Un-friended. Again.

Do you ever see a bumper sticker that you remember? One that just catches your attn. and either makes you laugh, cry or get extremely angry? I have.

For instance, I cannot stand it when people distort the Fish that represents Christianity, with something referring to evolution, the devil, etc. Drives me batty. I have to refrain from staring at the driver as I pass them because, well, that would prove their point if I did! Where's the love in that? I have to remind myself to pray for that person as they clearly have not met the Jesus that I have. They don't know Him to be so loving and kind and compassionate. They don't know that He loves them on such an extreme level that we can't even comprehend it. But I pray that one day they do. And then they will realize why distorting that fish hurts my heart to see...

Every now and again a bumper sticker really makes me laugh. I love it when I see one that is just genuinely funny! Then you have the stickers that have cuss words on them and again, the mad Jen comes out because I'd rather not have to explain to my 7 year old that can now read what it means...and again, pray Jen, pray.

I remember in school we had to make our own bumper sticker; we were to come up with the slogan and design it and carry it on to completion. I must have been 10 or 11 and all I could come up with was "Only pigs snort." It was supposed to be an anti-drug kind of thing, with a pig snout and all. Ya, it was pretty lame. So clearly I'm not the most clever when it comes to bumper stickers. But hold your hats folks because I've got a good one now:

"Excuse my poor driving, I've been un-friended. Again."

Or how about, "I could use a hug, I've been un-friended. Again." Or, "Pay no attention to my erratic behavior, I've just been un-friended. Again."

Perhaps you can guess what this post is about. It's happened to me numerous times, and perhaps it's happened to you. Social Networking is great for a lot of things; keeping in touch has never been easier, organizing events, killing time, tons of fun right? Right. Until you get un-friended. Sometimes it's innocent, a person just cleaning up their friends list and realizing you don't talk much, they delete you from their facebook. Totally understandable. But then their are times it's deliberate. And they go to your little profile picture, look at your cheezy, happy mug and still choose to un-friend ya. Delete you from their friend list. Remove you. End your relationship. Done. Buh-bye.

If you have not felt that feeling before, it's not the greatest feeling. Hence my need to come up with bumper stickers full of humor to deflect the fact that I have feelings too. And you do as well.

Not everybody is going to like us. Jesus said, "the world hated me, and it will hate you." Sometimes decisions are made that are not popular, and you loose friends. Sometimes you make a comment you wish you could take back, and you loose a friend. Sometimes there are mis-understandings and again, you loose a friend.

But it leads me to this question, were they ever really a friend to begin with? Do you really have 500 friends! Because true friends hash stuff out. True friends don't resort to facebook to air their dirty laundry. True friends talk in a real life manner. "Friend" is a very deep word. Very.

Social networking is great for many reasons, but it's also not great, for many reasons. You don't hear peoples tone of voice over social networking. You don't get to see the emotion they are portraying. You don't truly get to hear the heart of a person.

I suppose if you go into the Social world of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., you have to go in with a light heart. You have to know that everybody takes themselves far to seriously and it's easy to fall into the trap to do the same thing.

Facebook is fun! Twitter, fun. I don't plan to give them up anytime soon, although I have contemplated it as of late. But again, can't take ourselves too seriously!

So long as we keep in mind that those things can't define who we are, we will remain in a good place. If we allow the thoughts and opinions of others to define us, we move to a bad place. If we dwell on those that reject us, we move to a bad place. If we go to facebook with our emotions on our sleeves, we are heading to a vulnerable place, not one that belongs floating around cyberspace for all to see. Let's be wise when it comes to that kind of stuff. Have fun! Don't take yourself to seriously. And don't take your friends, or lack thereof, too seriously either. It is what it is.

I just thought of a new bumper sticker, "Jesus won't un-friend me. Ever."

Nor will he un-friend you. Nor will He turn on you. Nor will He leave you. Not ever. He's cool like that.

Memories

I'm reading a great book at the moment that is really challenging me in quite a few areas of life. You ever read a book at just the right time, right when you needed to read it, so much so that everything in that book is like a light bulb? Well that is this book I'm into at the moment. Excuse me as my daughter runs in, having changed for the umpteenth time to go nowhere wondering if her shoe is on the wrong foot. And now she is changing shoes. Ok then...

