Up and Out:The Movement

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to fix someone else’s problem? Take for instance this morning. I start my car, drive it to the Wawa to get gas, shut it off, go to start it back up and all of a sudden good ol’ Morning Glory decides that’s the moment she doesn’t want to turn over. My initial thought was “Awww! Baby doesn’t like the cold just like her mom” and I laughed. I tried to start it a few more times unsuccessfully. Then the reality set in. I have an ACTUAL problem. The only thing I could think to do in that moment was to call Bryan to come help me. Never mind I had jumper cables in the back and could have asked any of the 50 people in Wawa to jump me, or that I could have pulled the helpless girl card and opened my hood and waited for a nice person to ask if they could help. Nope! None of those things came to mind. The only thing that made sense to me was to make my loving fiancé turn back around from driving to work and come and rescue me. 

Of course as Bryan was pulling into the parking lot, he was greeted with my car running strong as in the wait time a gentleman asked if I needed help. The timing of things can make you laugh sometimes! Though the gesture was kind, it still only got me from point A to B and not the finish line, though I’m sure all the morning commuters trying to get gas were grateful I was no longer hoarding a precious bay. Truth was I still needed a solution to the bigger problem and I couldn’t think of how to do it at the moment. 

Thankfully Bryan swooped in with a clear mind, able to see the full picture. He suggested going across the street to AutoZone, having the battery checked, and either buying a new one or a jumper box to make it through the day. Good news, it was just the battery and he had it installed and the situation taken care of in the sacrifice of a lunch break. It probably would’ve taken me half the day. Why? Because I was in it. 

Back to my original question. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to fix someone else’s problem? Well there’s a reason for that. All of the many solutions never come to mind when you’re in it, because solutions exist where the problem is not. Inside the problem, vision is always cloudy and this makes it difficult to see through to  the other side on your own. This is why we need each other. (Maybe you didn’t catch that...I mean it’s like a literal NEED like air and water and food and shelter). We need someone to reach through the fog and with extended arm grab our hand and pull us out of the cloud to be able to find the solution. This is why it’s imperative to be looking up and out and not down and in at ourselves. People need us! We need people! When we’re focused on helping others we are at the right perspective to see the solution to their problems and help them out of it. 

Can you imagine if everybody adopted this mindset? In theory, we wouldn’t have to worry about our own backs cuz we’d have countless people watching our backs for us. Gone would be the days of spinning our wheels, wasting time trying to figure out how to get out of the fog that we are in. Don’t be fooled though! Helping another person requires sacrifice as it did for Bryan today, BUT I promise you the reward and return rate is sooooo much greater than what is lost. 

So....are you with me? 

Up and Out:The Movement!

Hit me!

Life is like a deck of cards. Some people are dealt a Full House, others a Straight Flush, and so on. Many days I feel like I got dealt the Joker, an Ace, and the Instructions. WTF do I do with that???

Often we try to make moves based on someone else’s cards, that we aren’t holding. Or we fold. Or we bluff trying to convince ourselves and others we don’t really have what’s in our hand. So naturally we find ourselves getting frustrated or anxious or defeated. But why do we forget about the most obvious option...the only option that produces hope?

Trust the dealer. He’s got the deck and at any moment can deal me out exactly what I need.

Painting with the Master

I’ve been painting as a trade for a number of years now. Even if you are on a crew, sooner or later you will find yourself alone...just you, a paintbrush and God. Some of my greatest God moments have come out of these times. By nature I am energetic and on the move...something is always going full speed ahead whether it be my mind or body, otherwise I’m asleep. When my body is busy my mind is at rest, and when my mind is busy my body is at rest. Thus I find it much easier to hear what God is saying when I’m doing mindless busy work (the auto pilot stuff like showering, washing dishes, driving, and painting) as I’m not clogging my brain up with my own thoughts. The not so great part about that is, my hands are a little too busy to write it all down in the moment. (High fives to the guy who created the talk to text feature.) So without further adieu here’s the highlights from my last “painting session with the Master”. 

A little bit of light and a different shade of color really changes what we see. Many times in the painting business, we can’t see a wall’s imperfections until we put a different coat of paint on the wall or shine a bright light on it. In the dark, we can’t see what’s wrong to fix it, but shine some light and things get a lot clearer. Once the lighting is good, we can fix what is visible. Next in the process is a coat of paint. Often with the new color, more imperfections pop up that we missed the first time around because of the way the new color absorbs or reflects the light.

