Sharing the Journey

I sat down before my computer today and prepared to write my second book. I prayed, I got all of my study materials together, and I put my hands on the keyboard. Nothing. Not one single solitary word. In my Charlie Brown voice – “UGGHHHHH!” I prepared a cup of coffee and returned to my computer. Still nothing. I turned on some inspirational music. Nada. I prayed some more. What could possibly be wrong with me? I know I’m supposed to write this book. I know what’s supposed to be in it and the direction it’s to go. I know how to do this – I want to do this. But I wasn’t doing a thing, except maybe giving myself a tension headache. I could hear a little squeaky voice quote to me James 4:17, “ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. ” God had given me a work to do and instead of doing it, I was doing nothing – another day wasted. The devil is a liar! Yes, the devil will quote scripture to you also. He did it to Jesus during the te...

Growing up in a ridiculously small town in Eastern North Carolina, my family didn’t have very much. Of course as a child I didn’t realize it or if I did, I didn’t think much of it. I do know that we didn’t waste very much. If clothes ripped, they could be patched. If someone outgrew something, it could be altered or even better, passed down to someone else. If the toast got burnt, as it often did since we didn’t have a toaster but put bread in the oven on broil, we just scraped off the burnt and added jelly or butter or even both, and you couldn’t tell the difference – it was still edible and still good. Thinking of that, I was reminded of how my heavenly Father doesn’t waste anyone. Every life has redeemable qualities, IF they are submitted to the Master’s hands. Just looking at my own life is proof of this. Many were prepared to toss me away. Many more said I wasn’t nothing and won’t never gone be nothing. (Poor grammar, yet this is how it was said.)  But God. The ...

This morning marks the beginning of a new day, a new work week, and for me, a brand new attitude. I awoke early this morning after having dreamed again. And that won’t make sense to most people, in some ways not even me. So let me try to explain. I have dreams that play like movies. Often times I’m not even in them, just an observer. They are always entertaining but nothing deep or spiritual. In fact, many of these “movies” would not qualify as something I would even chose to watch. The significance of these dreams – to me – is they only come when I’m in close communication with my Heavenly Father. So if you go back and read the 2 nd sentence of that first paragraph you should be able to deduce that I had fallen out of close communication with my Father. Sure I spoke to Him daily, throughout the day even. But it was not the kind of communication you’d have with someone with whom you shared a close and intimate relationship. I’d grown discouraged and even apathetic in my relatio...

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a terrible procrastinator.  I don’t know why I do it but I put everything off until the last possible moment. Sometimes that works – like when I’m writing because I don’t have time to second guess myself. Other times it’s awful – like when I’ve invited 30 people to my house for brunch and I wait until the night before to start cleaning SO I can cook. Yeah, that didn’t go quite as I’d planned. But God knows I’m trying. I keep confessing that I’m a reformed procrastinator. But… Well now I’m tired of procrastinating. It’s hurting me; it’s hurting my family; it’s hurting those God has called me to minister to. There are things I’m supposed to do, to be, to have. But there are prerequisites for all of it. So here I am – working on my prerequisites. Starting with something one of the ladies at my church told me, I’m going to write my modified life plan. Starting backwards or at the end, what I want ultimately from life is to get to the en...

2 January 2015 Is it just me or do you become easily distracted when that still small voice begins to speak to you? I can go all day totally focused and on point until I feel that little nudge and then bam! everything needs my attention and needs it now! I can go all day (well a good part of the day) and not even think of food. But then the Holy Spirit will begin to whisper my name and suddenly I’m ravenous. Or I will remember that I was supposed to pay a bill or make a phone call -anything to keep me from answering that voice. Oh and now at the beginning of the year it’s at its worse. Of course we’ve all committed to doing better and being better – to being more available to God. Not just to do stuff for Him, but to just spend time with Him (I hope we have committed to that.) But of course you’re also committed to exercising more and getting more done on your never-shrinking to-do list and maybe even writing more. And no matter how difficult it’s been to get the other things ...