So anyhow, I read yet another great thought the other day and decided to personalize it to myself. I wonder if you might like to do the same.

Philippians 4:8 is a pretty common verse, one many of us are familiar with, but my goodness many of us don't live it on a daily basis, myself included.

"Finally, my brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things."

There ya have it. If what my mind is set upon does not fall into the category above, it's not worthy of my time.

This book, "Made to Crave," deals with the emotional side of eating. It deals with much more, but at the core of the book is getting the reader back to a place of craving only God. When our hearts desire is the Lord, all else in life falls into place.

We all have issues. We all have had stuff happen to us along life's journey that has shaped us and made us who we are, be it a negative or a positive, we have all had experiences that have been engraved into our memories.

Often our minds go to those negative things that have happened and they camp there, bringing out all sorts of emotions and actions that we would rather do without. I believe that we need to let ourselves feel the emotion of the circumstance, we need to grieve that negative thing that caused a loss to our life, wether it be a physical loss or an emotional loss, still very powerful either way.

But I also believe that the Bible says, "He whom the Son sets free is free indeed." So there has to come a point where we move past the hurt; we recognize the issue for what it is, we grieve it, but then we hand it over to God and we don't look back. The Bible also says in Galatians that "it is for freedom that Christ set us free, no longer to be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

We are not to be slaves to the circumstances that have caused us pain. If we stay camped in that moment, we forego true freedom, and without even realizing it all of our choices and actions flow from a heart that is broken, stuck on an incident.

So that's where this great scripture in Philippians comes in. The author of "Made to Crave," took a negative circumstance in her life and dug around for the positive. It was hard to find, but she found it.

A negative circumstance in my life was growing up with an alcoholic father. As a result of that addiction, my home was full of hurt, pain, fear and mass chaos. For much of my life, the choices and actions I made came from a place of hurt. But then I met Jesus and slowly began to turn those things over, too where there is no longer a sting anymore. But if I'm not careful, my mind can still mull over the things that I saw or heard or felt or feared.

So while I often have thought of my Dad in a negative light, the same was said for the author of the book I'm loving at the moment, she chose to find a positive in her Dad, a healthy place that her mind could camp. So I'm going to do that too.

In all honesty, my last conversation with my dad before he passed away is a great memory for me, one that I hold dear and thank God for. It was a tremendously healing moment for me. But that was recent. If I have to dig deep into my childhood, I have two fond memories of my dad.

One was at a very, very young age, maybe 2 or 3. Kind of wild that I remember that far back, but it's only a glimpse. My dad was laying on his back playing airplane with me; the game where you put your belly on someones feet and they lift you up. I enjoyed that moment! Although, I do recall it ending in me throwing up on him...oops.

My other memory was a time that my dad allowed me to stay home from school one day. I'm surprised I even wanted to stay home with him to be honest, but for whatever reason, I did. He wore an apron while making spaghetti. I recall making a tent by placing a sheet over the table...and building towers with muffin liners.

Two good memories I have of my dad from an otherwise painful childhood. I don't have much remembrance of those memories, but that's ok, because I have them. And they remind me that my dad himself was not a bad person, it was the choices that he made that were bad that caused the pain. He was not bad. His choices were. Because a person that is truly evil would not play airplane with his little girl and not be angry after being vomited on. A person that was truly evil would not build towers out of cupcake liners in an attempt to create a normal day in his daughters otherwise abnormal world.

My dad was not an evil man. In spite of the other countless negative memories I have that may prove otherwise, these two memories allow my mind to camp in a positive place. And as I allow my mind to camp here, on these two vague memories, any hold of hurt or pain that tries to rise from the negative memories has no power anymore! If a hurtful thought comes to me, I can recall my little belly on my dad's feet. If the devil tries to bring up a shame filled moment again, I can picture a tower built out of flimsy little muffin liners. And then I'll remember that my dad really was good. His actions were not. Be he was. He was.

So I encourage you to do the same today. Together, let's press on towards a high calling in Christ Jesus. He has stuff for us to do. He has freedom for us to grab hold of. He has goals for us to meet. He has giants for us to conquer. He has a song for us to sing. He has something lovely for us to think about.

