page 361

Charles H. Jr.,

You checked out a book back in June of 2014. I found your bookmarker today. A little piece of your forgotten past has amalgamated with my present. 

I wonder did you ever finish? Or did you stop on page 361? Did you stick the hold receipt somewhere in the book when you checked it out, then never getting around to reading the almost 600 page Bonhoeffer, simply return the book to the library without so much as flipping through its pages? 

Anyway, it was cool running into you today on page 361. Maybe I'll catch you again later? 

Our Lord and Savior who?

So I was helping to lead worship this Sunday. It was the first week of a new series called Heart Attack, which takes a look at our relationships and things that wage war against them.

We had a number of things go wrong this morning from microphones not working and buzzing during worship, to our pipes freezing, to the computer crashing numerous times... so many system breakdowns that it would take a post all on its own to address them all.

But if I were to point out the Number 1 thing that went wrong on Sunday, it would have to be me.

At one point during our worship set, I felt compelled to pray. I wanted to express to our congregation that the only perfect love they will ever experience is the love of Christ. But when it came time for me to speak I got scared. I started second guessing myself. I started to think that my prayer was too radical for the unbelievers or new-to-faith in the audience. That the word Jesus Christ was too offensive.

So instead I said something like, "Thank you for the perfect love that only you can give, our Lord."

It wasn't until this morning that it hit me!

The ONLY message that an unbeliever or new-to-faith NEEDS to hear is that Salvation comes through submission to Jesus Christ.

If we preach that message every single Sunday, it would never get old because it is the ONE and ONLY thing that saves souls from entering the gates of Hell!

Every message we preach, every song we sing, every prayer we utter should at its very foundation be about salvation through Jesus Christ!

Nothing has been revealed to me more clearly. If we go a single Sunday morning service without even touching upon the saving power of the blood of Christ, then we have not done the will of God. If nothing we say invites an unbeliever to commit his life to Christ, then we might as well pack up and leave the building.

One should never be scared, ashamed, or intimidated to share the GOSPEL--the Good News--that God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to LIVE as a man and to Die on a Cross, offering himself as the perfect sacrifice as atonement for our sins, but that is not all--3 days after he died on the cross, he rose from the dead! And whoever should believe in Him will not perish but have Eternal Life!

I pray to God to give me the strength to allow this to be at the heart of everything I do or say! I ask him to fill me with His mighty power and that through the holy Spirit, I commit myself to pray bold prayers--never again allowing the devil and his lies to penetrate my worship again.

My Reader

My daughter reads until her body falls to exhaustion almost every single night. We sleep with our doors open, so I can hear the distinctly sharp rustle of pages turning until past midnight. 

I reprimand her sometimes--I go into the room and demand she close her book and fall asleep. 

Then sometimes I don't. I just let her read until she falls asleep--whatever time that may be. 

See I remember being a little kid who would read under her covers using a flashlight--scared my grandma would wake up, catch me reading late at night, and force me to close my book. She loved me deeply and felt that my sleep and my studies (of which success relied on me not being tired at school) were more important than whatever book I was reading. 

I bet there were plenty of times she knew I was reading under the covers and didn't say anything. Probably for the same reason I don't say anything to Lia--because she knew how much joy and happiness it brought me. 

Here's a picture of my 9 year old reading a biography on Condoleezza Rice with her Encyclopedia of Marvel Comics open on her pillow. 

 

False?

So I finished the" Draw the Circle, 40 day Prayer Challenge" book last night and realized today, after looking for another book in my bookshelves, that I own a lot of Mark Batterson's books, "The Circle Maker," "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day," and "Draw a Circle Around Your Kids."

I figured they are all small books, and I could read them fairly easily and get a spiritual refill! So this morning I sat down to read "The Circle Maker."

But as I read chapter 1, a slight discomfort kept nagging at me. Especially when he wrote this, "With the authority of the prophet Elijah, who called down fire from heaven, Honi called down rain." 

Who is this Honi the Circle maker that this guys keeps talking about?

Is he in the bible? If this Honi speaks with the same authority as Elijah, how had I never heard of Honi before?

So I did a quick google search. Turns out many Christians have a problem with Mark Battersons' Christian books on a Jewish legend not found in the bible. 

And while I think the prayer challenge is really good and the book very well written and even inspirational, I do have a slight issue on his basing the whole thing on a legend, which is not biblical. 

