Holding God's Hand

I am claiming 2024 to be the year of rest, renewal, and revival.

2020, a year of pause.

2021, a year of loss.

2022, a year of rebirth.

2023, a year of waiting.

2024, a year of revival.

It is wild to see how 4 years has passed in a blink of an eye and so much has changed. But I am reminded that was has gotten me through every shift in season was the simple act of holding onto God’s hand when I felt like I could not see.

There were many times that I was living life so blind and unanswerable questions bombarded my thought life:

• 2020: When is this pandemic going to end?

• 2021: Will my father in law live?

• 2022: Will I be a good mother?

• 2023: Could I be more than my job?

• 2024: What does it look like for God to revive areas in me that I have given up on?

  Every question I have asked for every year that has passed only nudged me closer to my Way Maker, my beginning and my end, my Beloved, the Great I am, my Good Shepherd.

My church has encouraged everyone to a 60 day intentional pursuit of God’s heart through prayer, fasting, genuine engagement in our Sunday gatherings and weekly bible studies, and tithing, and it has allowed me to enter into 2024 with clarity of the simplicity that if I go and pursue God’s heart, I have His hand which holds my future, my way out, my provision, my peace, my next open door, my next breath.

It is not about the performance or perfection; it is about the simple pursuit of God’s heart.

At the end of the day, whatever I face this year and the years to come, I know I am safest holding the hand of the God that holds my world together.

Less is More

Sometimes less is more.

I am really trying to learn to embrace this statement, letting go of the pressures, the constant demands, expectations, commitments, pleasing others, the annoyingly persistent drive that never ends or is satisfied. 

It is okay to not live such a fast-paced life all the time. Taking life in the slow lane is not unproductive or lazy. I have lived my life in the fast lane for so long in the name of "doing what is right and expected" and "pioneering my way to success".

When I completed my Masters of Education with my single subject credential back in May of 2015, I began to realize this scary truth: I have been in school for more than 75% of my life. Not saying this time was wasted, it was an investment, but man, higher education really gives graduate students a real dose of post-traumatic stress. 

I would wake up in sheer panic thinking I missed a deadline. I would literally live moment by moment, pattering and fiddling around my home thinking that I was forgetting the most important assignment of my life, and it wasn't until 2016 rolled around that I gave myself permission to relax, watch an episode or two of a show. Guys, I just finished The Office and Parks and Recreation IN 2017! I am now taking part of inside jokes with my friends about various characters and funny lines from those shows, and yes, if you know, Leslie Knope, she is my spirit animal #bindersarelife!

2017 was definitely a year of growth for me in the area of being still and slowing down, and now that I am 3 months into 2018, I am trying to find the perfect balance of the pendulum between productivity and peace. Is there a happy medium? 

Something that I am finding that has brought a lot of freedom for me is finding the 3 words that would make me the best me for others. After deep soul-searching, prayer, and with the help of Brendon Burchard's book, High Performance Habits, I found them.

I desire to be healthy, focused, and present. 

I desire to be healthy in the sense that I am physically fit, limber, and strong for the tasks at hand. I am mentally rested and clear of who I want to be and what I am committed to cause. I am spiritually centered and filled with love and compassion. I am emotionally honest and true to myself and others.

I desire to be focused on what really matters to me, my writing.

I am a writer.

Honestly, as I say these 4 powerful words, it shakes me to my deepest core. It makes me tear up because this is my heart's cry.

This is my why, why I am here on this earth.

What I want to give to this world are words of compassion and inspiration, to make someone smile, to empower someone to get up one more time and try again, to remind someone that they matter and their dream matters, and above all, to embrace and steep their soul in love. 

I desire to be present, to be ALL here with the people I am around, my surroundings, the nature the surrounds me. I don't want to be in my to-do lists or in my 10 year plan and missing out on my present. I want to be all here, engaged, loving, and honest with those around me. 

I want to be healthy, focused, and present, and sometimes less is more. 

I encourage you today to get out of the fast lane and slow down. Find a quiet space and just breathe. Allow yourself to dig deep and hear your heart. Allow your heart to catch up with where your body is right now in this present moment. Find the three simple words that describe the best you that you want to be to this world and start today, right this moment. Embody these words and bring them to your loved ones, acquaintances, haters, relationships that brew and fester with cordial hypocrisy; bring this intentionality to the world because guess what, the world needs the best you! 

Being the best you beckons, calls, and inspires the best in others. 

Be the inspiration, be the passion, be the love, be the change that you want to see in this world. 

Less is more. 

Anchors and Bridges

To love is to risk. To care is to be vulnerable. As human beings in this world, it is inevitable to not cross one another the wrong way. Offense happens all the time. Loving others gets harder and harder when the offense only snowballs into a force of instantaneous assumptions and judgments. 

She looked at me the wrong way. He does not take me seriously. They think they are better than us. Our church is better. Their church is bigger. We are better.

These stories somehow play in our minds naturally dictating the capacity and blindly filtering our ability to love others.

God, the Love of this world, is beckoning us to love more fearlessly. 

Loving fearlessly takes many forms for each individual. We are the only ones that know what we are afraid of; we are the ones that know what holds us back, the risks that we hide from in order to protect our hearts. 

Loving fearlessly can be strengthening someone by being an anchor and support.

Loving fearlessly can be serving others by being a bridge that gets them closer to where they need to be. 

Only you know what is a risk and a fear: strengthening or serving.

We cannot hide behind brutal honesty or mindless service.

I can honestly say that I can mindlessly serve others at times because I am afraid of conflict. I feel that strengthening others with honesty is more of a risk. Others find it easier to offer brutal honesty without bringing their hearts into the conversation. Swinging too far on either side of this pendulum is loving with fear and not beyond risk. 

“Fear paralyzes and holds captive what love longs to release into motion. For whether or not we realize it, love and risk are intimately connected...Fearless love is not based on the performance of a person but on the loving faithfulness of God...To love is to be vulnerable. ”

— Without Rival by Lisa Bevere

Only you know what is more of a risk. Fearless Love is calling us out of our comfort, safety, and walls. 

We are called to be anchors and bridges - strengthening and serving others with fearless love.