To be a Super Hero

My daughters often play a game they have dubbed “super rescue girls.”  Basically it is a game of an imaginary thing which is in distress, that they then go and rescue.  So after a game of “super rescue girls” my daughter Elizabeth looked at me and lamented, “I wish I was a real super hero.”  She was very serious when she said this.  Knowing that she would never have super powers, yet also knowing that she is wonderful for who she is all the same, I asked her, “What would you do with your super powers?”

“I would help people, of course.”

What a stunning conclusion.  Not to fly, or to be able to turn back time like superman, or save the world, but to just help someone — one person at a time.  Then it hit me.  To help someone is within my power.  I can do that.

I can be someone’s superhero.  You can be someone’s superhero.  Even the most introverted of persons still have effect on an astounding amount of people.  We have the power to influence others, for positive or negative, for good or for bad.  I may not be anyone’s superhero other than my children’s, and maybe I am that only for the time that they are little, but I do have the power to come into contact with people on a daily basis. Not many but a few.  I have contact through my blog.  It all has a ripple effect. — The smile and eye to eye contact I give a cashier instead of just exchanging merchanise for money and going about my day, the fast food employee I say “blessings” to instead of “thank you.”  It all has a ripple effect.  Much like Dr Suess’ Because a Little Bug Went Ka-choo.  If you don’t know the story of this little bug, it is simply a tale about how a bug sneezed and the ripple effects of his sneeze.  In the end the whole town becomes a circus, all because of the little bug’s sneeze.

Although this ripple effect ended in chaos, the same thing can happen with kindness, goodness and the hero super power of helping.  Currently, my life is pretty much drama free.  But it has not always been this way.  I can empathize with a hurt that feels like you are going to die if it does not stop.  I know emotional pain so deep, that it racks the very essence of your soul.  During that time, I could not see how I could ever have the super hero power to simply be helpful.  But in simple conversation I have the power to be positive or negative in regards to life.  I can offer them “blessings” or “curses.”

I can not fly, or leap buildings in a single bound, but I can “pay if forward.”  There is a small group I am involved in.  At our last meeting we did not even get to our studies simply because there was so much emotional pain and hurt in the room.  I felt so powerless to do anything but pray.  I don’t have a magic wand that will make everything better, and many of these people are hurting in areas I have no experience in.  But I can be there for them and listen.  I can be a friend.  I can help with babysitting.  I can help them feel human and validate them.  I can let them know I care — that is a big one.

The world often seems so full of hurt and pain that I feel I can not make a difference.  But like the little boy who was throwing starfish back into the ocean, “it matters to this one.”  It matters to the ones I touch with kindness.  It matters to them greatly.  I have a friend who is so full of emotional pain, that she can not fathom why anyone would even smile at here as they pass her in the grocery store, much less be speak words of kindness to her.  There are people who are hurting that intensely.  You pass them everyday in your walk of life.  You have the power to bestow kindness on people.  You have the power to help the hurting.  The only question is do you?  It is easy to keep to yourself in your own little bubble.  That is a very safe place to be.  It is an easy place to be.

Intentionally smile at someone today.  You never know, it could make their day.  Be a superhero to someone.  In the words of my daughter, all it takes to be a superhero is “to help someone.”

Lenten Reflections

Last Sunday was asked to write a reflection for the Lenten Season.  The link where you can view a reflection for each day is here:  http://www.woodmont.org/#/sermonsstudies/lenten-daily-reflections

But I thought I would share with my blog readers the reflection for Lent that I wrote.

Text: John 6:32-33

Jesus said, “I assure you, Moses didn’t give [our ancestors] bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (NLT)

 

Reflection:

During the wilderness wanderings, the Israelites were stripped of almost everything. It was there, while they were stripped, physically starving, that they were given manna. What they could not do for themselves, God did for them. Likewise it is with Jesus, who in John 6 calls himself “the true bread of heaven,” that God does for us. He spiritually nourishes us.

 

While the manna in Exodus was for physical hunger, Jesus, the “true bread of heaven,” is for our spiritual hunger. The irony is that we must be truly spiritually hungry, spiritually starving even, to come to really know who Jesus is. We must be desperate for this spiritual nourishment which Jesus says he can provide. It is a spiritual hunger that only knowing the nature of God, which Jesus himself reveals, can satisfy.

