When You Don’t Want to Let Go

7-30-17

Hey there! There’s a bonus download for this article. For a worksheet to help you decide if the goal you’ve got in mind is the one for you, check it out here.

Life has a funny way of hitting us where we’re vulnerable. It’s where I’m unsure that things try to drag me down. Like when I have a long term goal that’s not essential but that I really REALLY want. Writing, for example. Even though I don’t want to let go of a goal, sometimes I start to question it.I start wondering if the goal is really worth it. If I’m good enough to make it happen. Especially if it’s something that mostly depends on me. What happens if I spend years working for it and nothing ever comes of it? What if there’s something more important I should have been doing, but I didn’t see it because I was too focused on something else? I get stressed just thinking about it.

Continue reading “When You Don’t Want to Let Go”

Mirrors and Flashlights

7-9-17

My ceiling fan and I are having a misunderstanding. The light bulbs in it blew. To change them I have to stand on a step stool, unscrew the fastener from beneath the globe, bring the globe down, and switch the bulbs. To put the globe back on I have to manage the globe and then the screw on fastener through the pull cord. While balancing precariously on that step ladder. Which makes it a two person job. And since I bought the wrong kind of bulb, it means until I’m at the store again I am using a flashlight to navigate the bedroom. It’s just not the same. 

The overhead light gives enough light to see the room. The flashlight isn’t powerful enough. There are mirrors, but they don’t add to the light that is there. They only reflect. It helps, but it’s still not enough.

People are like that. Some people, like my husband, are bright overhead bulbs that reach every corner of the room they are in. I’m more of a localized flashlight that brightens up a small area or even just a mirror that doesn’t add anything on its own but keeps light going a little longer.

Sometimes I wonder why church doesn’t seem more “on fire”. The thing is, enthusiasm has to come from people. No matter how animated a preacher is or how bubbly my pew neighbor is, if I don’t at least reflect it, that’s where it stops. If I don’t make a little light on my own, how can I be disappointed if a church service feels flat?

…from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. – Ephesians 4:16

We can’t go to church to have other people make the service and atmosphere for us. Church is not a spectator sport. It’s up to me to bring something to work with. There will be times life wrings the feeling right out of me and I need to lean on my church family. When someone else is having one of those weeks though, I need to be ready with my own bulb.  

If everyone in service brought the exact amount of enthusiasm I came with today, what would that feel like? Now I’m going to squirm for a minute. I’m usually a reserved person. I’m content to sit in my corner and be invisible. My personality type likely isn’t going to change. I don’t have to make a spotlight out of myself, but I think I can at least graduate from a mirror to a candle.

How do you add to the atmosphere at church or get-togethers?

May the Lord bless and keep you,

Heather 

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How will they know us?

6-25-17

People in general want to feel like we are part of something. That we belong somewhere. We want to be involved in something bigger than ourselves and to feel like we matter to someone. Groups we join typically want to be recognizable by other people as a group. Maybe they make a t-shirt or give membership cards. Being a Christian is like that, except we shouldn’t have to have a t-shirt, necklace, or bumper sticker for people to know that we are Christians. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with those, but there’s a recognizable way we should be living – in love.Continue reading “How will they know us?”