Some sources call it heretical and Mark a false prophet. I don't know if I would go that far. 

But it does place enough reservations in my spirit that I'll hold off reading his other works until I look into it further. 

Enjoy

I took this picture of these beautiful tiny pink flowers yesterday from a bouquet I bought. It's a little punch of color in this cold,  white, and gray world outside.

Feeling exposed

I used to not have an issue expressing what I wanted so passionately to say. Not putting it into a poem or making it rhyme, but just typing it out plainly and bluntly. I've become completely neurotic about what others think about what I've said. Will they look too deeply? Will they misinterpret? Will I offend? Will I sound like an idiot? Will what I write affect my career? Will it affect my relationships?

I mean it absolutely consumes me. 

I've recently been tasked to write a small blurb about myself to go with a picture of me on a website. And I can. not. get. it. done. 

I second guess every word choice, every sentence, every single train of thought. Should I mention that I'm passionate about delving deeply into the word of God? Oh man, what if the other people didn't put anything like that, then I'll sound so arrogant! What if they just put that they like knitting? Do I have any PASSIONS like knitting... obviously not knitting, but something like it? hmmmmmMmmmMmMmmMMMmMmmMMmmMMm

Nothing.

Ok. Let me take out passions and just put that I sing in the band..... but what if that undermines my other role. Should I mention my other roles to reinforce my experience with the organization? hmmmm probably not.

And on and on and on it goes.

See I've come to realize as I've gotten older that you can't just say what you want and there not be consequences--even as small as the knowledge others have about you--the insights they glean. Those are consequential.

I've come to treat this space--a cyber-space that I've maintained since I was 19 years old, as a place to hold my most cryptic poems that expose but don't tell what is on my mind. 

Funny thing is that barely anyone reads this, and yet I'm more afraid of exposure than ever before. 

Destined

how would you know
that somewhere far away
there's a girl with all the words
but with nothing left to say?

My yoke is easy and my burden is light

Easy
Ease
Gentle
Cool Breeze,
Yellow and Red
Falling
Leaves,
Tall and thin
Blades of Grass
Bending softly
Against the wind.
Long, slow kisses
And soft firm skin
Wavy locks
Of hair that blend
Blonde and brown
And black and gray.
Everything
I see today
Pushes the darkness
Farther away.

Put myself out there

Didn't let the flat tires deter me

From setting out into the warm sun

And the cool breeze

Clear skies

And a new lease

On life

With fresh eyes

and my soul set free

From the darkness that was cast upon me.

There it is

Took a minute
But now I see
What I was missing
Was humility--
The power to make
My life and wants smaller
All while making
Your greatness taller,
Bolder,
Stronger,
Right to the front
Of my mind and my thoughts.
See I knew something was wrong!
I had belief
But no love.
I had knowledge
With no awe.
And it took one dancing child
With her arms raised high
And her joyful smile
And her gleaming eyes
Bursting with gladness flowing from inside
To remind
Me of the happiness that comes
From being a child of the most high one.
So here it goes:
"Glory Glory Glory
To the Lord God Almighty,"
As I join with the chorus
of the Angels on high
That with every breath
Proclaim with pride
That they surrender their lives
To their Lord Jesus Christ.

I went home

I recently traveled back to New Orleans after being away for over 3 years. I didn't take my husband or kids. It was just me---traveling solo.
And it was the most liberated I have felt in ages. I was able to visit everyone i wanted for as long as I wanted without having to feel guilty for leaving my kids to be taken care of or having to beg Lee to come along. I was in complete control.

I went to a wedding and danced.
I went to a bar and played pool all night.
I drove to the lower 9th, to arabi, to marrero, to kenner, to terry town, to boomtown casino!

Just everywhere.

The love that I received was overwhelming. People who love and miss me were just lavishing me with attention and nothing on this planet could have prepared me for it.

Trust me, I feel like God brought us to Raleigh and he has plans for our lives here, but what I have back in New Orleans is special. I have history and deep affection. I forgot about that...

Challenge pt 1

I decided to challenge myself to write something happy. But I needed inspiration. So I've put together a series of photographs that I've taken through the years and allowed them to take me back to that place--of joy, or warmth, or peace, or contentment. 

Dappled
Beneath the broad and cool canopy
Of your heart-shaped leaves
Once deep burgundy
Have now turned green
Peaceful and quiet
tranquil yet defiant
Through the rustles and creeks
That the wind
Uses to welcome and greet.

