Back From the Future: Coming Full Circle

Recently I asked the Lord what is it time for now?  What’s next?  On a personal level I could hear Him speaking in my heart:  “It’s time to go back to the beginning, back from the future.”  Perhaps when you see that statement you may think it means to return to living in the past or rehashing and rehearsing the past, or maybe trying to bring back the “good ole days”.  (For many people those were not good ole days.)  But anyhoooo, that is not what He meant at all.  I could tell this because I experienced a great sense of anticipation, something I’ve not had for a long time.

Going back from the future means going back to where life began to get off track so you can get back on track.  It doesn’t mean throwing away all the years and life experiences one has accumulated along the way.  But many of us somewhere in life stopped “being” in the “present” and projected ourselves into the future, so we missed a lot of “being” along the way and left behind important clues and tools we need(ed) for our lives now.  Clues to, and tools for fulfilling our purpose in life, so we can enjoy the journey of living in the now.  Because we still have time, God has allowed us to come full circle and “start over again”, but now from an elevated position.  Here is my short unfinished story, and I hope it will inspire those of you who may also find yourselves starting life over again.

I was living “alone” in my bedroom in my parents’ house – alone in and with my thoughts and plans, and life projections, childhood fantasies for an adult life, when it all got interrupted with the needs of life and living in the now.  I heard too much and absorbed and assumed too much adult responsibility for myself, first in my mind, then in my imagination, which carried me away to my first real job search at age 12.  I stopped being a child dreamer and started to become an adult worker before my time.  Even though I still dreamed of the future, now those dreams became filled with “adult stuff” – the need to provide for myself so I would not have to depend upon others.  The American Dream to become rich and wealthy and self-dependent.  I was hit by the “I will” Mac truck.  I was stung by the “I can” Bee.  I was bitten by the “Me-Myself-and I” snake of “I can do all things through ME who gives me strength.”

Don’t get me wrong, I was not a selfish child or person as an adult, for I had lofty thoughts and plans for our family of eight to become a large corporation of some sort.  I could not believe that God allowed us to all be born and live in that house together without a larger-than-us purpose.  At that time I did not know what we could or would manufacture and distribute, but I knew it would be important to and for the world.  Well, at least for the United States.  That was our world. J  We were a family of athletes, musicians and singers back in the day, but then we all went our own individual ways, to do other things.

I learned early, whether voluntarily or by coercion to give of myself and my resources to many others, whether or not I could afford to do so.  And this fueled my need, drive, and desire to make money – so I would always have enough left over after I had given everything away. J  I knew that in order to continue living that way I would need to become a wealthy person, but I thought I had to do it all.  I did not think there were people in this world who would be willing to help me accomplish something greater than what I could do alone in order to help others.   I thought because I was the one carrying the dream, the vision, therefore I had to do all of the work to bring it to pass.  Even though I knew God was “there”, I still had not seen Him do much in the lives of those I lived with even though they (we) prayed to Him every day.  For after I saw them huddle and plan then get into formation, they punted the ball, threw the ball, caught the ball and ran the ball.  And yes they got tackled more times than you can shake a cheerleader’s pom pom before they could make it to the end zone.  They did everything.  They were my She-roes.  I hardly ever “saw” God do anything.  Sadly, this was and still is for many Christians, the way of their world – “I am I-dependent”.

So now I’ve come full circle.  I’m an adult now living in a foreign country on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.  But I’m alone in my room again, with my thoughts and adult needs staring me in the face.  What will I do this time?  Will I allow the needs of this life to take me on another 20+ year trek around the world off-track of what I was created to be and do, or will I let my dreams lead me this time?  Better yet, will I allow God to lead me by and into the dreams He has for me, but with my eyes open this time?  He’s been dreaming longer than I have and He has a bigger head and a larger turnover rate than I do. J

I’ve been spending some quality time sleeping, I mean dreaming J and I’ve met some interesting people along the way who followed their dreams through hell and high water, and also have made an impact in our world, for good.  I met more men than women, like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, Samuel, Solomon, Joseph (the earthly father of Jesus), and some Wise men.  Also Pilate’s wife (I couldn’t get close enough to get her name.  In and out like flint you know.), Paul, and John (he truly understands what it means to be alone with your thoughts and visions). J

All of these . . . dreamers’ (visionaries) lives were changed because they paid attention to God speaking to them in their sleep, and waking moments.  They believed the images God imprinted on their souls were possible for they did not allow the tyranny of the urgent, or the necessities of daily living dictate how they would live.  They lived from another dimension enabling God to manifest His plans not only to them for their own lives, but through them for the positive effecting and affecting of generations to come. 

