Flipping Definitions

Cute title, huh?

Whilst on a walk and talk with my Counselor, He said "bewildered."  I was searching for a word to describe how I felt in a certain situation and that was exactly it!

Later I was processing via a Facebook Message with a friend (which I accidentally deleted - duh!), and He showed me "be wilder" inside the word.

After pondering and praying and listening, I have a new definition for "be-wilder," that is, I "flipped it," as Doug Addison says.  "Flipping means taking a negative situation and flipping it into a positive Kingdom perspective. It is the ability to recognize negative things, turn them around, and interject God’s positive will and destiny for your life."
 
My definition is:

be-wilder: be freer,  be more passionate, be even more free from restraints; be (in spirit), will (in soul) and do (with body).

The blogger in me hopes that this will be a series -- time and my Counselor will tell.


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Bread for Today

In the natural, I made a loaf of THM Sprouted Wheat Bread, something I have not taken the time to do for months.  The process was simple, yet fulfilling; the resulting loaf was delicious and nourishing -- truly a BLISS, which I need to pursue more regularly.

Supernatural bread for today started as a musing about how to love the broken in our world.  Jesus' wise instruction to love others as I love myself reminded me that self love is the beginning of pouring the Father's heart upon others. Every one of us is broken and traumatized to some degree and in need of a Physician.  Tenaciously pursuing wholeness and healing for myself truly must be a priority; our family's beloved first pediatrician continually exhorted me to take care of me/Mom, so that I could take care of our kiddos.  The flight attendants remind us to put our own oxygen mask on before we try to help someone else. Yes, current culture understands this concept.

Why is it so difficult for Christ followers?  One reason, I believe, is the stigma, the SHAME, that religious culture affixes to people "who don't have it altogether."  The enemy loves this lie and works with religious culture to perpetrate it far and wide.  The TRUTH is that we all are in need of the Physician -- that's why He came to save the WORLD.  Shine the light on SHAME, dare greatly and run after personal wholeness and healing.  You will be amazed at the good that will result.

When I mentioned "religious culture," I was not meaning the church, the Body of Christ.  Nope.  I was speaking of a mindset that is empowered supernaturally.  At itmes this culture/mindset does show up in our local churches, though. Sadly church people will sometimes treat other church people worse than a stray dog, despite the model we see in how Jesus loved His disciples and those who followed Him. (You might want to read up on how He dealt with the religious culture of His day chronicled in the stories of most of His interactions with the Scribes and Pharisees, too.) Christ also said to love each other as He loved us.  Unfortunately, the church is known as being the only army that shoots its own wounded.  This should not be!  Come alongside those in the Body of Christ who are pursuing wholeness and healing.  They are part of the group of people that you and I are meant to love as we love ourselves.

The other part of that group are those who are not part of His Body.  Guess what?  The same instructions apply in regard to them.  Love them as you love yourself.  Because it's the kindness of God that leads people to Him, we are to be the conduits of His Kindness.  Be famous for love, as Sherri Silk says.  See people the way He sees them -- created in His image and likeness.  Honor, respect and love everyone around you, brokenness and all.


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Theme Song Thursday

While I have posted this one before, at least once, I need to marinate in this still:

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Driving a Stake in the Ground

Edited 06.27.15

I am saddened, but not surprised at the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of same sex "marriage."

Rudderless, the majority justices continue to sail the USA toward rocky shores.

Perhaps I am painting a target on myself, but I feel compelled to post a statement of my faith and beliefs here today.

I do not hate anyone.  Because I follow Jesus Christ, because He loves and forgives me, and because His love compels me, I love everyone, though I do so imperfectly as an imperfect human being.

"Love your neighbor.  Do good to those who do evil against you.  Overcome evil with good."

Those some are my foundational motivations and guiding commands.

Below is a more formal belief statement, the wording of which I borrowed and tweaked from an Alliance Defense Fund pdf.

"I believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female, evidenced biologically at birth. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. (Gen 1:26-27.)  ‘Being man’ or ‘being woman’ is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity, which comes to them immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity ‘in the image of God.’

"I believe that the term 'marriage' has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. (Gen 2:18-25.) I believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. (1 Cor 6:18; 7:2-5; Heb 13:4.) I believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.

