ANXIETY

ANXIETY

The word is all too familiar isn't it? I was reminded of this in recent conversations with friends old and new.  I see it on faces in conversations, through tears streaming down cheeks. We all have fallen victim at some point. Some of us our plagued by its grip daily if not hourly. A million"What if's" flood our brain.

What exactly is anxiety anyways? Anx-i-e-ty (noun)   a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

So its a feeling about something that may or may not occur. A feeling based on an outcome we have created in our minds.

I have been reading and studying  a great deal lately on the power of thought. It is a gift God has given humans exclusively that we can envision what the future might look like. We can plan and actually mentally place ourselves in the future by thought.  And the beautiful, freeing part is that we have the ability to choose and control our thoughts.

The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

Could it really be that we have authority over this "ANXIETY" that we seem powerless against?

It is all in our ability to control our thoughts. More specifically our ability to replace on thought with another. Displacement if you will. If you consider that thoughts are things it will make this process more tangible.

We are given the "recipe" for this displacement in Philippians 4:6-7  "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation , by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God , which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

A commandment to not be anxious followed by the how. Carefully look at what comes after the word but.... the recipe for change  The directions on how to shift your mindset. Prayer and petition with thanksgiving!

So next time you are gripped with Anxiety, grab the thought, and replace it with a request. Whatever vision you are projecting into the future. Give it over to God. Ask him for the future you desire, even better ask Him for the vision He desires!

And then enjoy the promise of His  PEACE .....

Darkness

Darkness.... not exactly how I usually start a post, but it lingers. Darkness can seem to close in on us at times making it difficult to breathe. Our world is filled with snap shots of happy faces on social media, perfectly poised families smiling for the camera.  We wake with the morning, put on our façade and face the day to answer the usual questions of "how are you?" "How's it going?' We've responded a fake "fine" "I'm good" so many times that maybe we've convinced ourselves we are just that...

Yet the numbness over our hearts continues to grow like a silent cancer. We chide ourselves for letting it get to this, we are supposed to be happy, we are Christians for goodness sakes! What would people think if we opened up about the heavy smog like shadow that keeps pressing in on us day after day? Would they gasp at the condition we've allowed our hearts to become? Would they run away as if to try to escape the darkness themselves? Would they blame us for causing this darkness?

Maybe we know why the darkness is there or when it began. Maybe it began with the death of someone who was our world, maybe the loss of a job that defined us, possibly the anxieties of trying to maintain the "perfect" life, maybe a past that haunts, or an accident that has you living in constant fear.   The worst type of darkness might be the one that we cannot pinpoint where it originated, it just suffocates us for no reason we can comprehend. We ask ourselves why a million times but the answers do not come.

So we hide away, if we keep this darkness our secret maybe we can blend in and not be expelled by the "others who have it all together"! But, here lies the secret. We all carry this darkness. We all are secretly fighting battles in solitude. But we must know as a beloved follower or Christ that we can never win it alone.  Go it alone and you will lose!


It is what we choose to do with this darkness that differentiates. Many have been overcome by it. Many have allowed it to grow deeper and darker until they succumbed to the voice that summoned them to " just end it all". "Wouldn't that be better than hiding this soul anguish?"

Many have allowed the darkness to become who they are, obeying it's commands: "KILL , STEAL, DESTROY!" We've wept for the senseless violence tearing apart so many lives.

As followers of Christ we can be misled to believe we will never be affected by this darkness. Then when we are, we feel inadequate or ashamed. Maybe we didn't really believe ? Maybe we aren't doing something right.

The only difference between a believer is we learn where to take our darkness.  Only ONE can swallow it up! Jesus! The apostle John says this" In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:4-5

Jesus speaks of himself : "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." John 9:5NIV 
Jesus also tasks his followers to be that light for each other. "You are the light of the world." Matthew 5:14NIV

So we gladly expose the darkness to our Savior and our brothers and sisters and watch as it dissolves in His perfect light!

Growing through Darkness- The Maple's Story

Six years ago we lost an old Black Jack Oak tree in a windstorm. It was sad to see the tall tree a mangled mess. We were blessed that it safely fell without tearing right through our roof. The following spring after it fell, we decided to plant another tree to take its place. My husband selected a beautiful little maple tree. It was probably 6 feet tall at the time of planting.

 Fast forward to today. I really hadn't paid much attention to the little tree and how it had slowly but surely been growing these last few years. While I was outside the other day, I happened to look up and to my surprise it had grown taller than all the surrounding black jack oaks that had been there years prior.

I thought it was a little astonishing. Then of course a sweet lesson.  The sweet still small voice impressed on my heart that this little tree had to grow upward to get out from under the shade the other trees were casting. It was growing through the darkness, pressing ever so slowly.... to the light.

Growth that went unnoticed day by day to the naked eye. So be encouraged when you go through dark times in life and you feel as if no progress is being had.  The growth may be unperceived by us now, but its happening. Its when we feel suffocated by the darkness most often that we fight hardest for the light.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5 NIV

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21NIV

White Hot

The love of Christ is the purest white hot energy. It pursues and penetrates the deepest darkest parts. Sometimes it feels blinding and painful as your eyes feebly attempt to adjust. It warms cold hearts entrapped in selfish hardened cocoons and has no other option but to keep seeking out the darkness until ALL is consumed by His white cleansing perfection. It cannot be held in these feeble earthbound bodies! It transcends all that is human and yet was fully human and fully God. It's warmth makes those emblazoned by it ETERNAL.

“The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How Close is Heaven?

