I want to be a character in God’s story. Not an author of my own.

::The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.:: Proverbs 16:9

Hi friends. Thanks for some of your encouragement on getting my rear in gear, I'm happy to be writing again. I wanted to start tonight with sharing one of the things God has been teaching  me lately-- pull back on the reins…and let Him lead. It kind of goes hand-in-hand with my last post, but I still wanted to share my thoughts with you.

It’s so easy for me to forget that God is in control of my destiny. Living in the world that I do, moving from one thing to another every day of the week, I un-knowingly try to take the wheel more often than I think.  I lose sight of following in God’s footsteps and start trying to make my own footprints. I think it’s a combination of pride, thinking I can conquer the day alone with my own wisdom, along with my desires becoming more important to me than the will of God. I don’t necessarily intend for that to happen, but I feel like sometimes I’m constantly sprinting down my path instead of taking time to walk, and when I don’t walk, I end up not walking with the Lord as closely as I would like. I get caught up in distractions of my life and of this world.  I want to continue to let go of that pride and humbly come before Him and give him the paper and pen for my life. When I do, so much more joy, peace and love come out of me… because of Him. Not because I am TRYING to be joyful, peaceful or loving…but because it’s a natural overflow of how I feel inside when I seek His wisdom and comfort. Why wouldn’t I want the perfect God of the universe writing my story? I am sure that it would have a lot less red marks than the one I try to write for myself.

I encourage you to seek the face of the Lord in whatever decisions you make from the moment you rise in the morning to the moment your head hits the pillow. I encourage you to pray through your day to ensure the Lord is guiding it along. Although it sometimes is extremely easy, we shouldn’t get so caught up and distracted with trying to determine our own destiny and worrying about our own desires. I feel like sometimes we think that because God is not giving us what we want in our timing, we have to try to find what we want on our own. We take the reins. Nope. That’s exactly the opposite of what God wants us to do, he wants us to trust Him and trust His timing. We are here for His purpose, not to fulfill our own purposes.

::Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. :: Proverbs 19:21

I want to be a character in God’s story. Not an author of my own. I pray you desire the same.

Have a beautiful evening, friends. 

::For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.:: Isaiah 55:8-11

All I am is Yours.

Lately I have found myself struggling with what I believe to be one of the hardest things to accept as a Christian: You are here to fulfill GOD’S will for your life, not your OWN will for your life. I currently have this verse taped to my computer at work to help remind me of this daily: I desire to do Your will, my God; your law is within my heart. : Psalm 40:8 

Sometimes I feel like I am in such a rush to get through this life. And during that hustle-bustle, I lose sight of the beauty God has placed before me. No matter what sort of blessings I keep receiving from Him, I’m already looking into what I “want” next. I don’t know about you, but I catch myself getting so caught up in society and secular life, that I don’t even realize that it’s taunting with my focus. Then before I know it, I’m desiring so many “things” that I think I am in control of fulfilling for myself. Let me tell ya folks, that leads you to nothing but disappointment… after disappointment.  

We are here to serve our King. Ephesians 2:10 says: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.: That’s what we should be focused on- not what can I do for myself today, but what can I do to serve my God today?

Romans 8:28 says: And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.: I have faith in that. He doesn’t necessarily work to make us happy, or work to grant our wishes…he works to fulfill His purpose. Sometimes I get discouraged and lose focus because I have a hard time accepting what I want may not be what God wants, but I am learning to truly trust in Him because he is all-knowing; He is omnipotent. Even though I don’t like to admit it… (I kid, I kid :))… God does know a heck of a lot more than I do. I trust in that. Sometimes when I am struggling with trusting God or when I don’t understand why what I want isn’t in His will for me, I look backwards. Kind of odd, right? But when I look back over the last few years in which my life was turned over to Christ, I am literally awe-struck when it comes to where God has directed my path. I will tell you that all the blessings I have been given over the past few years have been life-saving.  God works through circumstances, He works through others and he works in ways we will never know. I, without a doubt, would not be where I am in life without the love I receive from God on a daily basis that was given through His Son, Jesus Christ. Trust Him. Seek Him. Love Him. Receive His mercy and love. Live to fulfill His will for you. When I feel myself starting to let go of that and wanting take the wheel, I try to remember that His will for us is much more beautiful than the will we’d seek for ourselves. God can see that; we cannot. Believe that.  

