Distractions

I recently ran into someone face down in her iPhone waiting for the elevator. She was so distracted by her thoughts and her phone that she forgot to push the down button. In fact she was so distracted she didn't even notice me push the down button right in front of her. This might make you chuckle, but let's be honest we all have had those days. There are days we become so distracted with the world, God would have to levitate you off the ground to get your attention. Well, let's hope that would get our attention. As I pondered this thought, this question arose: Are we so distracted with the world, that we are missing blessings and chances for obedience in our life's?

One biblical example of distraction, is the very well known Mary and Martha story found below.

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10: 38- 42

Jesus was sitting in her living room speaking and Martha was busy preparing dinner. She was too engrossed in her task at hand that she could only stop to complain. One has to wonder if in her busyness she even heard a word He was saying as she stomped into the room to whine about Mary. So if a lady could be so busy preparing a meal and not even take a second to soak up His knowledge, it's not hard to see how a lady can stand at an elevator for 2 minutes, texting, briefly look up at an approaching person and say, "The elevator is taking forever today," only to bury her nose back into her phone and still not see me push the button seconds later. Quite honestly, I have done this before too. Luckily I caught myself.

So then I thought about the time I did the "Why is the elevator taking so long...oh...oops," blooper. What was keeping me so distracted?" I don't even know, probably my iPhone. Probably my thoughts or my grumblings. But this state of preoccupation is dangerous. The bible states:

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5: 8

How easy is it to trip when you are not looking where you are going? You have to actually look up and watch where you step occasionally. Otherwise you will be walking into walls, people, or tripping on curbs. Take it from me, I have probably the record for bruises from walking into the edge of my desk. Trust me when I say, don't edit papers while walking from the printer! It's kind of dangerous!

But so is walking in the Spirit realm without the power of the Spirit or without God's Word. One last thought, but not from me. The bible could say it better than I ever could.

¹⁰ A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. ¹² For we^[c] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

¹³ Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. ¹⁴ Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. ¹⁵ For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.^{[d] 16} In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.^{[e] 17} Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.^[f] Ephesians 6: 10- 18

Water Walker

"Those who criticize WATER WALKERS typically do so from the comfortable confines of the boat." - Mark Batterson

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
 Excerpt from Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) By Hillsong United

Oh these words resonate in my soul. Lord I will call upon Your name and keep my eyes above the waves! I will be a Water Walker! Today I pronounce it, today I claim the power, today I am out in the water.

In my soul, I meditate on:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

Oh ladies, we were never supposed to sit in the sidelines waiting the coach to call us in. "Put me in coach, put me in!" No... you take that step of faith first. You don't need permission to be put into the game. You have always had permission to be in the game. Step out of the boat! Be fearless! Maybe you did and you started sinking, but you know what? Look up? Jesus never left you and He will NEVER forsake you. He's standing there with His hand stretched out waiting for you to just look His way and call upon His name.


The Lord replied,

“Look around at the nations;
    look and be amazed!^[a]
For I am doing something in your own day,
    something you wouldn’t believe
    even if someone told you about it.

Habakkuk 1:5

Why are you on boat? He is doing something in your own day! Something you wouldn't even believe. Bring me to a place of Trust! Take us deeper. Because if you let Him, the Lord is going to take you somewhere you "wouldn't believe even if someone told you"! Oh my goodness... I bet if you asked someone you looked up to. Someone who's wrote a book, spoke on a stage, or sang at a sold out concert, if they ever thought they would be where they are today, they would tell you no. See, God has amazing plans for us.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² In those days when you pray, I will listen. ¹³ If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  Jeremiah 29: 11-13

God is not meant to be put in a box! You can't imagine what He has for you, but you can be sure of one thing, His plans for us are good and not for disaster. We sometimes look at our dreams and think they are impossible. I'm telling you today, they are not. Step out of the boat, or look up and Jesus will get you out of the water. Why did Peter sink? Because he stopped trusting, he looked down. Put your trust in the Lord and you will walk on water. He will bring you to a place you will never imagine. And if you are obedient, if you fight the good fight, you will look back at yourself years from now and you will say, "I wouldn't have even believed someone if they told me, I would have accomplished this."

