Like a Girl

 

It’s been a very long time since I blogged but a lot of things that had stopped me from finding the time to do this have since gone away and I am hoping that I will be able to continue blogging. I have missed writing very much and refuse to give up on this. So without further adieu I present my return to blogging.

Recently I saw this add shared in facebook by several friends. You may have seen it since it has gone quite viral. It is an add for tampons but it really is so much more than that.  At first I wasn’t going to watch it because it was a tampon commercial but the comments people were leaving left me intrigued so I watched it and was glad I did.  If you haven’t seen it then click on the link below to watch it now.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs

 

This is a wonderfully thought provoking video and it really got me to thinking. How many ways have young women been changed by these perceptions? How has this influenced the world we live in? How much would things change if we were to change this one thing that we say and do to all of the girls and women in our lives. I think the only way to know for sure is to start changing the way we approach this. So with that said I leave you with the following words.

To all the women and girls who read this.

 

You are Beautiful,

 

like a girl.

 

You are intelligent,

 

like a girl.

 

You are courageous,

 

like a girl.

 

You are strong,

 

like a girl.

 

You are confident,

 

like a girl.

 

You are graceful,

 

like a girl.

 

You are successful,

 

like a girl.

 

You are powerful,

 

like a girl.

 

You are influential,

 

like a girl.

 

You are and can be all that you ever dreamed you could be. Not in spite of, but rather because you are a girl. I bless you as girls (and women) to receive these words and let them soak into your spirit. You are fearfully and WONDERFULLY made! You can change the world you live in!  Go and be blessed as you go through your day, and know that you are nothing short of incredible. If you are a guy then remember this when you are dealing with the girls and women in your life and make sure you let them know just how awesome they really are.

T.F.Lemieux 7-4-2012

What is Greatness?

  It has been over a month since my last blog and I have been trying to find the place in my life for this blog to fit. When I am not blogging I find I miss it and when I come back to it I find it so refreshing.  This weeks blog is taking a different direction than it has in the past. It was inspired by a clip I watched from a TV show called “The Newsroom” which can be seen on HBO. I have not watched this show so I can not say whether I like it or not but I found this one clip to be quite amazingly deep and it resonated with some things I have been thinking about for a long time now. The setting is in a college and a newsroom anchor is on the stage between a political conservative and a liberal. A student asks a question and a professor seems to be moderating the whole thing. Please take a moment to watch.

  I don’t know about you but I found that to be very interesting. I know it is just a clip from a fictional TV show but he points out so many things that we seem to have forgotten in our modern society. Much of the world that we are so familiar with, not just America, but many countries are all on the same road. This is a road that many nations have traveled before us. It is a road that will ultimately drag our civilization down to levels we would not want to see. We have forgotten what greatness is. We have forgotten what it takes to be great. From the highest among us to the lowest we seem to have a skewed idea of the things that would make us great.

  Our leaders who have some pretty brilliant minds are focused so much on money and power that they can barely get along long enough to get things done when they need to be done. Being that they are our leaders they inevitably end up leading us all down that same road. Don’t believe me? Try starting up a conversation at work about politics and see what happens. During the election season I became so disgusted with all of the campaign ads not just for the sheer volume of them but from the content. It seemed almost every ad out there was so negative. Everyone was pointing out what their competitor was or had done wrong. All those types of ads end up doing is getting everyone angry at anyone else who does not agree with them. They turn us against each other when we should be standing together. After all are we not all facing the same problems?

  But it also goes deeper than that, MUCH deeper. We are all so consumed with our own struggles, and our own goals that it has become far to easy to ignore the ones around us who are hurting and needing help. When we do that we end up with people who hurt themselves or others or both and we “don’t know why”. People get hurt or even lose their lives and we wonder how things like that could happen. I know we can’t stop every tragedy from happening but I am pretty sure that if we paid more attention to the people around us, especially the ones who tend to be “easy to not see” the “invisible ones” we could make a big difference.

  One question that has come to my mind while thinking about all this is how come we find it so easy to ignore the ones hurting around us? How come we find it so easy to look away when somewhere in our hearts we know we should look them in the eye and take some time to help them. I think the answer is because until recent years we have been able to get away with it. Ignoring people who didn’t fit into our neat picture of the way the world should be had no consequences. But that has changed. The time has come when we can no longer afford to look the other way because if we do the price could be far higher than we ever imagined.

