You Have Been Called by God

An actor plays a role in a movie, the critics proclaim that they were "born to play the role." I'm sure you've heard that comment a time or two.

The statement begs a question; 

are you playing the "role" that you were born to play? 

It sounds like a task of monumental proportions doesn't it?

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he says something that is so simple, yet so profound. It's undoubtedly one of the most thought-provoking verses that I have read in the Bible lately. The book of Ephesians is a letter to a group of believers who had been following Jesus Christ for eight years, but among them, many wandered back to their sinful ways.

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 

-Ephesians 4:1

How 'bout them apples?

(FYI - it's a line from Good Will Hunting. Definitely a role that Matt Damon was born to play.)

Cheesy movie lines aside, this verse floors me. CALLED BY GOD. How often are we guilty of deciding for ourselves what it is that we think we should be doing with our lives? It starts so young. In elementary school, teachers ask their students what they want to be when they grow up. From there, life begins to center around that topic. Kids start preparing to get into college when they are in junior high for crying out loud! They go to college under the assumption that by going they will answer the long asked question of what they are going to be when they grow up. 

Show of hands. How many adults still have no idea what they are going to be when they grow up?!

If you had asked me in elementary school what I wanted to be, I would have said a teacher. (Which, but they way, I have been told several times, may not be my strong suit.) By the time I was in high school, it was a photographer for a magazine, I even have a degree in photojournalism. However, I am not a photojournalist. Instead, I got a plain-old normal job straight out of college to pay the bills, married my college sweetheart, had two kids and now I am a stay-at-home mom with a photography business on the side. 

Somewhere in the course of life, I decided that I didn't want to live the nomadic lifestyle which was surely going to accompany the life of a photojournalist, I wanted to settle down and have a family. Though I look back at my previous working life and realize how God used that experience to get me where I am now, those eight years felt like the very essence of going through the motions so to speak.

Through the epiphany that became Any Occasion Photography, I have held onto the notion that the role I was born to play was that of a photographer. Now I'm going to be really honest, my business is not hugely successful by worldly standards. I don't make a lot of money, I don't sell a lot of products and I'm OK with that. 

After reading Ephesians 4:1, I've come to the conclusion that one of two things are to be credited for my lack of success in this endeavor. 1) Plain and simple, it's not God's calling for my life, or 2) I need to trust in God's timing and eventually, His calling through my photography will be fulfilled.

The point is that we are not in charge of what we do in this life. Stop ignoring God's calls, texts, voicemails, e-mails, tweets or his posts on your Facebook wall. I believe that the answer to discovering God's calling for your life is simple and scary. This I know for sure, 

Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. 

- Deuteronomy 31:6

He just wants you to do amazing things, because he already knows that you can, he already knows what they are and he's not going to stop bothering you until you respond to him. 

Stumbling

Those of us who have toddlers know that it's sometimes hard to keep them on their feet. They are so independent, want to do EVERYTHING on their own, and most of us like to give them those independent moments, make them feel like they are BIG.

When it comes to walking, this can be a bit of a challenge. You wait and wait for them to start walking, eagerly anticipate capturing it on your camera and it happens, everyone claps and cheers - and then they stop walking. They run. Everywhere. Then they fall, again and again.

How many times have you been holding your little one's hand, walking side by side when their legs suddenly go out from beneath them? There they are, dangling from your steady hand until they plant their feet on the ground once more.

I've caught myself telling my almost 2-year-old, "It's a good thing mommy has your hand!" on more than a few occasions.

This is a relatively mundane topic, but while reading in the Psalms today, I stumbled (pun intended) onto this passage:

The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand. 

Psalm 37:23-24 (NLT)

Ponder that for a little while. How wonderful is it that we serve a God who is ALWAYS holding our hand? We are all sinners. We will stumble time and again, but He will never leave our side, and most definitely, He will not let us fall. 

You are not defined by your mistakes. When you do make a mistake, look up at the hand that is holding you and you will certainly find your way back onto your feet again. 

"It's a good thing I have your hand," He will say. 

The Last Page

Please tell me that I am not the only one who has picked up a new book, read the first few pages, then in a move of nagging desperation, flipped to the last page to read the ending.

I have to admit that I have done this a time or two. This act of impatience begs the question: Why is it so important to know the end of something before it has even begun? Not to mention that most of the time, the last page rarely gives anything away. You have to read the pages in between the beginning and the end.

What a concept, right? It's right up there with opening Christmas presents before Christmas, re-wrapping them, and putting them back. Yes, I know people who do this. Let me re-phrase, I know adults who do this.

Recently, God has been whispering this to me - the message goes something like this; 

If, as Christians, we already know what happens "at the end of the book" (so to speak), then why do we live our lives worrying? Why do we live our lives fretting over how our stories are going to end when we already know that salvation is ours because of Jesus Christ?

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

This is a pretty simple truth that speaks volumes and it's not found in the beginning of the bible or the end, but more or less, smack dab in the middle.

Make this pact with me. Let's not burden ourselves with how things are going to end. Live in each moment as it arrives, taking as much as we can from it, and leaving nothing behind. Don't waste opportunities, and most of all, let's live our lives for God's glory, because Jesus died so that we could live. 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Let's be an example to those who do not know God, or to those who are new to their faith, that He will take care of us. 

