A-MEN!!

Love y'all!
~M~

Fruit Doesn’t Grow on the Trunk

"Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter.  Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Six weeks ago, I started on a journey that will possibly - likely - change my life.  Most of the people I know, who know about my decision, have been skeptical and something less then supportive.  Initially, I was so hurt that the people I love and who love me would be so pessimistic.  Initially I wondered if their reluctance was a sign from God that I should pay attention to.  But the peace that I feel whenever I pray over this, confirms for me that I’m doing the right thing.  I don’t know what will happen, how this will end…but I know that I’m doing what God would have me do and I know there is something to be learned and/or accomplished from this experience.  So even if it doesn’t go the way I would prefer, I will be happy – and content – because I know I followed God.

Two years ago, I dated a man I wanted to marry.  Our break-up darn near killed me and exposed traits in me I didn’t even know I had.  The experience taught me that I cannot say, “I would never do that” – because you just never know(!).  The months after our relationship ended, the months that I spent piecing my life back together, taught me much about God’s sovereignty, our own free will, trust and also forgiveness.

I used to call him MSO – My Special One, more special than any one I’d known before.  Which is, to me, a gold star example of the sovereignty of God’s plan.  The man I knew then was slightly flawed but perfect for me as far as I was concerned.  And now, two years later, he’s better than I ever could have imagined.  Seeing this change in him, the skepticism from my loved ones hurts me.  But I’m trying to remember that these loved ones who know we’re communicating again, have less information to work with, then I do.  They haven’t talked to him countless times daily, every day for six weeks.  They haven’t had the opportunity to see the changes in this man.  They haven’t prayed for guidance and felt the complete sense of peace.  They just know that they love me and that I loved him.  And that he hurt me…so they don’t love him.

But I hope that they will cautiously give him another chance, the same way I have.  Because regardless of how this journey will end, I can see that God is in it.  The person I am called to be through this journey is a truer, deeper Christian then I have been before.  Because the question in this experience really isn’t whether or not to let this man back into my life, whether or not he will hurt me again.  It’s whether or not to trust that God has a plan for me.  Whether or not to believe that even if this experience doesn’t end the way I would hope, that it has come to me for a reason.  To exercise my belief that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord.

I don’t know how this will end.  I’m praying and seeking, diligently holding fast to my plan to move back to DC for myself.  And I’m trying to be open and aware of the new things God is showing me and the new ways God is growing me, and that perhaps he is using this very special person for a purpose.  For 17 years I’ve trusted in Him.  Taking one small step and then another and another, more and more boldly each time.  I never want to lose that.  I never want to lose the promise that when I take a leap of faith, God will be there to catch me.  And as if to affirm that desire, this morning my pastor spoke directly to me from the stage, when he said, “Fruit doesn’t grow on the trunk, friends – to get the good stuff, you’ve got to go out on a limb.”

Love y’all!
~M~

I Found God in Barack Obama

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve blogged. I’ve had a zillion things on my mind, which, I imagine will find their ways onto these pages, eventually. So much has happened since my grandpa died, I don’t really know where to start and it’s causing me a decent amount of writer’s block, to be honest. But recently when I saw a little blurb in the news about my favorite president, I chuckled and was reminded of my partial goal to see God in random things this year. So…I found God in Barack Obama.

On April 5th, at a baseball game in Washington DC, President Obama threw the first pitch of the game. Wearing a Washington Nationals jacket, he jogged to the pitcher’s mound bare headed. But then before making the actual pitch, he paused, pulled a Chicago White Sox cap out of his pocket and pulled it tight over his head. He then stood for a moment, grinning and looking around proudly. HA! Standing on the pitcher’s mound before throwing the first pitch of the game, Barack Obama took the perfect opportunity to represent for a completely different team!!!! :-D Because you can take the boy outta Chicago, but you can’t take Chicago outta the boy! His actions hit the news (naturally) but so far as I can tell, there is no decided reaction one way or the other. I choose to believe this is because deep down, even the most dedicated fan understands the concept of, well, dedication.

Barack Obama and his White Sox cap are sealed into my memory, as an illustration of dedication, of commitment – and of how to represent my faith in Jesus Christ. My life is so…daily. I go to work, I go to the gym, I walk my dog, I go to the grocery store. As a Christian, I am called to live in this world, but not be of this world – to be a light in the darkness. Like my president, who now lives in DC, but remembers where he's from.  I want to take the time to conciously pull on the attire of the beliefs I proclaim: among others, patience, peace, humilty, boldness, love...So that, whether they be few and far between, or come repeatedly every day, when my moments come to stand grinning on the mound, my cap will proclaim that regardless of my circumstance, I am a follower of Christ!



Love y'all! :)
~M~

It's Resurrection Day!

I haven't blogged in so long...what a month March was, God was stretching and pulling...and I was grunting like I do in yoga class, wonder when's this session gunna end?!  I have so much to share but can't yet find the words...so in the mean time, to get myself back in the grove, I thought I'd share a lil sumthin' from my Facebook, in honor of Easter.  More to come, though - promise! :)

Love y'all!
~M~