Tag: truth

Posted on

Much Has Happened in My World This Year

I can’t believe December 2017 is already here. This year went by faster than I could have realized. Much has happened in my world.

It was my first year in my role as a full-time writer. Tremendous career successes and opportunities took place.

Beautiful moments arrived in my personal life. Experiencing new love and a new relationship and the adventure that comes in opening your life up to someone.

This purple bookbag was my constant companion as I traveled around the country this year.

Seeing a lot of America via work and personal travel. Atlanta. Detroit. Phoenix. Raleigh. Charleston. Richmond. Washington D.C. Crescent City. St. Augustine. Dallas/Ft. Worth. St. Petersburg. Denver. Ft. Collins. Dallas/Ft. Worth. Atlanta. Cleveland. Kent. Digging into writing assignments. Family visits. Weddings. Celebrating a close friend’s birthday. Seeing sister friends. Writing conferences with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Conferences for my job.

Dealing with health challenges that I hoped were resolved but now are being revisited, entering a new journey to find sustainable healing.

Looking for more of myself in my spiritual life, seeing where I’ve loved the Lord but have missed special times with Him this year in His Word and in His presence through prayer, almost was on the verge of losing Him as my first love.

Surviving what could have a been a catastrophic natural disaster if Hurricane Irma would have kept her category 5 status as she hurled towards the Florida panhandle. That affected me, the stress of it all stuck to me. My heart and thoughts continue to be with those who experienced her full wrath and that of Hurricane Maria and continue to recover from the damage.

Figuring out my future and places I want to plant my feet by way of community and my spiritual growth. Wrestling with the tension of time sown in places and knowing when it’s time to move to new spaces that resonate more deeply with my heart and who God’s calling me to be.

Learning how deeply important time to myself as a socially extroverted introvert who gets her energy alone really is. Much of this year I’ve been in moments where I’ve had to give more of myself and be present more than I had adequate time to recharge. And it affected me. And I didn’t always show up as my best self because my energy reserves were depleted.

Much has happened in my world this year.

And God continues to be faithful.

He calls me to Himself, seeing my deep need for rest. 11 out of the last 12 months, I’ve either traveled someplace in the country or been engaged in a conference for my job here in Orlando.

God continues to tell me, “Mel, I want to give you rest.“

Have you ever considered what it means to enter the rest of God? To truly, deeply, fully let the One who made you give you what you need, when you need it, exactly the way you need it, to restore your soul and bring peace to your body?

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. – Matthew 11:28-30, The Message

Rest is what God and I are focusing on now and will continue to focus on as the new year approaches.

I’m tired. So tired I haven’t written solely for myself since September. I haven’t written in this space here on my blog that I love and enjoy showing up in. I’ve been in places this year where I’ve been exhausted mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. And that exhaustion happened while I was doing good things, good work, digging in and being fruitful and seeking to thrive.

But I’m learning that like money and time, I, as a human being, am not an unlimited resource.

I’m learning I must choose how I engage in the world and how I show up in the places I’m called to. And what it will mean when I say “yes” and what will be required of me, by way of energy, intention, and presence. Whether that’s coffee with a friend, scheduling a medical appointment, getting ready for my next writing project or choosing to take a moment for self-care. And to use wisdom, time and perspective to help me as I make those decisions.

And the Lord continues to tell me, “Mel, I want to give you rest.” I’m letting Him do that. And choosing to enter into His rest.

I don’t know what your year has felt like or what the upcoming year of 2018 will bring you. But I want to encourage you to rest. To find your center not in the doing and in the busy, but in being and moving externally into the world around you from a foundation of rest. In the moments where life is calm and in the moments where it is chaotic, that foundation of rest in God will ground you.

Maybe it’s too hard for us as humans to admit we have limitations. But we do. They exist, they always have and we can’t shake them off.

I want to live with my limitations in mind so that I can live this life with an intention that is authentic, wise and deliberate.

And my best living comes from resting.

So, that’s what I’m gon’ do.

Posted on

Finding Me Truth #9: Weakness is Exactly What You Need

​But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12: 9,10

Truth. 