I never met him personally, but many still living have met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  He said “I have a dream . . .” and because he believed his dream was possible, we are living his dream today, all over the world, not just in America.  His dream became the standard for equal rights all over the globe covering all phases of humanity, not just ethnicity.  Steve Jobs said it differently and our way of communicating through the internet will never be the same.  So many in our contemporary times known and unknown to us are living their dreams and some of them are turning our world right side up (with much difficulty too), while others are revealing to us that their dreams are really nightmares, turning our world upside down spinning in the opposite direction on its axis.  God forbid!

Full circle.  Back from the future.  I’m back, starting over again, but this time I won’t let fear – the fears of others becoming my fears (no thank you very much) – dictate how I Won’t live my life.  Some gifts we just need to refuse adamantly and fear is one of them, because fear disables.  Faith and love empower and enable us to live above our needs (not being constricted and controlled by them), by-passing the temptations of greed, to rise above our one-dimensional desires to sit with Christ and see ourselves from His perspective.  A place where all things are possible with God, in the plan and will of God.  (Yes, that place is somewhere over Noah’s rainbow.  Can you say “covenant”?) J  “And He raised us up together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).” Ephesians 2:6 (Amplified Bible)

Keep dreaming.  Keep seeing.  Keep hoping.  Keep believing.  Go back and get your dreams and ask God to help you make them happen.  Better yet, ask Him to fill you with His dreams for your life.  Because we have today, we still have time.  I still have a dream.  Rinnnng!!!!  It’s time to wake up!

 

Peace. 

Life Is More Than A Cliche

It seems that more and more we have become a society that builds our life’s decisions and choices on quick sayings to take the “work” out of living – to make the more challenging aspects palatable, doable, quick, easy, and mindless.  But I don’t believe God does anything quickly, easy and mindless concerning us, and since He created us in His image, we are to do everything that we do with thought and intention, “as unto the Lord.”  One of my favorite movie trilogies is The Lord of the Rings.  In part two “The Two Towers” Merry and Pippin escape from the Orcs just to fall into the branches of Tree Beard, the leader of the Ents (trees).  They explain to Tree Beard the war that has engulfed Middle Earth and they need all the help they can get to fight the enemies Sauron and Saruman.  Well, Tree Beard calls a council meeting of the Ents to decide if the trees will join the war between the humans and physical manifestations of evil spirits, and he says it takes them a long time to say anything that’s worth saying, so the meeting of the trees could take some time.  I always laugh at this part no matter how many times I watch it because it’s so funny.  To me. J  Anyhoooo, you get my point, and so does Tree Beard:  if anything is worth doing, then it is worth the time it takes to do it and to do it well, and to do it right, with gusto and with all of one’s faculties present.  This is the character of God.  He put His entire self into creating earth and the creatures inhabiting earth.  He actually breathed Himself into the man, something He did not do to the animals, so that should tell us how valuable to God we really are.

But if God could ever be said to have operated according to a cliché, I would dare say it is found in Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31-  “And God saw that it was good (fitting, pleasant) AND He approved it.” Amplified Bible.  The King James Bible records that God said “It is good.”  Now that’s a real cliché!  Hmmmm.  But this was after each instance of doing something creative, some kind of work.  Not before, not in place of it, not to make it easier or to get it over with or to get through it mindlessly.  God put His heart and soul into everything He did and He continues to put His entire self into the affairs of His creation.  So when did we begin living off of clichés and acronyms?  What is the purpose of them?

I understand that many of the Psalms in the Hebrew language are written in, or as an Acrostic in which the first letter of each sentence or phrase, or verse form a special word or phrase much like an acronym, but I cannot speak more in-depth about the Acrostic because I am not an expert.  Therefore we know that the idea of the acronym is not new, however our fast-paced society often moves us to cut things short so we can move through life at lightening speeds.  This is not the purpose of the Acrostic.  Anyhooo . . .