Mini-breakdown

My mind is in a state of change--

insecure and unfastened.

My spirit slightly broken,

Bruised, and disheartened.

"You think too much" 

"You push too much"

"Just let it go"

"Just let them be"

And deep inside I keep wondering

"Why does it always have to be me?"

The one to apologize

The one to adjust

The one to bend

And the one to rush

To take on so much

For those who care so little

And with every breath

Condemn and belittle

All that I do

And all that I care for

Without any concern for the time

And the effort 

I invest in this chore?

Give me a break!

My goodness, My God!

I do this because I love.

And I don't need any thanks or any praise

But some Grace

Would be nice.

And some flexibility 

Would be great!

And just like the words on this page

All blurted out and spewed all over

My hurt is dulled

And my spirit glazed over

With the numbing mist

That it instinctively applies

When little chips and little hurts

Expose the tender me inside.

Mending and strengthening

Until the next injury arrives.

I am silent inside

They search for her. Without rest. Navigating under mossy limbs of large cedars. It is dark. The blackness of the trees and the moist green moss creates an intoxicating--dizzying--feeling. And all the while they call out for her. Nothing.

She hears their calls. But the light behind her eyes has died.  "I am silent inside," she whispers to no one.

Pent Up

I can feel it in the deepest parts of me
Coiled and harnessed--threatening to break free.

Ps 46

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. (Psalm 46:1-3 NIV)

When I'm in trouble
When I'm feeling weak
When I'm all alone
And the ground beneath my feet
crumbles.

When I'm attacked and talked about
When I'm accused and lied about
When I'm overlooked and forgotten about
And when every step I take,
I stumble.

I press.
I press into what I know
Not what I feel
Not what I see
And not what I hear.

I press into your presence
I press into another day
I press into your word
And I let the rest slip away

I press into who you are
And what you've done for me
I press into what I've learned
And let the rest go free.

Then even though I'm angry
And even though I'm sad
and regardless of my attitude
I know I'm not all bad

I know that I am loved
I know that I am trying
I know that I've been wronged
And I'm going to stop relying

On others to do right by me
On others to be by my side
On others to be fair to me
On others not to lie
On others to love me
On others to forgive
On others to think of me
As much as I think of them

How do you know?

Do you think you know me?
Do you think you know who I am?
Do you think I lay it all on the line?
Then you believe a lie.

A couple months back

I wrote down almost every word that was racing through my mind. I typed them into my phone, and now I'll post them here.

From June 4, 2015 12:14 AM

Half-truths

Apologies for half-truths
Aren't even truthful apologies
Cause you can't even own up
That you're a liar.

On the Inside

I wish I were more like you
Nothing but light on the inside
Every time I open my mouth
Nothing but kindness comes out.

In the Darkness

My eyes are sore
My head is throbbing
My body wants rest
But my mind keeps running
And crashing
And tripping
And skidding
Over every word and glance and.....

Words

It's hard to organize my thoughts
My words are all compounded

My head hurts

I feel this pressure
It builds around my temples
And then slowly moves toward my eyes
Its a sign
That my brain is failing me
That I've pushed the limits of my consciousness
That my body is betraying me and desires
That which I abhor
The unconscious
The nocturnal amnesia
Sleep.

Searching for Beauty

Recently someone posted a video on my wall of a young lady who was dressed in a tiny bikini that she was bursting out of while proactively dancing. The video is shared mostly to make fun of this young girl, who is on the heavier side, as she "gyrates" her body for the whole world to see. One of the commenters on the video defended and congratulated the young lady for having the self-confidence to dance and showcase her body--regardless of her size. But in reply someone else wrote this:

"eso no es seguridad ,es exhibicionismo....una persona segura de si misma no haria tal cosa...ahora en estos tiempos la seguridad es sinonimo de no tener verguenza y hacer tonteras...punto..."

To translate she says:
"That is not self-confidence; it is exhibitionism...A person who is confident wouldn't do such a thing. In these times confidence is synonymous with having no shame and doing foolish things...period..."

Plastering your half naked body (regardless if you're a size 2 or a size 22) on the internet is not a sign of confidence because people who are self-secure do not need the validation of strangers on the internet. They only need know their identity in Christ (as a friend of mine likes to say). You are beautiful because beauty is intrinsic and universal to all God's creation. It doesn't matter your size, your complexion, or any other physical trait. Beauty is within.