Not Where, But Who

"Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading."

-Oswald Chambers

Maybe instead of trying so hard to figure out where we are being led, we should focus on knowing the One who is leading us.

Press Pause

Do you ever wish your life had a big pause button? That when you needed a time-out, you could just press pause and take a break?

I do.

From a Saint...

“Oh Lord our God, under the shadow of Your wings let us hope in Your custody.

 

Carry us when we are little. Bear us when our hair is white and we cry out in infirmity.

When You grasp us, the grip is firm.

When we try to sustain ourselves, the grasp is feeble.

The only good we know rests in You.”

-St. Augustine

Psalm 66

"For you, O God, tested us; 

       you refined us like silver.

 You brought us into prison 

       and laid burdens on our backs.

 You let men ride over our heads; 

       we went through fire and water, 

       but you brought us to a place of abundance."

Psalm 66:10-12

Where is Your Delight?

"Delight yourself in the LORD
       and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD;
       trust in him and he will do this:

 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
       the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him..."

(Psalm 37:4-7)

Upside Down

I was reading in my devotional last night, and I stopped and reread this three or four times...

"How sad it is when we make plans and decisions, and then go to God and ask Him to bless them?"

Yet, that is how I often to do. I live my life, making plans and decisions, and then afterwards I go to God, not to ask what He wants, but to ask Him to bless what I want.

The problem is, I have it upside down.

The Bible tells us that in various places,

"Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD...You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?" (Isaiah 29:15-16)

Lord, turn me right-side up today.

Be Compelled

“For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

(2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

We Moved!

Welcome to the new site. Do you like it?

I have added tabs with different (dangerously) beautiful themes. If you know of any people or causes, please comment, and I will add them.

Also, I am going to add a page for prayer requests. Please comment or email me your prayer requests, and I will publish them on that page. Then, go to the page and pray :)

Any other ideas?

My Way or The Highway

I came across this quote tonight.

“We are, all of us, utterly committed and deeply devoted to our style, our way, our approach to life. We have absolutely no intention of giving it up. Not even for love. So God creates an environment where we have to. It’s called marriage.” (John and Staci Eldredge, Love and War)

I can’t comment on marriage, but I am certainly finding that truth in several other areas of life.

Work. Friendships. Relationships.

My style, my way of thinking and viewing the world, my approach to life. Me. Me. Me.

The problem is, those areas aren’t always going so great. Might there be a connection? Maybe it all lays in this…

“Honor one another above yourselves.” (Romans 12:10)

Easy to say, hard to do.

Fill Me?

“My primary remedy was to look for someone or something that would make me feel loved and significant. It’s as if I carried around a little heart-shaped cup and extended it to whatever or whomever I perceived might fill it…Will you fill me?” (TerKeurst, Becoming More…, p.30)

What or who are you asking to fill you today?

Danger Lady

When I was a little girl, my dad used to call me, “Danger Lady.”
I can still hear his voice, the way the words rolled off his tongue. I am quite sure I never did anything really dangerous, mostly just jumping off things, riding fast on my bike, picking up weird bugs, or climbing into my brother’s tree fort.  As I think back to those moments, it makes me wonder.

When is it that we stop being fearless and start being fearful?

Enter Peter. He is one of Jesus’ 12 disciples; he is in Jesus’ “Top Friends”. With Jesus around, you’d think it would be easy to eliminate fears and do dangerous things. Yet, looking at Matthew 14, it seems Peter thought otherwise.

“During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

(Sidenote: I wish I could have an original audio version of the Bible and hear Peter’s tone. Is it challenging? Fear-filled? And better yet, Jesus’ simple response, “Come.”)


“Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Recap: The disciples see Jesus walking on the water towards them. Instead of being an awe of Jesus, they were terrified of him. He calmed them, assuring them of His presence. Peter (challenges, begs, cries out in fear…not sure which) Jesus to invite Peter to walk on the water to met him, to which Jesus says, “Come.” Do you think Peter was expecting that? So, now he has a decision to make. The passage tells us that Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. Until…

Yes, that’s right…“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.”

Peter was fearful. His fear robbed him of a dangerously beautiful experience with Jesus.

I think that same thing happens to many of us. Our fears cause us to miss out on amazing experiences. Whether internal fears (insecurities, self-esteem, etc.) or external fears (situations), our fears overcome us and we lose faith and start to sink, just like Peter. We take our eyes off Jesus and start focusing on the fear. Today, I want to encourage you to reflect upon this question.

Is your fear robbing you of something dangerously beautiful?

(Dangerously) Beautiful

“When an infinite God comes to dwell in a finite being, dangerously beautiful things begin to happen.” -Erwin McManus

It is what we long for, isn’t it? For God to come and dwell within us, and then through us, cause things to happen.

Beautiful things.

Dangerously beautiful things.

Yet sometimes, letting God dwell within us and then work through us, feels like trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. All of us have had those days when we may be dangerous but definitely not beautiful.
My hope for this blog is that it would inspire us all to open our hearts to the infinite One and allow Him to make us dangerously beautiful.