wooohooo.  Blow the kazoo, I’m one step closer to 30!

From the get-go of this year, I sensed God saying that this was the year I’d face my fears. 

Uh oh. 

You see, I had this sudden twenty-eight-year-old epiphany.  I’m not fully living.

Why not?  I’m scared to.

I’m confined–or rather, I confine myself–to a handful of places (all pre-screened of course).  Anywhere I feel safe.

But I’ve never been a “stay-at-home, play-it-safe” kinda girl.  Or rather, I wasn’t.  This is a recent development.

Growing up, I was an adventurer at heart!  Amelia Earhart was my favorite heroine.  I relished the joy of discovery–in my backyard, with new friends, learning new ideas.  With people, I boldly trusted often and many.  People mocked my open-eyed wonder and idealistic view of life, but I was ummoved.  I had no reason to question the beauty of our world.

I’ve been an explorer throughout my life.  As a child, my family jet-setted us around the country.  Then in college, I studied abroad, trekking across a near-dozen European countries, and later spent time in South Africa on a missions trip.  After graduation, I spent a semester at a leadership institute in Colorado Springs, then took a three-week roadtrip across the country before settling “home” in Florida for a few years.  Next came a dramatic move to Atlanta, and ultimately I landed here in Austin, Texas.

I loved all of it–the adventures, up and downs, sleeping in airports, planes-trains-automobiles, crazy experiences and had-to-be-there moments.

While abroad, I learned something fascinating.  In life, there are two types of people: Travelers and Tourists.  We can learn a lesson from both.

Tourists are focused on checklists, efficiency, tour guides and buses.  They can’t fathom wasting precious travel time on an unplanned detour.  They want to somehow control the process of discovery and, thus, miss the very essence of traveling.  Yes, they saw The Pietà and walked the Great Wall of China, but they did so at the expense of the journey–being immersed in a new world, interacting with people not-unlike-themselves.

Au contraire, Travelers linger in each place they visit, taking in the sights/sounds/tastes/funny people/and quirky charm of each destination.  They chill at a cafe instead of standing in line for the Eiffel Tower.  They allow the journey to lead them down unexpected paths–and don’t try to mold their experience to some guidebook.

Okay, you’re wondering, What do Travelers and Tourists have to do with “playing it safe”?

Everything!

With each new place I visited, my world got bigger.  My travels forced me outside my American mentality and broadened horizons.  Suddenly my world exploded in size.  I know, cliche right?  But true!

We must leave our tiny towns to realize how big our world is and appreciate that as fellow people, we’re “all in this together”, regardless of our locale.

When we stay in the smallness of our worlds, we can forget others living with much deeper needs than ours or who are plodding the same path we are.

Living small makes us small.  We lose sight of new ways of living and think our culture has the best and only way.  Hah!  :) We should try a Spanish siesta for a change-of-pace or lounge in restaurants for 3 to 4 hours like the French do.  Maybe we should visit Hong Kong’s brightly-lit grittiness or encounter the third-world-country reality.

I believe our borders are much too small.  And sadly, in my own life, I’ve forgotten these lessons. 

I’ve lost sight of our big world–allowed fear to thrive and squeeze out my adventurous spirit.  I’ve started living dangerously small–don’t-leave-the-house, don’t-talk-to-people-everyday, worry-about-our-cushy-5-figure-income small.

I’ve gotten–comfortable.  I’ve stopped taking risks.  I’ve stopped putting myself out there.  I’ve started hiding in my comfort zone, fearing newness and settling into (say it ain’t so!) routines.  (For Adventurers at heart, routine is a four-letter word!)

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.

The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day, to have a new and different sun.”

-Chris McCandless, “Into the Wild”

When did I become like this?

I’ve become a shell of myself.  I’m not connecting with people anymore.  And in marriage, I’m reaching a wall–the wall built with my two hands.  The wall of isolation, the one I erected (funny word :) to keep others at bay.

And it’s working.

No one knows the hurt I carry except my (sweet) (overwhelmed) (strong/brave) hubby.  He witnesses the meltdowns, the fear-filled accusations hurled his way, the trepidation and caution with which I approach new people now.

Apparently somewhere along the way, my heart decided it’d had enough.  People were ‘all the same’, more or less, and relationships were painful.  People weren’t who they said they were–didn’t stick around like they promised–took without apology or retribution–didn’t care, wrapped up in their own worlds (me included).