 

It is not while we are on our mountaintop of life that we get to really know God. It is while we are starving and on our quest for spiritual nourishment that God shows up and reveals Himself. Just as God showed up in the wilderness for the Israelites and provided them with manna, God showed up in my wilderness of life as well. During my wilderness times God gave me strength that was not my own to get me through the day and night. That strength was handed to me with grace. It was during my wilderness times where I truly came to understand and know who God really is. As painful as my brokenness has been, I am grateful for the wounds which led me closer to the Father.

 

As we go through the season of Lent, I am reminded that I am spiritually broken and starving. To satisfy my soul, I must turn to Jesus. It is Jesus who reveals God in physical form, for our nourishment. Jesus is the manna for my soul — the One through whom I come to understand the nature of God.

 

-Holly Russell

 

Prayer: 
May I be starving for the manna from heaven that only You can provide. I want to know the Jesus that came to bring “life to the world.” Please Father remind me that no matter what happens, you will give me my manna for that day. Even when I am broken and in my wilderness place you will not abandon me, but provide me with everything I need.

The King is Enthralled with YOUR Beauty

Beauty.  It is the thing we long to be. To be enthralling, enchanting.  But more importantly, to be worthy of being pursued.  Oh, to be pursued.  In Psalm 45:11 it states, “The King is enthralled with your beauty.”  I used to justify this in a million ways of why it wouldn’t apply to me.  First off, I thought to apply it to me and God’s pursuit of me was taking it out of context.  After all, it is a king speaking of his wife.  Secondly, I didn’t think I had any beauty that was worth pursuing.  Then I had a spiritual awakening that showed me otherwise.  God spoke to me in a way that I could not ignore.  I didn’t even think God knew my name, much less would speak to me personally, but He did.  I always thought I was just one of the flock, not worthy of having any beauty worth noticing.  Then I had my God-experience and I realized how He had been pursing me all of my life.  God had been pursing me!  I realized how He had kept me safe, how things I chalked up to coincidence was actually God working in my life.  It was God working in my life because He pursues me.  If you look at the time line of your life, I am sure you can find the same thing.  God has worked in your life because he is pursing you.  Do you know why?  Because the King is enthralled with YOUR Beauty.  God knows that in His arms, your life becomes a beautiful reflection of who He is.

I once won a medal at a ball for waltzing — and it wasn’t because I know how to waltz.  It was because I was in the arms of a man who knew how to waltz amazingly well.  I had to turn my movements over to him.  I followed his every move, and stepped on his toes many times in the process.  He talked me through it, he led me through it.

So it is with our life.  Angela Thomas says, “An ordinary woman becomes extraordinary in the arms of God.”  I believe this.  God is pursing us to accept this life dance.  He is pursing us because we are his beauty and the King is enthralled with your beauty.  He has been pursing us since the day Eve in all her splendor ate the forbidden fruit.  Ever since then, God has been trying to reconcile us to Himself.  He does this because He is enthralled with the Beauty that He created us with.  We are made in God’s image, and God is pure light, pure beauty.  So if we reflect Him then we reflect His light and Beauty.  He sees that beauty within us and pursues us because of it.

God is pursing our beauty.  He is calling us to dance.  We have to answer with our life.

 

What Robe do you wear?

  Wes King sings, “For the robe is of God that will clothe your nakedness.  And the Robe is His grace; it’s all you need, come as you are.”  See video at bottom of post.

Too many times we keep our robes of shame and refuse to give them up for the robes of Grace that God offers us:  We let our past define us.  But Jesus did not come for the righteous, but for those who are sick and broken. (Matt.. 9:12-13 NLT) He came for those of us who are too tired to go on under our own strength.  For those of us who are hurting and wounded.  Jesus came to tell us our past does not define us.

Jesus was brought a woman who was caught in the act of adultery.  His simple answer to her was, “neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more.” ( John 8:11 NLT) It didn’t matter what she had done.  The only thing that mattered is how she defined herself from that moment on;  that someone stood against the crowd and said she was worth more than her past mistakes.

It’s not that we don’t try to let go of our past, it is just that like a dry-cleaning ticket we go and pick the shame of our past up again and wear it.  What we need to do is pick up the robe of Grace and of royalty and wear it.  We need to stop letting our past mistakes define us.

