It happens every summer, or maybe I should say that it happens almost every summer. We get a "Summer song!" Now, I know we are still in the strong holds of winter, but we have found our summer song! It's new but I'm sure if you love Despicable Me as much as I do, you have heard this song!
Click Here!
It's Happy by Pharrell Williams and it's also the song from Despicable Me 2. Hearing this song makes me flat out happy! Preacher man and I downloaded it last night, and danced ourselves silly! You can not listen to this song and not be changed!
We should have things like this song in our lives to help us get over the bumps in the road. I don't want things in my life that halfway work, or show up for part time involvement. If I need help, I want help. No messing around!
Right now, I believe I'll be listening to a lot of this song! Where we are right now is where the rubber hits the road, and it's hard. In all honesty, I don't think any of this journey is going to be a cake walk. Seems like the more you trust God, the more you need to trust God. Dah!
Discernment is work, and it's work that requires all of you, and it wears you out. I feel like everyday, we start over again from scratch. I look at the insurmountable barriers that lay between us and a church plant… and I gasp. It's enough to make you take that job just so some money is coming in, even though you know that's not what is required.
We are reopening A Workman Services. She has laid dormant for 7 years, while we were learning combat tactics. This is by no means the way we planned any of this ministry to happen…But God! We are grateful for His plan for our life.
We are also in the process of discerning what our ministry is going to look like. It's crazy, really it is. How many people do you know that do this kinda stuff? We talk about listening to God and going where He leads, even if it's uncomfortable. So here we are.
So here's the deal: You gotta have things in your life that help get you over the bumps in the road. God has given us the ability to be moved by music. When you need some help over the bump that's appeared in the road, find that song, that summer song, and dance your feet off friend! There is a plan, you just aren't in charge!
2 Day's in a row!!! I'm so excited bout that! Oh wait, you don't know what I'm talking about do you? Walking my girls to school has been pure joy the past 2 day. There have been no tears, no fits, no fights!
It was getting to the point, I was dreading the whole process! I had to take a week off, cuz it wasn't fun and it should be fun. If I show up and we sing songs and talk about stuff that 5-7 year olds like to talk about, by golly it should be fun! Not even taking into account that I am a blast to be around!
So, I took that week and I thought about how we could get pass this hump that seemed so high and difficult to get over. Then it came to me!
Stickers!
That's right stickers! All grown ups should walk around with stickers in their pockets! They are the perfect, light weight bribing gift ever! That's right…I am not above bribing kids! There I said it!
Lent. What does it mean anyway? What are we suppose to be doing? Well, it's the time before Easter where I should be making space in my life for Jesus. It's a time of preparation, it's a time to repent, to change the direction in which I am looking for happiness. The call to repentance is the invitation to take stock of our emotional programs for happiness and to change them. They have been instinctual, they need to change to spiritual.
You know the liturgy for Lent begins with the temptation of Christ in the desert. The three instinctual needs that we all experience in growing up; security, esteem and power. Security in changing stones to bread, esteem in making a name for himself by jumping off a building, and power in having absolute power over the nations of the world. We are tempted to find easy, fast answers. Here's a story I found to help.
A master had lost his keys to his house and was looking for it on the lawn outside, running his fingers through each blade of grass. His disciples came along and asked the master what had happened. "I have lost the key to my house", he said. "Can we help you find it?" they asked. "I'd be delighted!" he replied. With that the disciples got down on their hands and knees beside him and started running their fingers through the grass too. After some time, one of them asked, "Master, have you any idea where you might have lost the key?" He answered, "Yes, of course. I lost it in the house." The disciples looked at one another in astonishment. "Then why are we looking for it out here?" they exclaimed. The master replied, "Because there is more light here!"
This is the human condition. We have all lost the key to happiness and are looking for it outside ourselves where it cannot possibly be found. We search outside because it is easier or more pleasant; there's more light out there. There is also more company. "If we look for happiness in emotional programs that promise happiness through symbols of security/survival, affection/esteem, or power/control, we can find plenty of help, because everyone else is trying to do the same thing." (Thomas Keating) When we look for the key where it can be found, we may find ourselves along, abandoned by friends and relatives who feel threatened by our search.
Lent is about looking inside.
