far from shore

Hi friends, 

It's been a long stretch since I last wrote on here. I have been focused on finishing my Master's degree in Teaching which I officially completed one month ago today! It's been a very exciting time and I give God all of the glory. Earning a graduate degree has been one of my dreams for many years now and I am grateful for the grace and strength God gave me to achieve this goal. 

I'm writing today because God has put something on my heart for a while now. He's been teaching me a lot about His will in this season in my life. I'm sharing this with the hope and prayer that the lessons the Holy Spirit is teaching me resonates with you and draws you closer to Jesus. 

First things first. I don't think that a follower of Christ who is genuinely committed to Jesus can miss God's will. If you wake up every morning and intentionally set your heart on Christ, I do not believe God will let you be led astray or make His path before you so mysterious it is indiscernible. God longs to guide us even more than we long to receive His guidance. 

Yet I do believe there are levels of surrender when it comes to God's will. I like to think of our lives with the Lord as constantly moving away from the shallow waters near the shore and out farther and farther into the deep. It's not about a destination, but the process of continually choosing to go deeper with Christ - allowing Him to further refine and mature you into His likeness and character. At times, this might seem like a slow process, but God is always working on us to conform our lives into more glorious reflections of Jesus Christ. 

Graduating with my Master's this year made me think of graduating with my Bachelor's five years ago. Looking back over these past five years, I am grateful to see the Lord's faithful and loving work in my life. I am more mature in Christ now than I was then - in ways I could never imagine back then. And it's wonderful. He never stops pursuing our hearts. 

But the cost is surrender. Most recently, God has given me such a burden unlike never before to seek and to search for His will in all things. Ever since I can remember, since I was a little girl, I have been praying the Lord's Prayer each morning, asking for "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done." It's something I pray every day along with my personal petitions and prayers. 

Yet in this season, God has been teaching me to submit every decision to His will and to specifically pray for His will to be done over the multitude of decisions I've been making right now. There's nothing more exciting and thrilling than partnering with God to do His will and be a vessel for His purposes on this earth. 

But let me give you a disclaimer: When you pray for God's will to be done with regards to an opportunity, relationship, circumstance, or event in your life - get ready! I'll be honest and say that God will slam doors shut and lock them so that you cannot go through them. Things will likely turn out quite differently than your perfectly laid out plans. This might be cause for alarm, at first. Yet the Bible says that God's will is GOOD, PLEASING, and PERFECT (Romans 12:2). So... when you start purposefully praying for God's will to be done in your life and that door closes and you don't understand, please know that God has something better planned for you - beyond what you can imagine. I promise you - His plans are always, always, always, always best. 

Never, never be afraid to pray for God's will. The previous paragraph is not meant to scare you, but to describe the level of surrender necessary to fully living out God's will. He desires His will for your life because it's the best for you. God is not out to withhold from you or give you scraps and leftovers. He is a good, good Father. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. He created you in His image and He rejoices over every detail of your life. 

Let Him have His way in your life. Let Him take your far from shore. Voyage confidently and fearlessly with Him, joyfully surrendered to His will because Your Captain knows the way. It's the way to your greatest good and His greatest glory. Lose sight of the shore as you become captivated with Him; life with Jesus is the most beautiful adventure in all the world. 

His Name is Jesus

On my heart this Christmas Day:

For Joseph and Mary, that first Christmas was not glamorous or "Instagram-worthy." It wasn’t picture-perfect or wrapped up with ribbon. It was messy, it was dirty, it was lonely. It was hard.

We read in the Bible of how the angel appears to the virgin Mary with the news that she has been chosen to be the mother of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. This angel, Gabriel, tells of how Mary has found favor with God and the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the Son of God will be conceived in her womb.

His message is of joy, of peace, of hope. Of news that would change the world forever.

And yet the angel’s message from the Lord leaves out several key details of how this will all play out. There’s no mention of Joseph’s initial distrust of Mary when he discovers she is pregnant. No mention of the long journey from Galilee to Bethlehem when she’s near the time of giving birth. No mention of an inn with no room. There’s no mention of Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the King of kings, lying in a manger surrounded by animals. No mention of unclean, lowly shepherds being the first ones to visit the Christ child. There’s no mention yet even of crazy King Herod’s plot to find and kill the baby. No mention of the necessity of fleeing to Egypt.

Into this chaos, into this mess, into this struggle - Jesus is born. Our Savior, our Redeemer, the Lord of all. God incarnate comes into our brokenness and our hardship and He gives us Himself.

When Jesus breathed His first breath and opened His eyes to see the world He created, the darkness of the world could not compare to His Light.The mess, the brokenness, the struggle was all used by God to prepare the way, to fulfill His promise, to bring about the birth of a Baby Boy who would alter the course of history eternally.