If by chance you haven't read the bible, I'd recommend it. It's a best-seller and it has a good ending. ;)

...and the greatest of these is Love.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud." (1 Corinthians 13:4) To some, this may sound a bit cliche.

Surely, most of you have attended at least one wedding that included this passage from scripture. Because of its popularity in wedding vows, I think many people find the scripture to be cliche and do not think much of it beyond vows.

This chapter in the bible is often referred to as the love chapter, because its entire purpose is to define genuine, Jesus-like, love.

Let me backtrack. Recently, my husband and I went out on a date night, leaving our sons at my parent's house. When we returned to pick them up, my mom told me that my older son had stuck a pea up his nose, and had apparently left his "listening-ears" at home.

To be honest, the whole thing angered and embarrassed me. The anger that I was feeling was directed toward my son, and even the next morning, I had a really hard time letting go of it. I kept racking my brain as to why he would behave so badly. Had he had a bad day? Was coming down with something? Was it because he hadn't taken a nap that day?

Then it occurred to me, he had done this the last time we left him there for a date night - nearly six months earlier. This is the point when I started to do exactly what the bible calls me not to do; I began to keep a record of wrongs, which just made me more angry.

As I took a shower that morning, this verse whispered into my thoughts:

"

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails." 

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

I have no doubt that this is a God-thing, as the lesson for preschoolers this week at my church is about genuine love, and we are using the love chapter to demonstrate this.

What a powerful message this has been for me today. Not only should I work harder at not angering easily and keeping a record of wrongs, I also need to be a consistent example of genuine, Jesus-like love for my children.

So, the next time you hear all or some of these verses at a wedding, don't roll your eyes. These simple truths extend far beyond wedding vows -  they are truly worth thinking about.

"There are three things that will endure - faith, hope and love - and the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Leap of Faith

My toes gripped desperately to the edge of the diving board, my heart pounded in my chest and my nerves were a jumble in the back of my throat.

Dive in, really?

Head first?

Bravely, yet full of fear, I took the plunge - literally.

Fear is the enemy's best tool. It's the one that will keep us on the sideline and/or diving board indefinitely. God however, calls on us to trust him. He calls on us to take that preverbal leap of faith, no matter how crippling the fear is.

So the next time you find yourself overcome with fear - whether that means taking a new job, meeting new friends, or simply attempting to dive off of the diving board - keep this in mind;

God sprouts your wings once you take the leap.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart... - Proverbs 3:5

Spring is here!

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.
Isaiah 40:8

Love never fails

Walking on Water

Knees in, sit back, arms straight, relax...just let the boat pull you.

This is the mantra I repeat to myself as I am bobbing up and down in the water behind our boat, skis strapped to my feet and tow rope in hand. As the water moves around me, I often struggle to keep my balance. Once I feel ready, I yell to the driver to start dragging me and then finally, when I have summoned up the gumption, I yell "hit it!" The driver, in this case, my husband, mashes the throttle forward, with me precariously following.

Sometimes I get up, sometimes I crash.

That's me! Not the greatest form, but I stayed up! I was
also skiing away from the sun, creating a
horrible shadow, but it masks the horrible face
I make when I am concentrating :)

If you were to ask my son about water skiing, he would say one of two things. 1) My mommy crashes when she skis; or 2) My daddy can walk on water! The latter of which prompts a discussion about Jesus and how he was able to walk on water by himself and that daddy needs some help. (Also, that mommy doesn't always crash!)

Don't we all need a little help sometimes?!

What I have gathered about my numerous attempts at mastering the art of waterskiing is that it takes a whole lot of trust in the person driving the boat in order to stay up. About the time you start to take matters into your own hands is when you crash. You have to let the boat pull you, it's as simple as that.

I started thinking about the similarities between waterskiing and our daily walk with God as Christians. This world is a crazy place, filled with many worldly things that can easily lead us down the wrong path, it's the water swirling around us, trying to keep us off balance. If God is driving force in our lives, we have to be able to give up our burdens and allow him to hit the throttle, and just pull us behind him. We have to allow him to carry those burdens and guide our lives.

Knees in, sit back, arms straight, relax...trust in God, and he will take care of you.


"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

I may be level headed, but...

I despise hanging shelves. Floating shelves to be exact. I may have a level head, so to speak, but I cannot - I repeat CANNOT - hang shelves level to save my life!

They do make this nifty little tool called a level, but I am pretty sure mine is broken and I have several cock-eyed shelves to prove it.

They aren't so crooked
you take a photo a just the right angle!

My life is often like my crooked shelves. At times, it can be a bit off level, and I try to improve on those things everyday. In terms of the shelves, I tried putting a taller item on the "low" end of the shelf in a desperate attempt to make it look like it's the same height as the other side.

It didn't work. But, I don't care, I am not putting more holes in my wall and I don't want to throw another drill across the room!

Ok, that was a bit of an exaggeration...


