Repost: A sermon from Hannah Montana

I'm reposting again.... I am just TOO BUSY TO BLOG right now... So instead I am reading through my blog.... Today I'm feeling sassy so I thought I would repost a blog that got me in A HEAP O' TROUBLE!  Oh the heat I took for proposing that Hannah Montana might be able to give me a Word from God... To all of you nay'sayers who think Hannah Montana can't present a GREAT sermon straight from God, need I remind you???? God spoke through a donkey... A DONKEY!

I reiterate a line from this blog:  God uses whom HE chooses!

Hope he uses this repost in your life today.

A sermon from Hannah Montana

A season of solitude....

It seems for quite some time now that God has been walking me through a season of solitude. Some days this solitude is welcome, but some days it is just lonely.

Less than a year ago, we were living in Franklin. We were surrounded by neighbors, about eleven two-family homes on our cul-de-sac. There was hustle and bustle all around us. We had random drop-bys from friends, family, former cheerleaders, and youth group kids. It kept us on our toes and meant we were rarely (if ever) alone. We were involved in a small church where we knew EVERYONE. Going to church wasn't just a spiritual event, it was a social event too. The grocery store was just 5 minutes away and Taco Bell, blessed Taco Bell, was just 5 minutes away as well.

Today, we live in Butt-Nowhere, WI. Our current cul-de-sac holds about seven single-family homes. Our doorbell never rings. Friends have to plan most of a day in order to come visit us. Our church is HUGE, and we hardly know anyone there. The grocery store is 3x as far, and Taco Bell, blessed Taco Bell, I hardly remember what a run for the border feels like.

This morning I was feeling loneliness settling around me. While last week was rough, this week started out even better! (heavy sarcasm here) This weekend Hannah had a bit of a cough, but really nothing to blog about. Sunday afternoon and evening she was running around playing, with a cough, cough here and a cough, cough there. About 8 or 9 p.m., we were lying in my bed watching Hannah Montana The Movie, and she said to me, "Mom I can't keep my eyes open." The poor baby was so wiped out. What I didn't know was that moment was the beginning of a downward spiral. She spent the night vomiting mucous and spiking a fever. At its height her fever was about 103 UNDER HER ARMPIT!!! The next morning we called the pediatrician who wanted to see her, and our fears were confirmed. She has pneumonia. The good news: it was caught early, and therefore will require only a course of antibiotics to get rid of it. The bad news: she can't stand the "pink medicine," and it is VERY hard to get a 3-year old to swallow something they don't want to swallow.

Anyway, I was feeling the exhaustion of having a sick baby on the heels of an emotional week and I started to feel so lonely. As I peered out the window at the gray fog enveloping my neighborhood, I felt the gray fog of sadness crowding in close. All of a sudden in my spirit, I heard Eva's beautiful voice singing:

This world holds nothing for me

I will follow you

This world holds nothing for me

I will follow you

I let the words of that song wash over me:

I need you Jesus to come to my rescue

Where else can I go?

There's no other name by which I am saved

Capture me with grace

I felt Him swarming in and surrounding me. I felt His presence comforting me. My troubles were still there: Hannah still has pneumonia. I am still struggling through an emotional battlefield. I have worries and cares, but:

Lord, I put my trust in You

I think that's the lesson of my "season of solitude..." THIS WORLD HOLDS NOTHING FOR ME. I think my Father has pulled me apart from all the busyness and noise of service and friendship and fun to place me in a simpler, quieter place where I can focus more on Him. Where I allow Him to fulfill all my needs. So here I am these words running through my head:

This world has nothing for me

This world has nothing for me

I will follow You

I will follow You

With my eyes refocused for the day and new hope planted in my heart, I'm going to go start my day. Hope This world holds nothing for you today too.

Blessed are the peacemakers...

