How real can she get?

This blog is called "Getting Real", and sometimes I wonder, just how real I really can get! lol

So here we go.

To be honest, the last little while, I haven't had a lot I feel I can offer blog-wise. I'm a little stagnant, and in a brand new phase in my journey/storm, and to be super honest - it's almost numbing.

Ever been there?

I sort of feel like I'm stuck in those moments after a really loud noise goes off, like a bomb, or maybe a shotgun, when you can't hear anything at all, except your own heartbeat. Like being underwater. Just...thump thump...thump thump...while the world fades to slow motion around you. You're there...but you're detached...you're there...but it's like you're watching your own life as a movie.

That's me right now.

How real can I get? Well, there you go!

Don't worry, I'm still here. There WILL be more to come. And my new blog design is on its way and hopefully that will help jump-start things again, too.

In the meantime, pray for me. I'm praying for you.

Why We Do Not Lose Heart

Powerful article today on a website I contribute to, www.ibelieve.com  Don't miss this one! Direct link below.

http://www.ibelieve.com/faith/why-we-do-not-lose-heart.html

If you need a reminder...

Happy Memorial Day!

To all veterans, active service, and families of the living and the fallen - thank you.
Happy Memorial Day.

Love

Construction

This blog is about to get a really awesome face lift, so I won't be posting as frequently until after the big reveal. I know you'll all like it, and I can't wait to introduce you to the design guru who is making it happen :)

Stay tuned!!

Are you done yet?

Sometimes, I feel like Jesus just looks at me with this loving, half-amused smile, and asks, "Are you done yet?"

Well, no. I'm not.

This is__________.

Fill in the blank. How do you feel about your trial/storm/circumstance/situation?

This is unfair. This isn't right. This isn't what I expected. This isn't what I wanted. This is ridiculous. This is never ending. This is....

Because "this is", we pitch a fit. Right? Now, some of us are more dignified in the production, merely crossing our arms and stamping our feet, while others are more dramatic and go full out, little-kid-in-the-grocery-store-candy-aisle, on the floor flailing.

It's all the same, though.. Because the fit, regardless of it's style, reveals the same lie. The same lie that Eve believed.

That God is holding out on us.

Yikes. When you put it that way...

Okay.

Yes.

I'm done.

Screaming in the middle of a crowded room...

If you feel like this today...don't worry.

God hears.

She posted this under the video - We've all had questions and doubted God. but, the good thing is, God welcomes those questions and doubts. His promises are always true and He is always faithful. Trust in Him always. He'll never leave you nor forsake you. He is forever faithful.
Hope this encourages you all.

AMEN.

Tick tock

I'd love for you to come visit me today at www.girlsgodgoodlife.blogspot.com  where I talk about something God revealed to me on waiting...

I can't find my big girl panties...

** Disclaimer ** I apologize in advance for any men reading this post, because the word panties will be used multiple times! Run if you must!  :)  **

Sometimes, life is just hard. (no surprise here right?)

And sometimes, we just have to put on our big girl panties (so to speak) and do what has to be done even when we really just want to crawl in bed and hide out naked. (so to speak) Or curl up in the fetal position with a chocolate bar in one hand and a Coke Zero in the other. (wait, that's my specific dream. But you know you have one too!)

There's no doubt about it. Some days require big girl panties.

So what do we do when we can't find them?? When we try to muster up what we need and it's just not  there? When our stomach is cramping in dread and our palms are sweaty and our head hurts and our heart aches and we simultaneously want to never eat again and eat everything in sight? (And no I don't mean PMS here!)  ::grin::

We go back to Jesus. He's in charge of us. Our Lord is Adonai, which means our owner. And I'm pretty sure that includes Him being keeper of the panty drawer. We ask Him for what we need, and we trust Him to provide it.

I felt that way recently. I had to do something, deal with something, that to be honest, was totally not fair. And I totally didn't want to have to do it. And I totally shouldn't have had to.

But circumstances made it necessary. And I had to find my big girl panties and do it - and do it alone.