When it comes to the things in my life that aren't quite level however, I won't give up.  God has given me a heart to improve myself, so I will continue to put holes into the walls of the things of my life that need improvement until they seem level to me.

---

"Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding;" - Proverbs 3:5

There's No Such Thing As Perfect Timing

We thought we were so smart. A few months into our second pregnancy, my husband and I relished in the fact that we had timed this pregnancy perfectly. By the time the baby would be born, our son would be three, well on his way to being potty trained (if not already there) and we would have oh so few issues - because he'd be three.

Did I mention that we thought that we had timed this perfectly?

Anyone reading this who has more than one child is rolling with laughter right about now (as is my mom, even though I am an only child) and as it turns out, I am relatively sure that God is having Himself a pretty good chuckle right now too.

You see, the past few months have been a very somber reminder in my house that we are not in control and as much as we make plans and hastily hope that they are the right plans, ultimately, we are not the ones holding the blueprint.

I realize that this revelation isn't a new one. However, as I sit here in the pitch dark of my living room - eyeballing the hallway to make sure that my son doesn't get out of bed for the ump-tenth time tonight - there seems only to be light coming from my laptop monitor, while in truth there is endless light coming from another source in our home.

That source is Jesus Christ.

Truth be told, He has put a tremendous amount of light in my son. I have had to remind myself countless times recently that there is more to my son than the occasional temper tantrum and the absolute refusal to go to bed when I ask him to. I am truly convinced that he has the heart of a servant. In fact he has a huge heart. He is always concerned about the well-being of others above himself (yes even at his age), he is always eager to help you or ask you if you would like a snack too and this age has also brought him the ability to tell you randomly that he loves you before he offers you a kiss.

Needless to say, there is no perfect timing when it comes to bringing children into this world - they come in God's time only - and I find myself humbled (and a bit humiliated) for even thinking that just because my son didn't go through the "terrible twos" didn't mean that he wasn't going to have challenges at some point. (Insert God's sense of humor that it happens when I am eight months pregnant and new to being a stay-at-home-mom!)

So, here we go. There are merely two months until our new addition enters our family and I have come to terms with the fact (at least for the time being) that this isn't going to easy, but one thing is certain, it will be perfectly imperfect and that is fine with me.

Kindness

The world - via Justin Timberlake - tells us to bring "sexy back," but yesterday my pastor - via the Bible -   encouraged me and his congregation to bring kindness back.

It is such a small, simple request, but yet one that has the ability to speak volumes when given the chance.

Recently, I read a story about a woman who was attempting to hail a cab outside of her New York City office building. As if that wasn't hard enough in and of itself, she was doing so with a broken leg and a set of crutches, making it nearly impossible.  Seeing the trouble the woman was having, television host Hoda Kotb, came to the woman's aid, hailing her a cab and giving the cab driver the money to take the woman wherever she needed to go.

"No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted." 

            - Aesop (Greek fable writer)

This may seem like a random post, but for whatever reason, when my pastor mentioned the phrase "bring kindness back", I immediately thought of the Justin Timberlake song and couldn't help but chuckle to myself right there in the pews.

I laugh because it's such a random connection, but I think the underlying message is very important.  We all struggle with the messages that the world sends us and, Christian or not, we really may not want to follow the world's lead. And that is OK.

"Be kind and compassionate to one another..." Ephesians 4:32

When saying a little says it all

Is everyone a storyteller?  Larry Smith, editor of the online web publication Smith Magazine, thought so and in an attempt to encourage aspiring writers - and anyone for that matter - he issued a challenge for his readers to share their stories in six words.

Six. Not a paragraph, a page, an article or a full-length novel. Just six words.

What started out as a one-month contest in 2006, spawned into an out-pouring of honest, and often inspiring, six-word stories that continues to this day. I have to say, if you can't relate to at least one of them, you are not human. (Check out the website, the link is above. They even make t-shirts!)

I happened to learn about these "Six-word Memoirs" while flipping through the pages of the February issue of O Magazine. There, covering six-pages (kinda ironic don't ya think?) are stories from their readers, of which I was slightly disappointed that none of them mentioned faith or God. Regardless, they were humorous, telling and inspiring none the less. The one that popped off the page for me came from a 22-year-old. It said, "Life gives lemons, but no juicer." Very true.

To say that coming up with only six words is a challenge for me is the understatement of the century, as I tend to want to be witty, clever, insightful, poetic and thought-provoking with everything that I write, and I always have been.

This isn't to say that I think highly of myself, or have any far-fetched and lofty words to describe my story, and those words would probably never come close to filling the pages of a book. However, I think in every storyteller, there tends to be a desire to express more than what is necessary.

So, six words it is. Without further a-do, and after much brow-furrowing, hand exercises and knuckle-popping, here it goes:

"God made me with a purpose."

Phew. That was much easier than anticipated. (P.S. - He made you with a purpose too!)

Now, as I embark on this "new chapter" of my life, the question of my purpose begs me to answer it, and I will - eventually.

For now, I will be pacified knowing that even if I don't know my exact purpose at this exact moment, it does exist, and God has given me this opportunity to to take time to define it. That is good enough for me.

What are your six words?  I really want to see what you come up with! Please post them in the comments below...