Let Loose!

Spent just a few moments yesterday with my one and only grandchild, two-month-old Isla Rose.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, even when her daddy was changing her diaper!  I stood over her as she responded to my baby jabber with wide eyes and a dimpled smile.  She is still not to the stage where she can purposefully use her hands, but somehow her hand found its way to my hand and she wrapped it tight around my index finger.  When the diaper was changed she still had a tight grip on my finger and this grandmother wasn’t about to pry her loose!  Eventually, I gave her up to my son and off they went to the next grandparent’s house. As I reflect on this precious moment, I am reminded of something the Apostle Paul once said:

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 3:13-14

I love how he gives us a one-step process for reaching our goals.  This one step does however, requires two intentional actions on our part:  forget what’s in the past and reach forward to what is in your future.  Unfortunately I am more apt to follow baby Isla’s lead and move with no purpose.  I often unintentionally find myself holding on to things that are not moving me forward, but are keeping me from my God-given call – taking hold of the thing for which Christ took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12) I often allow the fear of failure, past mistakes, or just plain procrastination to keep me from moving forward in my relationship with Christ.  These would be considered “the sin that so easily entangle us” that keep us from finishing strong in the race of life.  (Hebrews 12:1)  But Paul says to forget about the good and the bad. Dwelling on what you have done well in the past may cause you to become comfortable with where you are.  On the other hand focusing your attention only on the bad things in your past may cause you to live in shame and condemnation.  When you are lured back to the past, that is the old enemy singing over you.  (Micah 7:8) Instead Paul encourages us to forget about it.  I don’t think he meant literally to forget your memories of past failures and accomplishments, but to not keep your focus on those things – bringing them back up in your mind over and over again.  Sometimes a quick and gentle reminder of the past can spur us on and motivate us to grow up in Christ and even go deeper still.   

Once you get your mind off the past, Paul says to reach forward to the future.  The Greek word for reaching  forward, or straining forward, is a picture word illustrating a runner who is stretched forward at the starting line, ready to run his race.  Literally it means to “stretch oneself forward.”  Moving forward is always a stretch!  God stretches us by calling us to do God-sized tasks.  We stretch forward toward God, who is the One who accomplishes all His purposes in and through us!  (Psalm 138:8) When the gun goes off the runner is focused on winning the race and the reward that awaits him when he crosses the finish line.  Paul also encourages us to run to win.  (1 Corinthians 9:24) The good news is that if you know Christ and have entered into His eternally full life the reward is a home in heaven spent worshiping Him forever – a very sweet reward!  

This week at our church there was a revival for the precious senior citizens of our congregation.  I had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy the worship segment of one of the revival services.  That day the hymns were all focused on heaven.  I took a moment to drink it all in and observed the beautiful white crowned men and women as they worshiped with passion and over-the-top joy.  Their faces lit up as they sang about the mansion in heaven, the streets of God, and seeing Jesus’ face for the first time.  They gained energy with each song they sang.  They were focused on the prize, fueled to finish the race! 

Time spent with a baby and with a room full of senior saints gave me fresh inspiration and encouragement to stay the course, to live a life worthy of Christ, and to remain focused on the prize of eternity spent with the Father.  Now I say with Paul:

I am off and running and there is no turning back.  

Philippians 3:14 (MSG)

Let loose and Press on!

Nancy

Hardheaded!

Have you ever been called hardheaded, stubborn or unchanging?  I can be all of these, wrapped into one - on occasion!  But I also know a few of those hardheaded types and they can leave this cheerleader speechless!  This year as I have focused on the word new, I thought it was going to be so refreshing and all shiny and, well – new.  But, the more I desire new, the more I am reminded of all the changes that are required for new.

I would love to get started on writing a new book, but that would require a change in my daily schedule.  One of my desires is to encourage others to become healthy through personal training, but that would require additional hours a day for study for a new certification.  I would love a new kitchen, but I would need to write the new book and start training people in order to afford it!  There are some things I would like renewed in my life as well.   I would like to become a better teacher, friend, student, and speaker.  All these require change.  Change also requires accountability.

For over five years I was a part of an accountability group.  There were six of us women who gathered weekly to share honestly and openly in a safe and secure environment. We shared blessings, temptations, key struggles and areas where God was calling us to go deeper with Him.  This usually meant He was calling us to something new.  It could have been a new habit of encouraging our husbands, speaking truths to our children, or using our time more productively.  We all had times when we struggled with the reality of change.  We needed each other to speak words of encouragement, instruction, or truth over our lives as we sought to reach these new goals. We cried together, prayed together, laughed together, and grew deeper in love with the Lord together.  It has been over a year since we’ve met together and oh how I miss them. I miss the accountability and being spurred on to love and live well.  If we ever showed up hardheaded or stubborn, someone in the group would call us to account!  Instead of fighting it, we welcomed it. 

Let a righteous man strike me – it is a kindness; let him rebuke me – it is oil on my head.  My head will not refuse it.  Psalm 141:5

Jesus is our ultimate Change Agent.  He is all about changing us from the old to the new.  He paid the ultimate price by dying on a cross to provide a new relationship with God.  He gave us not only a new relationship, but a whole new life!

“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  

Romans 6:4 

My efforts to change on my own fall flat and I fail miserably!  Trying harder just doesn’t seem to work!  Eventually I must lift my hands first in surrender and then in praise of the one who makes all things new.  My efforts are like patching up my holey jeans.  They may be “fixed,” but they are not new!  My husband is such a good steward of his shoes that he will take them to the shoe shop and have them resoled several times before I step in and tell him that it is time for a new pair.  Sometimes doing the same thing over and over again is no longer effective.  It is time for a change!  Its time to walk in the new way.    

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.  No one puts new wine into old wineskins; 

otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; 

but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”   

Mark 2:21-22

I started the year giddy with excitement for the new that the Lord was going to bring into my life, and my family and friends’ lives.  The excitement has now given way to reality. The reality is I am hardheaded and so are a lot of others I know. That means the only way we are going to experience the excitement of the new is to live the reality of change.  The author of Hebrews has the key that will unlock the stubborn streak in all of us:

Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race marked out for us.                                                                        Hebrews 12:1

The Lord is calling each of us to run a new race, but we have to throw off stubbornness and allow him to strike us with His kindness and welcome His rebuke. He is our Change Agent and He is calling us to account.   

Hands up and hearts open,

Nancy