  The good news is there is a solution and it lies within each of us. The solution is to stop ignoring the ones around us who seem to hard to love. To stop pretending they do not exist and pay attention to them. To reach out to them and show them that we care about them. To get to know them and understand their hurts and to understand their pain. To let them know that someone cares about them. To let them know they are loved. We can make all the laws we want to try to keep them from hurting themselves and others but in the end they will just find another way to do the same thing. However, if you treat the pain that makes them want to act out that way, you will have made a difference in their life and the lives of everyone they come into contact with.

  I believe that if we start to look after each other again the way we used to, and stop arguing over things that really do not matter like politics and start working together to find solutions, then we will become the great nation that we used to be. I believe that although things like economic power and scientific achievements are good things they do not make a nation great. What makes a nation great is the hearts of the people, from the highest to the lowest. Greatness lies within you and me, and it means that we care more about each other than our own personal agendas. We have been a great nation before and I believe we still have it within us to be great again. But I also believe that this goes beyond just America, that many countries need to do the same thing. That people all over the world need to stop waiting for someone else to make a difference and start asking how they can make a difference here and now. If we all do this then the world will be full of many great people from many great nations. We can make a difference, we can be great, but it starts with you and me.

 T.F.Lemieux 02-13-2013

Happy 2013

   Well 2012 has been a wonderful year.  For me it was full of so many wonderful things and also so many incredible challenges.  Unfortunately working two jobs and taking care of my aunt kept me from working on this blog which is a serious passion of mine.  I have found I enjoy putting my thoughts out for other to read and really missed being able to sit and “write” out the many things that go through my mind.  But now it is a slower season for me and I will be working just one job, (retail) until things pick up for photography in the spring.  So I should be able to return to my passion on a weekly basis.  On the upside I was able to spend much time on my photography job which is a passion of mine as well and in that I was incredibly blessed to be doing that.  I feel so blessed to be able to live out these creative passions and share them with the world around me.  Creative works in any form connect us to each other and allow us to touch each others hearts and minds in so many unique and interesting ways.

I have also been blessed with the care of my aunt.  She is a wonderful loving and patient woman whom God has been using to teach me so many things about myself as long as I have been willing to listen.  I have learned so much about how I interact with others and how I sometimes treat them.  Yes I have been under a great deal of pressure but it has brought me to the that point where one breaks just enough to let the stuff inside seep out and then you realize what needs to change.  It is not always easy to see the things inside your heart that are not right and need to change but it is good, especially when it is your loving and caring heavenly Father who is revealing these things and helping you walk out the change.  He give us the courage to face these things and the strength to walk it out with him.  And He also gives us the keys to understanding that help us change as we are able to little by little see things from his perspective more and more.

Well I think that wraps this one up. It’s late and I must get some rest.  I am on vacation so that will not be too hard and also I should have plenty of time for a regular blog as well.  I am so looking forward to everything that God is going to bring into this new year.  Blessings to all of you as we all walk together in his light!

T.F.Lemieux 01-01-2013

Walking with Daddy God

This week I’m revisiting a topic I touched on about a month ago.  Having a growing ongoing relationship with our God is such an important thing I can’t state that enough.  It is through that relationship that God will fill us with His Holy Spirit and also change us, removing the things from our hearts that hinder the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.  The more time we spend in God’s presence listening to his voice, and letting him transform as we are repeatedly refilled with his spirit then the more he can use us.  The other day a friend of mine Sunniva from Norway shared the following experience in facebook and I found it inspiring on so many levels.  I was challenged to go for more of God’s presence in my life, encouraged that others are doing the same, and moved ever so deeply by the love of God for that one man that he set all of this up just so he could reach out to him and tell him that he loves him.  This is what she shared;

“This afternoon I got fried by the Spirit worshiping and adoring. Still soaked in His precence and joy out prayerwalking a lil later, a bus stops in the middle of a up-hill, and the driver insist for me to get in. As I get in, he starts talking, wondering “What`s that precence, the peace and joy I`m carrying?” “what`s that thing in my eyes??” I realise he`s a muslim, and get to tell him who that precence is as we keep talking the whole way around the block. As I get off, he insists in me to keep an eye out for him when I`m headed somewhere from now on, as he want to give me free rides and talk more.. Oh how I LOVE my radical, radiant Daddie!!! I need nothing but to stand in Your precence, nothing but to gace into the eyes of my Lover!!”