Acronyms and clichés do have a good purpose, but my argument is that as usual we tend to go overboard with a good thing.  Many of us have taken normal and “good” things (and some not so good) in life to the extreme, creating disorders and addictions all over the place.  For instance, to deal with FEAR some Christian created his own definition of FEAR as “False Evidence Appearing Real”.  But God created the “fight or flight” response to help humans stay alive in the face of REAL dangers.  So now why in the world would we want to shut down a perfectly “good” gift with an acronym and cause ourselves much harm by saying all fears are to be treated as false evidence?  Maybe there really is a truck coming and the flight response needs to be triggered by fear to get you to move, quickly! This is just one simple example.  Also, what about fire?  We need a healthy respect of this much needed tool and reality in society, but respect in and of itself is not enough when fire becomes life-threatening.  To avoid injury and harm we need another trigger called FEAR to put some direction, action and speed to our feet so that we can live to respect (and not fear fire), another day. J  

Everything has its place and purpose on the earth, including FEAR.  The wisest man in the world, King Solomon said “To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1.  And he goes on to list several of the see-saw scenarios of life – “a time to be born, a time to die”, etc.  Even though he does not list fear and a time not to fear, he does list those real life incidents which for many years have caused humans to not just operate out of fear, but to live in a state of fear.  Fear of what may or may not happen.  Fear of the worst case scenario.  So because of the state of fear we have to have insurance (l’assurance en Francais) for everything, a Backup Plan (i.e a Plan B) and a backup plan for the backup plan.  But what happens when all of the backup plans have been backed up against a wall and you find yourself between a rock and a hard place?  Just boxed in?  And what happens when all of your friends and family are also backed-up and hemmed in?  What happens when the bank can’t give you a loan because their loan (What is “Bail out” Alec for 200? Euros, dollars, yen, pounds, francs) J has been denied because the Federal Reserves are now depleted?  FEAR?  But why?  Whatever for?  (I know, I ended that question with a preposition.  Ugh!)  What will it accomplish?  Can someone please send me an acronym or cliche to save me?

Well, hopefully it will drive us to the feet of Jesus where we will learn (if we would learn to stay there like Mary did) that “God has not given us a SPIRIT of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.”  [II Timothy 1:7]  The Amplified Bible describes FEAR as timidity, cowardice of craven, and cringing and fawning fear.  But is the evidence false?  Non, pas du tout.  We would be irresponsible to treat it as such because this situation is bleak and impossible on the human side.  But there always is a way out, even though we may not see it with our natural eyes, for the only way to see it will be by the Spirit of God, Who gives power (enablement), love, and a sound mind (keep your head on straight, don’t panic.).

It is true – living in a state or spirit of fear will not help us at all for we are not created to live this way.  But neither does regarding our situation as “false evidence appearing real” when it is in fact very real.  When the worst case scenario is the REAL scenario, it is not just appearing real.  It must be FACED = Faced, Addressed, Confronted, Evaluated, and Dealt with. J  And all of this takes time and work of some sort.  It cannot be mindlessly or quickly and flippantly treated like singing through the ABCs song.  FEAR is just an acronym revealing the problem, a noun.  If we’re going to live by clichés and such let’s create ones which provide solutions.   (I need a verb please!!) So here’s another acronym for dealing with Real Life – FACE+D it head-on in the presence of God and receive His instructions.  But then you must be willing to do what He says, otherwise don’t ask Him for His help.  Why ask for help from God if you’re not going to do what He says?  Will the real Megamind please stand up?

Daniel found himself in a difficult situation, between a rock and a lion.  The three Hebrew boys found themselves in a heated situation, but could not take a sauna because there was no water for steam.  David was a runaway king before he could sit on his throne (playing musical chairs without his flute).  And the list goes on.  Each of them had experienced fear – the Bible records this in several of David’s Psalms.  But neither of them ignored it, neither could they treat their circumstances or their fears as false evidence, for they were real.  But because they knew their God (Daniel 3:16-30) they did exploits!  And really, all they did was just BE there and FACE it in the presence of the Lord, making a stand for God in their crisis.  Not creating the problem themselves, but yes seeking refuge in the character of God as their shield.  “For Thou oh Lord art a shield for me . . .”; “He/She who dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91:1.

Dwelling in the secret place is not passive, but it is “actively” obeying God from the inside out.  Planning in your heart and soul to obey His every command whether He says “yes” or “no”, “wait” or “go”.  You have no Plan B based on what you want or can see, for if you do, then you are not dwelling in His secret place, but in your tree house.  It is in the secret place, as we abide that we are empowered by His love for us and our mind is renewed to FACE our situation with the eyes of God.  FEAR cannot stay in the secret place for perfect love (and God is Love) casts out all fear.  Yippee!!!  Feel like swinging from a tree limb now.