In short, people were people.

So I stopped journeying out of my comfort zone, embracing new places and people and experiences, investing in new relationships.  I maintained old ones, yes, but tentatively.  And you-better-believe I cut off any decidedly crappy friends.

My pastor called me out recently, exposing a false belief I didn’t even know I had.  He recognized my need for Control in my life today, saying my strict religious upbringing (wonderful in ways, very controlled in others) gave me a sense of security with its high level of “Controls”.  When I ventured beyond these in college and got hurt, I re-implemented serious Controls to make sure that never happened again.  Some call this legalism.  I like to call it being religulous :)

I convinced myself that controlling my world would keep me safe–so I made sure nothing threatened my security again.  This required a major adjustment to my adventure-loving lifestyle.

I began avoiding risky adventures with the same gusto I once pursued them.  I stopped revisiting any place I’d been scarred, especially Big Bad Scary Places like bars/clubs, parties, and anywhere with free-flowing alcohol and undisciplined men [wisely so, I'll add].  This spilled over into an avoidance of certain sections of town… then being around people who reminded me of so-and-so… then eventually anywhere–in large part–outside of God’s house (not entirely safe either, as there are humans in there!).

I thought this was the answer to pain–avoid crazy adventures, people and places, and be content staying right where you’re at.

So I went into hiding.

I’ve hidden in judgment (certainly), religiousness/spiritual activity, and–most alarming to me because I wasn’t aware til marriage–denying reality.

But withdrawing isn’t the answer.  It can’t be.  God says ‘Go into all the world’, something my younger self said YES! to without question.  Every time I withdraw, I squelch who I really am: that excited traveler who relishes each new discovery made.

My tiny, fear-based, me-centered world is miserable.  But where can I go?  How can I be safe out there?  Lions.  Tigers.  Bears!

But when I’m old, do I want to say I lived “free from harm”, avoiding every imperfection/sin in others (and thus pain)?  Each tempting scenario and uncontrollable situation?

No.  Never.

So I can’t stay here anymore.  I must conquer this debilitating fear or risk traveling the landscape of my life like a Tourist: full of checklists, ‘to-dos’, rigid rules and especially “Thou shalt nots”.  I’ll be so focused on controlling my life that I’ll miss the beautiful journey altogether. 

And I think that would be the saddest sin of all.  To live small.

So how do I break myself free from this “prison” of one?  And how will you?

Living ‘Plan B’

We’ve all done it.

Expected God to work on our timetable.  Anticipated how our lives would unfold.  ‘Known’ our future career, life plans, how many kids we would have, who we’d marry.

Then life rudely interrupts.  How dare you, life!  This is my story, and you’re wrecking it.  Dr. Del Tackett (Focus on the Family) describes this as “Someone stepping on our script”.  Life is all about me, so whoever stands in the way is the enemy.  Right?

Have you ever had this experience?  Our response to these detours, delayed dreams, disappointments, and every other ‘D’ word says a lot about who we are… and what we put our hope in.

The reality is that sometimes, following God is HARD.  He does not give us the blueprint for our lives, the road map we will travel, the extreme disappointments or detours we sometimes face, the failures we encounter (our own and others).

This doesn’t sit well with our Inner Control Freak–the OCD one that wants to figure out life and keep it under our thumb.  We want to call the shots.  The American Dream after all is about realizing your plan for your life–Higher Powers not included.

But I’m learning that the sooner we surrender the American Dream and follow God’s dream for us, the better off we will be.

Blasphemy?  For diehard Patriots, it seems to be.

God is — if you haven’t figured it out yet — unpredictable.  Yet He’s still in control.  He knows ahead of time what you’ll face, good/bad/and ugly-ugly.

This weekend I read where Jesus tells His followers that our Father knows what we need before we ask.  Good news!  He sees beyond our finite timeline and already knows our life’s twists and turns–some exhilarating, some terrifying, and some crushingly painful.

I had this very experience 2 years ago when I moved to Atlanta.  I moved there with the highest of hopes–believing God had told me to go.  I jumped at the chance, in faith.  I didn’t foresee that in the months to follow, every hope and dream in my heart would be dashed.  (Sad story?  No way–God has turned me in a brand-new direction that is much better than the plans I’d had in this city!)