Lean into Him, trust in Him. Get quiet. For once in your life, Be Still! He is going to guide you to a place without borders. Wherever you are today, whatever situation you are in today, He is preparing you, he is refining you.

^[b] Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!” ²⁷ But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!^[c]” ²⁸ Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” ²⁹ “Yes, come,” Jesus said.
So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the strong^[d] wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.
³¹ Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?” Matthew 14: 25b -31

What are you afraid of? Peter walked on water and when his feet failed him, "Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him" when Peter called for his Savior. Jesus is waiting for you to call upon His name and go for you dream.

Breaking Free with Love

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. John 13:34 (NLT)

Realizing how critical I can be and then almost demanding and expecting empathy from others was my breaking point. Something was amiss. How can I expect, and not just expect but practically demand empathy of others, if I, myself, can be critical and unsympathetic to others? Yes, perhaps, these people are missing the mark themselves. Perhaps they are just as critical. But I am not called to change others. I can only work on myself and pray for guidance. Only God can change those who are critical of me, who hurt me. Perhaps my example will prompt them to make changes, but seeing God in me, is what is prompting the change, not myself.

So I looked inward. What was at the root of my problem? I prayed for the answer to be revealed. God kept speaking to me and whispering the word love, learn to love, into my heart and revealing verses. Love seemed to be the main theme of all of them. But how do we love? Is it obtainable? The word itself is so easy to say, but anyone who has tried to love someone has came across a roadblock. We get hurt, we hurt, and we witness hurt. It’s so hard to love when you stop and think about it. Even well intentioned Christians, like myself, find themselves realizing they fail at this huge commandment. Huge? Yes, huge! Because if love was so easy for us to accomplish, if love was just a feeling and not an act and a choice, love wouldn’t be the number one commandment. We are constantly failing at this commandment. We look to others to fill the void, but when they fail us, we quickly dismiss them. We give up on friends and family because they don’t love us the way we want them to love, but we don’t know how to love, because if we did, would we be so exasperated at those who hurt us, who fail us? No, we would just keep on loving, keep on feeling compassion for others, and keep on praying for blessings upon them. Why is love so important?

16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NLT)

We cannot try harder to love others, but God gave his Son to die on the cross to save us. Can you imagine giving your son/daughter up to die to save someone else? No! You don’t even want to go there, do you? I know I don’t! But this is how important love is to God. It’s not something we should take lightly, sweep under the rug, and leave to the uber Christians to deal with, it’s for everyone. I think we poo-poo this verse and forget its importance, because it's something church goers have heard and memorized for years. Stop and think about this. Under the law, we are toast. You will never make it under the law. The new law is love, Do you believe? Do you know for 100% sure you are going to heaven? If not, message me, let’s talk. Through Christ, you have it. You have the ability to love like Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit, you can walk in it. Wouldn’t that be the day? When everyone walked in love like Jesus? Love is everything. Love is finding forgiveness. Love is moving on. Love is selfless. You have to take the higher road, turn that cheek. Chances are if you are finding yourself blocked, stuck, not moving. Lack of love is the key.

23 I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. 24 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. 25 But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.[a]” Mark 11:23-25 (NLT)

Ohhh… no I didn’t! Yes I did. Forgive, stop the grudges. Choose love. Ask for help, you know He’ll give it to you and teach you the way. Let’s journey together. Take one person, you have a hard time loving and honestly try to love them. Pray for blessings on them, pray for them earnestly. Bless them, grin and bear it, show love, be love. Then once you won that battle, move on to the next! It’s a love revolution! Ready…set…GO!

