The right person....

This morning I'm feeling EXHAUSTED, weary, worn out. Tired of fighting the same fights... Teaching the same lessons... Saying the same things.... I started to ponder, "What if God chose the wrong person for this job?" Maybe I'm just not good enough, patient enough, smart enough, kind enough to be the one to do THIS job.

That's when it hit me. Moses. Moses didn't think he was enough either. Moses said but God I'm not eloquent.... but God I'm not a leader... but God I'm not... and God said, "I am."

I would like to propose:  if you don't feel too small for the job in front of you then maybe you aren't positioned in front of the right job. If you feel qualified.... If you feel trained...  If you feel big enough to do this.... Then what room is left for God?  See if Moses could have convinced Pharoah all by himself, God's power and glory would not have needed to be revealed.

Like Paul said, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power will rest in me." (2 Cor 2:19)

Today is going to be a day where God's POWER is revealed through his very weak, exhausted and weary child. I am at the end of an exhausting week which is near the end of an exhausting month. I am not going to worry or stress about how I am going to get through this day. I am going to put one foot in front of the other and do the best I can while waiting and watching for God's POWER to be revealed.

Worship Wednesday: What if the Mountain is You?

Take 7 minutes of your life... Watch this video... It is an original song by Dave Loftis (GREAT set of pipes on this guy!  I promise.)  But listen to the lyrics and contemplate this simple idea... What if YOU are what is holding you back from what God has in store for your life.. Yeah... I know.. It cut me to the quick too!  Hope it ministers to you today.

Birthday cake...

(I know this may seem like I mis-posted this blog and meant to put it at my cooking blog, but be patient with me... it isn't mis-posted.)

When planning a birthday party, one of the most important parts is THE CAKE.  There are SO many options available to you:

*make a cake from scratch
*make a cake from a box mix
*buy a cake from the grocery store
*buy a cake from a specialized bakery

And there are also a CRAZY amount of hybrid options:

*make the frosting from scratch but the cake from a mix
*pay a friend who dabbles in cake decorating to make a cake
*buy a pre-made angel food cake and frost it yourself

As you see, there are SO MANY MORE ways than just one way to make a cake.

Life's like that too.  There is more than one way to worship God:

*independently
*as a family
*with your church family
*hands in the air
*quietly seated
*flat on your face

And there are a CRAZY amount of hybrid options:

*alone in a private room just you and God
*in the almost privacy of your car
*at church
*at a meal with friends

In just about EVERY area of life there are so many OPTIONS!!!!

*worship
*denominations
*dress standards
*parenting
*diet/nutrition
*fitness

and on and on and on...

I've been pondering the concept lately of why so many of us (especially Christians it seems to me) seem to live with this opinion that we should all "look" alike.  So many of us seem to mistakenly identify differences as sin. Christians can't:

*have tattoos
*dance
*drink
*choose not to spank their children
*send their children to a public school
*vote for Obama (oooooh my she's getting political)
*listen to secular music
*wear pants, shorts, words written on their butts

It confuses me continually. Please do not mistake me. I am NOT exempting myself!  I CONSTANTLY catch myself doing the, "I would never..." thing in my head.  I am not exempt from this disease.  There was a day when I looked VERY disdainfully down my nose at any Christian who would consider participating in yoga and all of its eastern mysticism and SATANISM!  It's funny how God sometimes makes you eat your words... I actually now find yoga to be a very relaxing practice (oh no she did not!  did she just admit in PUBLIC that she is a Christian and she does yoga????).  It is my personal belief that yoga CAN be done for the pure relaxation of the practice and that when calming one's mind and spirit one CAN focus on the one true God instead of anything mystical.  You do NOT have to agree with me on this, but I guess that's my point....

Why can't we all just allow people to arrive upon their own convictions? Why can't we let each person's Christianity and convictions and lifestyles and parenting choices and wardrobe malfunctions be THEIR choices and let THEM live with the consequences?  Why can't we all just get our eyes on the mirror instead of out the window?

I know.  I know.  There's that pesky little verse in Galatians:

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore the person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1

I know and believe in this verse; however, I think too many of us apply it a bit liberally.  See the words that JUMP out at me are "caught in a SIN" and "gently"....

I was JUST discussing this lately with a friend... How when "restoring a person gently" we need to be ABSOLUTELY 100% sure that we are restoring them from SIN. Yoga is NOT sin. Tattoos are NOT sin. Alcohol is NOT sin. Adultery IS sin. Murder IS sin. Lying IS sin.

Here's my challenge today. I said it once already but I blabbered on so maybe the point was lost.  There are MANY different ways to make a cake!  So why not stop looking out the window and start gazing in the mirror. (I know I'm mixing up my analogies but I'm pretty sure you catch my drift.)

Have a great night everyone!

The God inside "a Jami"....

I had a Jami on Friday. Oh boy! Did I have a Jami!  Let me set the scene... and remember I haven't slept in FOREVER!

The Friday prior, I had a service man out to work on our washer.  If you have been a long time reader of this blog you will recall that this washer is NOT old.  Just eleven months old to be exact.  This is the THIRD time we've had to have it serviced (can you say THANK YOU LORD for a warranty?!?!?!?) and the man reported we would need ANOTHER new transmission (what is UP with this lemon???) So anyway after a week with no washer, in spite  of a trip to the laundromat, WOW! were we READY to see the washer repair guy return to install the parts which had FINALLY arrived.