My time there wasn’t without purpose, but the wandering and deep pain was brutal, at the time.  I wondered if God forgot me or if He just never intended to bless me.  Every faith-filled promise was challenged at my core.  At some point, I stopped believing God was for me and assumed life was bitterly hard.  I’m a little sad to say I gave up hope.

During my time there, two Scriptures continuously “popped up” everywhere I turned:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are Mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.”
-Isaiah 43:1-2

And then this one, a promise I HATED (truthfully!).  When I came across it, I rolled my eyes, scoffed and quickly flipped the page–or tuned the speaker out.  Just a little telling of my heart’s condition, huh?  Eep.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11

The truth is, I didn’t believe Him.  Hope?  I didn’t want hope–it had gotten me nowhere except heartbreak.  So I glossed over this verse whenever it came up.  Plans to prosper me?  Yea, right.  I’ve heard that one before honey.  I’m in the digging-in-your-heels-and-fighting-like-hell stage.  Hope-filled futures and prosperity weren’t even on my radar.  I was just trying to survive.

I wonder if you’re experiencing this right now, or if you may someday.  I hope not, but if this happens in your life, you are hearing ahead of time that God cares for you and that you aren’t alone in walking this difficult path.

9 months into my Atlanta venture, He let me know something else, too.  Out of nowhere, as if trying to get a message across to me, this thought kept resonating in my heart:

You are living Plan B. 

……….

Hold the phone.  Say what?  HOW?  I’ve been following ‘Your’ voice this whole time.  Right?

Then a week or two later, my roomie told me about a little book titled Plan B.  At its mention, something jumped within me.  Suddenly I knew I was living Plan B.  I didn’t know how or why, but I realized I was missing God’s “divine will” for me somehow.

In retrospect I see the truth in this.  I was pursuing the wrong dream, one manufactured in my own heart, not His.  That’s what I followed when moving to Atlanta–myself.  I didn’t know that then.  I was fully [and wrongly] convinced that God Himself said to go, but as months and then a year dragged on, that Voice spoke the truth that I was living outside His ideal for me.

You see, months before moving, God warned me not to spite someone I knew (an Atlantan)–that if I did, I would delay my future.  Then He repeated Himself.  He warned me that my disobedience would cost me precious time and delay a huge blessing in my life.  Per (my old) usual, I strongheadedly forged ahead anyway.  Never a good idea.  I believe my tough time in this city was the price I paid.

So that painful journey wasn’t God’s “Plan A” for me?  Nope–I really don’t think so.  He graciously walked me through it, true to His word, but it wasn’t without severe repercussions.  I don’t recommend taking your own road for this reason :)  But sometimes our stubborn wills won’t learn any other way.

Atlanta turned out to be exactly that: a detour keeping me focused on the wrong dream, and taking me away from the right man and the right city–Plan A.

I’m so thankful to say that towards the end of my Atlanta experience, God rapidly brought the puzzle pieces of my life together for marriage and relocation to Austin, TX.

Oh Lord, thank You for speaking to me there.  Thank You for encouraging me ahead of time, letting me know You’d walk through the waters with me and not let the fire set me ablaze.  You are so kind and merciful to tell us what we need to hear before we walk through it!!  Even if we don’t recognize You in our midst, thank You for being there anyway.   

So now, ‘without further adieu’, here’s the message I needed to hear so desperately last year–the central message of this Plan B book I’d heard about.  I only wish I’d read this then!

Have you ever felt like you stepped out on faith and smashed it to pieces?

Maybe you honestly felt like God was calling you to do something or go somewhere, but once you did it everything seemed to begin to fall apart. Now you’re trying to pick up the pieces and get your life back on track, while wondering how you could have felt so sure about something that ended up being so wrong.

They say every cloud has a silver lining, but does it ever feel like the silver linings of all the clouds are tarnished?

You are desperately searching for a ray of hope in the midst of the storm that is your life, but it seems like every time you see a light shining down from the clouds, it turns out to be a bolt of lightning that knocks you back down. You know that storms are inevitable and rain is necessary if fruit is to be produced, but you are wondering if the storm is ever going to end.

Do you ever feel like you are asleep and can’t wake up?

You are drifting in and out of consciousness, knowing that you need to wake up and get going because there is so much more to life than where you are at and what you have done, but you can’t figure out how to snap out of the funk and get things moving in the right direction. You know that for things to get better, you have to stand up and get moving, but it would be so much easier to pull the covers up over your head, shut out the rest of the world, and let yourself fall into a deep sleep.

