YaY!! I'm Getting Unstuck!!

Today I had my very first session with what seemingly will be my ministry coach. Our first meeting was successful to me because he was able to help me get all of my thoughts out on a piece of paper and I was finally able to make some sense of my many, many ideas and thoughts. Now my ideas and thoughts are not as overwhelming for me as they have been simply being resident in my head. I was surprised and delighted and, quite frankly, thankful that he was able to help me do something that I've really needed to do for quite some time. It's particularly delightful for me because it confirmed something I've known about myself for awhile and because I'm now able to finally get unstuck! What a joy!

Let me explain a bit more. First, in my gut I've known for quite some time that I have needed to find someone who could help me process all that's going on in my head. Because I've known this for while, I have been trying to find a coach that I could afford and who could help me, but never found the right fit. So while I knew what I needed, I haven't been able to find what I needed. Hence, I've been stuck! So, while I know coaching is expensive, when it is successful it is valuable. I look forward to working with Coach Seed and believe that he will help be able to help me move forward! Its such a great feeling when you know what you need and you finally find that which meets the need! Awesome!

Second, by getting my everything on paper - all these creative ideas and thoughts that have simply been accumulating in my head - I can now begin to tackle my goals in a way that is conceivable and achievable. Frustrated with being unable to find coach or some other person to me process, I just resorted to attempting to tackle this obstacle on my own. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful. So, now that I have identified someone with whom I believe I can work on an ongoing basis, I am now able to excel and begin to develop and work a plan that will take me to a new level and closer to my goals. Now I'm unstuck!!

So, what do both of these things have to do with me getting to my destiny? First… sometimes knowing something in your gut and/or being clear about what you need to do doesn't always mean that the how is going to immediately manifest itself. I know me and I've known for quite awhile that I needed another person to help me process so that I could become unstuck. I know myself! Unfortunately, I have tried to engage many different coaches and alternatives to coaches to try to help me through this process but to no avail. Timing is everything and so I had to wait until the right fit came along. So, the first lesson in this is that just because I know something and maybe even see it in the spiritual realm, I must continue to know in confidence that the physical manifestation may tarry but it is coming. I believe God creates the need so that God can provide the need in God's way and in God's time. I've got to always hold on to what I know to be true, always moving forward, never settling until I get the true fit - the physical manifestation that is that fits with the spiritual vision! We need always to stay in touch with our own internal compass… it was put there by the creator... and it'll will always let us know if we're in the right place at any given time.

Secondly, this initial experience with this coach was simply confirmation for me that another pair of eyes can help us see the forest when we cannot because we're so close to the trees. God made us to be in community with one another. The fact that no matter how hard I have tried, I have been unable to organize my thoughts in a way that made sense… and this has been going on for me for weeks, months and maybe even years - speaks volumes to this lesson. When I trusted someone enough to share my thoughts with and then to have them to help me see things in an organized manner, it was a breakthrough. I was finally becoming unstuck. It hit home for me the idea that we really do need each other. Sometimes we've been traveling so long alone that we cannot really see how much ground we've covered or even how rich the surroundings are that we have. Sometimes we need someone to remind us of how far we've come and to help us to see our surroundings as something very unique and special indeed.

I'm thankful for this day. And, I will remember these lessons as I continue on enjoying my ride.

Purpose Is About Being The Message That God Writes To Others With Our Lives... Just Ask Christina!

