Monthly Archives: November 2011

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11/30/2011

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Fairytale Fallacies

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Desperate Love Songs

So, there’s this song by The Band Perry called All Your Life. It’s kind of a cute little love song, but the bridge trips me up every time, and I find myself responding to Kimberly Perry. Our conversation looks a little something like this:

KP: Lately I’ve been writing desperate love songs.

Me: Really?

KP: I mostly sing them to the wall.

Me: Oh girl.

KP: You could be the centerpiece of my obsession…

Me: Sounds… intense.

KP: …if you’d notice me at all.

Me: Sweetheart, we need to have a little heart-to-heart.

Desperate love songs. Something about that sounds so… well, desperate. I’ve only written one desperate love song in my entire life… and it was a joke. (But if it hadn’t been a joke, it probably could have won an award for “Most Desperate of Love Songs.”) But aside from that, I’m not the kind of girl who sits around writing multiple love songs and singing them to the wall.

And yet, I feel like that’s the boat so many girls are in. Maybe they’re not literally writing love songs, but they’re desperate. But it’s not supposed to be like that. And while the desire to find someone to love you all your life is perfectly normal, the desperate love songs have to end.

Ladies, we’re meant for so much more than singing to the wall. Or the mirror. Or the camera. Or Prince Charming, for that matter. We’ve been waiting so long that we’ve forgotten that we were meant to live. Here. Now. In this moment. So turn off the radio, put down the guitar, and set the hairbrush aside until you need to comb your hair.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – this once upon a time life is so much bigger than the happily ever after ending. There’s no need to be desperate. Life starts now.

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11/28/2011

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Live the Journey

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Throwing Up on God

I wouldn’t consider myself a particularly sensitive/emotional female, but sometimes I reach this point where there’s so much going on inside of me that I just snap and emotionally throw-up on someone. And that someone is usually God. I don’t mean to do it; it just happens. But I don’t really think He minds.

The greatest thing about throwing up on God is that He doesn’t try to give me answers. I hate venting to someone who feels like they have to calm me down or “fix it” right off. He’s the only person who seems to understand that all I want to do is just release my pent-up frustration.

I think we often feel like it’s not okay to be honest with God. Like it’s not okay to tell Him what’s really going on in our hearts. As if we’ve forgotten that He already knows exactly what we’re thinking and feeling. Maybe it’s the home I was raised in (one that was very open to expressing our emotions), but I don’t see anything wrong with spilling my guts to God.

But maybe, just maybe, you didn’t know it’s okay to tell God how you really feel. Maybe you needed someone to give you permission to throw-up on God. And maybe you needed to be reminded that the very reason Jesus came and died and tore the temple veil is so that you could approach Him with everything – even the emotional throw-up.

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11/24/2011

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Live the Journey

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Because a Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart

Thanksgiving is a great holiday. It’s the one day a year that everyone is mindful of the many blessings in their lives. It’s a day that we’re reminded to celebrate the things we should be celebrating every single day of our lives. And while there are days I fail to express my gratitude, today I want to stop and say that I’m thankful for:

family who loves me no matter what I say or do:

friends who keep me laughing (and laughter that keeps me sane):

authors who have impacted my life with their words:

horses that let me ride them:

letters in the mail:

all the beautiful things you find at the ocean:

every morning I’m allowed to wake up to this glorious view:

the God who has blessed me so abundantly…

Happy Thanksgiving. May you realize how truly, wonderfully, immensely blessed you are.

What are you thankful for?

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11/21/2011

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Sing-Along Scriptures

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The Word

So, I may have a slight fascination with words. (That’s why I’m a writer.) I used to think that this fascination was the reason John 1:1 jumped out at me. But then I began to wonder… Perhaps it’s the other way around. Perhaps my fascination with the English language is a reflection of my fascination with the Eternal Word.

I dare you to read John 1 and not be moved by it. Go ahead and try to study it without having your mind blown. It moves from creation to salvation in a mere eighteen verses.

Jesus is the Word that spoke life into being. The Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word that came to rebuild and restore.

The Bible says that no one has ever seen God, and yet… the Word – who came and walked among us, lived our lives, breathed our air, dreamed our dreams, and died for the sins of us all – has made God known to us.