"How have you been lately?" "I have been sooo...grateful..."

I have a lot of stuff in my head that I have wanted to blog about recently, but since it’s that time of year, I am going to express my thankfulness of the life God chose for me.

I definitely don’t think November is the only time to take a deep look at your life and express thanks—whether it be to a friend, family member or JC himself—but I am certainly grateful for the Thanksgiving holiday because it always gives me a new perspective on the “things” I am grateful for and that I take for granted every single day. 

One thing that has been weighing heavily on my heart is my particular response to someone asking me: “How have you been lately?” If you know me and you’re a part of my life on a consistent basis, you know exactly what my answer has been for the past 6 months and what it was if you asked me the same question today. “Busy—good, but busy.” Well folks, good news: I am going to stop with that nonsense.  Not because me being busy is not a fact, sure…it's the truth, but because I think responding like that gives a negative vibe.  I don’t want people to show me empathy because I make it seem like my life is “so hectic”, because really, it’s not. At all. I should be continually grateful that I have things that occupy my schedule, ie: lots of wonderful friends who are all such blessings in my life, a large family full of so much character and love, a job that presents me new opportunities to grow in my career, my legs, arms and health so that I have the ability to run and workout, and a church family in which I have a desire to grow in daily. If you told me I had to remove one or more of those things from my life, I would at you like you were crazy. I couldn’t pick or choose. So why would I ever look at my schedule and complain? I have no reason to. But, as you can see, I have plenty of reasons on why I should be grateful.  

So no more of that “I am soooo busy” (with an exhausted look on my face) nonsense. I am going to try my hardest to turn that into a positive vibe. I am so thankful God has given me the life he did. And I am mostly grateful for my Savior…who gives me a completely different perspective on life every day. He gave me life through his own pain and undeserved sufferings. I am fully confident that God has given me the opportunities He has for reasons I may not understand for years. He is preparing my heart for so much...things that I don’t have a single clue about. But, I trust Him. I know He is faithful and I know everything He gives me and puts in my path is for a purpose. I am thankful for it all. 

::Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. :: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Just Do It.

I’m sure many, many important meetings must have taken place back in 1988. But one meeting in particular helped determine what the future would look like for the well known sports apparel and equipment company, Nike. Anytime you hear the words “Just Do It”, most people’s minds immediately think of “the swoosh”. During that meeting back in the late 80’s, Nike’s ad agency Wieden and Kennedy and Nike employees sat in the meeting and Wieden said out loud, “You Nike guys, you just do it.”

Imagine if we all ‘just did it’. Imagine how much that would change your life, my life and your neighbors life. If everything we wanted to do, we did. "Just do it." It seems easy enough, right?

People go to seminars for their jobs, for parenting, and even for motivation. You can go to a seminar for just about anything these days. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s important to educate yourself. But think about how much time is put into preparing those seminars. And how much time is put into listening to the speakers. And how much time it takes to write notes on your pad of paper so fast that you feel as if your hand is going to fall off. Now think about this: how much time do you actually put into practicing what you learned about, wrote notes about, and exercised your mind about?

Same thing can be said about serving God. You might go to church on Sunday… and may even learn a thing or two. While that is all wonderful, do you let what you learned change your heart and then allow your heart to "just do it" and shine as a light for our Lord?

Just going to those ‘seminars’ makes us feel better when we leave. Like we just produced more revenue for our company, like we just became better parents, like we want to go into work RIGHT now and get started on a new project. Just like going to church makes us feel good. Like we did the right thing, like we did a good deed for God. Again, not a necessarily a bad thing…

If you follow through.

We have to put the ideas we let come into our hearts and minds into action in order to actually produce more revenue… become better parents… and most importantly, better serve God. But where do we start? That always seems to be the question. How do we "just do it"? Sometimes the idea of putting our thoughts into actions is scary. No matter what aspect of your life you might be dealing with.