Elijah HATES covers. I'm not sure why, but more than once this hatred has caused me a loss of sleep. It did again last night. I awoke shivering and realized I had NO covers on me. I sat up found my covers and pulled them up to my chin, but almost instantly he started whining and kicked them back off. Too tired to fight him to return to his OWN BED or STOP kicking my covers off, I just got up and stumbled off to find an empty bed in our house to sleep in.

As I picked up my phone (which is my alarm), I noticed my indicator light was blinking red. What I found waiting for me was a VICIOUS comment about my blog on Hannah Montana. It was vicious to me (called me a "liberal sinner posing as a Christian") and vicious to Hannah Montana (called her an "abomination"). I rejected the comment, but its words kept swirling around in my head.

What to do? What to do? The comment was RIDICULOUSLY confrontational; therefore, it included an e-mail address in case I wanted to debate. I could reply, "Did you even read this blog before you blasted me and Hannah Montana?" or I could simply reply with scripture, "And over all these virtues put on love...." (Colossians 3:14) However, in the end I chose to take the wise advice of my 16-year old cousin (as professed through her Facebook status just yesterday), "Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction." (Alex Lawson... who may have pirated it from someone else but who cares? for my purposes she gets the credit.)

I decided not to reply, but the whole experience got me thinking... Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9 SEVERAL situations I am facing right now came to my mind, and as I thought through each of them in the context of this verse I realized.... The best choice is always to try to make peace.

"But Jami," you say, "you have NOT met my _______________ (fill in the blank as you see fit: mother, friend Mildred, husband, neighbor). He/She is IMPOSSIBLE to make peace with." I say to you, "PSHAW!" Peace is ALWAYS possible. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Say nothing. When someone says something confrontational to you, when someone tries to pick a fight with you, when someone attacks you, it is very wise to remain silent. When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise. (Proverbs 10:19) Sometimes the best way to "fight back" is to say NOTHING! My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, (James 1:19) You do not HAVE to even reply when someone tries to bait you into an argument or simply says something negative or rude to you.

2. Respond with scripture. If you absolutely MUST respond to a confrontational person or in a confrontational situation, the safest avenue may be to respond with scripture. Recently I was in a VERY painful situation. I was leery of even well-meaning people's misplaced comments. Wisely assessing how difficult the situation was, my mother responded with an e-mail that contained nothing but scripture. It was the BEST response she could have given. DISCLAIMER: you canNOT respond with divisive scripture planned to defensively get back at the person. Choose scriptures about peace, love, and prayer instead.

So there you go.... I am choosing not to fight back (I guess I'm not TRULY choosing silence as I did blog about it, but I am not responding to the outlandish and vicious attacks in that comment.) I am claiming (and standing upon) this promise:

Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. (James 3:18)

This day is a blessing....

Today I read an old blog my sister wrote. Just as I have in the past, she tapped in to the great wisdom available to us all via the lyrics sung by the one and only Hannah Montana: Life’s what you make it so let’s make it rock! I also received a text from a dear friend about how she has been studying about having “intoxicating joy.” She was ministering to me if intoxicating joy rules our life, then no specific circumstances will matter.

Again I don’t claim to be the brightest bulb in the batch; however, I did not just fall off the turnip truck either. I started to see that God has a message for me today. I recalled how last week another friend ministered to me through the lyrics of my FAVORITE band Superchick:

Waking up to another dark morning
People are mourning
The weather in life outside is storming
But what would it take for the clouds to break
For us to realize each day is a gift somehow, someway?
So get our heads up out of the darkness
And spark this new mindset and start to live life cuz it ain't gone yet
And tragedy is a reminder to take off the blinders
And wake up and live the life we're supposed to take up
Moving forward with all our heads up cuz life is worth living

We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love

God’s message to me was clear: live this day! Don’t worry about tomorrow! Don’t wish away this pain! This day is the only day you have been given, and THIS day is GOOD! This day is something to be grateful for. This day is a blessing from God.