What if we considered limitations and disappointments our strongest moments? Failure and weakness remind us we’re not in control. We don’t have power. 

But God does. And he desires to put that power to work in us, especially in our most powerless moments. It’s in those moments that we can see how badly we really need him and choose to surrender to his plans and wrap ourselves in his fortitude.

Counter the culture, weakness is exactly what you need to experience the presence and nearness of God. Weakness beckons and invites him to meet you exactly where you are and be a present help in your time of neediness.

Embrace your weaknesses. Express your neediness. Ask God to enter into them with you. In them precious victories await because of God. Hope in him never disappoints.

Posted on

Floss The Teeth You Want To Keep

You schedule a dentist appointment. Then the days wind down to that either dreadful or anticipated day, depending on how you view dental visits. I like to put in extra effort on my teeth the morning I head to the dentist. As if my extra brushing and flossing is going to take away all the dark chocolate I ate months prior.

What hilarity.

When I was younger, a dental hygienist told me, “floss the teeth you want to keep” and showed me how to properly floss my teeth and go under my gums. Her words stuck with me. They make me think about the intention that’s needed to keep healthy things in our lives moving at a constant pace.

What if I applied the same set of words to my writing, running, and relationships?

Write the words you want to keep.

Run the miles you want to keep.

Invest in the relationships you need to keep.

FlossI think the “need” in relationships challenges me. It’s easy for me to be intentional about the relationships I want. The ones I need are a little different. I don’t always see my need for them, likely because I don’t want them. Especially if the work it takes to do them is hard. And relationships are just hard sometimes.

Relationships are these glorious personal mirrors God uses to show me who I am. Sometimes I love these mirrors. What I see blesses me in the life and connection I experience with people who want to know me.

Other times I don’t want to look at the mirrors. They show my disappointments in people. They show me “me.” I don’t want to look at the hard and the difficult when relationships don’t work out. When they stall out. Even when they die.

But the mirrors are good and they are necessary. I need to see myself, what I bring to situations that’s good and what I bring that ain’t so good. And I need to be willing to let go of stuff that won’t help me invest well in the relationships I want and the relationships I need to keep.

How do you need to “floss” in your life this week?

Posted on

Finding Me Truth #8: You Need A Pillow

Sometimes the best thing may seem like the least productive thing.

Humans tend to think if we’re not doing something, changing something, being a catalyst for something, then we are not productive, not useful and are ineffective.

A friend told me he heard someone say, “The most spiritual thing people can do sometimes is take a nap. Resting shows your trust in God and not in what you can do.”

I think those words are stellar.

People need pillows. People need rest. People need naps. 

Rest brings recharge for the body. Your mind gets some peace while your body renews itself and cells get regenerated and such. Sleep and rest are a good thing for finite human beings in rechargeable body vehicles. I’m sorry, I just think it’s funny to say “rechargeable body vehicles.”

Anyhoos, rest yourself today. God neither sleeps nor slumbers. Well, he kinda doesn’t need to…he is God. But he does model rest for us. After he made the world in six days, he took the seventh day off and rested. He rested. If he does it, then I for sure know that I need to do it and I haven’t even made a planet or an animal like a kangaroo like he has.

Posted on

In The ‘Ish

Writing this for friends who are struggling with their faith and those in the throws of the half empty cups of life:

When people are in ‘ish, and I mean tough, brutal, painful stuff where trauma has occurred and the hurt is beyond deep, don’t be spiritual with them.

IshBe relational instead.

Telling someone you will pray or quoting a Bible verse or reminding them what your favorite theologian/pastor/teacher/author said could feel more impersonal than you intend.

Those spiritual things, while sometimes helpful, still keep you at a distance from their pain where you can be safe, protected, not involved and unaffected.

But a relational response means you choose to get into the dirt, the mud, the ‘ish with them and look them straight in the eyes and say I’m in this with you. You are not alone. You are not alone.

I think this how empathy differs from sympathy. Sympathy expresses concern and sadness for someone as they experience deep pain. Empathy, by definition, allows you to understand and share in the feelings of another.

The best teacher I know who does this: Jesus.