When I was letting go of what defined me, it scared me, because without that definition, I didn’t know who I was at all.  And no definition seemed worse that a bad definition.  You have to find a new thing to be defined by.  Let me encourage you to let the following thing define you:  God loves you radically.  That is all you need to know, and all that you need to define you.  He has plans for you, (Jer. 29:11) and it is not too late to accept those plans and jump into the game!

What things are defining you right now.  What do you wish defined you?

For all those who are broken, watch this video by Wes King: 

Stepping Stones

In life, do you ever think we feel like we have arrived?  When you take a vacation, there is a destination to which you eventually arrive.  But in life one goal just seems to evolve into another goal.

Then there are times of limbo.  During those times we are often only achieving stepping stones; not knowing where they will lead, but stepping in faith nonetheless.  During those times it is frustrating because we can not see the goal that is ahead of us.  We have no idea which direction we are going–or even if we are going in the same direction.  Perhaps we are just going in circles?

A few years ago I went back to school.  I was in my 30′s.  It was during a time of emotional turmoil in my life.  I literally did not know which way was up.  I had so many questions regarding who I was, my faith and who I was in the role of life.  I felt like I was drowning due to the fatigue of just treading water.  I felt I needed to make some sort of forward progress.  I enrolled in college to get a new degree…. again.  During those four years I had no idea where I was headed.  I was taking classes for music business, but felt that there was much more to what I was doing, I just couldn’t figure out what.  I kept telling my husband that my educations was just stepping stones.  ”Stepping stones to what?,” we both wondered.  During that time I was enrolled in many choirs and became “choir mom” to many young girls.  God used me even during my stepping stone phase.

Fast forward a couple of years.  I have yet to go into the music business market.  I think God has bigger plans for me; plans for ministry.  I am writing my book containing a story of how to overcome brokenness.  Looking back, I can see that I God placed me at the right internship with the people at the right time.  I took classes in ministry which shaped how I view things.

Although I dream big with dreams I am afraid to verbalize, the only goal I see in front of me is bringing this ministry to fruition.  What then?  What will be the next goal?  Will I feel like I have arrived?  Or will God place an even bigger goal on my heart?

What Christians can learn from the Sweet Potato Queens

I know… it’s not even close to a Christian book, but I have been reading God Save the Sweet Potato Queens.  I have been reading this book and LAUGHING OUT LOUD!!!!  However, it is rather eye opening in its secular nature.  But I think there is something to be learned from the Sweet Potato Queens.

If you haven’t heard of the Sweet Potato Queens, let me explain:  They are a group of women from Jackson, MS who choose to celebrate their inner divas. They believe that by the very nature of being female, they have something to celebrate.  They talk about real life issues that relate to women, but never talked about, much less experienced in polite, religious circles.  Every year they are in the Jackson, MS parade. . . . and here is where I think we can learn a lesson or two:  People travel from all around to see these women decked out in all their big busted, big butt, red headed, majorette boot wearing glory.  Why?  There are the queens that are on the parade float itself.  Then there are the women who wanna-be a sweet potato queen, then there are the wanna-be wanna-bees.  It goes on and on.

So I have been wondering what these women are on to that there are wanna-be wanna-bees to these women who are living life with gusto and celebrating their inner queenliness.  What is it that draws people from all over to go not only go out and see the Sweet Potato Queens, but to invent some type of Queendom for themselves.

Sadly, I began to compare them to the women I know who are church going women.  Even women like Beth Moore or Joyce Myers.  What makes the Sweet Potato Queens have such a following?  I don’t think it has to do with them being secular.  I know they talk about sex as easily as other women talk about their receipe for potato salad, but there are a few things that have really struck me:

• They live life to the fullest
• They believe in their queenliness
• They believe they are entitled to be treated as such
• They are not quiet about it
• They live vivaciously

I compare those qualities of the soft spoken, well mannered, christian woman of faith… her demeanor is pleasant, but nothing I would call vivacious.  She believes she is the daughter of the high king, but often believes she is unworthy to present herself as such.  She believes she is called into a life of submissiveness rather than a life of vitality.  No wonder Christian women don’t have wanna-be wanna-bees following after them!