So I went downstairs to get my morning work started, and Jeremiah came running downstairs, "Kiah ran away!" I rushed upstairs to assess the situation.  As I did, Noah called to say he was chasing Kiah through the cul de sac  behind our house. I got in the van to drive the leash to him.  I found them, but by the time I did they were in the field BEHIND the cul de sac with some random man I'd never met (a neighbor who came out to help Noah).  I traipsed through snow drifts in FLIP FLOPS to get the leash to Noah and watch as Kiah took off across Madison Road into the cornfield across the street.  I traipsed back THROUGH the snow bank in my flip flops and got in the van to depart the cul de sac, pass our house and get on Madison Road.

As I passed my house I saw the washer repair guy in the driveway.  I stopped to tell him I would be right back, and he informed me he could not enter the house until I got back... ERGH!  I got to Noah and random nice stranger (I'm starting to wonder if he was really an angel) and found Kiah was just PLAYING with us!  Zipping around the field... Coming close then going far away... Finally, random stranger tackled her and Noah was able to get the leash on her.  We traveled home and let the washer repair guy in, and I was EXHAUSTED and thinking what a Jami!  Little did I know....

We did school while the washer guy fixed our machine.  We did a happy dance because we could wash clothes again.  Meanwhile I received a phone call for work which was IRRITATING to say the least!  All I have to say about that is, "Do you want a job or not people???  Don't treat me like a bill collector!  I'm trying to HELP you get this job!"  Okay I'm done with my rant.

So I finished up that tangled situation and Noah came into my office, "Mom," he said very quietly and depressed, "I think I lost my cell phone when we were chasing Kiah." OHMIGOSH!  Actually this did not come as a big surprise to me, because I had tried to call him at one point during the fiasco, and he didn't answer.  But too much was happening then for me to process what that meant.

We hoped back in the car and traveled over to the first field Kiah frolicked in because I was pretty sure he had called me from that field and then not answered after that.  Noah said we should pray, and we did. The wind was whipping like CRAZY!  There was a high wind advisory that day. And I kept calling Noah's phone and praying he would hear it.  I also prayed that God would lead him to that phone. Noah tracked the sound of the phone zig zagging across the field.  I could tell he had the "scent" of it.  Finally he threw his hand up in the air in VICTORY! He found it!  It wasn't in a puddle.  It wasn't gnawed up by an animal. It wasn't lost forever.  He found the proverbial needle in the haystack (which shall from now on be called the cell phone in the corn field)!  Imagine our surprise therefore when he opened it up to find the ringer was disabled.  What in the WORLD had he heard then???  All of a sudden the MIRACLE of finding the phone in that HUGE field became breathtaking as we realized he could NOT have been hearing the real ringer.  God must have been leading him... whispering to him via the sound of a cell phone ringer because that phone's ringer was OFF!

Here I am finally at the inspiration part of my blog today:

God is ALWAYS inside "a Jami."  He is there!  I don't believe He causes the bad things to happen, but I believe He is right THERE making a way for good to come of it.  I believe that He laid His hand of protection over that tiny little cell phone for HOURS until we realized that it was gone.  Then He led us to the right field (through the whispering to my heart about the unanswered call) and STRAIGHT to the phone (through my son's ear which is finely tuned to sounds AND to God's voice). Not because that cell phone was SO important.  But because He wanted to teach us a lesson.... And likely because He KNEW that I would BLAB that lesson to all of you too.

God is THERE in the midst of our catastrophe!  He is THERE!  He doesn't want the chaos and craziness to be happening to us but we live in this evil, sinful world and there is NO way to avoid ALL of the yuck of the world we live in. But do NOT be deceived!  He is RIGHT there! Waiting and working and planning so that SOMEHOW even your worst tragedy turns out for your victory.

Hang on my dear friend!  Wait for it!  Wait for it!  There it IS!  The God inside "a Jami"!

It's all about the zzzzzzzzzz's.....

BWAH!!!!!!!  I have not slept in a week and a half!  (Okay to be real, I haven't slept in 11 years 4 month and 13 days but who's counting?) I tell you everything goes to pot when you're not sleeping well. My healthy living resolution? out the door. My patience? I think it's hiding in IL with half of our state senators. My clarity of mind? Well, I guess I never really had that one.

I can't figure out exactly WHY I'm not sleeping well. Our children have been randomly taking turns coming into our bed each night, but that's nothing new. There is a bit of added stress with Auntie Marge being in the nursing home, but I've DONE stress before. I have SIGNIFICANTLY increased my writing for Demand Studios in an attempt to get John home more. But idk... it's a bit of a mystery.

Anywhoos... this blog really isn't about my sleeping problems DIRECTLY it is about what they correlate to... so let's move on.

Sleep seems like such a small thing. You don't really have to DO anything.  It doesn't require special equipment like a treadmill. You don't need a qualified instructor like for Pilates. You don't need a doctor with a degree. You just lay down and close your eyes and VOILA! Your body makes magic. It rejuvenates!  It relaxes!  It HEALS!  Sleep is VERY important to the well-being of your body, even though it doesn't seem like such a big deal.

Prayer's like that too. It seems like such a small thing.  It's just talking to God.  It's not delving deep into theology. It's not even reading the Word. It doesn't require any tools or gadgets. You don't need a professor with a doctorate in Theology. You just talk to God (or listen), and VOILA! magic!  You are rejuvenated!  You are relaxed!  Walls are broken down!  Infirmities are healed! Broken hearts are mended you are HEALED!  It is my proposition that prayer is the SINGLE most vital ingredient to a Christian's well being.

Take a little time today and PRAY. It will do your body, mind, and soul GOOD!  (Oh and don't forget about the sleep too!)