Inspired

I love laughing, and one person I really enjoying laughing with is my daughter.

Last weekend, I was taking pictures of her for her college graduation announcement. We started by an old oak by our deck and ended up at a small walking bridge at a pond below our house. She was standing and sitting in different positions on the bridge. I thought I'd try to get what I thought would be a really cool picture by focusing the shot through some of the tall grasses at the edge of the pond.

Okay, go ahead and guess what happened next.

Yep, I ended up in the pond. I was on my side, left leg submerged in the muddy sludge, and holding my camera high to save it from water damage. I couldn't get up, and Sarah could barely help because we were both laughing so hard.

As I write this post today, I'm realizing how inspired I am by many young women. Some of those include those of you who shared your stories and perspectives for my last post. Another is my daughter.

She came to Christ at a young age, but I knew by her many questions that she was totally serious. Over the next years, I continued to be challenged by her questions and thoughts about the world and God. Now that she is about to graduate from college later this month, I can tell you it hasn’t let up.

No, she isn’t perfect. I know that and she knows that. But what I see is that she tackles life with a full realization that at the end of herself she finds God’s great intervention. She’s not afraid to be challenged by the hard stuff and to be confronted by the frailties of her human nature in the face of God’s presence in each circumstance. She longs to hear God’s voice as a whisper or a roar—however he wants to speak—but most often she is listening while she is serving. Like many of her generation, she is passionate about people and causes beyond the borders of her own culture and experience, but she operates out of a determination not to make any cause a god.

She wouldn't claim that her faith is unshakeable, but it is real—very real. So her relationship with God is amazingly deep. And that inspires me. Every day I'm thankful for the many like her who are rooted deeply and doing whatever it takes to grow in their faith and be open and available to make a difference in this broken world.

By the time I was the age she is now, or perhaps the age you are, I had not been a Christian long. I don't wish for a second any different beginning to my walk in Christ. For where I was in my young faith, God was working in me and using me too.

As you commit to his transforming work in you, God will work in you and use you probably more powerfully than anything I've known. Keep asking questions, growing deep, and sharing what he's doing in you.

And don't forget to laugh along the way! Join me at the pond.

Jan

http://www.jankern.com/
http://www.choose2livefree.com/ (launching soon!)

Bare

The other day, God told me to get nekkid.

Just kidding. Well, sort of.

I’m doing this book called Enjoy the Silence, which is teaching a Bible study practice called lectio divina. It’s a practice that monks often use, and it’s been a good book so far. I’ve been hearing God more in my quiet times.

The other day the passage was Exodus 3:1-6:

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.

So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush,
“Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are stand-
ing is holy ground.”

Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. (TNIV)

What struck me was verse five, when God tells Moses to take off his sandals. He didn’t want him to have anything manmade on him, nothing crafted by man’s hands, because the ground was holy.

Holy ground required just bare skin. Just himself.

That’s when I really felt naked. God wants me bare before Him. None of the stuff I’ve made for myself, none of the attitudes and accomplishments that make up the things around me. Just me. The girl I really am.

My life is not pretty, but He wants me bare when I come before Him. He really wants to see just me.

This, I think, is true prayer—when I’m completely, utterly, only myself before God. This is when He can speak to me, because both He and I can see me for who I really am.

The next time you pray, be bold. Be bare. Be nekkid.

Just don’t post pictures. ;)

My Secret Fantasy

I have this secret fantasy and I think it needs to finally come out of the closet. Well, come out of the closet if the closet were my brain. Which sounds weird, but…anyway, here’s my secret fantasy:

At some point in my life, I’ll be sitting (perfect posture, of course) in my bedroom, wearing the most beautiful dress ever, my hair will curl in perfect waves down my back and I’ll be doing something impressive, like reading the dictionary.

Suddenly, out of the blue, there will be this slight rattling against my window and I’ll dash to look out it and see the most handsome guy ever standing there, tossing little pebbles up at the window (small enough to not break it, big enough to make some noise). And of course, he’ll be holding a bouquet of white daisies. He’ll grin at me with an adorable, dimpled smile, help me climb down a trellis of fragrant pink roses and take me on the most romantic date ever recorded.

Sigh. There. It is out. Here’s why this is completely unrealistic:
1. My bedroom is on the first floor. This means no trellis. Actually, outside my window is a devastatingly beautiful display of rocks and lizards.
2. I don’t typically dress like that to sit in my room.
3. Perfect posture? Are we kidding?

I’m hoping that by sharing this secret fantasy, there will be more out there who understand this or have even had it. Or maybe not. Maybe I’m a little wacky in the head.

Here’s something else to consider: As amazing as this fantasy is, it’s not real.

I can hear you now: Duh.

Sometimes I get so caught up in how I imagine things should go, that when they don’t go that way, what do you think happens? Right. I get horribly disappointed. Who wants to live their life horribly disappointed?

Worse than all of this, how often do I imagine how God should be? Or what He should be doing in my life right now? I think He should bring a perfect fairytale ending to my crazy life and it doesn’t happen. I think He should write out the answer to every question I ask in the sky (how cool would that be?).

And yet, God asks that we trust Him. In Psalms it says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Be Still. That’s a hard command for me. I like to Be Busy or Be Loud or Be Shopping.

Be still. God is God and we aren’t. He holds the universe in His hands and yet notices when a bird with a brain the size of a pea dies. How much more will He care for you?

An Erynn-translation to a popular passage. But it is true. And that is no fantasy.