“What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought He would?”
“What do you do when your life isn’t turning out the way you thought it would? “
“What do you do when your dreams are shattered? “

Pete Wilson is pastor of Cross Point Church in the Nashville, TN area and he addresses these three questions, among others, in Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn’t Show Up The Way You Thought He Would.

Have you ever read a book that seemed like the whole purpose of it being written was so that you could read it at the exact time and situation you are in? This was that book for me. At a time when I was feeling beat down, hopeless, and searching for answers, this book was a God-send. Literally. As I was reading it, I felt like God was using the words of Pete Wilson to communicate a message of hope and comfort at the time I needed it most.

Thank you, Pete Wilson, for writing this book and for your willingness to allow God to speak through you.  Find out more about the book: planbbook.com.

And now, my earnest question for you: Have you ever lived Plan B?  What did you learn thru this experience?

Breakdown to Breakthrough: Joseph’s Story

This is one of the best posts I’ve read in a long time–about biblical Joseph’s breakthrough in Egypt.  Very well-written, great insight!  Read read read!  :)

xoxox Summer

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Breakdown to Breakthrough to Breakout
Mary DeMuth

It’s an interesting pattern we find in Scripture. First folks break down, then God breaks through. This leads to breakout. Look at Joseph. His breakdown happened slowly (but painfully) over many years as he suffered rejection by his brothers, was sold into slavery, framed by Mrs. Potiphar, and landed in jail. His breakthrough came when he learned to be obedient to God when no one was watching, when he entrusted his reputation to God. Only then did Pharah nab him and begged for dream interpretation. The breakout happened when Pharaoh promoted him in an instant, and Joseph was able to save the very family that rejected him.

Breakdown.

Breakthrough.

Breakout.

I’m in the breakdown phase right now. How about you? I’m the fishermen on Galilee, trusting far too much in my empty, unsatisfying nets. Nothing seems to be working. I place my nets over the edge of my boat’s precipice, hoping, hoping, hoping.

But something my friend Mike said in a prayer group sticks to me now. He said, “The disciples followed Jesus at the pinnacle of their livelihood.”

The disciples did have breakdown, then breakthrough when Jesus filled their nets with the biggest catch of their ENTIRE LIVES. Then He asked them to follow Him. They could’ve stayed. But they didn’t. They followed Jesus. And then the breakout, in terms of the kingdom of God and changed lives, exploded.

I wonder what would happen if I found success in this writing gig if I’d be willing to drop it all and follow Jesus no matter what. I’d like to say that I would, but I’m not sure. I’ve been working so hard at this for so long. The sweet reward of success is intoxicating. I pray I’ll be able to leave it all, if He asks.

You may be wondering why I have this particular picture on my post. It’s the church I walked by every day bringing my kids to school in France. In that moment, as my career was in its infancy, God asked me to follow Him to France. And I did (oh by His strength). So, perhaps it’s in my DNA to drop my nets. I pray so.

I want to follow.

q4u:

What about you? Where are you? Breakdown? Breakthrough? Breakout? Share your story.

Leading to Love or Be Loved?

“If you wanna lead the orchestra, you gotta turn your back to the crowd.”

I’m a big fan of Pete Wilson.

He pastors Cross Point Church in Nashville.  He wrote a great post Friday titled “My Biggest Mistake in Ministry”.  O Lord is this ever one I need to keep in perspective!  Mind you, I’m no senior-pastor-of-a-megachurch (nor do I have such aspirations)… but I do believe God has given me a heart to help and serve people, build relationships and encourage community wherever He places me.

I want to remember his words.  I bet you will, too.

Leading with a desire to be loved is dangerous.  Parenting with a desire to be loved can be destructive.  And if you spend your life trying to be loved instead of being loving,it’s going  to lead you to all kinds of unhealthy extremes.

Part of learning humility for me is to understand I simply can’t  please everyone.  Not everyone is going to like me, love me, or think I’m great.  They’re just not.

I feel like I’m growing in this area.  I’m learning the freedom that comes along with seeking to love, instead of always desiring to be loved.  The first leads to meaning and significance while the latter is an emotional black hole that can never be filled.

I pray you will learn to live in the Kingdom and be freed from the  sheer stupidity and vanity of going through life trying to make sure other people think the right things about you.  If you depend on other people loving everything you say or do, you will end up doing and saying nothing.  I pray you’ll receive the  fact that you are loved in the eyes of God in such a way that you can then go out to lead and live, seeking to truly love the people around you.

