Made to Worship

As I have matured in my faith over the years, so have my worship experiences.  For me, that has been a slow process because, hey, I was raised in the baptist church!  If you clapped or heaven forbid, raised your hands while singing, you were going to get labeled the "holy roller" chick for life!  So, over the years, I've had to overcome that sort of stigma from my past but I'm happy to say those chains have been broken and I'm free to worship in any way I feel so inclined.  I feel there are different levels of worship that I have encountered...all forms of worship, just some are more intense than others and feel more "connected" spiritually.

With that being said, I was fortunate enough to attend the "Desperation Conference" at New Life Church last week in Colorado Springs.  Although geared for youth, I walked away with probably more than they did from the week!  (To see a few thousand kids worshipping the Lord with whole hearts, unashamed, unhindered and glorifying God...well, if that doesn't light your fire, your wood is wet!  It reminded me we should all have that innocence to not care what others think and really worship the Lord as He so desires!) The conference was jammed packed with awesome times of worship by very gifted musicians.  To set the scene, it was a super cool Christian concert of sorts three times a day with heart-pounding music, combined with fog and light shows, which added to the intensity (definitely not your run of the mill worship experience).  The final singer to close out the week was Kari Jobe.  If you don't know who she is...well stop right now and go download some of her music!  She is so annointed and gifted and she has a voice that must sound like an angel.  She is such a tiny little thing but what a powerful voice!

She closed her set with "Revelation Song," which carried me into one of the most powerful moments of worship I have ever experienced.  As I sang with my hands raised high and eyes closed, it felt like the rest of the room just fell away.  I was the only one there and I was in a vaccuum of sorts...just me and the Lord.  One part of the song says "Holy, holy, Is the Lord Almighty"...while I was singing that phrase, the spot lights literally landed on me and didn't just dance over me but stood in place for what seemed like minutes but I'm sure was merely seconds.  My eyes were closed but I could still feel the lights so bright on me that I literally felt warm, like I was standing facing the noon day sun.  I could see the intensity of the lights as if my eyes were wide open.  As she sang, I forgot it was Kari Jobe; I really seemed to be a heavenly, angelic voice ushering me into the Lord's presence.  It made me think of the scene described in Isaiah 6:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

In that moment, as crazy as it may sound, I got a glimpse of heaven.  Worshipping our Lord with one voice, praising Him singing Holy, Holy, Holy and feeling the light of the SON, aka Jesus, shine and illuminate the heavens and create a warmth in us that feels like a loving embrace.  To sum it up, it was a supernatural experience right in the middle of a crowded room full of teens jumping up and down all around me.  But for me, it was a one-on-one time of praise.

Even though the actual experience lasted but a moment, the impression left on me will last a lifetime.  We were MADE to worship the Lord and praise Him!  One day, I will worship in that way ALL OF THE TIME.  I don't have to hang on to a glimpse or a glimmer that the Lord revealed to me last week...I can look forward to spending all eternity praising the Lord.

How sweet is that?! 

JOY

Milestones...Past, Present and Future

I know there are many people in my life who woke up today, headed in to work, and then happened to look at a calendar and see today's date...June 8th...and that triggered them to think of me and maybe they even prayed a quick prayer for me.  Some probably wondered how I was on this day...admit it, you know you did!  But, most of you probably felt too awkward to say anything, so in my usual way, I'm going to address this topic head on.

Yes, today is the day I was married nine years ago.  I remember it, too...but the day doesn't hold the joy, nor the pain as it has in the past.  It honestly, is just a day on the calendar to me at this point.  Because it is a day I associate as a touchstone of past events and a reminder of what God has done in my life over the past decade, I did something I don't normally do...I went back and read what I posted on this day one year ago.  Wow, that takes me back to that season of my life where I was in such limbo...I mean, I believed God had a plan and I had a lot of faith and trust in that plan.  I was being asked to wait for it all to unfold, and I was being promised that change was coming...but in the process, I was in agony in that waiting.  Just months later, I was finally released from my convenant from God but at the time of that blog, I didn't know the when or hows of it all.

The things that jump off at me as I re-read that blog are two-fold:  1)I was steadily praying God's will be done in my life and 2)I knew there was a reason I was being asked to wait.  I won't lie and say I was just thrilled about waiting, but I knew enough to know that God was in control.  Boy was He ever...!

Now a short year later, I can look back and see that God had such a HUGE plan unfolding for my life during that time.  The whole time I was praying for one person, or so I thought, He was readying another person for me and lining things up in his life as well.  Turns out my prayers were heard and answered, just in a very different, but WAY better way!  Some times we have to wait because of us, but other times, we are waiting for God to work things on the OTHER side of the mountain (or maybe both things at the same time!)  God always knows better and He always brings beauty out of the ashes when we get out of the way and let Him work!

I'm a big girl and I'm pretty good about admitting when I am wrong...so I will take this moment to say, I WAS WRONG.  I really believed at that point in my life that I had already had my shot at love, I had married the man of my dreams and I would never be able to top the day we were married in my life.  That has turned out to be very wrong and I now see that.  I was short-changing God by saying those things and I was putting God in a box that I had created with my mind.  Please understand that I did believe God was going to do some big things in my life and I was already seeing the fruits of that, but at the same time, I was limiting what I thought God could and would do.  Big mistake!