I awoke this morning to breakfast in bed, cooked by my amazing husband who had the night before collapsed into bed in grave pain but had awoken this morning determined to push on through his pain and take advantage of this day he had been given. We spent the day with just Noah home, doing chores, spending time together, praying, crying, sharing, and loving. (Okay fine! We did a tiny bit of fighting too!) But this day was a BLESSING! In and of itself, whether there are any more days to share or not, this day was a BLESSING! We are all still a family. We have a roof over our heads. We have food to eat. We have a car to drive. We have jobs. But even if a day comes in the future where we have NONE of that, we have our salvation, and no one and nothing can take THAT away.

Closing tonight with words from I Peter 1…

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (vs 3 – 7)

A Sermon from Hannah Montana

Yesterday, I took my little princess to see Hannah Montana: The Movie. I give it two thumbs up! It was rated G. I just love a rated G movie! I can appreciate a nice throwback to the old days when it was safe to enter a movie theater. The movie had a good storyline with great music and enough country flavor to give this wannabe farm girl her fill. But the best part was the part I didn’t expect. I didn’t expect to be moved to tears. I didn’t expect to hear a sermon from Hannah Montana. However, she preached to me. With her song, The Climb, she delivered a four-point sermon nearly as good as Shane Houle can.

She started singing, and I thought, “Nice song. Good voice.” But then she hit the chorus and with it the sermon began. First she rained conviction over my soul:

There’s always gonna be another mountain
I’m always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose
Ain’t about how fast I get there
Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side
It’s the climb

Life is not easy, not for any of us. All around me I see sickness, financial hardship, and broken hearts. We all struggle. We all have a mountain in front of us. But guess what? That mountain should be embraced instead of shunned, and we need to stop wishing we could make it move and just enjoy the climb. Often I have viewed the things I have struggled through as valleys. I see the tough times in life as deep, dark, forsaken places. Now, thanks to Hannah Montana, I am going to view my struggles as mountains I can enjoy climbing. I want to see myself out in the sunshine struggling to get the top but still enjoying the process that is getting me there.

Hannah Montana wasn’t done preaching to me. She continued her sermon by speaking affirmation to my heart:

The struggles I’m facing
The chances I’m taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I’m not breaking

Sometimes the struggles of life knock us down. Sometimes we are climbing that mountain, but we fall. Recently, I reached a point like that on my path. After I got up and resumed my climb, I still felt so guilty. When I fell down, I worried. I despaired. I cried, screamed and swore. I felt guilty because I should have trusted God. I should have been at peace. I should have praised and worshiped and prayed. But guess what Hannah was telling me? Sometimes we might get knocked down, but we don’t break. Just because we show our human side, doesn’t mean we gave up or lost the battle.

Some of you are probably getting a little tired of this teeny bopper’s sermon, but I wasn’t. God uses whom He chooses, and the next point in this sermon was a wise reminder from a very young girl:

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I’m gonna remember most, yeah

The things that happen on the climb up the mountain are things that will never be forgotten. When I am climbing the mountain in front of me, I learn valuable lessons from God. I build strong bonds with those I love. I model how to climb a mountain to those around me. These are the things I will remember most. Because the climb was difficult, I will never forget the things that happened along the way to the top.

Finally at the end, it was like Hannah Montana wrapped her arms around me and started patting me on the back with her comforting words:

Keep on moving, keep climbing
Keep the faith, baby
It’s all about, it’s all about the climb
Keep the faith, keep your faith, whoa

I heard her crooning don’t give up Jami! You keep on fighting! Don’t forget this message: it’s the climb! You’re not breaking! These are the moments that you’re going to remember the most! KEEP your faith! Keep your FAITH! KEEP YOUR FAITH!

Guess what? I don’t care if you like her or not. I don’t care if you are 5 or 95. This is a message you need to hear too! Stop focusing on the mountain in front of you and start enjoying the climb. When life knocks you to the ground, get back up and get going again. The hardest struggles are going to make the best memories. No matter what you do: keep on moving! Keep climbing! Keep the faith!