Ahhh...The Good Life!!!

Somethings are simply given to us. The sun that rose this morning, the air that we breathe, a mind with the power to make choices, you know, the essentials. As long as the earth is turning, my lungs are breathing and my mind is working I can pretty much do anything I set myself up to do. Therefore, I have choices, and by my decisions I can see which direction I am headed. For instance, I have a choice to either get up and go to the gym or to stay on the couch and watch TV, by making the decision to get up I am headed in the direction of becoming healthier and stronger. If I continue to make that decision I will begin seeing results and eventually I will become the healthier and stronger me that I've envisioned for myself. 

Well, that is just a simple example that I believe most of us can relate to, but with this simple example we can see how powerful choices are, and they appear before us by the minute. We are always choosing what to eat, what to wear, what to watch, where to go, who to talk to, what to read, who to spend our time with, whether or not to take that new job, buy that new house, date that new guy, have a kid, go to college, and it goes on. It can be overwhelming! You can't hide from them and they truly are the little blocks that build our lives. We are a direct result of the choices, big or small, that we make. 

There was this one time in the Bible when God rescued His people from years of slavery and once they arrived to safety God spoke to them through Moses. So God showed them the difference between a life with Him and a life without Him and once He was done explaining everything He said  “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!" Deut 30:19

Decisions, decisions, here we go again. To choose life, to choose blessings, one would think that that would be the most obvious choice right? Our God never changes, His love never changes and He is still rescuing us today from the bondage of this world, and once He does that He will pose the same question, will you choose life?

I love it that the question is not just about staying alive but choosing life, THE LIFE,so that you might live. He is talking about the full and exuberant life that those who choose to walk with Him can experience. The life that only He can give us. Choosing to trust and obey no matter the circumstance, choosing to worship Him even when our world is falling apart, choosing to go to Him for strength when we've come to the end of our rope, choosing to wake up every morning and choose Him first, THE LIFE, so that we might live.

So like I said, because our decisions will show which direction we are headed, when we choose THE LIFE, we are headed in the direction of experiencing the abundant and exuberant life that God has for us. We will be more joyful, more confident, more fulfilled. Every time we choose LIFE we receive from Him His JOY, His STRENGTH, His PEACE, His FREEDOM, His PURPOSE, His Incomparable LOVE . And if we continue to make that decision everyday we will begin to see results and eventually we will enjoy the FULL LIFE that we've envisioned for ourselves.

So tangibly how do we make that choice? 
"That you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days." Deut 30:20

Love, Cling and Obey - that's all I've got to say!!!!

Creative Genius, Awake!!!

I believe when people feel they are not thriving, sad, and sometimes even depressed is because they have reached a point in their life that they are not creating or contributing to anything. Most of the time they don’t even know that is the case. They just get up and go through the motions.

We are all creative beings, God made us that way. When we say the word creative ones mind immediately goes to arts but that’s not true. Look at an airplane for instance, there’s nothing very artistic about engines and the laws of physics but you have to be extremely creative and imaginative to believe you can make one ton of metal fly. Same thing goes to medicine and the creativity involved in discovering new cures for old diseases. But not all doctors and engineers tap into their creative geniuses. I guarantee there are many who walk around frustrated, sad and depressed; because they are simply going through the motions, focused on the mundane and not realizing the potential each one of them have been given.

You are a creative genius, and if you don’t realize that and tap into it two very sad things will happen. The first is that you will never get to experience the full life that God has in store for you. You will miss out on the joy and the excitement of discovering new worlds and new dreams within the path that God has laid out for you. The second is the world will never get to experience this greatness that lives inside of you.

Now, for a lot of people their creative genius has been hibernating for a very long time. Maybe you are reading this and it’s like an alarm clock is going off inside of you and your genius is ready to wake up and hungry to get everything that’s been missing out. But you realize that no matter how hungry you are, you are also weak because you haven’t been active in so long. 

Well, before you get frustrated and decide to put it to sleep again I want to give you 3 steps to help you bring your genius to life strong and steady:

1 – Set a goal – Take some time to assess your situation and nail down the direction where you want to go. Whether it is to write a song, get fit, develop a groundbreaking technique for movie editing, or a new culinary fusion that will blow everybody’s socks off, decide on a destination. A well define, simple, clear goal. “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.” Zig Ziglar

2 – Start with small portions – Avoid being frustrated with your personal failures. Set yourself up for success. Now that you have decided you want to get fit and that you want to run the Turkey Trot don’t go running for thirty minutes tomorrow, you will hurt, feel discouraged and give up. Start walking for 30 minutes and slowly pick up the pace. If you believe you can implement a new system at work, don’t stay late until midnight. You will feel exhausted and most likely you will not be able to keep that up for more than a few days. Instead, stay an hour a couple day this week.

3 – Stay consistent – Consistency is the key to success. Don’t give up. Your results will come, they will be rather small since you’re going at a warm up pace in the beginning  but as long as you are seeing them consistently it also means they are piling up, and when you least expect you will see your genius thriving, creating, and on a roll.

And the reality is you really don’t know what can come out of your consistency in applying these steps. Maybe what you discover between A and B, the trajectory towards your goal, is even more incredible than the goal itself. Be open, be expectant and be ready to receive all of what can and will come out of your pursuit of creativity.

“No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9

Team Up Right

Let's talk about surrounding yourself with the right THEY.  I was reading today 2 Corinthians 6:14 and it says "Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? " And I know that at a first glance we cringe at this verse because it seems like one is better than the other or that Christians should segregate themselves, but a closer look will show us that it's not that at all.
The key word in the verse is TEAM. I remember growing up and playing volleyball for the state team. It was so much fun. I was surrounded by professional players who were amazing. Our training was intense and we always played to win. Then we would have PE classes at school and the teacher would have us pick teams to play. Being that I had experience I would usually be chosen captain to pick my team and I would always try to pick the best girls to join my team, I wanted to surround myself with the best. I still loved my other classmates but I wanted to make sure that I had on my team the ones that together would go for the win with me.
By definition the word team means: a group of people forming one side to win a competitive game or sport; a group of people coming together to achieve a common goal.
So my question to you is, how far can you go teamed up with an unbeliever until you realize that you are striving for different goals?
You may have common interests, common desires but by nature our main goal in life is different. We can find the goal of a Christ follower in Hebrews 12:1- 2 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."
We have this amazing race set before us and there is a finish line which is Heaven, Eternal life with Jesus at last, and we want to make it to the end. But in order to get there we need to follow our coache's instructions. He ran the race, He knows best, He is with us, by our side, so let's do as He says. By letting go of those who will slow us down and the sin that will trip us up, let's team up with those who are also running towards the same goal, so we can encourage one another and keep each other on the safe path to Heaven.
And I know it's not easy to make those decisions, it might seem hard and it you might feel lonely at first but grab hold of His encouraging words " So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong. (‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭1-2, 12-13‬ NLT)"
I pray God's strength over your life today and let's together aim for the finish line!

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” 
― C.S. Lewis