WWJD – What Would Jesus Do?  I do love this Acrostic because it stops you in your tracks to think on Jesus.  But for most of us it motivates us to DO something based on not only the character and actions of Christ, but on what we know is right.  However, rarely have I ever seen or heard this acrostic answered in this way:  “Jesus would spend time with the Father FIRST to SEE what the Father would SAY, because Jesus DID ONLY what He SAW the Father DO.”  He would not lean unto His own understanding, and neither would He allow His divinity to take over and carry Him away.  No, He would wait on the Lord too.  He would commit His ways to the Father and allow God to direct His steps.  He would trust in the Lord and acknowledge God in ALL of His ways.  He would not live depending upon acronyms, clichés and acrostics to get through life.  He would seek God with His whole heart, soul and might in everything and come through every situation victoriously accomplishing the will and purpose of the Father all the way to the cross, through the grave, down the hell (yes I meant to say it this way), and back up to heaven.”

 

Let’s not “cliché” our lives away, or rollerblade and surf on acronyms.  Let’s live intentionally in every moment no matter how difficult or boring, fun or delightful.  Life is not meant to be escaped so savor the moment, for this too shall pass.  FACE+D it. J

Peace.

Preservatives

This past weekend while recuperating from a grueling week of work and traveling and teaching and rehearsing and . . . I watched one of my favorite movies again: “Bulletproof Monk” starring one of my favorite Asian actors Chow Yun-Fat. Of course he doesn’t know he’s one of my favorites, neither does ignorance of that fact prevent him from getting paid for doing what he does – act. As a matter of fact he’s banking on (pun intended) folk like me to continue making sure he gets paid. Hmmm, we seem to be going right in the direction I want to go and I didn’t know it. He’s keeping me happy and I’m keeping him happy and we’ve never ever met. Imagine that.

In the movie he is the next monk to protect the sacred scroll from evil people for the scroll has special powers. The monk before him protected it for 60 years but never aged a day over 25. When he passed on the scroll to Chow (I don’t think he minds me calling him by his first name) he said “I’m now going to do something I’ve not done in over 60 years. Take a vacation.” But he was killed instead by foreign enemies who wanted the scroll. As Chow fought and then “died” in the first 15 minutes of the movie, he took with him the sacred scroll which no one could find. Many years later he appeared in the United States where we learned (yes, I was there too.) that he had hidden the scroll on his body. He too did not look a day over 25 years old, even though he died.

As the story continues we learn from Chow that the power of the scroll is preservation. The person who preserves and protects the scroll is also preserved and protected by the scroll. The scroll made him bulletproof so he healed quickly and always survived a bullet wound, or a death fall, like in the first 15 minutes. This one particular line that he shared with fellow actor Seann William Scott, let me paraphrase it as I recall it, “he who protects the scroll is protected by the scroll” is the one that excited me. I was like “wow” yeah!!! Who wouldn’t want to protect and preserve something that’s going to reciprocate in kind like that? Then immediately another person came to my mind.

I thought about a man who lived a very long time ago on another continent and who died at a very young age, but he accomplished so much – more in three years than most of us do in a lifetime. The deeds He did and the Words He spoke changed the world forever, and continues to do so. His Words were so powerful and are powerful that people would be (and are) healed even though he didn’t touch them, even if he was in a different city! People suffering from violent multiple personality disorders which caused them to isolate themselves from society would be relieved of their mental and emotional torment with just one sentence from His scroll, I mean His mouth.

Even before that, before He was born His Father started it all just by speaking His thoughts and His Words became reality. Light, sunshine, moon, stars, water, etc. If you can name it, it’s because He said it first. But what I recall reading about Him, from His autobiography if you will, is that He said His Words are “life”. Then He said, well one of his followers, John by name, said it about Him for us: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Humph. Imagine that. Then He spoke His Word into the earth to accomplish certain things, which means He spoke Himself into the earth so He could DO certain things. Hmmmm. Inside His Words are power – power to GIVE life and power to SUSTAIN life. Power to PRESERVE life and power to RESURRECT life. Power to RESTORE life and power to ENERGIZE life. Power to START life and power to END life. Now that’s some power. In words. That’s what was on the monk’s torso in the movie that sustained and preserved his life for over 60 years – words. What’s tattooed on my torso – my heart? What words are preserving me?

