Tuesday, October 16, 2012

God and Dog

It’s the simple things that bless my heart so tremendously.  I’ve been in a season of life where the Lord is refining, not only me, but my husband.  We’ve found ourselves facing choices we’ve faced before and we know it’s because we need to make a better choice this time around.  I understand it’s all for my maturity, for my personal growth into the woman of God He’s called me to be.  Somehow it seems that the grace that covered me several years ago doesn’t cover me today.  Not that the grace  has lost it's power. I guess because I know better now, and when you know better you have to do better.

In knowing better, the simple things have become more important.  Ministry has become more important then music career.  Family has become more important then touring the country and seeing the world.  Daily things have become more precious and I’m much more aware of God’s blessings.  I use to think blessings equaled miracles and miracles were always big, jaw dropping events.  I understand now as I get older miracles can be big supernatural things, but they can also be little things that warm your heart and make you smile.

Like my dogs.  Despite the fact that Bucho likes to “date the living room pillows” and Bianca sometimes seems to think that the bathroom rug is grass, I love them tremendously and I am thankful for their presence in my life.  My puppies remind me of the love of God.  I think it has something to do with a dog’s willingness to take you just as you are, their ability to love you despite all your failures, their faithfulness even when you don’t pay them as much attention as you should.  And I found myself thankful and I wanted to tell the Lord I was thankful to Him for giving them to me. So I did what many do when they want the world to know something that seems so urgent and important.  I posted on Facebook, “Thank you Lord for creating dogs.”

It is amazing how when you pray a simple prayer of thank you, the Lord often goes an extra step to reaffirm His love to you.  He seems to say thank you back, because you thanked Him for His amazing awesomeness!  In a matter of minutes my dear friend Lani posted a video for me to enjoy based on a children’s book called, God and Dog.  I was in tears halfway through the 90 second video.  I’ll leave it to you to watch and see for yourself the gentle reminder of God’s love for us through His own creation – the dog!  For God to have her post this to my page was reaffirmation of His hearing my prayer.  And then, the funniest picture of a dachshund came across my Facebook feed.  This little blessing looked like he could be our Bucho’s cousin.  In the picture the dog is looking sheepish and he has a sign around his neck saying, “I steal food from unattended plates.”  It was the funniest thing I had seen all day and in a matter of 20 minutes I went from tears of gratitude to laughing hysterically! 

 And I thought isn’t that just like the Lord to give me these simple pleasures, joyful dogs, a great friend, a beautiful video and a hilarious picture – all because He loves me and wants to hear me laugh.  His love is a miracle and His attention to the details of my life are amazing.  The Lord’s creation reflects His heart towards us.  Think about that the next time a simple thing makes you laugh or a gentle thing brings you to tears.  These are the evidence of God’s amazing love.  These are the evidence of true miracles.

*Photo From Facebook Page: I Love Dachshunds Fan Page

Friday, July 6, 2012

Ascribe To Yahweh

So I started this new video blog on my thoughts on worship. I love to write so I won't be abandoning the written word anytime soon. But I thought I would share with you my first effort. It's based on one of the first songs I ever "wrote", well I didn't really write it, it's directly from scripture. Take a listen to the video about the song ASCRIBE! But before you do, go down to the bottom of the page and turn off the music player so you can actually hear what I'm saying... and singing. Hit the underlined text below entitled, Ascribe To Yahweh and take a listen! Blessings!

Ascribe To Yahweh

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Consistency, Insanity and The Will of God



They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I find this a hard pill to swallow when I’m trying to trying to build a ministry and business… trying to get the vision out of my head and into the real world. How can it be that after ten years I am still trying to figure out if I should be doing what I’m doing?

I’ve been in prayer about this quite a bit recently. Seeking the Lord on what the next steps are, where do we go from here, how do we do it differently so that we truly make an impact on the lives of others? How do we move forward when we suffer from a lack of resources and a lack of assistance? Better yet, why does it matter if we even have lack when we have the Lord and He is, in fact, everything. I think my vision is just a bit skewed.

I have coached tons of people and have always given the same advice. If being a creative entrepreneur is your passion, go for it and trust that the Lord will correct you if you step out with a pure heart, by faith, but go in the wrong direction. But you go for it with everything you have. Prayerfully, joyfully, thankfully – that is in fact God’s Will for our lives. The scripture tells us so in 1 Thess. 5 Verse 14. Simple isn’t it.

Maybe I should simply take my own advice. Maybe I should do what I tell everyone else to do… now that’s a novel thought! I found myself informing the Lord about this head banging against the wall feeling I’ve been having. Round and round on the ministry merry go round. I often find myself giving the ministry back to the Lord. Proclaiming, it’s yours, do with it what you will. And the funny part is I often feel like His response is to hand it back to me!

How? Well, there is that story of the talents (big shout out to my girl Carlita for this one). In the book of Matthew, Chapter 25 we read the story of the Master and the three servants. The Master leaves 3 servants with varying amount of talents to work with in his absence. Two take the talents and bring increase to themselves and to their Master. One hides the talent by burying it out of his fear and self doubt. People always preach about the importance of using the talent. But what was brought to my attention was the simple fact that the Master never told them what to do with the talents, he just gave them to the servants and left. The servants were left to decide when, where and how they would use these talents. What if we have the same choice?

Earlier that same day I was praying about what I should be doing and the Lord directed me to Ecc 9 Verse 10: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

I said, “OK Lord, what should my hand be doing?” His response was, “Something!”

Hum… what if discovering the will of God for your life isn’t as complicated as we make it? If my hand finds singing, teaching, coaching and writing as the things to do, then shouldn’t I just do those things and leave it up to the Lord to course correct as needed? Should I just take my talents and apply them to my life, my business, my ministry and trust that the Lord will bring the increase if I do it for His glory delighting in Him and always seeking Him?

That sounds like a winning combination: faith without works is dead, so I work with faith, delight in the Lord and receive the desires of my heart while seeking the kingdom of God and knowing that all these things will be added unto me as I use the talents He has given me to advance the kingdom through faith and the work of my hands. Wow…. (James 2 Verse 20, Matthew 6 Verse 33, Ps. 37 Verse 4).

I found myself asking the Lord yesterday if I was insane. I often look at people who started in ministry before me or after me and it seems like they have accomplished so much more then me, done so many great things for the Lord while I’m still trying to figure out if I’m really called to do this. To much thinking can trip you up… it’s that annoying PhD. It seems I have been measuring if I’m called by how other people are using their talents. Maybe I should stop hiding mine.

So I said, “Lord I keep doing the same thing over and over again and I keep expecting different results am I crazy? What exactly should I be doing?” And the Lord in all His wisdom said, “Be consistent, that’s one thing you have not tried.”

Face is cracked and on the ground, I’m going to dig up my talents now…