Wow, can I relate.  Can you?

My struggle with wanting people’s approval came in utero!  I love people. I’ve always gravitated towards them and certainly basked in their good graces.

Five years ago, God shone a spotlight on me in this area.  He revealed that people were my idol.  Ouch!  But I sheepishly agreed.

He didn’t stop there.  He prepared me, whispering to my heart: This is gonna be a season with just you and Me.  And then months later He spoke the following: You’re about to go through something very painful. 

Uh oh.  God had never spoken that to my heart before.

He knows I’m wired to put people first, even above my needs (not as holy as it sounds haha), and He knew I didn’t have the strength to dethrone the place people occupied in my heart.  His place.

So He did it for me.

Systematically, He removed person after person from my life.  Within a span of months, 7 or 8 girl friends stopped talking to me for no apparent reason.  Individually.

Okay, no big deal.  There are always guys right?

Yeah, no.  I had guy friends, but they don’t get us like ladies do (this is good).  Add to that family misunderstandings, and you have a people-pleaser’s full-blown identity crisis!

That season in my life hurt, a ton.  I tried connecting with new people, but for the first time it didn’t work!  Small groups fell flat.  Revisiting old places with old friends proved short and bittersweet.  Relationships were suddenly hit-or-miss.  It was the strangest experience.  It was like I was wearing an invisible cloak — like Hosea’s wife when God hemmed her in with thorns so she had no other choice but to seek Him (a beautiful story–take a moment to read!).

God “hemmed me in” by allowing crises in every area of my life.  Yes, aloneness was a major crisis, but the series of events that followed magnified my aloneness.  Being alone can be stressful.  Being alone while going through the ringer is another story.  I wonder if anyone reading this can relate.

It started with shin splints–that hung on over 2 years.  An avid runner, exercise was my release, the way I dealt with stress/anxiety, the pressure of ‘not measuring up’, and persistent body image issues (essentially everything our culture says a woman can ‘hang her hat on’).  Without this to lean on, my confidence crumbled overnight (some crutch huh?).

Then the pressure to perform my job became over-the-top.  I so wanted to prove my “fresh outta college” self.  About this same time I started having ‘night terrors’ that lasted a few years, allowing just 2-3 hours of precious sleep and PANIC the rest of the night, while having to perform at work the next day.

This set me up for burnout.  My health deteriorated, ushering in extreme fatigue, minimal energy to accomplish my daily work, and little emotional/mental capacity to handle life’s stresses.  Dating disappointments and a few heartaches were no help.

My Type-A, people-pleasing self was in overdrive… but I could no longer perform.  In my eyes (and theirs), I became a failure.

I lived with family then, another personal failure to me (at the time) because I wasn’t “making it on my own”.  Financial obligations forced me to live there and deal with family challenges.  Issues I’d never noticed came tumbling out of my family’s closet, issues I had to deal with.  I tried so hard to connect with my family, but they didn’t ‘get’ me (I didn’t ‘get’ me!).  This last crisis took a tremendous toll on me.  I felt utterly alone and misunderstood.

In short, I went through the refiner’s fire.  It was good for me, I see now, but at the time it felt like all hell broke loose in my life.

So I dove into Him.  I began reading Scripture every day (following a friend’s example!), and attending home churches and worship meetings zealously.  I was desperate for hope and God’s nearness.

When you don’t have people’s approval for years in a row, you learn to lean on something else.  I’m very thankful God helped me choose Him.  He’d been on the backburner (or not even in the kitchen!) for most of my life.  It was time.

That season taught me big lessons.  It took a five-year period of time for God to remove people as my focus and for me to give Him rightful place in my heart!  I am thankful I walked that journey with God and realized He is my sufficiency and all I need.  I’m so glad He showed me how fickle people and their affections can be and that they make a crappy leg to stand on.

Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.

-Jeremiah 17

He wanted me to learn that people can never fill me, that I can’t live for them.  I can live to love others, but not at the expense of my love for my Father.   People will never sustain me–no–and I can never truly love them when I’m seeking a handout from them: their approval.

Now He’s bringing loving people back into my life, and I’m appreciating them in a new way: devoid of my need to be significant in their eyes, and instead replaced with a pure need for godly fellowship.  Without losing myself.  Without co-dependent, unhealthy, enmeshed relationships.

