Mini Bites 24.0

I do not play sports of any kind. Although my laziness does contribute to my incompetence, my fear of getting hit by the balls (i.e. basketball, baseball, soccer ball, tennis ball, racquet ball and dodgeball) keeps me staying in the sidelines. And not in the floor seats either; I would be in the nosebleed section where I was certain that no wayward ball had any access to my pretty face.

But life is funny, isn't it? 

Because I usually find myself in the front row, with no protection, watching the game.

Correction: watching the ball.

My eyes follow the ball and my limbs are in the stage of flight in case the ball decides to plummet in my direction. 

I tend to forget that the ball doesn't have a mind of its own and it isn't plotting to smack me across the cheek at full speed.

No, not at all... unless...

No! The ball is an instrument in the hands of the ball player and most of the times, if not 99.9% of the time, the ball player is competent enough to make sure that the ball doesn't go out of bounds and bludgeon someone to death.

I should have confidence in the players to keep the ball within bounds but I don't.

I watch the ball and I can't enjoy the game.

And sadly, the same can be said of my life.

I harp on the bad and miss out on the good.

I miss out on God's goodness because I'm looking at the circumstances.

 Matthew 8:23-27 and Matthew 14:22-33 reveal the disciples losing their faith when they're caught in terrifying storms and Jesus shows us the correct responses when life throws us curve balls.

He rested in the boat and He walked on water.

He didn't freak out with His disciples.

He didn't abandon ship.

He wasn't frantically looking for plan B when plan A looked like a failure.

Jesus rested and Jesus walked, both actions opposite of what we would do when caught in a storm.

And you know why He was able to do that?

Because He knew that God was in the midst of the storms.

We have to remind ourselves that storms, horrible circumstances, bad breaks and bad habits will never separate you from God.

Storms can surround you, overwhelm you and try to drown you but God has His hand on you the entire time and will never let you go.

Trouble can come but Jesus is with you.

Temptation can be overpowering but Jesus is reaching out for you to set you free.

Don't look at the chaos in the background when peace and rest can be found in the foreground, in Jesus.

Shift your perspective; it's better that way.

Mini Bites 23.0

Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what He said. That's why it is said, Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right. " But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God.

Romans 4:19-25 MSG

I look around and list the many things that are "wrong" with my life. 

The complaints can go on for days and I become an unbearable party pooper. 

I do not know how anyone deals with me.

I look around and see the good in everyone else's life but I never do the same for myself. 

Only the bad pops up.

And when I finally decide to look up, I don't see God; I'm too busy with my litany of discontentment and woe-is-me bull crap to see Him and realize that He has eyes.

Duh, He is omnipresent and omniscient.

God sees!!!! He is not blind to my sufferings or yours.

The stuff we're complaining about, He sees. 

He notices our burdens and the hopelessness of the situations. 

He doesn't need us to draw His attention to them.

He's more than willing to step in and change some things. 

But are you willing to wait on Him as day changes into night that transitions into a week, a month, a year?

Will you wait for God and trust that what He promised a "while" back will come to be?

That only He is the One who can do it?

That's why He spoke it!

That He will back up His word?

Instead of telling God about our situations, let's remind ourselves who God is.

God is the GREAT I AM, who is everything we ever wanted and needed.

He can do it and He will do it.

Don't Put Dirt in the Grave Just Yet

I'm writing a novel this upcoming year.
A month ago, I printed out my thesis proposal and I got giddy.

This thesis, warm from the printer, is the foundation

I could envision the final product from the blueprint and I knew, deep in the deepest part of me, that I could do this and it was going to be magnificent.

Then my mentor got a hold of it and I promise you, he beat my child in front of me as he gave me suggestions and advice.
And I could do nothing to prevent it.

It's not my mentor's fault. I SUCK at receiving criticism. And he didn't say anything bad about it. He likes the idea of it. He just burst my bubble and surrounded me with reality.

We've all had that moment: when you think you know something, the idea of it, you get the premise of it but once you're in the situation, you realize that you knew NOTHING, nothing at all.

When you realize this isn't what you signed up for

And you wished someone warned you. Well that's what my mentor did. He warned me and I, being me, started doubting.

Am I really capable of executing this?
Is the message going to get lost in the story?
Is this story even mine to tell?
Should I go with something easier?

So I, being me again, turned my back against my story. I gave up on it, without beginning it.

But it didn't leave me. It's haunting me. Its bones are calling out to me, demanding that I finish it, that I go head first into it, that I don't punk out, that I commit myself to something wholeheartedly for once in my life, even if I set myself on fire in the process, I need to do it.

I owe my words, my ideas, I owe myself that.

Then yesterday, Ezekiel 37:1-14 popped into my head and I wanted to share this with you because I cannot be the only one who has unrealized dreams or ghosts of unfinished works in my closet.

You have to stop.
Stop with the excuses. Stop with the procrastination. Stop it.
Stop telling God how impossible the situation is.

Don't you realize that you are a child of a God who specializes in impossibilities. What you cannot do, He is more than capable in doing. He is not you. God is not your image-bearer; stop coloring Him with your inabilities and insufficiency.

Instead, be quiet and listen to what God is saying to you. Don't you hear Him?

God speaks life over you. 

So if you have nothing nice to say, then only say what God says. Be in agreement with Him.
Speak His promises over your life.

Remember your words have power - the power of life and death. Speak life like your Father. Don't let defeat and discouragement fall from your lips.

It may look as if it's over but God has other plans.
That place where you thought was your grave-site, your end, is the place where God wants to bring your resurrection.

God is coming for you. 

He's gonna rejuvenate you, recharge you and bring about what you thought was long gone, long forgotten.

God is a dream-maker and a dream-fulfiller. What He starts in your heart, He will bring to fruition - He guarantees it.

But you have to be in agreement with God.
You have to continue speaking His promises over your life, even when life gets crazy, until it becomes exactly what He said.

Keep echoing His words and believing in them.

When you align yourself with God, who can stand against you, let alone win?

So conceive it, believe it, speak it and do it no matter what the circumstances look like.

Now faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance about what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1