Last night I watched President Obama speak to the Tucson community and the nation as the victims of the shooting from the weekend were memorialized. While the entire speech was good and appropriate as he spoke about the need to come together as a nation instead of being divided and instead of pointing fingers as to who is to blame for such a horrific event, I couldn't help but focus primarily on the life of the youngest victim of the very tragic event. Little Christina Taylor Green's beginning and end of her life was filled with irony and with purpose. Born on September 11, 2001, a day when the country experienced unprecedented and horrific terrorists attacks, then nine years later being killed by a terrorist within her own community, suggests so much irony that it must be purposeful. Don't get me wrong, my heart goes out to the family of this little girl and I pray for their comfort and healing. But, her life was not without purpose and meaning in a way that many may never consider. This is not an entry intended to be political, patriotic or unpatriotic. No, because my blog is about life lessons, I want to focus on the lesson of her life. I want to focus on simply that the irony of her birth and death is so profound that it must have been her purpose. This young child's life, which before last week only those within her close knit community knew about, is a life that now has national and probably international reach. Her life and its message speaks loudly and is far reaching and is one that cannot be ignored through no effort, no fault, or no intention on her part. It's just the way it is.

There are many lessons that her Christina's life teaches, but I'll focus on just one for this blog in the context of destiny, purpose and fulfillment.Where there is irony in our life there may be purpose. Christina's birthdate and date of transitioning from this world were completely outside of her control. Yet, those very significant dates is what makes her life so very special and purposeful. So, as I think about those things in my life that I think are ironic yet carry much less of a sting…that I have spent most of my life living alone even though it is surely not my choice, that most of my female friends with whom I grew up and went to school are single and/or have no children. Or, that I attended some of the best colleges in America yet have not held a full time, permanent position in many years. Perhaps the very reality of my life may, in fact, be where my purpose lies.

So what does this have to do with me getting to my destiny? Perhaps this lesson has to do with my perception of my journey and the purpose for which I am on the journey. There are so many things about my life that I have no control over including not being married, not having kids, and to some extent the state of the economy such that my job prospects are slim in spite of having a quality education. But those circumstances are the very thing that perhaps make my life so purposeful. Christina's life and its innocence and vulnerability raises awareness that we critically need to make the world safer for our children and that we need to come together in unity to make that happen. I'm not sure how that message could have been more powerfully communicated given that she, in her innocence, was born amongst violence and she, in her vulnerability, died at the hands of violence.

I don't think that we choose our purpose, I believe it chooses us or rather God chooses us to fulfill some purpose. If we follow our heart then every day we will walk in that purpose as we head towards some ultimate destiny. We spend so much time asking God and wondering what our purpose is when perhaps it isn't so much for us to see or know as much as it is for others to see it in us. Our purpose is God's message to the world that is communicated through our life just as Christina's did. The context of our life situations will frame it as such so the message will be received by those for whom it is intended. Our job, then, may be to simply do what's in our hearts. By doing so we may be etching the message that God intends to write with our life. Today I will simply follow my heart that is yielded to God and allow God to write a message with my life. God will write it better than I ever could. And, while God writes, I can just simply sit back and enjoy the ride. Join me!!

Looking Back At The Bumpy Roads I've Already Traveled, I Know I Can Make It Over The Winding Roads Ahead!

Today is a continuation of my blog from yesterday. I was sharing with a friend yesterday on yesterday's topic. I read Hebrews 5 to him and he shared how the passage spoke to him. Interesting to me was that he focused in on struggles and suffering while I had focused in on striving for/working for perfection. Ultimately, I believe we ended up at the same place in terms of the importance of suffering as the path or the way to Christ learning obedience and being made perfect. Nonetheless, I think the topic of suffering is worth writing about separately as it provides another angle on how we may want to live our lives as we learn to be obedient.

As I thought about Christ's suffering and my own suffering, I realized that often times the suffering itself sometimes really doesn't make sense. When God inspires or compels us to do something, often times it is not easy and when we are in the midst doing what we are inspired or compelled to do, we can experience heartaches, hardships, and haters. When we experience a job loss and can't find work, or when we experience illness, or when we have experienced the end of a marriage, we hurt. and while we are experiencing these things it doesn't necessarily make sense to use why we are experiencing it. Often times it isn't until we get to the end of the suffering, ie we get a new job that ends up being our life long dream job, our hurt has healed from a marriage or relationship break and we can no see everything clearly and what contributed to the break that enables us to be better or do in a new relationship that is more fulfilling and nurturing than the one before, etc. when we get to the other side, we can look back and see how the struggle and the suffering was beneficial to a new level of trust in obedience to God. After a while of experiencing such, we can genuinely be OK with the next episode of suffering - as difficult as it may be - because we know that when we look back we can see all the times God has taken care of us.