Social Media

For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20 NLT) I find that social media makes us lazy. Sure you can find people from the past, you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to catch up with, but we don’t need to make much of an effort to stay in touch with people. We can read their statuses, look at their pictures, and read their profile section. So before you know it, you haven’t actually talked to that person in months and years. You know where they are and what they are doing, but you haven’t really had a meaningful connection with them. When tragedy struck a good friend of mine from a long time ago, it really hit me hard. I felt helpless and I suppose that’s the usual feeling people get when a friend or loved one is affected by painful circumstances. I thought of times, where I had coffee with friends to chat and lend an ear, or brought over food. What do you do in a situation where you haven’t talked to someone in so long? It’s not only awkward, but at that point, they have other go-to people. Not that I need to be a person’s go-to person, but it’s knowing that you are so far uninvolved in someone’s life is the sad part. So I kind of sat there in my memories of the past and feeling bad for lack of connection with meaningful people of my past. And not just my friend who suffered a loss, I thought of other people I had lost touch with or haven’t been making a big effort to stay in contact with. There’s something so superficial about posting on someone’s wall or sending them a private message. It’s not the same as sitting right in front of them and having a cup of coffee with them. Or calling them on the phone. Laughing and crying with someone. How healing is it to just laugh with a good friend? There’s not enough LOL’s and emoticons out there to provide the same feeling you have from a face to face or phone call with a friend or family member. Just has it says in Matthew 18, when two or three of His followers are gathered, "I am there among them." How cool is that? What a blessing it is to bask in His presence. Which is probably why you feel so refreshed when you meet up with a good friend. As my daughter would say, "get out of your phone (or computer)" and go and meet a friend in person. You won't be disappointed.

The Dreaded Early Mornings

Let’s just be honest, I’m not a morning person. I’m grumpy, groggy and it takes me awhile to get that brain a moving. In fact, I think my sister would attest to a time when she got her overly chipper morning self in my face to taunt me while I was pouting about having to be awake, that I slapped her. Oops, kids will be kids? So that’s why whenever I would hear someone talk about their morning God time, I cringe. Oh how bad I feel. I’ve tried many a times to get up early and do that early morning start your day with Jesus routine, it’s just never worked. I’m fighting to keep my eyes open and an hour and sometimes even 10 minutes later, I have totally forgotten everything I just read. Pray instead? Yeah, I fell asleep once trying to do that. So I finally decided to try lunch Jesus time and it was wonderful. Oh how relaxed and peaceful I was the rest of the afternoon. Then busyness overtook me. Lunch times became soccer mom and career woman time. With a child in preschool now, I spend most of my free time carting her back and forth between school and daycare. Other days, I’m attending lunch meetings for community outreach programs I volunteer for. Nights consist of family time, laundry, dinner making, cleaning, and so on. Then I started becoming pretty dedicated to my health and fitness. Which was starting to become another thing to fit into my already insane schedule. So here we are back to the early morning thing. I felt God telling me to work out in the mornings. Really? Because to make it work to exercise in the mornings to get home to help get the kids and myself ready, means 5 am? I couldn’t even do 6:00 am quiet time. I decided to try it. I have to admit, the alarm is my enemy and getting out of bed that early is not easy. I literally have everything set up and ready to go, clothes, water, head phones, gym bag, car keys, etc, so I can get every last minute of sleep I can. My alarm goes off, I throw my clothes on, grab my gym bag, water, keys and head out. But the most important part, I come home, I curl up on the couch in my silent home with a cup of coffee and read devotionals or my bible. The difference this time? The exercise not only is good for me, it wakes me up, gives me energy. It’s not a lot of time before the morning rush begins, but God makes the time stand still. My day (especially the once dreaded mornings) are smooth and peaceful. God equips me with what I need for my day.

Just Getting By

Most mothers probably hear me when I say, I just do what I can do to get by. I personally feel in awe of working moms who can work 40 hours and still keep their house intact. I am a little bit as you go type of girl. In other words, I get home, I do the essentials: cooking, kids, etc and then I try the cleaning and organizing. And I do enjoy my free time, a girl has to have some relaxation time. The problem with this method is any deviation causes massive chaos. For instance, I went to a weekend retreat, I was busy beforehand and I was gone for two nights. My house is a disaster zone. Laundry everywhere, dishes stacked up, mail overflowing my coffee table, and my intimidation grows. Yeah sure, the "little here little there" approach works on a daily basis, but when you get distracted or deviate from that plan, the train completely derails. You were just getting by before, so now you are completely off course. As with our faith walk, you have to keep on a consistent and reliable path, always being sensitive on what The Lord wants from you. Any deviation from from your path that isn't God ordained could seriously derail the delicate system. A little here a little there on your bible study, could mean the difference on succeeding or failing during temptation. God equips us for battle, so we don't want to take this lightly. His word readies our internal army. Take His training seriously.