Yet in the middle of the situation, I was reminded that I wasn't ever really alone. Jesus was right there with me, just waiting for me to acknowledge His presence, as He always patiently does. He didn't toss me the underwear I needed and then bail. He wanted to go with me.

Do you ever do that? I do. Sometimes I start off on a hard journey and invite Him along and confess my desperate need for Him, then completely forget to keep up the communication while I'm actually IN the situation I was so worried about. (DUH!)

The other day was an improvement in that category for me. I found my big girl panties, did what I had to do, AND remembered to keep talking with Jesus the entire time, reassuring myself of His presence.

So I guess Victoria isn't the only one with a secret. Mine was carrying on two conversations at once - one with a real person, and the other with a very real God.  ;)

If you've lost your panties, or if you feel locked out of your underwear drawer, or in need of an undergarment shopping spree (all so to speak... if YOU mean literally, then I suggest a locksmith and Target....) remember, the God of the universe has everything you need. He's like an unlimited gift card to Victoria's Secret  :)  You need strength for the journey? Try the bins by the front door. Peace and joy? Drawers over to the right. Perseverance? In the cabinet by the dressing room. It's all on Him.

Of crossroads and mountain bikes...

Yesterday at church, my pastor preached on the narrow path and the wide path as found in Matthew 7, in the Sermon on the Mount. I've heard that passage preached a dozen times in my life, but I loved the fresh take my new pastor put on it. It made sense in a whole new way.

Don't you love when Scripture does that? That's the whole "God-breathed", "living book" stuff in action :)

My pastor pointed out how in the context Jesus was speaking during this sermon, he was instructing his listeners to pick a path. Choose already. The wide path is easy. Looks attractive. Plenty of room to take your baggage and burdens with you. Only problem is, it leads to an abyss. Death.

The narrow path, however, looks pretty scary. Looks like hard work. And it's narrow, all right - no room for burdens and baggage. You gotta leave that stuff at the crossroads and just go forward with Jesus. But it leads to joy. And life.

Lots of analogy there. Camp out for a minute and think about  that implication. About the specifics involved. I know I did.

Moving on.

I feel this passage is usually preached in regards to salvation - with the narrow path being salvation and choosing to walk with Christ, leading to Heaven, while the wide path represents the path of the world (the lost, unsaved, etc.) that ultimately leads to hell.

Maybe that's right. Maybe it does mean that. It's very fitting in that context.

But I can't help but see it in a new way today, see how it applies to believers. Because you can be saved and still choose the wide path that mingles with the world. You can be a Christian and a believer yet stray from the narrow path of God's will and wander around the wide one for a time. Sin and bad choices can easily detour us from narrow to wide.

And getting back on track is always harder the more often we stray from the narrow. Because we start to disbelieve the truth and promise of the narrow, and start longing for the ease of the wide. But the ending...oh the ending.

My pastor had a great illustration of when he was in college and went on a mountain biking trip out of town with some friends for a manly vacay. Being from Florida, they weren't used to HILLS, much less mountains. But they rented their bikes and gear and got dropped off at the top of the mountain to ride the multiple-mile trail down. Easy peasy, right? ;)

He said it was the worst trip of his entire life.

Long story short, they ended up losing one bike (thankfully, sans rider) down the side of the mountain. Broke other bikes, got lost, dehydrated  etc. Halfway through the trail they all hated life and hated each other and basically hated the entire world. (LOL!)

But one thing kept them going - the realization that there was no other way to safety except on that path. There were other roads they passed along the way, but they didn't lead to their car at the bottom of the mountain. They had to stay on the path they were on, regardless of how hard it was, regardless of how much it hurt, regardless of how scary it became, because it was the only way to life.

Yeah. Let that sink in.

There's so many believers today, and I'm going to venture out and say it - there's so many MEN today who have strayed to the wide path because the narrow got too tough. I'm not picking on men, many women have strayed too - but the men are being attacked the most and targeted the most because of their leadership role. It's just obvious. Look around you. Men are being coaxed off the narrow path and onto the wide. The enemy isn't random. He's intentional. Men being led astray starts a horrible domino effect.