As I’ve shared with many of you, I am reading a book called The Me I Want To Be by John Ortberg. For those of you who might be close to me, you know how great I think the book is. I highly recommend it to all of you reading this. But anyway, in Chapter 10 of the book, he talks about taking direct action to face your fears.

 

Ortberg writes, “Information alone will not bring about the transformation of the whole person. We may read book after book, hear talk after talk, listen to sermons- maybe even read the Bible- but still remain just as anxious as we ever were before. There is no way to get the peace of God from our head to the rest of our body besides trusting God enough to directly confront our greatest fear (126).”

I’m definitely no expert, but if you want to begin your "just do it" journey, my friendly advice to you would be to find the form of worship in which you feel the closest to God and start there. Go to him. Trust in him. Hand it all over to him. Let the love you feel from those moments you spend with Him shine in all aspects of your life. And take action to ensure that light keeps on glowing. Don’t give up on it. 

Just. do. it.

Keep your eye on the prize.

140.6 miles. Yeah, that’s a pretty long car ride right? Cleveland to Columbus.

Imagine…for just a second….swimming 2.4 of those miles, biking  112 and then running 26.2. Crazy right?! I’d say I have pretty large passion for those people who can finish an IronMan race. And I’m looking for the passion inside myself to be able to do one someday.

As most of you know, the countdown to my first triathlon is on! Don’t get too excited…it’s only a small sprint triathlon. But, I am doing it for a few reasons. The first being to glorify God. I want to use the gifts he has given me (I may not be the fastest runner, but at least I can swim….:)). I also want to prove to myself that I can in fact do this. I already know I will enjoy it because to be quite honest, I have loved the training I have been through in the past few months. I really like all three sports: the run, the swim and the bike. I never get bored of doing the same thing. Lastly, I hope that through doing this sprint triathlon, I will end up wanting to take the next step. My new roomie (Jen Vichosky) and I have already tentatively planned on doing a standard triathlon together in the fall. She is currently training for the Cleveland Marathon which is the weekend before my race, so we will be ready to dive right into training together in the beginning of June! The end goal however, is to attempt an IronMan at some point in my life.

I have such a passion for people who are into this sport. I think it takes so much more than strength and endurance to train and even finish a race like this. It takes determination and a lot of mental preparation. And where in the world do you find that? Where do you even begin looking for it? I believe it all begins by looking into your heart…and I’d like to think my heart has a whole lot of love for our God. I look to him for a lot of things in my life and it’s definitely where I began looking when I knew I needed a push  to begin my journey in this sport of triathlon training.

  

There also have been several other things that God has given me in the past few months that have helped me. I have had some great friends around to help teach and educate me. I have a roommate who is running so much that I would never see her if chose not to run with her. I read scripture that helps motivate me and I try to memorize it while I am training. And I often pray that God helps me stay focused on the end prize. Not the pain I may be enduring now.  

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Hebrews 12: 11,12

I also think God can be using you by shining your light onto others who are trying to do something like this for themselves. You could be motivating others through your passion and not even be realizing it (Jeremy Coffey). This is not just a physical game here folks. If you have the heart, and God is in the center of that heart, it’s possible. Obviously God gives you certain gifts and natural talents. Use them to glorify him! But he also gives you a heart. When you have both of those things combined, it can make for an outcome that might even surprise you.

For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:8

Maybe it’s not a triathlon that you’re striving for. But really try to find what you do have a similar passion for and provide yourself with some goals to accomplish it. Use the passion inside your heart and the gifts God has given you to glorify him. Don’t let them go to waste. And remember, the end prize is something eternal.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

I know, I started a blog and then didn’t write in it for a few months. My bad folks; I have just been so busy and have chose to give other things my time. But, hopefully now that I am all moved and beginning to get settled in the new place, I can jump back on this blogger bandwagon.

Even though I haven’t been writing, I have definitely been thinking (surprise, surprise, right?). I have put some thought into what I wanted to chat about next. After closely observing miscommunication…well, technically misunderstanding many times over these past few months, I decided to write this blog post about humor. Funny right?

