Challenges

I have always been a dreamer.  I have always wanted to experience different places and embark on new adventures.  Movies and books about people doing unordinary things have always captivated me ever since I was little.

As a result of my dreaming I have always had something I've wanted to do, something unordinary.

For example, I've always wanted to walk across the United States.  I've wanted to go sky diving.  I've wanted to join the army, about 8 different times in my life.  I've had countless idea's on new businesses and how to make myself rich.  I attempted to start a non-profit organization with a friend.  There has always been something new and different I have wanted to do with or in my life.  One of the main things which killed my ideas was the doubt of the challenge.  

In the past I thought if the idea or thought was from God and for my life than the task would be relatively simple.  There would not be a great challenge or difficulty in accomplishing what I'd felt I was supposed to or wanted to complete.  When difficulty or the realization of the challenge appeared I simply gave up.  I thought the difficulty was God trying to tell me to stop.  I suppose there could be some truth in that thought process depending on the situation and the circumstances.  But then I realized that anything and everything of any worth in my life would be met with challenge.  In fact I would argue that if it is too easy maybe it is not right. 

Jesus was destined for the cross.  Jesus came to life in order to die.  He showed us how to live and walk out our lives in complete surrender to the will of God, but His main purpose for coming to earth was to die for our salvation, among other things.  Jesus knew this from an early age.  The bible first tells us that Jesus knew of His death when He was talking with the disciples and explaining to them that He would be given up to the enemy.  I'm sure He knew the scriptures and knew the prophetic words about Him, but the first time He speaks about what will happen is in talking with the disciples.  We all know the story of Jesus praying in the garden asking The Father to remove the cup from Him.  In the same story we can read that the challenge for Jesus was so great that He was literally sweating blood.  I have faced some challenges in my 27 years but I have never been so concerned that I sweat blood.

Life is filled with challenges.  Anything we do, that is of worth, is going to have a challenge or two that we will need to handle.  The road we walk to the fulfillment of our destiny is going to have plenty of challenges on it.  You have to face the challenge of shyness and rejection in order to ask out the woman of your dreams.  You have to face the challenges of studying and taking tests in order to graduate so you can win your dream job.  You have to face the challenge of reading all those parenting books and then applying them in your life if you want to be a great mom or dad.  You have to face the challenge of your past if you want to be free for your future.  You have to face the challenge of yourself if you want to move into all that God has for you.  Your story would not be interesting or exciting if it were not filled with challenges.  Challenges are what move us forward in life, they are what help us change into the person we want to become.  

Do not give up when you are presented with a challenge, no matter how hard it may seem.  

Take your challenge before God, pray, read the word, get wisdom on the situation.  Know that the greater the challenge the greater the reward and the greater the life you get to live.  Move yourself forward and into a new chapter of your story by facing your challenges today.

Forgiveness = Love

What keeps me from loving people? What keeps me from allowing others to love me?

There is a story in the bible of Jesus going to eat dinner at a local pastors house.  When Jesus gets to the pastors place a woman comes in who is a local prostitute.  This woman begins to weep as she kneels down before Jesus.  Her tears fall onto His feet and she begins cleaning His feet with her hair and her tears.  Then she takes out a jar of expensive perfume and pours it over His head.  The pastor says to Jesus, "do you know who this woman is?  And if so, why are you allowing her to do this?"  Jesus replies to the pastor and says some things to him.  Jesus says in Luke 7:47 "I tell you, her sins - and they are many - have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love.  But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love."

I have taken some time lately to process through why it is some people love more than others.  Why some have an easier time expressing and accepting love in their lives.  I'm not sure if there is one answer to this conundrum or if there are multiple answers based on varying situations and circumstances.  However, I think this story sheds a little light on the whole thing.

Jesus already forgave me for my sins, that's what He did by offering His life for mine on the cross at calvary.  God forgave my sins when Jesus was sent to the cross to die for me.  But I may not realize, understand, or access that forgiveness until I have been made aware of my need to be forgiven and the forgiveness Jesus has given me.  I believe the awareness of being truly forgiven is a process and comes to me in stages throughout life.  I don't simply wake one day to the full understanding of His forgiveness and what He did for me on the cross.  This woman in the story of Luke chapter 7 had an awakening to the magnitude of who Jesus was and that He came to forgive her.  She loved Him so extravagantly that the bottle of perfume she poured over Him was said to cost a years working wage.

I know I have grown to love Jesus in a deeper level as I've also come to realize with deeper understanding what He accomplished for my life and the forgiveness He so freely gives me each day.  Honestly, I've noticed that I love other people more as I grow in the understanding of His forgiveness.  It's almost like it pours out of me.  I desire to bring the feelings of love and forgiveness I have on the inside, outside to the people I surround myself with.

So, would it make sense that as I am lead into deeper levels of forgiveness I am also lead into deeper levels of love?  Does my ability to love purely and extravagantly grow as I navigate through the caverns of my heart and clean out the darkness with the Light of Heaven?

If this concept is true, than that means people are wired the same when it comes to love.  We are all wired to love entirely purely and extravagantly.  The only thing that keeps us from loving this way is our understanding and belief in our personal forgiveness.

I think the necessary measure is to truly forgive ourselves.  To truly forgive the people from our past that have hurt and wounded us.  To truly allow His forgiveness to wash over our lives and permeate our hearts.  If we don't allow the revelation of His forgiveness and love to pour over our lives we'll live in darkness.  We'll always be holding ourselves back from living a good and lovingly affectionate life.

The abuse we know is sometimes better than the future we don't know.  And make no mistake, when we live in the darkness of withholding forgiveness from our lives we are living in self-inflicted abuse.  It's scary to forgive and allow Him to forgive us because it's scary not knowing what the future brings.

We don't need to understand or know what the future brings.  We need to receive love and forgiveness in our lives and give love and forgiveness to others.