I'm praying for multiple men to be turned back to the narrow path today. I'm talking about men who were once godly and God-fearing and active Christians. It's heart breaking.

Will you join me? Will you pray for revival for not just our country and for the church, but for men specifically, to take up the roles they're called to and stay the course?

Paul from the New Testament finished well. I'm looking around and right now, there's too many men who I love dearly who won't be able to say that if they stay their current course. Pray for God to awaken their leadership hearts, their warrior hearts, and forge the path with Jesus on the narrow road.

God, we ask in Jesus' name, give them eyes to see....

And don't forget to check your own heart. What is the narrow path God is calling you to that has you hesitating at the crossroads? This doesn't have to be salvation related. It doesn't even have to be anything deeply serious or spiritual. You know in your heart what topic or issue this post is tugging on you about. Let the Holy Spirit lead you there. And choose wisely.

Don't try this at home....

God wants to bless you.

Did you know that?

He delights in delighting you, in fulfilling your needs, in meeting and exceeding your expectations. He LOVES you. Just like you, as a parent, enjoys surprising your children with good things and providing for them the things they need most, God enjoys the same with you - His child.

It's been really awesome lately how He's proven those truths to me. Every time I have a rough day (which is often the past several months), and I ask Him to do something special or me, He comes through. Every single time. Because He loves and never tires of our need for Him. Why would He NOT answer that prayer for you??

He will. So ask.

For example, yesterday - it wasn't a bad day, but I'd gotten weary. I had already asked God earlier in the day for something special from Him, for a blessing, something between us. I asked Him to romance me. So far, I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, but knew from past experience that didn't mean it wasn't coming. I waited on the Lord.

Well, once I stopped looking for it, there it was.

I was driving from work to church last night, wondering if it was going to rain or not as the sky had been threatening for hours with no result, as I merged onto the highway. I glanced over to check my blind spot...and there was a rainbow. Bright, beautiful, vibrant, right there over the mall.

And before I could even process the beauty of it or do more than tell God "Wow, that's beautiful", He impressed upon me a message so clearly, I couldn't breathe. He pointed out to me how the rainbow went through a cloud - you couldn't see the middle of the arch, but you could clearly see the beginning and the end.

There was beauty, life, and light on BOTH sides of the storm cloud.

That's the pic I nabbed on my phone while driving (on the highway! Don't try this at home! lol)

Poin being - I'm still in my storm cloud. It's dark and windy and I can't see. You might can relate. And that promise is true for you too if you're a follower of Jesus - there WILL BE light, life and beauty on the other side of the storm in your life.

His presence filled the car with me and I knew, once again, God had done exceedingly more than what I'd asked. (Ephesians 4) I wanted a blessing, something special, and He not only did that for me, He gave me a promise to go with it. And that promise came through the form of another promise He gave to man long ago - the rainbow, which signifies His decree to never flood the earth again.

As scary as my storm is, as scary as your storm is, we won't be destroyed.

April showers bring May blizzards...

April showers bring May flowers...and apparently, snow storms!

I love how God is in control of all things. Including the weather. And just when the world begins to try to predict it all and make claims and determinations (global warming? Uh, visit www.weather.com please! snort) He throws a kink in their logic.

LOVE it.

I personally have no problem with a cold Spring, especially here in north LA where we rarely get Spring at all, at least for longer than a week! We tend to go straight from high temps of 40's in the winter to high temps of 80's+, rounding out the humid summer in the 100's.

So bring on the blizzard! :)

Seriously though, the same Spirit that calmed the storm with the disciples in the boat is the same Spirit, the same God who is in charge today.

Of the weather, and of all things.

So regardless of your current climate - stormy, gusty, sunny, rainy, etc. - trust in the One who gets the final say. On global warming, on May flowers, and in our life.