I believe everyone on this earth has a sense of humor. I think we determine if it’s a ‘great’ sense of humor off of whether or not we get that person’s humor or not. Many times we don’t and then we get caught up in that whole first impression thing. I’ve noticed that often times instead of taking that step further to try to get it, we stop. We judge. Get offended. And maybe even gossip. All because we didn’t get it.  

Can we all get our feelings hurt or become offended due to someone’s sense of humor? Sure. It’s happened many times in my life. Humor can often be mistaken. But next time, try not to take is as personal and take a next step further to try and actually get it.

Give it a try this week. Make it an effort of yours to focus on understanding the people you interact with senses of humor. You might be surprised on how many doors it opens for you to dig a little deeper into their life. Who knows, it could even result in a new or stronger friendship with someone in which God is using you to work though.

Don’t force yourself to find them hysterical. To you, they may not be. Don’t force yourself to agree with their humor, you might not.  But give it a shot.

Everyone deserves a chance, right? After all, God gave us one through his Son and we didn’t even deserve it.

Have a Passion for People who are Steelers fans...(Did I just say that?)

I felt some pressure deciding on what to write about for my first blog post. After all, l do want it to interest you so that you keep on reading. So, since this is a blog about finding passion for people and how to make myself a better neighbor through our Lord above, I decided to jump right in and talk about what are some times where people get my blood boiling the most and how I can work on showing love instead of aggravation when people who posses these qualities walk into my day, week and life.

Extremely close-minded people. Sigh.

I tend to get easily frustrated with people who are extremely close-minded. It's very hard to deal with people who are stubborn and intolerant to new ideas with life in general. It could be at work when talking with a client or co-worker, or even at the grocery store talking with someone you have never once met. It is definitely something I struggle with. It doesn’t make sense to me how someone can be so set in their thoughts that they don’t accept other human beings because of it. When you become set in your thoughts, how does that give you the opportunity to allow your mind to grow and become a more accepting individual? Do you stop periodically throughout the day and ever think to yourself that no matter what we think…Jesus accepts us?

 

When people think of close-mindedness, large issues come to mind: politics, world-issues, etc. For example, if you grew up in a household of Republicans and your family consistently blames Democrats for our country's economic issues and maybe even their own family's financial issues, one might become close-minded to Democrats or ANY liberal agenda at all. (Thank you for the example, Mandy!) I believe close-mindedness can come in a couple different forms. Whether it is conscious or learned, id’ be silly to think we don’t experience an occurrence with this at some point during the day. Neither is healthy, but by understanding the difference we can better help those who are close-minded due to lack of knowledge and simply accept those who consciously choose not to agree. Someone who is brought up in a close-minded environment may choose to be more open-minded once the barrier is broken and they are presented with new ideas. 

Even though I have a hard time with close-mindedness, I'm aware that I am sometimes guilty of possessing this quality...even in a subject as small as sports. One instance in particular comes to mind immediately...specifically due to the timing of this post...annnnnd I blame it all on the fact the Pittsburgh Steelers are AFC Champions. I am pretty close minded when it comes to front- runners (ie: those ‘fans’ who root for both the Steelers and the Buckeyes). I don’t want to hear why. To be honest, I don’t even care why. It gets my blood a boiling and I get extremely defensive and argumentative. Right away. No time for simmer in between. I just don’t unnnnnderrrrstannnnnnnd. And because I don’t understand, that poor person in front of me has to hear my wrath. How can you say the reason you root for the Steelers is because you grew up in Pennsylvania but then root for my Buckeyes (which is by the way an OHIO team…)? You’re not a real Pittsburgh fan! (...See what I mean?...) My goal this year (hopefully I make it past February 6^th) is to not necessarily agree with people like that, but become a little more open minded about it and give them a chance to tell their story. Try to find passion for them and why they feel the way they do. Accept them, and rest easy knowing it doesn’t matter who they root for, unfortunately it won’t make my Browns any good.  No, but really, how is it affecting my life and who I root for? It’s not. You don’t have to agree. You can plead your case and share your story, too. But listen to them. Accept them. Love them. Just like Jesus accepts and loves us. 

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Romans 15:7

What is something you are close-minded about and how can you work to become more accepting with the issue?