"I believe that any form of sexual immorality (including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, and use of pornography) is sinful and offensive to God. (Matt 15:18-20; 1 Cor 6:9-10.)

"I believe that God freely offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. (Acts 3:19-21; Rom 10:9-10; 1 Cor 6:9-11.)

"I believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. (Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31.) Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture or with how Jesus treated people while He walked the earth."

I understand that our government has approved and legalized relationships and actions that are in opposition to my beliefs.

I do not believe that those who have made these decisions hate me.

I am not your judge.  (Matt. 7:1, John 5: 26-27, John 12: 47-48.)

These beliefs guide my relationship with God and with man.  A desire of my heart is to grow in loving relationship with God and with all of humanity every day.

If you disagree with my beliefs, I respect you and love you anyway.  I think all of you are amazing creations of Father God who carry unique and needed gifts into our world.

Can we focus on the things we agree upon and work together to build a promising and bountiful future for us and for the generations to come?

Have mercy on us, oh God!

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Theme Song Thursday

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Father's Fingerprint

 I am a disappointment to myself often.  Today we had agreed to specific plans for taxiing our young people places, and then is started to snow and to collect on the roads. . .When is it wisdom and when is it wimping out?

Theme Song Thursday

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Shattered (or Wrecked again)

I must pass along links to recent two messages by Danny Silk that shattered and encouraged me recently.  We were in attendance at Bethel Valparaiso All-Nations Church for Danny's message on May 13th, 2012.  I listened to the second message, Fierce , this morning while making pancakes, (our Wednesday morning breakfast is usually pancakes), and again while out running errands.

Today's Math Lesson

Yesterday I was re-learning about and helping one of my daughters with linear functions.  Today as I was dressing and prepping for the day, it occurred to me that I could describe my life in terms of a linear function.  To be precise, I could show a relationship between my perception of my life and what God says about my life using linear functions and graphing.

Currently my life feels like the following:  when x > or = 0, y = x/7.  Plotting some points on a graph would show a ray that should begin at (0,0) and gently slope upward and to the right.  

My perception of my life currently

In reality, God says that my life is like the following:  (eternal life) ^googolplex , which I cannot graph.

Transform my mind, O God! I want to live out of a Kingdom mindset.

What does your life feel/look like to you today? 

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Leap Day!

I treasure Leap Day because jumping is a favorite activity of mine.  I was once a high jumper, hurdler and long jumper on middle school and high school track teams, which I absolutely adored.  I delight in jumping for joy in worship.  When I was a kid I reveled in jumping over and into puddles.  I remember riding horses with friend Annie, and we jumped them over a fallen tree in our path; what a rush!  I still dig jumping out of a swing, except I am not as brave about jumping from the heights I once did.  This is a day to celebrate!

What do you love or hate about Leap Day?

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Less Traveled

               When I fail or have experiences that don’t line up with the promises of God, I am standing at a crossroads.  One path, which I’ll call the road Less Traveled, will lead me to my destiny much more quickly than the other path, which I’ll call the road Default.  Responding with an intentional choice rather than reacting is a key to the journey ahead. 

                Choosing the road Default looks like the easiest path in the sense that it requires less effort – it’s all downhill from the intersection.  Another attraction of the road Default is it is a familiar, well-worn path, and though it is ugly and leads into a pit at the end, it feels comfortable along the way.

                The road Less Traveled appears initially intimidating because it is steeply uphill.  Taking that first intentional step requires me willing me to walk by faith and not by sight.  Do I choose to believe what God says is true about me in this situation or let what I am experiencing or have experienced define my identity?

•  “I may be struggling financially, but God supplies all of my financial resources.”
• “I may be stuck in a dead end job, but I have a good future and prosperity ahead of me.”
• “I may have just blown it in my job, but I have the wisdom of God today for every situation.”

                    “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

                    I took the one less traveled by,

                    And that has made all the difference.”   Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"

               

               That is the road I want to choose, the road Less Traveled, because I know that it will indeed make all the difference.   

               How do you overcome in the crucial moments of life?

Acknowledgement:  Many thanks to Steve & Wendy Backlund for their inspiring and transforming book "Igniting Faith in 40 Days," the inspiration for this post.


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Identity: Wearing other people's faces

Recently I have realized that part of my identity loss started much earlier than I previously thought.  Parker J. Palmer terms it "wearing someone else's face," which resonates with my spirit.