I’m free to be healthy and whole, and to bring God’s love with me.  I am free to help people in ways they need most–because I don’t need to be liked by them anymore.

Have I conquered this battle?  I’ve learned it’s unwise to say “I’ll never…”.  Instead, I can say with confidence that I’ve learned a valuable lesson, one I’ll take with me into each new season.  Lives will be richer because I’ve learned this lesson now.  As God calls me into leadership, He continues to check my motives and ask Are you leading to love?  Or be loved? 

Should I stumble in this area, I believe the fall won’t be nearly as painful than had I never learned to live with only God’s approval!

Have you struggled with pleasing people instead of God?  How have you overcome it?

Creating Art to Bless Others

This is a beautiful way of thinking, via writer Mary DeMuth!

If each of us approached our day with an attitude of “How may I bless others through what I create today?”, do you wonder where we would be in this world?

Instead of thinking “What can I gain for myself?”, we can actively seek out the good other people can gain through what we share with them, what we make and what we do.  We can approach each task thinking How can I impact their lives and help them through creating?

This is both incredibly convicting and incredibly encouraging to see the world through the wide-open eyes of generosity, to go where others haven’t before us, and to do things that are bold and scary to us.  There is a reason no one’s tread that territory before — it is risky.

But we are made in our Creator’s image, and creative He is.  He made all of creation for our benefit!  Do you realize that?  His aim in creating was for our good… and for the pure bliss of creating something unique and special (He’s the best at that).

God’s given us humans the incredible chance to emulate Him, to follow in His footsteps and do new things, or do old things in new ways, or shed fresh light on issues people face to help them rise above it (creative problem-solving).  Cool huh?

I think God smiles when we create this way, and we’ll experience joy when we bless others through the work of our hands, just like Him.

This is true art :)

xoxox
Summer

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Thanks Seth Godin! What you do is art.
Aug. 22, 2011, 11:58 PM

In his book, Linchpin, Seth Godin writes, “Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. . . An artist is an individual who creates art. The more people you change, the more you change them, the more effective your art is.”  I adore this on so many levels. My heart in writing and speaking has always been in life transformation, about connection and change.

So the cool thing is, whatever you do, wherever you are, you can be an artist–one who enacts change in those you interact with. This makes a deep and real conversation art. This makes positive interaction with your customers art. This makes your dedication to excellence art. What you do is art if your heart is to see transformation.

So the question becomes, how can your life be art? How can you live and work in such a way that others change? What do you create that makes people stop, pause, and think? How have you shocked others (in a positive way) because of the creative way you view a solution?

This also means that any emotional homework you do translates to the field of your art. Seth continues:  “Sometimes, though, caught up in the endless cycle of commerce, we forget about the gift nature of art, we fail to do the hard work of emotional labor, and we cease to be artists.”

In terms of writing, I’ve read my fair share of books that feel cookie cutter, where the author regurgitates things I’ve read before. The books that stun and woo me are the ones where the author has taken a long trip down an emotionally charged highway and dared to think/dream/write differently. I’ve often told my writing students, “Great books flow from a great heart.” To create soul-stirring art, we must realize that we’re not copycatters. We are not simply purveyors of others’ thoughts and hardwon truths.

To be artists is to dare to go there. To be real with ourselves. To welcome the barenaked realities of life, stare ourselves in the face, and seek God’s interaction in the midst of our world.

Even when I teach novel writing, I emphasize this fact. We can be safe storytellers, relying on convention and what’s been done before. Or we can examine ourselves, live life more fully engaged. That engaged life can’t help but spill onto the page. Or overflow into our work and life.

Stop a moment today and tell yourself, “What I do is art.” Realize that as an artist, you will bless the recipients of your art the more you dare to be real with yourself and God in the quietness of your home. Do the hard work, then create like the wind. We will be changed if you do.

And as you deepen and improve your work, reward follows. Seth encourages, “A day’s work is your chance to do art, to create a gift, to do something that matters. As your work gets better and your art becomes more important, competition for your gifts will increase and you’ll discover that you can be choosier about whom you give them to.”

Be encouraged today. Your art is bringing you to new places. Remember Proverbs 22:29: “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.”

So persevere. Do the hard work. Give your art freely. Work as an artist wherever God has placed you. This world needs you.

q4u:

What prevents you from seeing your job as art? What surprised you about this post? What bothered you? What convicted you?