What I can say at this point is I have learned what can happen when you let God pick a person for you vs. you pick them out for yourself!  There is a love that is so much greater, deeper and pure that occurs when you love someone as God intended all along.  The spiritual connection that occurs when God lines two peoples' hearts up is just nothing short of amazing.  The deepness of the relationship and the love that grows when two people are spiritually connected still astounds me.  I didn't know how to pray for where I'm at today because I didn't know it existed!  It truly is more than I could ever ask or imagine...thank you Lord for always having a better plan for my life than what I can think up!

So for those of you who are in limbo today because of days on a calendar that are painful to you, whether that's because of divorce or a death of a loved one or some other hurt...just know that most times, we just can not understand the why's and how's of God's timing.  Trust in Him for the outcome and the future.  Let Him bring you NEW milestones and NEW dates on the calendar to circle and be overjoyed about!  He can and will redeem all that pain where those old hurts just no longer sting anymore...they turn out to be just a day that need not be feared.

Philipians 3:13
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Here's to the Future!

JOY

Can I Just Say I TOLD YOU SO!!!

(I just wanted to re-post this blog from January 5th of this year as it is very much relevant as this week marked the beginning of the NBA Finals...and guess who's in it?  My Dallas Mavs!!!  Just wanted to say...I called it months ago!  Excited for some legendary basketball action in the upcoming two weeks and then I promise, I will come back down to Earth and try not to be an annoying fan anymore...but no guarantees!!!  I might also get some sleep for a change and not walk around with bags around my eyes looking like a zombie...but WHEN they win it all, I will be able to say that the lack of sleep was well worth it to watch history in the making.  So Let's Go Mavs!!!)

If you know me, you know I am an avid basketball fan. And, to add to that I'm a huge Dallas Mavericks basketball fan so I go to a lot of games and follow them closely. They've had a great start this season and have played so well that people had already started the whispers about "championship"...until last week. Last week, their star MVP forward, Dirk Nowitzki, went out of the game with what turned out to be a knee strain. He hasn't suited up since and he has been relegated to cheering the team on from the sidelines (and last night throwing out Tshirts!). And to add insult to injury, in the same week, they lost another star forward, Caron Butler, for the season due to a patellar tendon rupture that required surgery. There were also a few other players that missed a game here or there due to minor injuries. They even had to pull a player up out of the D League to suit up and play because they were that short on players. So all in all, a rough week for the ol' Mavs. They lost three games in a row that they should have won when they had only lost five games the ENTIRE season. I mean, that is a blow to your pride and ego whether you are a player, coach, owner or a fan. I'm sure that locker room was not a fun place to be after those games. Naysayers started saying that Dallas can't win without Dirk. But you know what happened? After a few losses, and I'm sure a lot of intense practices, the guys started to gel again and become a new team and hit a new stride. They've won the last two in a row and that's a huge boost to their morale.

Why do I write all of this? It's because I started thinking about basketball and how it relates to life and I've been drawing some parallels. That team could've easily said, "It's over, they are right...we can't win without Dirk or Caron". But instead, they regrouped, they didn't listen to the negative speak and they came out with a Can-Do attitude...even after some tough back-to-back losses. What doesn't beat you makes you stronger, right?! That's what being a team is all about and that's how champions are made...it's not one guy (although one really awesome guy helps!) that wins it, but it is a whole team. Championships aren't handed over but they are earned and many times won through some adversity along the way that caused real growth for the team. It's about positive attitude, picking yourself up when the chips are down, and turning a deaf ear to the negative attitude of the world. Tuning out those that say it can't be done.  It's about flat refusing to be beat. It's about heart. It's about believing you can win. I predict that at the end of the season, they will look back and say not having Dirk in these few games was the best thing that could've happened to this team. Other guys have stepped up and done an outstanding job. When Dirk is back, that's just going to mean a much stronger team across the board.

Isn't that how life works when you think about it? We all go through tough times but it is very interesting how people handle perhaps the very same situation. Person #1 takes it all in stride and makes a bad situation a defining moment for them and a real touchstone in their life. They can look back and see that situation is what it took to make them who they are and they are better for it. Person #2, gives up, becomes negative and bitter and just loses hope and let's face it....never recovers and they become a miserable person. They listen to those naysayers and they believe the negative and therefore it becomes true. What's the difference in the two? Because in this life, we are never promised an easy ride (and if you've bought that lie, you might want to ask for a return!)...in fact, quite the opposite. It all comes down to attitude, mental toughness and thinking Christ-like thoughts that I believe makes the difference. I believe your attitude can make you or break you as a person. I believe through hardships and trials, no matter how tough they are, that if you keep your identity in Christ and keep that positive attitude and don't give up, that you can and will grow through adversity. It's not easy and it's not fun and there will be some really tough, uphill days...but when you get to top of that mountain, how much sweeter the victory will be!

So with a New Year comes new attitudes and I want to encourage everyone to maybe make an attitude adjustment right now! Fill your mind with positive thoughts and beliefs and surround yourselves with those that do the same. Don't listen to the lies of the world but keep your thoughts Christ-centered. I believe...no I KNOW...it makes all the difference. Do you want to be Person #1 or Person #2? The choice is yours.

Attitude Is Everything!


JOY



PS GO MAVS!