Breaking Fresh Ground

Good stuff...

The past few days I've been on the couch with a NASTY head cold. Total bummer, but a great opportunity for me to catch up on some reading. Here are some things that I'm wrapping my brain around from my blogroll:

"Being a church staff member does not automatically connect you to Christ.  In fact, you can become disconnected easily if you don't..."

 

     Take care of your family

     Prioritize your personal worship 

     Give generously.. generous giving defeats selfishness 

     Volunteer OUTSIDE of your ministry

     Grow your faith.. not just prep for leading worship/meeting/class

     Believe the best about your other staff personnel

 

Good stuff!

BTW...

 

I am super excited.. I get to go here in November! Sweet! 

Walls...

I just had the chance to catch up on a couple of blogs from other churches in our nation, and it was very interesting to me that the very things that our creative team felt that God was telling us to focus on this past Easter, were quite similar to what other churches felt God calling them to also.  We used a scrim (which casts a shadowy veil) to resemble the obstacles keeping people from experiencing the love of God.  In our drama, some of these obstacles were anger, fear, loneliness, abandonment, guilt, shame, and failure.. People wrote their obstacles on cards, and put them in a chest onstage, and then we dropped the scrim at the end of our service so people could come to the cross after they gave their "obstacles" up to Jesus..  Another church (Willow Creek- pictured above)built actual walls onstage that were examples of finances, relationship struggles, and grief or loss.. They had people bring prayer requests onstage, and actually split one of the walls to show that with God's help they could break through anything.

My prayer is that the experience will reach far beyond just what happened last weekend.. That people will know that each time they let their guard down and Satan gets a hold of them and begins to reconstruct walls and barriers to Christ within them, that they will remember and KNOW that God is the answer.  He is almighty, and there is NOTHING that can separate us from His love. NOTHING!

Balance...

Wow, It's been a long time since I've posted anything of any real content.. I think my brain has been on overload for the last month or so with Easter planning, rehearsals, and services.  I had so much fun directing this year, God moved in people's lives (including mine) and it was pure joy to be a part of it. In the midst of all of it, there were some major things I was supposed to be doing, and I just kept putting them off..

You see, I am not as good at multitasking as some of my friends and co-workers may think.  When I am working on something, I put all  of my heart and soul into it, but then other things in my life (sometimes really important things) fall by the wayside until I have time to pick them back up.  Well, it was a productive week after Easter, and here are a few of the tings that God has been nagging me about doing, that I finally DID!

1.  I FINALLY hired a realtor to sell our home.  I'd been putting this one off for months.  I really thought we could just stick a sign out front and it would happen, but obviously that was not the case.  I'm not looking forward to having to keep the house show-ready all of the time, but we're really hoping and praying it will sell soon!

2.  We finished planning and making all of the reservations for our summer vacation.  This took an entire day, but I feel so much better now that it's done, and I'm beyond excited to go.  We are taking two weeks at the end of July, and taking the trailer up through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.  Camping, rafting, fishing, biking, mountains, fresh air.. YIPPEE! I can't wait!

3.  I picked up my guitar again for the first time in months.  I love it when I make time to just sit, play and sing.  I have a really hard time with this one, as it seems there is always something more important to do, but I always feel so refreshed after I play for awhile, even if it's only 20 minutes or so.  I really want to start lessons again.. Dave?

4.  We re-started our family devotional time.  It hadbeen hit and miss with weekday commitments and rehearsals, but I know God is calling us to make this a priority, and we are committed to making it happen at least once a week!

5.  I started a book.  In addition to trying really hard to keep up with daily bible reading, I started a novel.  Yeah, not a big deal for some of you, but lately I have not been able to sit and just READ!  It's been since last summer that I did that, and it's honestly one of my favorite things to do.. I LOVE to sit down with a cup of coffee and get lost in a really good book for an hour or two, LOVE IT!

I'm learning that there are things that I need to get done right away, and things that really CAN wait.  I have become a little more relaxed and less regimented about the time frame in which I get my to-do's done, so I can still get some of the "good stuff" in there every now and then.  I'll probably never have a perfectly "balanced" life.. but hey, a girl can try! : )

Breathe...

The last couple of days have been so good for me.  I worked, worked, worked, trying to get ahead on all of the things that needed to be done in the Arts dept. for the Christmas season up until Wednesday night at about midnight.  You see, I am not the type of person who wants to put things off, or wait until the last minute.. I always want to have EXTRA time to get things done.  I want to be way ahead of schedule in case anything catastrophic comes up, so that I will have time to adjust and improvise!  I knew that I would be taking off work Thursday and Friday, so I wanted to get ahead!  I did what I could with the help of my sweet hubby and a couple of rad teammates, and then I vowed to completely take off two WHOLE days.  No email, no phone calls, NOTHING work related. I got a good night's sleep on Wednesday night, and then we just sat around in our jammies til noon on Thanksgiving, eating cinnamon rolls and watching the parade.  It was sweet!  Lots of time to just hang out with family and get a nice big deep breath before the bustle of the season stirs up.  Every time my mind would try to go to all of the things left to do, I would push through and just chill. 

 It was a great couple of days, and then came Saturday.  No set planned for worship, no previous rehearsal, just 2 guitars and 3 voices.  I was even asked to lead a version of a song that I had never heard before.   You think I would be nervous about it, but I was excited!  Excited not to have a plan, looking forward to see what God wanted to do in our worship set.  I had a total blast.  We had a fewglitches, but it ended up being one of my favorite times leading our congregation in worship here at CVC. Singing by myself always freaks me out, but as I stepped forward to sing, I remembered something that I felt God was trying to say to me during those two days off... "Breathe."  It was in that moment that I was reminded, I don't always need to be "polished", I don't have all of the answers, I can't do it all by myself, and trying to will just make things worse.  As I acknowledged that again, I felt His peace wash over me. 

Christmas is coming.  I want people to see the one true reason we celebrate. I want them to experience a moment.  A moment where they breathe, where they forget all of the things in this world that have left them feeling stressed and confused, empty and alone, and realize that there is a God who loves them so much that he sent His son to live and die for them.  I want then to accept the peace that only He can bring.  That is my mission.  Yep, I am a woman on a mission, and I'm thankful for a God that reminds me to breathe along the way.