I guess you know by now, or maybe you don’t, but just in case, for those who don’t know, I am talking about God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, and His Son Jesus the Christ, the One Who said “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Hmmmm. Four m’s that time, again. He also said “If you abide in (live in) ME (talking about Himself) and My Words abide in (remain in) you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:8. Now He means more than just writing His Words on our bodies. He means for His Word to become such an important part of our lives, our very beings, who we are and what we do, how we believe and what we say, where we go and with whom, etc. that the things we ask for from Him would be the things He would also desire and would ask for from His Father, for us and if He were in our shoes. Again.

If we follow closely in His footsteps we see and hear that most of the time He requested “life” for everyone with whom He came in contact. Life for their bodies if they died (remember he raised Lazarus, and two other un-named teenagers from the dead, male and female.); life for their health when they were sick – the Centurion’s servant and the Syrophenician woman’s daughter, and both of them from a distance. He never made it to their houses. Just to name a few. Everything Jesus asked for from His Father He received, except one thing, because everything He asked for was what the Father wanted to do in the first place. Jesus carried not just ON His body, but inside Himself – He WAS and is the scroll on which God wrote His love letter to the world.

Those very Words preserved Him because He preserved those Words. He didn’t add to them neither did He take away from them. Read the promise and the warning in Revelation 22: 18-19. The promise He gives us is we will be kept by the very words we keep. We are what we say because what we say is usually what we believe, or what we will eventually believe if we continue saying it long enough. Another scripture says we are “snared by the words of our mouths.” Proverbs 6:2. On the positive side then we are Preserved and reserved, sustained and constrained, and restrained and . . . by the words of our mouths.

“Thy Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against Thee”. So I won’t miss You, the mark and plans you’ve set for me, my life, my destiny. But one of my mostest (I just love this incorrect word) favorite scriptures is the one where the writer says to God “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written (words) before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:16. This means God said something about us, me before I was ever born. He wrote it down so He wouldn't forget it. (gheesh, I'm truly my Father's daughter.) The Old Testament also tells us that the priests were instructed to wear the names of each of the tribes of Israel on their clothing every time they went into the Holy Place to burn incense in the presence of God. Why? To keep their names and His promises to them ever before Him. He made a promise to Abraham in Genesis about the children of Israel before they were ever born, before he ever had one son and long after Abraham died, the priests continued to remind God of what He said about his offspring. God’s Words to Abraham about his offspring preserved them as they also in turn struggled to preserve God’s Word within themselves.

Around France, and maybe even other parts of Europe there are these machines on walls in different places much like soda machines, snack machines, newspaper machines, but they’re called “Preservatives”. When I first saw one I of course was confused because I thought of chemicals we put into foods and other things with shelf lives to prolong their lives on the shelf. So of course I had to have a closer look and of course I learned something new that day. As a woman, I could be offended because to me it implied that having unprotected sex with a woman is dangerous and a man needs to “preserve” himself while using her to satisfy himself. But of course, it is supposed to work both ways, when it is working properly. An equal opportunity product. Preservative is the French word for condom. It’s designed of course to protect both partners, thus prolonging their shelf lives. J No offense taken.

When you read the ingredients on some food products you will see the phrase “no preservatives added” which means the shelf life is normal, and shorter than those with preservatives, and they’re supposed to be all natural too, like fresh fruit and veggies. You must consume them very soon. Frankly, I don’t think we could live very well without preservatives because living in today's society is fast and expensive. We need all the help we can get to prolong the life of everything we acquire.

Jesus is the Great Preservative – Preserver of Life. When we receive Him into our lives and in turn give our lives to Him, He enters our hearts and souls and the preserving or preservation begins. The more we honor Him and allow His Words, which represent Who He is, to transform our thoughts, desires, emotions, will, intentions, intellect, deeds, actions, and words the more we are preserved in every part of our lives. And yes we can live longer because His Words are health to our bones too, not just our spirits and minds. “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.” Proverbs 16:24. Words that preserve I’m convinced must be pleasant and sweet. So the next time you get on an all-natural health food kick, and you find yourself scrutinizing all the ingredients on every label of every product you buy, and you see the words “preservatives added”, remember to ask yourself, what would life be like without them? Especially without the Great Preservative.

Peace.