How awesome is that!?  This is a direct result of her spending time with her heavenly father and allowing him to work through her any way he chooses.   I know that others have had similar experiences but I thought I would share this one since it shows how God can work through us when we spend time with him and are open to letting him use us.  It is also a great example of how much God loves the people of this world we live in that he does such extraordinary things to reach out to them and get their attention.  While this is far from an everyday occurrence I am still encouraged to keep spending more time with my heavenly father, letting him change me little by little and filling me with.more of his Holy Spirit so that I can have as much of an impact as possible on the world around me.

Made in His Image

We are all made in God’s image and we know this, but how often do we stop and think about what that means?  If you are anything like me probably not nearly enough.  At least until recently, let me explain.  I love to have conversations with God.  He is just SO COOL!!!  And it’s just great to spend time with Him.  I remember years ago when I worked the overnight shift in the bakery I would dread my 30+ mile commute to work as I was often not feeling very awake and was certainly not looking forward to a long night in the hot bakery.  But there was something that I will also cherish forever about those long drives in the middle of the night,  God would just show up and we would talk as if he was right there in the car with me.  I remember it could not have been more real than having someone sitting in the front seat talking to me.  I could not see Him and yet the conversation was just as real and often quite powerful.  He would also hang out with me while I worked.  I often thought if anyone were to walk in they would think I was crazy and talking to myself as I would often respond to him outloud.  Those days were as amazing as they were trying but I got through them because of God’s grace and His incredible presence.  Those times have also left a mark on how I communicate with God to this day.  The conversations are so much more real than they ever used to be.  Because of those times I have come to realize that God talks a lot.  And I do mean a lot.  But it is because He has so much to say, if we are only willing to listen.  I have shared that thought with others many times over the years, but it was about a year ago that I actually voiced it out to God in a conversation and it went something like this.  me to God: “You know you talk a lot…          almost as much as I do and that’s saying something!  🙂 “    God to me: “I know….         I created you in my image.  😉 “    WOW!! talk about a total perspective change!  Suddenly I saw myself in a whole different light.  The more I think about that one little revelation the more I am blown away by it.  It is continually changing the way I see myself and others.  Think about it, we are all made in His image.  You are made in His image.  You are the way you are because He made you like Himself!  You have the gifts and personality traits you have because you are made in HIS image!  What does that mean to you?  How does that affect the way you see yourself?  Take some time this week and think about that.

T.F.Lemieux 08-22-2012

Who’s in Charge?

This weeks blog takes a walk on the lighter side.  I was originally trying to write about something else entirely but came to the realization that I was far from ready to put those thoughts out yet as they are still forming in my head.  This blog is the direct result of reading two other blogs of people who also post here in wordpress, Daniel Griswold, and David Hicks.  You can find the inspirational blogs here…

http://danielgriswold.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/breakup-by-texting-dont-do-this-by-tim-elmore/  and here…

http://hibasme.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/pavlovian-peeve/

Isn’t technology great?  It helps us keep in touch with each other in so many ways, and it certainly makes keeping track of appointments and other crucial information so much easier that it was before.  But the problem is when we start to respond to it every time it beeps or whistles.  That’s when we become enslaved by the very technology that we thought would free us up.  Take a look at the video clip referenced in Dan’s blog.  Now I know that it a humorous exaggeration, but at the same time you can see where they go the idea from can’t you?

When I first got my smartphone I was using it mostly to keep track of work schedules and messages so it was rather necessary that I look at it when it beeped since we were communicating with each other everyday about the next days job.  however what I began to notice was that when I was hanging out with a friend or at home with family it was hard to ignore those beeps.  I had become trained to respond to them quickly and ignoring the impulse was quite challenging.  The fact that the phone was also my “new toy” was not helping either.   I soon learned that about the only way I was going to remain in control of the technology and not the other way around was to not respond to the beeps so quickly unless I was truly expecting something important.  Even if I am alone I have to remember not to respond to the stimulus of the various sounds it makes.  Seriously almost every message I get can wait until I have finished a conversation or whatever thing I am working on at the moment.