Funny thing is life is fairly similar. The way I see it, we are just like these walls I paint...full of imperfections. Over time we get bumped and scratched; at times there are gaping holes to be patched from a poorly negotiated boundary; some areas might need some filling and sanding or even a redesign to function properly. But just like these walls, we can’t even see what’s wrong until we are introduced to the light (Jesus). Likewise, we go through many colors in life as well. The colors can range from dull, to dark and piercing, to bright and cheery, or even calming bringing relief to our soul. The light looks different depending on the color at the time. Regardless, with each new color, something different is brought to the surface to fix as we didn’t see it before in that light. 

All this light shining and color changing in our lives I’m convinced God certainly orchestrates. It’s not to point out our wrongs to make us feel guilt and shame but instead to bring things to light so we can be our very best. After all, how could we ever see the imperfections to fix them, without the light? And how would we find what needs fine tuning if we didn’t have different colors highlighting them? Its God’s love that He walks with us through all the different lightings and shades this life brings. And in His grace and mercy He doesn’t illuminate them all at once. Otherwise we might have half a mind to just tear the wall down and start over. And what kind of hope would that give to all the walls still standing if a tear down was the only way? None. We need every wall there is, in the phase it’s in, to do exactly what it was made to do...to stand and be a testament of what it is in that moment. Just as painters are pretty skilled at this fixing wall business...God’s pretty skilled at this fixing people business (He should be. He created them.) Maybe, just maybe, we should trust Him a little more with what He’s good at and stick to what it is we are good at. After all it would look pretty silly if that wall told me what I needed to do to fix it. Don’t you agree? Just about as silly as it must look to God when we say we know better than Him. 

Bringing Joy Out of the Closet

Can I tell you how nice it was to be able to pick out clothes to wear today in the comfort and warmth of my room! This past September my fiancé and I, a 36 year old fiercely independent from birth, moved back into my parent’s house. We barely were able to squeeze our belongings into our space and consequently my closet ended up out in the sunroom, sheltered from the elements but not temperature. In the dim light of morning and through frigid temperatures I begrudgingly chose each days attire all winter. By the time spring rolled around, I had enough. Seeing and hearing how stressed out this clothing situation was making me, my loving fiancé came home with a surprise this week and built me a closet. (Shout out to Bryan Arnett. Thank you so much for listening and putting love to action.) Had I had that closet when I moved in, it would not be as special as it felt. Sure, I would not have gone through pain but I also would have never experienced the joy of simply picking out clothes each and every morning. 

Sometimes we take the simplest things for granted. But oh the joy of losing something then regaining it. That’s one of the many benefits of fasting, it reminds you to be grateful for the everyday things like having food or being able to eat. Maybe that’s even the point of Job. Reading that story in the Bible, it’s hard not to focus on what he lost. But maybe Job could never truly understand the blessing of what he had and the joy it brought until it was gone. How great must his joy have been when God blesses Him with even greater things than he had. Maybe if we’re honest we can see ourselves in the story of Job and find ourselves focusing on the “have not‘s”. If so, I want to encourage you today with this, try focusing on the blessing that is coming even if it’s not here yet. Faith is what moves mountains. If you need a tougher challenge, try reshaping your belief to see that God is actually good to allow us pain. Only through it do we grow immensely. Only through it do we learn gratitude for what we have before it’s gone. Only through it do we experience exceedingly great joy, the kind that will overshadow the pain one day. So let’s focus on faith believing the blessing is on its way because it’s about time to let that joy of of the closet! 

An Ode to the Gold

Recently, my parents celebrated their 50th anniversary. It was a night full of surprises as the video compilation shows. This is the poem I wrote for them on that evening.

An Ode to the Gold 

Life Lived Psalm 107:23-31 Style

50 years and many seasons 

The swells of life’s oceans can bring

But hand in hand you sailed on together

To gaze on sunsets you’ve never dreamed

You’ve seen many lands and played many roles

Your boat’s even run aground too

But God never let you be shipwrecked for long

Because wherever you went He did too

Mom and Dad you set the bar high

In living a life that you gave away

Not just for your immediate crewBut to all God’s shipmates each and every day

You’ve tirelessly served, swabbed countless decks

Battled pirate attacks and fixed tattered sails 

I’m sure there’s many days you felt like walking the plank

But through it all you chose love and prevailed

No we may not have had the best of the land 

It’s fancy toys, pleasures and comforts

But our gain from your life lived in such a way

Is the greatest treasure you left for us

There is no weather too difficult to bear

No place where we can’t roam

In stormy seas you found the secret

Hold tight to the anchor and let the compass guide us home

So on this day we celebrate

Together here and with others mates too

Because a boat sailed so well has a habit of changing

The course of surrounding boats too

If you’d like to check out the video watch it here:

https://youtu.be/k0_4KBhXhYA