So during this Thanksgiving season, I’m thankful that the Word became flesh and stepped into my story in order to tear the veil inside my heart and speak new life into my existence.

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11/18/2011

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Heartfelt Prayers

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Sometimes…

To the One Who Came to Free Prisoners,

Sometimes I look out at the mountains and forget that they’re a reflection of how big You are. Sometimes I watch the clouds drift by on the canvas of the sky and fail to see the proof that You’re still creating beautiful things. Sometimes I watch the seasons change without realizing that they’re a reminder that You’re in control. Sometimes I forget that every single day I wake up breathing is a gift. Sometimes I forget to live the journey. And by sometimes, I mean most times.

I don’t mean to seem ungrateful; it’s just that I find it so easy to forget – so easy to allow myself to get caught up in the mundane and weighed down in the trivial. But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life this way.

Today… Today I want to see. I want to live. I want to embrace each moment as they come.

So if You don’t mind, I’m asking You to open up my eyes and help me embrace the wonder of this moment here and now. And the moment after that. And the moment after that. Until I am, at last, fully and wonderfully alive.

 

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11/16/2011

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Live the Journey, Sing-Along Scriptures

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The Door of My Heart

In light of my recent announcement that I’m stepping out and pursuing a new dream, a co-worker of mine decided to educate me on the subject of open doors. It’s his personal opinion that God doesn’t open doors. He claims that the doors are always open with the exception of one… the door of our hearts. Now, it’s a great theory, and I would agree that sometimes our hearts are the only door left to open. But that’s not always the case.

Sometimes my heart feels ready before the rest of me is. And sometimes I want to go barging through a door I probably shouldn’t open yet. A look through my journals will prove that I’ve been jiggling the knob on this door for a little over a year now. Trust me, if it wasn’t locked, I’d have gone right through it a long time ago and ended up who-knows-where. But it was locked. Because God knew I needed a little more preparation before starting this new journey.

Maybe the doors in my co-worker’s life are always open, but the doors in mine are definitely closed because God isn’t worried about having to fight with my heart; He’s worried that my heart is going to move sooner than my head.

And maybe there are doors that God has left hanging open, waiting for the day we finally have the courage to step over the threshold. But most doors are left closed until the timing is right, and then there is nothing that could keep you from walking into the great unknown.

“This is the message from the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open.” -Revelation 3:7

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11/14/2011

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Things That Inspire

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Tell Me a Story…

Tell me a story any day, and I’ll find Jesus in it. Guaranteed.

That’s why I think it’s funny that there are people who consider fiction a waste of time. Fact is all that speaks to them. Even Christian people. People who have read the entire story of the Bible. People who study the STORIES Jesus told.

I think Jesus told more stories than He preached sermons. Or maybe I just remember the stories. Because I’m not one of those people who wants the facts. I want the story. I want to find my own truth through the eyes of a character. There are certain things you could preach to me all day, and I’d turn a deaf ear. But with a story, you’re presenting the truth in a non-threatening way.

Think of King David. After his sin with Bathsheba, God sent Nathan, not to preach a sermon, but to tell a story. (You can check it out in 2 Samuel 12.) Why? Because if Nathan would have barged in there and told David all he had done wrong, David would have gotten defensive. But Nathan didn’t start pointing fingers. He posed a “hypothetically speaking” story that got David’s blood boiling. And that’s when David acknowledges that he has sinned against the Lord.

The story and the sermon have the same message, but only one reaches the heart of the person who hears it. Because only one is capable of disarming the defenses. After all, what threat is there in a story?

I’m reading a story right now that isn’t even a Christian story. It’s mainstream YA fiction, but I see Jesus all over it. It’s a story about taking risks and finding that some things are worth fighting for. It’s about a girl who has lived all of her life in a bubble and is about to break free.

I’m not sure that I’ve lived in a bubble (leastwise, not so much as the heroine in Ally Condie’s Matched), but I’m definitely on the verge of taking a huge risk, so Cassia’s story has been as encouraging and inspirational as it is well-written.

So tell me a story… and it might just be the thing that catapults me into taking that final step and breaking out of the little world I’ve created for myself.

What stories has God used to challenge you lately?

