Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Wake Up


*Days they force you back under those covers
lazy mornings they multiply...
but glory's waiting outside your window
So wake on up from yourslumber.... Baby, open up your eyes...

West Coast Greetings friend! 

It's currently 2pm from where I reside. I'm surrounded by the rolling hills of wine country.
I'm writing you from a Starbucks that biked to. 

{Don't worry, I pinched myself too...}

Before I ventured out to the west side of the nation, I was plagued by heartache. Why? because...

Break ups suck. 
Right? Right 
Especially when the person you broke up with was supposed to be "the one". 
Right? Right.
& now your trying to figure out how you got where you did. What you could have done differently to change it....followed by realizing you did nothing to cause anything "wrong" or "bad" to make anything happen. That you aren't in control of your own life.... and then you accept the tough realization that you wouldn't want a single thing to have changed from what has unfolded. 
& you fully embrace the time & place & the circumstances & all that has brought you to this moment. 
Right? Right. 

I feel like my heart & head have been on the craziest almost-8-week roller coaster. And that parts of them were put in a blender and then some really mean source of energy hit the power button. & pureed everything. 

I'm not going to paint a pretty picture. Heart ache is messy. It brings out ugliness & exposes some of the corners that often times most people will never see. I'm telling you the truth. Not how I want you to think or what I'd like you to think. Mostly because through the brutality of what can some days feel like a never ending bad movie, joy resounding & adventure awaited is often times just on the other side...
Tongues are violent & personal & focused
Tough to beat with your steady mind
But hearts are stronger afterbroken
So, wake on up from yourslumber
Baby, open up your eyes...

Joy Resounding.
Adventure Awaited.

It's pretty plain. And even more so simple. You have choice. 
You stay weak in your own darkness. You stay bound by the heartache. You even stay entranced with your situation. And victimize yourself. You let others patronize your pain. You give others power of your moods. Your feelings. You stay simple. And manageable. & slowly but surely you let yourself 
defeat you. 

Or.....

All these victims
Stand in line for
The crumbs that fall from thetable
Just enough to get by
All the while,
Your invitation....


You push against the grain. You can trust God. Who won't ever lead you to brokenness. 
Who just so happens to specialize in restoration. 
You can dig deep. Really deep. 
You can take back what's been stolen. taken. or even what was freely given and not returned.
You can reclaim your strength
And own it. 
And move onward, forward into joy resounding & adventure awaited....
{{I've seen Him everywhere}} 

...Taste of the breakthrough & open wide...

I can honestly say that the past week of my life spent in Southern California was filled with glimpses and visions of the woman God is making me to be. Sometimes to really see God, we have to step out of what we know and enter into where there is no framework in order to allow Him to start reconstructing & instructing the road mapping...
& sometimes you're blessed enough to have lives intersect yours along the way that bring you laughter...

I just needed a wake up.

I can say in full sincerity that my life isn't really working out the way I planned...
& you know what. I thank God it isn't....


... Join me?
Sing it like we used to
& we'll dance like we wantto
Come on, darlin' & open up your eyes...

*Slumber by Need To Breathe

Sunday, September 16, 2012

& I felt....

I've never written a blog from the bathroom floor.... until right now...

6 weeks. 42 days. 
That's been my extent of my surrender journey thus far. 

It's funny how that feels so much longer than it's been... And at the same time, hours can creep by, leaving me craving for something far beyond the painstaking passing of moments...

Once again, The Lord's timing is perfect... I'm getting ready to step away of what has been familiar... what has been secure... or has appeared to be. Away from some of the deepest hurts I've felt in almost 23 years....

I've finally caught a glimpse... maybe even a glimmer, of the light that is my very life.
My purpose... and all that God is truly asking of me..
*" Would I chose a future I could generate & control myself?- or would I sign on for the vagaries of a God guided life?..."

Being the control freakazoid that I am... you can imagine a question posed such as this would shutter my categories ever so slightly.

" Why not put your whole life in God's hands? Why not trust Him fully? I challenge you to give Him full clearance to lead your life - every area of your life- until the point that He proves Himself to be untrustworthy... At that moment. You can bail..." 

I finally decided that I was all in... and in realizing this, I was confronted with the honest truth, that God had really already decided for me...

I personally feel that in some cases, God will allow us to have our way, despite His promptings for something more for us... He'll allow complacent Christians to stay complacent, comfortable...

But I think for those who are pressing in... who are asking for more... who want to be fully utilized... who have an eternal motivation... and there's just one, one thing in the way of God having your full attention, heart, energy...

He will jealously fight for you...
& clear the way...
remove the distraction...
alter the road mapping... 
in order for your wings to spread to their full capacity...

He's cut me loose.... & I am more than ready to soar... with His wind under my wings...
"For reasons you do not have to understand, I am calling you to serve _________... 
I am making no promises it will be easy. In fact, it will require more sacrficice than anything else I have asked you to do.....but I am asking you, now...."


con·trol   [kuhn-trohl] verb, noun
         verb (used with object)
1. to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command.
2. to hold in check; curb: to control one's emotions.
3. to eliminate or prevent the flourishing or spread of


sur·ren·der verb \sə-ˈren-dər
         transitive verb
1 : to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand 
2:  to give up completely or agree to forgo especially in favor of another

Control vs. Surrender...They will forever be at opposition... And this is the absolute reason as to why the past 6 weeks, 42 days have been filled with absolutely unadulterated joy soon after compainied by tremendous resounding heart ache that seems to have no resolution...and so on again...

".... At that moment... you can bail.
     - but until then, give God total control... I challenge you to push the throttle as far as you can push it. & live your life wide open to God. See where His way takes you... I have a feeling you'll never regret it." 

I'm leaving in just a few short hours for a little bit of an adventure. The west coast has this alluring appeal I think to anyone really. And San Diego & Sonoma seem like the perfect places to heal a little, don't you agree?

I haven't bought a flight home. That seems rather earth shattering to some of the dearest people in my life, but leaving this trip slightly open ended is allowing some of that surrender-mindset to be carried through out this trip. I'm going away to see what God wants me to see there. To hear what He has to say to me there. When He says come home, I think that will be a good time to buy a flight home...

Until then... I'm all eyes. I'm all ears. Fully trusting. Reckless Abandonment. & ready for my God to simply blow my mind with His goodness.


I am blessed. 
I am beloved.
& I love you.

* All excerpts from Bill Hybels The Power of A Whisper