I believe it's out of our darkest moments that God desires to bring forth a beautiful light...

Let's camp there; in the light of a good memory. We all have them. You may have to dig deep, but I guarantee that as you dig, you will find one. It may be vague, but it will be enough. God always makes sure that we have enough. He is our portion. He is truly, truly our father.

Perspective

I don't necessarily like to excercise but I'm thankful I have the legs to do it. I don't necessarily like to clean my house but I'm thankful for the amazing home I live in. I don't necessarily like to scrub the shower, but I'm thankful that I have one. I don't necessarily like to do my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, but I'm thankful I have the finances to buy groceries at all. I don't necessarily like putting said groceries away, but I'm thankful for a stocked pantry when it's done. I don't necessarily like to wash & dry my giant hair, but I'm thankful I have hair. I don't necessarily like it when my girls wake me up at night, but I'm thankful they know mom means safety. I don't necessarily like when my girls whine, but I'm thankful they have the ability to speak, and that I have the ability to hear them. I don't necessarily like getting gas in my car, but I'm thankful for the car and I'm thankful for the money to buy the gas. I don't necessarily like doing dishes but I'm thankful for running water.

These are the thoughts running through my head lately. For all the stuff we complain about doing, what if we looked at the good in it? Who enjoys doing chores? Well, sometimes I get in the zone and actually do enjoy it; when the music is going and I have ample time to put into cleaning. But then there's the other 99% of the time, he he. Really though, what if we flipped the script. Tossed the salad. Turned the pancake. Cracked the egg. Sliced the cake. Am I hungry? Probably.

But you get the picture. It's ok to admit we don't like doing something, but we do it anyway. That's just life! But my challenge to myself lately is to take the "it's just life" and live it big. So I'm flippin the script today, care to join me?

The word of His grace

I was reading the book of Acts this morning; a book so intense and yet one that I don't read from enough. We often get to chapter 4 or 5 and call it quits, but as you go further in Acts, there is tons, and I mean TONS to be learned.

I was reading in Chapter 20, Paul is saying his goodbyes to the Elders from the church in Ephesus as he is heading out on yet another mission. He sort of gives them a re-cap of what his life has been like there, as he has held nothing back in his ministry to the people. He is basically saying "hey, I've lived my life in front of you all; I have faced many trials and hardships and you all watched the way I walked through it, I AM NOT MOVED by any of it."

But what is so interesting to me is a warning that Paul leaves them with - he warns them that once he is out of the picture, wolves will come and will not spare them. He goes on to say that even amongst the group of them, men will rise up and begin speaking perverse things in an attempt to draw away people to follow them! Now remember, Paul is speaking to the Elders of the church. So these are men that you would look at in the natural and think no way, no way would these men try to draw us away from the good work that God is doing, no way would these men try to cause us to follow them, and not the Lord. But that's the warning, that even from among that group, there will be people that will try to cause division.

We see that very thing in operation all over churches today, people that rise up in an attempt to draw folks away from what God is doing, because they think they have the only "right" way. But I love what Paul says, after he gives them that intense warning, he even says he does it night and day through tears, that's how passionate he is about the church staying in unity - but I love Acts 20:12 where he says, "So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified."

He warns them, yes, but then he leaves them in the hand of God, knowing that if they stay true to the 'word of His grace," that they will be just fine. And the same goes for us. If we stay true to the 'word of His grace,' we will be just fine. That's what builds us up, and that is what builds others up. If we stay connected to that precious grace, we will be a beacon of light and hope to a world that desperately needs Jesus. If we stay connected to that precious grace, we won't give the wolves an opportunity to lead us astray, we won't harken to a teaching that is not grace centered, we won't be moved by the trials and tribulations that come our way, because we know that there is a mightier hand that holds us up, that is centered on that precious 'word of His grace."

Smith Wiggelsworth said, "God's Son is placed in power over the power of the enemy; anybody who deals falsely with the Word of God nullifies the position of authority that Christ has given him over Satan."