It has often been pondered just how far Heaven is? Is it some distant place far beyond what the human eye can perceive? Even with the ability to now view planets and galaxies through the lenses of powerful telescopes or the once invisible world of organisms and matter through high powered microscopes; we still have yet to conquer the ability to see the unseen!  It still remains the greatest mystery. Yet Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven like it is the simplest of things. He said if we do not accept it as a little child, we cannot enter in.

Children... what is it about a child that makes them ever perceiving the nearness of Heaven? Surely not their lack of sin, since we are told, "For all have sinned an fallen short of the Glory of God." We know we are born into sin. It's merely the environment of this fallen world. So what is it about the child that allows them to perceive?

Faith, is perhaps one of the most overlooked and misunderstood concepts of our time. We are told to have faith and yet how many of us really know how to define it? What is this belief in the unseen? Our logical, fact finding, ever discovering minds have trouble attempting to accurately define a concept that young children master. We must prove everything. We must understand everything. Maybe just maybe, it is our inability to let go of control that blocks this powerful ability that moves heaven and earth. 

Could it be that we are close enough to touch heaven every single moment of every day? To draw it to ourselves with the magnet of faith?

So I will continually learn to let go of control and watch mountains move and in doing so glimpse Heaven here and now! Why wait?

As you go, proclaim this message: 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Matthews 10:7

Experience

A brand new year lies ahead like a blank canvas. I love this time of year for that very reason! Everyone loves a fresh new beginning. Each year I pray for a word that might encompass what I want my year ahead to look like, it mostly becomes the lesson I need to learn. This year both my boys picked their own words too!

I chuckled as Finley said his word was "Sorting". He wants to learn how to sort things. I'm pretty certain this word came to be because I packed up some of his old toys to give away while he wasn't present!

 Axyl very plainly and earnestly said his word was "Money"! Oh my! It should be interesting to see what each one learns as they move their way through 2017!

My word for 2017 is "Experience".  I desire to do less checking off the to do list and more drinking in of moments.  To be fully "with" my God and all the beautiful people He has placed so lovingly in my life.
Chevy and I just had a discussion while setting outside enjoying a few minutes of a 68 degree day in January. We want more moments like this. The boys were taking turns hitting balls off their tee and cheering for each other. We were drinking in the moment. He said, " How do we get more moments like this?"

Isn't that the question we all are asking? How do we learn to slow our pace enough to experience all the little moments that we usually rush by? We often feel like we have to fight for these moments or take special care to create them, yet they are always right there if we would learn to drink them in and fully experience the precise moment we occupy. Most of us live in our heads, either in the past or we are already ten steps into the future.

May 2017 bring us all moments to fully experience! May we learn to be present and enjoy this journey of life! Because all those little moments make up our life!


"Receive and experience the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves." Philippians 4:23 MSG

A Part of My Heart went with Her

"LOVE" ....
There is no other word that better encompasses the 84 years spent on this earth by my grandmother Betty Jo (Stephens) Odell. She moved in love like it was a dance she had always known. She spoke with such warmth in her tone when she would recall her childhood. Though by all other accounts a very rough one, growing up in a one room home with her siblings. She spoke of the warmth of love they shared. How she loved her own mama and her "daddy" as she affectionately called him.

Oh, how I adored her stories of home as a child and I shared her love of "Little House on the Prairie" as  a young girl. She always said it reminded her of home.

She showed me how to love. Oh, how she loved my Grandpa. They shared 62 years together as she proudly recalled even as she was sick in the hospital her last days. Their love for each other clearly still evident in the way he spoke to her and looked at her. Grandma always told me love was not always easy but so worth the fight.

Her boys were her heart! She wore them like a proud badge of joy! She was so very proud of their relationship with each other and how much they cared for one another. She was so proud of all they had accomplished. I could see her memories as she watched my boys play together as she would always revert back to when hers were little. Her words of wisdom, "Honey, you just rock those babies. All the chores can wait."

She adored all her grandchildren and great grandchildren. As she would always give me a new number after another was added by either marriage or birth. Her cup was overflowing.

She was the picture of country hospitality. It was never uncommon that friends and neighbors would stop by at all hours of the day or night to visit. She would always usher them in for a cup of coffee or glass of tea and conversation. Oh, how she loved to talk. But not just surface talk, she loved to get right to your heart. Empathy was second nature to her. She hurt with those who hurt and rejoiced with those who rejoiced.

Anyone who knew my grandmother, knew exactly where she learned to love. The name of Jesus moved across her lips as easily as the oxygen she breathed. She loved Him passionately and intimately. My very favorite moments spent with her were setting with her on her back patio early in the morning while she read her Bible. We would talk about how sweet Jesus is and how much He loves us. She taught me the beauty of being still before Him and listening to His voice.

Its through her guidance I observed how to savor the moments of life. Moments like sunrises, the sound of crickets in the morning and locusts at night, and a good cup of coffee! And how to express gratitude to our Lord for those sweet, simple pleasures that ultimately are everything.

But her greatest joy was speaking of Heaven and meeting her Savior. Her last days on earth were spent sharing Jesus love. She told me from her hospital bed that she'd been telling everyone she would meet about Jesus. She said, "Maybe that's why I'm here..." Grandma that is exactly why you were here. Here on earth, to be His vessel of love. His artist.

She painted the most beautiful tapestry of love and life into every heart she touched.

I had the great privilege to be a part of the miracle of her life for 35 years. I am who I am because she allowed the Love of Jesus to change her and flow like a rushing river through her. I sang hymns to her during her last days, my great honor to sing her home!

But when she went, I did not realize a piece of my heart would go with her! Guard that piece until we meet again Grandma!


"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13