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11/11/2011

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Live the Journey

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Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat

When I was young, my cousin and I used to sit on a raft in her pool and rock back and forth, back and forth, until we created waves that lapped over the edge of the pool. It terrified me to think that if I were to slip back into the water, I would be in over my head. I hated water. I still do. But something about the waves we created fascinated me enough to make me keep rocking back and forth, back and forth.

You know what else is both terrifying and fascinating at the same time? God’s call on each of our lives.

I think back to a time that Jesus played with water, perhaps similarly  to how my cousin and I did when we were young. Only He was walking in the middle of a storm-tossed sea when He invited Peter out to play with Him. I wonder what was going through Peter’s head when Jesus told Him he really could climb out of the boat. Did he think he would drown? Did he know he would sink?

I wonder if the other disciples thought Peter was crazy for even considering jumping overboard. Didn’t he know it was safer in the boat? Didn’t he know he could drown?

Of course he knew. Of course he was afraid – probably even terrified. But Peter saw what so many of us fail to see through our fears. He saw that there was something better out there. He saw the thrill of walking on water. He saw that the risk was worth it. He saw Jesus beckoning him to play in the waves. And for a few, shaky steps, Peter lived the dream that the rest of the disciples merely dreamed because, unlike the rest of them, he faced his fears and took the risk.

Today I encourage you to rock the boat, make some waves, and take a step of faith, knowing that the One who called you is faithful to fulfill His promises.

Remember, you can live your dream, or die dreaming. As for me, I choose to live.

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11/09/2011

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Live the Journey

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Being Led by Needs

Today I was slapped in the face by a ministry update I was reading. It talked of being led by needs rather than calling, and how easy it is to let those needs drive us. The reason it hit me so hard is because I’ve recently realized that I do a whole lot of stuff that needs to be done, but is not what I need to be doing. And I feel like God has been saying to me, “Hey, Rebekah, stop living someone else’s life and just live how I’ve called you to live, already!”

But these needs drive me. They’ve driven me for a long time. It’s easy to think that responding to needs is the right thing to do. But it isn’t. Not always.

As my partner in ministry pointed out in his letter: “Lazarus was dead. He needed life. Jesus had life. Jesus didn’t go. I would have gone!!!”

I would have gone too. Because going is what I do. I go and go and go until I can’t go any farther, and as I lay there panting for breath, God says, “Now will you listen?”

It’s not about the needs; it’s about the call. Even good things can be bad things when they’re not the right things. And sometimes you have to let Lazarus die so a greater purpose can be revealed.

Does it hurt? Oh, yeah. Jesus wept when Lazarus was still in the tomb, and He knew the miracle that was about to occur. I’m stepping out on a limb here, trusting, hoping, praying everything will work out in the end. There’s faith, but not certainty. Trust, but not stability. And that’s okay. Because there is certainty and stability in the fact that I’m being called. And though I can’t see where my next step is going to land, I’m taking the step regardless. And I’m letting myself be led by the call, rather than the needs I see around me.

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11/07/2011

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Sing-Along Scriptures

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Chasing the Wind

I was talking to a missionary friend about doctrine the other day. He said it’s something he’s been struggling with lately as he visits churches here in the States. He’s had a couple of churches tell him that they’d only be willing to support him if he and the pastors he supervises preach the doctrine these churches believe.

Now, I’m not saying doctrine is a bad thing. It’s great… until it gets in the way of more important things. The little details that define denominations are not the Gospel that my friend is proclaiming. And when people in India are dying without ever coming to know the Lord, what does it matter what they believe about predestination? The only thing that matters is that they are saved.

You can analyze the entire Bible and interpret it whatever way you wish, but there are certain truths that never change no matter how you look at them. As long as Jesus remains in the center of things, the other details are just details – and they shouldn’t keep anyone from getting involved in what God is doing around the world.

I couldn’t help but smile as my friend confessed that some of the driest seasons of his life were in seminary – with all that knowledge, all that theology, all that doctrine. It reminded me of the verse in Ecclesiastes that says, “Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.” (chapter 1, verses 17-18)

You can know everything there is to know about Christianity and still feel as if you’re missing something because it’s not doctrine that draws us to the heart of the Father; it’s His unfathomable love and mercy. And while it’s important to know what you believe, you can’t let the little things separate you from other believers. God never intended for doctrine to divide His church. Don’t get so caught up in chasing the wind that you miss the miracle of what God is doing in this moment here and now.