So what does this have to do with getting to my destiny? So much. As we ALL can attest, our life's journey, particularly when we are listening to the spirit within us and moving according to its directions, is filled with turns and ditches and bumps. It's filled with periods of bad weather and rough roads. So, without deep down inside knowing that God has "got this", we can think that when we experience these dark times that this is it… this is the end. We can doubt and think that God isn't going to be able to or isn't willing to get me out of this one. But when we look back and be reminded from where we have come, our souls can truly be at peace that "yes" God will get me through and by going through this dark place I will not only be better prepared for the next dark place, but I will that much closer to my destiny.

So, the next time I find myself in a place where I am suffering, I will stand up and look back over my life's journey to see and remember all the times that God has helped me get through the rough times and all the times God has put me in a place of victory over my circumstances. When I do that two things will happen. First, I can look back and see the places where I have traveled from a different perspective… the view is very different once you've come through something versus when you are in it. For that I can express and thankfulness. Second, I can turn back around to look ahead at where I am and the journey I have in front of me with the confidence of knowing that whatever comes my way, with God I can make it through!! Let's all do this so we can enjoy the ride!

Practice MAKES Perfect!

Jesus has been the only person on earth who ever achieved perfection. But, what does it mean to be perfect as it relates to God anyway? Admittedly, in reading my Bible today, I noticed more than before that Jesus "achieved" perfection, meaning he had to work towards it.

Hebrews 5:8-9 says that "although he was the Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered and having been made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." I found this sentence very interesting and a light bulb went on for me. The passage says that Jesus "learned" obedience and was "made" perfect. Not that he was always perfect. So, I wondered, at what point, then, did he become perfect or arrive at perfection? And, how did he achieve it? Did he get to the point where he knew and followed all of the commandments or was it something else? And, what then is the expectation for us as believers. I think his perfection had to do with something greater than following a set of rules. His perfection, I believe, came at the point where he was completely obedient and trusting of God. And, our task is the same!

Unless we arrive here with all knowledge in our heads, which I'm sure none of us do, we must learn everything. We learn something either by spending the necessary time studying and practicing it, or we learn by experience (as children do) - do it, bet burned, do it differently. Either way, there is striving and suffering that is involved. As I read the passage… it became clear to me that contrary to what I have believed for so many years - that Jesus did nothing wrong ever - the truth is that his perfection was achieved in his complete obedience to God. And, as we all should know, obedience to and complete trust in God takes practice. We have to learn to be obedient and through our experiences we learn to trust more and more on God. We don't always get it right. And, while I'm not saying the Jesus was ever disobedient (the bible never says that) I would think that the humanness of Jesus had to learn and practice being obedient. Practicing anything to the point of perfection is tough…

So what does this have to do with getting to my destiny? Well… for so long i have been so focused on making sure I "do the right thing". I've gotta follow the rules. I can't make a mistake. I've got to be perfect! Living this way is stressful because I can never reach that type of perfection. And, in all honesty, "right" is relative. If "right" wasn't relative, there would be no struggle. if what is "right" were so cut and dry and black and white there would be no disagreements between two people, two groups, two nations acting in the name of good. No, what I believe is most important now is to do what we are led by God to do. To act in obedience. Much time is wasted when we are not obedient. Much stress is experienced when we try to do what others say is the right thing for us to do versus we believe and know God is saying for us to do.

As I continue on my journey, I'm going to practice being perfect. Not man's view of what is perfect but God's view of what is perfect. I will struggle to practice my obedience and trust in God. I think by doing that I can much more quickly get to the destination intended for me. That will be the only perfection for which I am striving.