#powerchilling

This summer was originally titled “The Self-care Summer.”  Friend M. and I had great plans for taking care of ourselves across a wide range of areas: spiritual life, budgets, nutrition, work, relaxation, coffee dates, etc.  All this was done with the idea to become more settled in our personal and spiritual lives in order to recover from the intensity of the past six months.  Then autocorrect happened and #powerchilling was born.

The essence of power chilling is to take care of yourself in every way imaginable.  Your mental, physical, and spiritual health are of great importance and with that in mind we have each individually begun to figure out our priorities.  We looked at which areas needed our focus. Then, in the true spirit of friendship, we encourage, hold accountable, and provide ample opportunity for power chilling to take place in an environment of community and fellowship.

The most notable theme for this new lifestyle that we are developing is to constantly seek out God’s guidance in our lives for who He created us to be, how we can serve Him best, and how can we learn to continually rest in Him.  Understanding that we are different, individual, powerful, talented, and blessed women has been a healing thing to realize.  In this our humanity and sinfulness has also been realized but with a dose of repentance and grace we are set free to be about the work that God has called us too.  After all, isn’t that the most important thing?

The goal of this summer is to enable us to work for God’s kingdom here on earth while caring for our exhausted, strained, and worn out bodies.  Daily life is hard.  For myself the last six months have held delightful changes that have also led to hard seasons.  I have two choices before me.  Either I wallow in discontent (not a good look for anyone) or I can use this time to live life fully and to move forward towards the next layer of my call.

Our goal is Christ.  To serve Him to the best of our ability we have to take care of ourselves.  Find out what it is that you need to build sustainable routines in a life filled with His guiding voice in order that you may be who He has called you to be.

 

Embracing You…

I love how God speaks through different people at different times.  Below is a post I re-blogged that I would encourage all of you to read.  Most helpful.

It helped to line up some thoughts, which have been floating around my brain about living in an imperfect world.  I know all too well that I am imperfect.  I have so many faults it is over whelming sometimes and I spend a lot of energy trying to change who I am and who God created me to be in order to meet some standard or another.  To that alter I have, at one time or another, sacrificed my peace of mind, my true feelings, my health, or calling because some person was being very spiritual (or I was) and told me that it was right.

Now, in no way am I saying you get to do what you want.  You are still bound by God’s word and law.  But He is the standard and He created you to be who you are.  We live in a culture that wants us to conform to a very small and general standard. God will send you counselors and you should listen to them but that doesn’t mean you get to jump off a cliff.  Think things through before you do them (this is coming from someone who has huge amounts of experience not thinking things through) and consider how this advice, if followed, will affect your heart.

God created me with a very dynamic personality.  While “Sunshine” or “Bubbles” are my most frequent nickname there are some people who find me less than sunny or bubbly.  Overbearing and pushy are also words I hear and it hurts me when people tell me that because I do try hard to help and not hurt.  But I must take criticism with an open heart and ear for generally it is spoken out of love…at least I choose to believe that it is.   I need to learn how to take dominion over all aspects of my personality and nature, which God gave me…not to change it into something that it was not meant to be.

By cultivating our faults as well as our good points we learn to embrace the person God made us to be.  Also, perhaps your “faults” are blessings as well as curses.  I can think of many times as a nurse where being overbearing and pushy has saved a life.  There is a time and a place for everything.  The answer lies in knowing how to temper it.  It also comes in understanding the major parts of our personality are not going to change in a moment.  Learning to take dominion over my body and personality will take my entire life.  Some things will come more quickly than others and some definitely take longer…much longer.

So, peeps, embrace who you are but have an ear open and the humility available to hear when people correct you…even if it is not done in a loving manner.  Always be ready to repent and seek forgiveness.  Always be willing to go to a brother when they have hurt your feelings because you do not want hurts to linger.  It is bad for your soul.  We have much more important things in front of us than holding on to every wrong that has ever been done to us…particularly within the body of Christ.

Embrace whom God made you to be.  Live fully.  Know that God created you just how He wanted you.  Your personality is His gift to you because He loves diversity.  Don’t be afraid to be honest with yourself and other people.  But know that God loves you for who you are.  Not matter how much you torture yourself you cannot earn salvation.  It was a gift in the first place…that was the whole point after all.

Take dominion…don’t run away and change who you were created to be by a Father who loves you more than you will ever know.

Forgive Them…

To forgive is on my heart tonight.  Our Savior’s words as He died His painful death strike home to me clear beyond measure.

“Forgive them for they know not what they do.”

These were His words as nails were being pounded into His flesh. He forgave those men who physically slew their creator who truly did not know what they were doing. He forgave those who knowingly betrayed Him. He, even in this dreadful moment, loved His enemy.

How small and weak I am. What pitiful misery I. It is all I can do to forgive those whom I have loved the most. How to forgive my enemy? As with all else, only by God’s help and grace. 

Good Friday is today. Our Savior has paid the price. “It is finished!” was His victorious cry before He gave His life for mine.  That finished work so that I might live free from death and sin.

A year ago God asked me for my life. He asked for my desires. I wept. I died. He broke me once again.

Tonight…calm. He asks me to grow. He has returned my life. He has stilled and quieted my soul.  He has shown me that I am not forgotten.  He has given me a job to do.

Forgiveness is hard for me. I like holding on. I like being mad and the drama that comes with it. But I come to love more and more the calm, quiet peace that comes with letting go of my bitterness and hate. I find myself more beautiful when I love and fall into a restored friendship where wrong has been done.

You see, I am a sinner. I wrong people. I have to seek forgiveness as often as I must grant it.  It is hard. It requires humility…a painful virtue.  It requires you to love those who wound you.  It requires you to forget the wrong. 

Sometimes forgiveness requires you to say that you were wrong. Wrong to withhold it.  Wrong to be bitter.  Wrong to not seek reconciliation sooner. 

In my own experience the most defining moment of my life was one of mutual forgiveness. In the moment it happened I knew that it was worth all that I went through to get to that point. And God blessed it.

Christ forgave us. He forgave us before He even paid the price. I doubt that He regretted His obedience to the point of death so that He could save our miserable souls from the death we deserved.  He will give us the strength just as His Father gave Him the strength.

May God be with you and lead you ever closer to Him!  May His blessings be with you on this Easter weekend.