What if we took these qualities of the Sweet Potato Queens and started living them out a little.  I don’t mean go against scripture, but what if we started treating ourselves like we are the daughter of the most High King and that makes us a princess?  What if we act like we love life because of what Jesus did for us?  What if we act like the news is so good that we are bubbling over with excitement with whose we are?  Is it possible to do those things and not be worldly, or by doing so would set us apart from the world because we would have a charisma that no one understands?

I think it is.  Can’t you just see a group of women in their princess tiaras, playing Bible Bowl?  The thought makes me giggle.  Seriously, I think it is possible to live our life as more than the wise, soft spoken woman.  I don’t think it is a sin to live life as long as you are living it in a way that celebrates the one who made you, purposefully celebrating life.   I don’t think we have to have a parade float to dance on, but why is it that so many of us reject our princess crowns for robes of shame?

It is time that I start living like I am the daughter of the high King?  I don’t know what that means for me.  There is much fear there.  The other things about the Queens is that they rely on each other.  They are a group of tight knit women who uphold one another.  It seems we are so busy telling each other what to do that we often forget to uphold one another.

Do you have any church diva stories?

 

Why I hate religion, but Love Jesus– video

I love the line where he talks about the church being a hospital for the wounded. Church should be a place where people come in contact with the overwhelming grace of God, not where the righteous are affirmed for what they have done.  What do you think?  What should church look like?  What does it look like for you?  Has the church ever wounded you?  Do you think it does more harm than good?

Living with Intention

 

Intention. It seems to be the catch word in my life these days that I keep hearing repeatedly. The new year often brings new resolutions and commitments.  So I think for this year of 2012 I will focus on the word “Intention” and try to live my life in such a way.

I have been thinking about why people seem to be focusing on this word and why it seems to be coming up over and over again in different genres of my life.  I think it is because we are living our lives with such busy and hectic schedules, that it seems that life is passing us by without us really living it.  It reminds me of the line from Braveheart where Mel Gibson’s character states, “Every man dies, but not every man truly lives.”  I want to truly live in my time here on earth, because it can be such a beautiful place.

I follow Michael Hyatt’s blog.  He is a speaker who teaches his audience to lead their life with intention and purpose.  http://michaelhyatt.com  I listen to Dave Ramsey who teaches his audience to be intentional about how they spend their money.  http://www.daveramsey.com  There are countless others who spend their life teaching others how to live life with intention.

I too, feel as if life is so busy it is just passing me by.  Our Saturday’s are wasted if we don’t have a game plan.  I get accused on not being spontaneous enough because I always want to have a plan.  It is not that I want to have a plan for everything I do, it is just that I feel life life happens to me as opposed to me living it if I don’t.  My husband has been wanting me to make a schedule for myself as a stay at home mom.  At first I balked at this, but the more I have thought about it as I am trying to live my life with intent, the more it makes sense to schedule to intentional time with my daughters for things like crafts, music and learning.  Otherwise, the day just gets away from me, and they have spent the day in my lap and watching t.v. with nothing noteworthy being accomplished by any of us.

So there are areas in my life where I need to be intentional.  I need to be intentional in my devotion to God.  I need to set aside time every day to just be with Him.  I need to love my family with intention, and not just live in the same house as them.  I need to pursue my publishing venture and speaking engagements with intent.  They are not just going to fall out of the sky.  I have to purposefully learn a new craft.  I have to set aside time every day to write.  The question is where is a busy mom of four to find time to be intentional about all of these things?  I don’t really know.  I am learning.  I know I have to get up earlier than my children if I wish for these things to come to fruition.  How about you?  How do you live your life with intention and as Braveheart said, how do you “truly live”?

Taken through the Fire

A few weeks ago our pastor spoke on the topic of God sending the trials of life in order to refine us and bring us back to His.  I really didn’t know how to accept this message, as it is a hard one for me to swallow.  He took his message from Joel 2:21-27.

“Don’t be afraid, my people!  Be glad now and rejoice because the Lord has done great things.  Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field!  The pastures will soon be green.  The trees will again be filled with luscious fruit; fig trees and grapevines will flourish once more.  Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem!  Rejoice in the Lord your God!  For the rains he sends are an expression of his grace.  Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring.  The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain, and the presses will overflow with wine and olive oil.  The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost to the stripping locusts, the cutting locusts, the swarming locusts and the hopping locusts.  It was I who sent the great destroying army against you.  Once again you will have all the food you want and you will praise the LORD your God, who does these miracles for you.  Never again will my people be disgraced like this.  Then you will know that I am here among my people of Israel and that I alone am the Lord your God.  My people will never again be disgraced like this.”