That brings up another point.  Not only does this technology interrupt our conversations with people but it can really interrupt your train of thought.  If I am working on something weather on the computer or somewhere around the house and I stop what I am doing to read the message that just came in I will most certainly lose my train of thought and have to work hard to get back to where I was.  Why let this happen if all it takes is just waiting until later to deal with these things?

David brings up a good point in that you can assign ringtones to different people so you can prioritize your responses but I find that even though I do use some different ringtones I can usually ignore my phone until later so that it is not interrupting my life.  Seriously there is very rarely a phone call, email, or text message that is so important that it can not wait a little while.  I have my phone set to alert me audibly once and then any time I look at the phone after that I will see a notification letting me know what came in.  So if I can just ignore that initial impulse to respond I’ll still get the message later when it is more appropriate.  This is actually a better response because a lot of times if I am doing something else and look at the message right away then I forget to get back to it until much later.

So in the end it is up to us to remember that we can either let this technology control us by responding to every beep and ding it makes or we can let it help us by simply doing what it was intended to do.  Which is to keep our information handy so we can access it when it is most appropriate and convenient to do so.  The choice is up to you.

Measuring Up

Lately God has really been speaking to me about not judging.  Not so much judging others as judging myself.  So many times we are hardest on ourselves aren’t we?  Isn’t it funny how we can know a truth of God’s so well and yet be blind to the fact that we are not lining up with that same truth in certain areas of our lives.  Well this year He has been gently reminding me in various ways that it is through His grace and nothing else that I am saved, and not through my own works.  That means when I go through a test it is not up to me to figure out how good I did and where I needed to improve but God who does this.  God does not grade us the way we would grade ourselves or even each other for that matter.  Once we have confessed our sins and been washed by the blood of Jesus we are no longer slaves to sin or the law but set free and we are now measured by grace not the law which is very different.  Romans 6:14 “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”  Grace is not an excuse to sin but rather it is what allows us as imperfect beings to be able to live in the freedom provided by the death and resurrection of Christ.  So often when we are tested we look at ourselves and our minds want to analyze the situation and see where we went wrong and what we could have done better.  But God says no.  As someone said recently ( I wish I could remember who) “God says give me that pen and let me do the grading.”  Because we would look at each and every mistake and subtract all the points and in our minds we would never pass the test.  But God sees things differently.  It’s that perspective thing again.  With grace the blood of Jesus washes our test before the pen gets to mark it, so essentially we are graded on a curve.

This point was made so clear to me when I was looking at a ruler.  This ruler has only inches on it but on each edge it has 12 inches marked out on it.  the first thing I noticed was that it was made by a company called Grace Manufacturing.  Hmmmmmmm….   there’s that word again…  I think God is telling me something, I had better pay attention.  So I keep looking at the ruler wondering what God is going to show me.  As I look He is speaking to me reminding me of the things He has been speaking to me about.  I look at the numbers and realize that as they are on both edges where one edge has a 11 at that end the other edge has a 1.  So 1 is next to 11 and 2 is next to 10 and so it continues along the length of the ruler.  Hmmmmm…  I keep looking at it and God is still speaking, reminding me that even though I am not perfect “His grace is sufficient for me.”  Then I realise that the numbers line up in pairs that add up to the full 12 inches.  1 + 11 = 12, 2 + 10 = 12,  3 + 9 = 12 and so it goes…  And then God says that no matter where I fall on the ruler I still measure up to the full measure.  WOW! what an incredible analogy!  That IS grace!  I just love it when God shows you something in a new way that makes it impossible to forget it.

Every now and then God will remind of things we already know and understand so well.  Every now and then He says hey, don’t forget….  And each and every time He does that I learn a little bit more, and understand a little bit deeper.  I love how His words can do that if we are willing to let Him speak to us.  The revelation keeps on coming in stages as we gain deeper and deeper understanding of him.  And each time the meanings go a little deeper into our hearts than they did the first time.  But sometimes He will say things in a way that will stick in your head so well that you can’t possibly forget it.  At least not for a long time.  Be blessed as you go through your week!