Yikes. That's an intense statement. We have been given authority over Satan and any attempt he may throw at us to get us off track or to snatch us up like a wolf would do or to cause us to miss the mark. We have authority. But the moment we step outside the parameters of God's Word, we lose that position. We no longer have dominion! The moment we begin to put guilt on a person, the moment we allow a condemning word to flow out of our mouths, the moment we pass judgement on someone, that's the very moment we lose our position of authority. Why? Because the book of Romans tells me that "there is no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ Jesus." So to speak a word that is not centered around the "word of His grace," then look out, because it's going against what God is all about.

Of course we strive to live a righteous life, of course we are to encourage those around us to do the same, of course we are to live out scriptures that tell us to "walk as children of the light," (Eph.5:8) of course the Bible is our guide book as to how we should live our lives, "holy & acceptable to God." YES! Of course.

When we step outside of the center of Grace, we are walking in a very scary place. When we think we have the only "right" way to do things, it's a scary place. When we think that we somehow are superior to others, woah, look out, that's a scary place. When we heap rules & regulations on people, it's a scary place. When our words condemn, look out, it's a scary place. When we speak negatively about the Church as a whole, the Church that God absolutely loves, it's a scary place. You lose your position.

I want to encourage us all, the 2 of you that read this blog anyway, to heed Paul's warning. May we never step outside of the "word of His grace," in our lives. May everything we do flow out from the proper center. Sure, there is a time to help a fallen brother or sister, there is a time that God will use us to bring words of restoration to someone that may be living outside of God's plan for their lives; but when God gives those moments to us, they should always flow from the proper center. When all that we do flows from that precious 'word of His grace,' then our position never changes. We are able to stand on the God given authority of His Word for our lives. We are able to claim all the promises of God as a resounding "yes and Amen." I know I want that for my life. How about you?

The world can't contain it

John 21:25 is such a cool verse. It says, "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen." I don't particularly have a thought about that verse off the top of my head, but I just read it and man, it's powerful. This is the last verse of the Gospels, before you get to the book of Acts where we get to watch the church begin to form. And it's because of this verse that the church took off! It's because of all the things that Jesus did, the things we know about and the "many other things He did" that we don't know about, that's what started the church. It's because people believed. And because we believe, we are the church. I love church. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I LOVE CHURCH! I have always loved it, ever since I became a Christian when I was a teenager. My world revolved around being at church. Not because I had to, but because I genuinely wanted to be there. It was always a safe place for me; a place where I felt accepted and a place that left me feeling better than I was when I entered the building. It literally makes me cringe when I hear people say negative statements about Church. Of course there are problems in every church, that's no surprise to anyone, but my goodness there are many churches that are doing some great things for the people and when I hear negativity about it, well it just upsets me. But that's another post for another time...or not. We believe. We believe because of what we know to be true from the Word of God. We believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. We believe that He lived a sinless life, doing miracles, changing peoples lives, delivering people, offering hope. We believe that He died on the cross, only to rise again on the 3rd day, to conquer death, Hell & the grave. We believe that He has prepared a place for us in Heaven, that where He is, we may also be. We believe. "I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." Gosh that makes me smile. I have the biggest, cheesiest grin on my face right now. And no, it's not my awesome new coffee mug with the handle shaped like a Parrot that I got for $2.98 that is making me smile, although that does. It's that verse! It's just so.stinkin.cool. What else did He do? To me, what we know that He did is more than enough for me to believe. The things He did on this earth were nothing short of miraculous, it's enough for me to believe. It's enough to drive me through my day, with an attitude of thanks and praise. It's enough to take me into the house of the Lord on a Sunday to worship Him like they did in the book of Acts, because they believed. I believe. I know what the Bible says He did...and I know what He did for me. I know that I was born into a family that would face struggle, hardship, addictions & abuse. I know that as a result, the bitterness and anger inside of me only festered with age. I know that if I did not accept Jesus when I did, I know, I KNOW, that I would be a seriously messed up adult. And this I know, that if I were to write out every last thing that Jesus has done for me, be it large or small, the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. He has set my feet on a rock. He has quieted my anxious soul. He has made a way where there seemed to be no way. He has blessed me beyond measure in my life. He gave me a husband so handsome that I have separation anxiety when he is gone. He gave me kids that are so darn cute I could eat them for breakfast. He put me in a church that loves people so much it's contagious. He let's me live in a house so far above anything I could have ever asked for or imagined. I could go on and on and on and on...but the world can't contain it. The world can't contain it. Amen.