Obstacles or Opportunities?

I have super bad migraines which can cause not just insane pain but also brain fog, anxiety and depressive mood swings. At the moment, I have a really good thing going with my ministry work because I can easily change my schedule around a bad day. That actually happened this week. I was in bed all day Wednesday because of a migraine. The thing is though, I want to do more. I have faith that God is leading me towards more. From my perspective though, I had to ask him how he meant to do that. How do I handle speaking events or anything really that requires me to be present and rescheduling is not an option? First, faith. First, I am made for a purpose. No part of me is an accident. If God is calling me to something, he has already been making a way for that to happen.

This week, God inspired me through a conversation with a person I serve at a work site I work at (confidentiality keeps me from conveying to much about that because… well it does.) My absolute favorite thing in the world is to encourage other people to step into their callings, to realize their dreams. I few weeks ago, I met with that amazing woman, Brandy, I mentioned in a previous blog post. She reminded me that a team of women working together can lift each other up and share the load.

Please join in prayer with me as we see how God is going to work this out because I have no doubt in him that has done, is doing and will continue to do amazing things.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book, were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not on of them.” Psalm 139:16

I have my freaking out moments. I have my “rather be watching Netflix or napping” moments. Right now, I am having a “bring it, God” moment. I can’t wait to see what he will do and I am excited we are on this journey together.

This past week:

I recently got to listen to and meet a very successful life and business coach. She has traveled all over the world, written best selling books, coached Fortune 500 companies and so on. So you can imagine I was pretty excited. I looked forward to meeting her and listening to her speak.

I listened to this super popular coach speak. She talked about some of the basic coaching tools; know your “why”, vision statements, and writing goal statements as past tense and dating it one year from now. These three things are all super awesome tools. I’m an avid podcast junkie and I have several coaches that I follow. These techniques aren’t new to me. Her delivery was great. She did a great job. I could see why she is where she is.

The thing is however that it helped me really understand something for me personally and my ministry as a chaplain and my goal as a community encourager. When Satan tempted Jesus in the desert, he told Jesus, he would give him all of what he saw before him. Satan would give him power over all the earth. That made zero sense to me. How do you offer to give a king his own kingdom when he is already king over his own kingdom? Jesus was already inheriting the world as the Son of God. I guess it took seeing a coach that offered all the tools but no relationship with our Creator to see the answer. Being a coach, an encourager, a helper, a counselor or a chaplain is meaningless if the end goal isn’t eternity through Jesus. The path Jesus was on was wrought with seeming failure, rejection, pain and death. What Satan offered was easy power, the easy way out, the ruling without the pain and hurt and feeling of failure, rejection and death. That is what coaching without Jesus is. I don’t do this for praise. Anyone who works in ministry is that there are very few thank you’s and that is okay because we work for a very different goal than human praise.

I want to bring working women together. I want to see my community come together with healing and unity. I want to help people know their why and walk their purpose. I want to chaplain, counsel, coach, encourage but if I do not have Jesus then it is all temporary and it has no eternal benefit.

“I like it when TV ads remind us to believe in ourselves and be confident we can do anything we want to do. You’ve seen the ones I’m talking about – an NBC star sits awkwardly on the arm of a couch and says into the camera, ‘You know those dreams you have? You can do them. Believe in yourself.’ And then the ‘ding ding ding ding’ jingle plays as a star crosses the screen. The more you know, people. The more you know. Here’s something I know: I shouldn’t believe in me, at least not in the way those commercials say I should. I’ve been me long enough to know that I am not someone to be believed in. I mess up. I hurt people’s feelings. I care t much about some things and not enough about others… I believe in the me God made and in the me God can make. I believe He made me on purpose and didn’t make any mistakes when it came to my creation. That makes me feel brave.” -100 Days to Brave by Annie F. Downs Day 8

I felt like when I was all about what I could do in my own power, I had tons of anxiety and no direction. Now that I get that what I am doing is trusting God and what he is doing in me, I have so so much more peace. I bring peace, healing and unity that is not temporary but eternal. I am a vessel for the Living Water. Anything else is everything less. I represent a God’s whose love in infinite and unconditional. When I share my vision, purpose, why, or my goals for 2020, know that it comes with an eternal focus and one of love and peace in a relationship with Jesus.