The trials, the challenges, the battles we fight aren't to break us, to discourage us, to destroy us. No. They're purposed by God to bring about His greatest Gift into our lives - Himself. He is God with us - Emmanuel. It's all to bring us to our knees where we can bow before this Savior so we live in awe of Jesus - not of ourselves, our accomplishments, our success, our name. No. It's about Him. It's all for Him. It's all because of Him.

There's a Gift that's perfect for every broken, seeking, fragile, hardened, wandering human heart. A Gift given long before any of us were born but given with us in mind. A Gift God has given us the choice to receive or reject. If received, this is the Gift of redemption, of righteousness, of hope, of Truth, of freedom, of love, of grace. His name is Jesus. 

A heart of fearless joy

There's something about writing that makes my heart come alive. I love sharing what's on my heart and what God has been teaching me all with the hopes of encouraging someone somewhere. I pray this post blesses you!

A couple weeks ago I was at church and the pastor said this phrase that I have not been able to get out of my head. I even wrote it on a notecard and tacked it up on my bedroom wall. He said that when you follow Jesus, you have "a heart of fearless joy."

Don't you just love that? A HEART OF FEARLESS JOY. Something about the way those words hit my heart just left me in awe of the reality of following Christ and the freedom He brings into our lives.

But doesn't it seem that so many times life gets in the way of having this heart of fearless joy? People disappoint you and your heart is left shattered - full of sorrow and pain, not of joy. Life circumstances and loss shake you more than you thought they could and once again your heart is not full of fearlessness but fear of what else could happen. You desperately want that heart of fearless joy as you run after Christ, but you're stumbling over your own feet - longing to soar like the eagles but tethered down by what's happened.

And yet this - this devastation - this is the moment to rise up and cling to the Word of God like never before. God has promised to work everything together for our good (Romans 8:28), God has told us to rejoice always and give thanks in all things (1 Thessalonians 5:16, 18), God has told us to forgive if we want to receive His forgiveness (Matthew 6:15). His perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18) and His joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). These are not just nice ideas or clichés to get us through the hard times. When we believe in God's Word, this is a reality!

One of the most important things I have learned through all of this is to forgive - it's my life anthem. I'll say this again and again for as long as I live. No matter what I go through God has reminded me again and again that forgiveness is the key to moving forward in life. People will mess up and break your heart, people will treat you cruelly, people will shock you with their hypocrisy and brokenness. And when that happens you have two choices - you can internalize what's happened and let it change you OR you can give it all to God and by His strength radically forgive all that's been done. Radical forgiveness is the key to radical freedom. You're only as free to the degree that you've forgiven those who have hurt you. You probably know someone in your life that's always talking about what's been done and what happened and who did this and why they are the way they are - and that person is not free. You cannot be free and hate someone. You cannot be free and harbor bitterness. You cannot be free and simultaneously hold grudges. You cannot be free if you hold even one ounce of unforgiveness toward someone. Freedom comes with forgiveness.

And forgiveness - complete and total forgiveness - is only possible with Jesus. He is the One who changes your heart and the way you see. He is the One who tells you to give it to Him and let go. He is the One who will empower you to not only forgive but to love those in your life who have caused you the most pain and disappointment. Check out these verses from Luke chapter 6:

27 ...Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Love, do good, bless, pray - all for your enemies. For those who have broken your heart, for those who have betrayed you, for those who have done you wrong - this is what Jesus says to do: LOVE. DO GOOD. BLESS. PRAY.

This is the path to fearless joy. Living out radical forgiveness because God has radically forgiven you. Why does Jesus tell us to do this? Because loving, doing good, blessing, and praying sets our hearts free from the snares of bitterness, hatred, and bondage to unforgiveness. All of this honors God because it keeps our hearts free - and when we are free we live like Jesus. And when we live like Jesus this world is changed.

Friends, those who have hurt you - they wouldn't have done so if they knew true freedom in Christ. They wouldn't have left you, lied about you, let you down, and broke you if they knew Jesus. Which is why in these moments - instead of crying all the tears and wallowing in what happened that we cannot change - by the power of the Holy Spirit, we need rise up and show the radical love of Jesus. To the very people who have hurt us.

There's still stuff you might have to walk through with Jesus as you forgive. And He'll help you. Nothing you suffer is greater than what He suffered. Let this comfort your heart because anything you are going through - He knows and He has the solution and the path to freedom. He knows what it's like to be disappointed, betrayed, hurt, broken. And He overcame because He forgave again and again and again. He refused to let anything interrupt His fellowship with His Heavenly Father.

By the grace of God, let's do the same. And let's live with hearts of fearless joy.