In this passage God admits to sending the many swarms of locust to plague to land.  God also promises to replenish the land of all that has been taken from it.

Personally, I have a hard time with this passage.  Does that mean that all our trials are of God in order to refine us?  Or does God just use our trials in order to refine us?  As I like to say, “God can phoenix anything!”  No matter what horror you are going through, God can bring beauty from ashes.

The reason I have such a hard time with this concept is because of the personal trials I have been through.  I can not fathom that a God who loves me like a father would intentionally cause me such pain with depth of my depressions.  Why would He do this? — To bring me closer to Him? — Even if that was the end result, I can not fathom Him doing such things intentionally.

As a parent, I know my children are going to go through hard times that I am going to have to lead them through.  Although I try to teach them that the eye to the stove is hot, not to touch it, at some point I am going to have to nurse a burn.  But I would never force my children to touch the eye of the stove just so they would learn a lesson.  However, I would be there to make things better and to walk with them, should they decide to test the waters.  But I would never intentionally cause them pain.

In the story of Job, a man of utmost faith, has everything taken away from him.  In this story God and Satan have a conversation where God allows Satan to test Job.  Job 1:12 “All right, you may test him,”  The Lord said to Satan.  ”Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.”  So Satan left the Lord’s presence.”

Afterwards, Job looses everything including his home, servants, cattle and even his seven children.

I personally have always thought of God more in this sense:  that God does not stop things from happening, but later restores what was taken from us.  God allows things to happen and then uses it for His own purposes.

So, I am back to struggling with the passage in Joel.  Does God purposefully cause the refiners fire?  Or are our struggles just a result of us living in a fallen world to which there is pain and suffering?  I have always believed that God did not cause my pain, but gladly would he make Beauty from my ashes.  But maybe I am wrong about this.  Maybe we do have a God that puts us through the courses of life in order to bring us closer to Him — to make us wiser, more pure of heart.

What do you think?  Does God intentionally cause us grief in order to bring us closer?  Does He just make Beauty from our Ashes?  Does He, like in the story of Job, turn His back and let things happen and then use it for His own good?

What an awesome privilege!

I recently had the awesome privilege of baptizing one of my oldest daughters.  She had been wanting to be baptized for quite a while and my husband and I kept asking her more in depth questions.  Finally, she chose a date.  A very special date.  The Sunday before Thanksgiving.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving is a very special date for us because that is the Sunday my father passed away two years ago.  I thought it very fitting that on the day he took a step closer to God, my daughter chose that day to also take a step closer to God.

To baptize my daughter is an experience I never thought I would have.  Not only because my daughter could choose from a myriad of family members and mentors, but simply because in my Christian denomination tradition, men typically are the ones who do things in leadership roles such as baptizing.  I go to a church, for which I am very grateful, that they are trying to change and expand the role of women in the church.

So I got to baptize my daughter.  There was so much I wanted her to know.  I had prepared a speech for her, but in the moment, I became very nervous and forgot about half of it.  I think I will write it all down in a letter to her so she can have it as a keepsake.  I want her to know that God has plans for her.  Jeremiah 29:11 states:  ”For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for you to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”  I want my daughter to know that by taking Christ on in baptism, it allows her to go perfect and blameless before God, since Jesus made the atonement for our sins.  I want her to know that she does not have to wear the robes of spiritual shame, but can shed the for a robe of righteousness.  I want her to know that she is going to mess up, but that God loves her radically and will pursue her all of her days.

I think I hit most of those points when I baptized her.  I think I just forgot to elaborate on many of them as I had planned to.

Nonetheless, It was a very special day for me not only because I got to baptize my daughter, but because I am wanting to go into women’s speaking ministry.  Although there is much I need to overcome in the way of nervousness, my daughter’s baptism for me, in many ways, was like my initiation into that role from a spiritual perspective.  I hope that continues to be true for me.  For the church family that stayed, I thank you.  For my family that came, bless you.  And for those who were only there is spirit, that was a gift.