T.F.Lemieux 07-26-2012

Our Vision vs God’s

Perspective is something we often take forgranted.  We get so used to seeing things the way we see them everyday that we often forget that others can have a very different perspective from our own.  One of things I used to love doing when I was a kid was looking at the world from different heights.  I would get down on my hands and knees and crawl around and see the world from the perspective of our cat.  Or I might like to stand on a chair and look around and see what it would be like to be two feet taller.  It was amazing how much the same ordinary everyday things became so interesting when I could look at it from a different angle than I normally did.  All it took was just a little effort and I could see things in a whole new way.  Well I may not go around crawling on the floor or standing on chairs just to look at the world from a different perspective but sometimes I find myself looking around when climbing up a ladder or scrubbing the floor, taking in the different perspective.  And I still love it.

So what does it look like, the way God sees the world?  How do the things we see everyday look to him from HIS perspective?  How do the things that we see everyday look to him?  Well I think the only way we can see that is from spending time with God everyday and asking him to show us the world through his eyes.  I remember when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.  The devastation was extensive.  Everywhere you looked there were homes and businesses destroyed from the fury of the storm.   Thousands of people were still there in the midst of it all, homeless, jobless, with no where to turn.  I remember seeing news footage of different convoys heading into the mess with trucks full of food and clothes and buses full of people wanting to help others.  Many of those convoys had the names of churches boldly displayed on the sides of the trucks and buses.  Declaring that church such and such was here to help because God sent them.  Is that what God sees?  Is that His vision for the church?  Or….   is it something different…  something bigger…  bolder…  perhaps, just perhaps it looks something like this more like this.  Picture those same convoys rolling on into town with the trucks full of food and clothing and the buses full of people.  But this time there is something different, something that people don’t notice right away but they do notice it grabs attention.  This time there are no church logos boldly painted on the sides of the trucks and buses. This time the people instead of saying “Hi we’re from such n such church and we’re here to help because God loves you.”  This time they say “Hi, we’re God’s children and He sent us to help you because He loves you.”  I mean what are we trying to sell God? or our church?  A very wise person once wrote “They will know we are Christians by our love”  and I believe those words to be so true.  I believe that if we can come together and reach out to the people of this world as one body they will really begin to see the love of God.  Now I’m not saying we have to abolish our denominations and all become one church.  In fact I believe that there is a purpose and a reason for the different denominations.  You see while we are all created in God’s image we are not all the same.  We all have our own thoughts and personalities.  We all have had different experiences which have caused us to develop different perspectives.

If you look at the ocean you will see that there are different bodies of water encircling the globe.  But did you know that where these different bodies of water meet you can see the line where they meet?  why is that?  Well each ocean or body of water has its own unique properties  and contains unique elements that make it unique and cause it to look different from the one next to it.  Our different church bodies are just like that. They each have their own unique color as they have unique properties that set each one apart.  Now when you see a picture of the earth taken from space you do not see these lines.  What you see from space is one huge body of water wrapped around the earth.  I think that’s how God sees the church.  I think He looks at the church and sees one body.  When the waves move across the ocean do they stop at those nice little boundaries?  No, they keep right on rolling as if there was no boundary.  I think we could learn a lesson from the ocean.  We need to be able to move and flow as though we are one body.  We need to be able to work together with in our bodies and yet allow God to flow through us as though there were no barriers.  If we want that we will have to get more of God’s perspective in us.  We need to really let it sink in.  We need to get His more vision for His church.  And we will need to learn how to work and flow together as one body.  It is going to take time, patience and practice but I think we can get it.  We are already so much closer than we were before.  I believe we are already heading in this direction and that it is just a matter of time before we get there.  “They will know we are Christians by our love.” that seems to hit the nail on the head doesn’t it?  See when the world sees the church responding to each other and to them with the love of God then people will know that He is real.  The enemy has worked hard to deceive people and keep them from seeing the truth but we have a powerful weapon on our side, God’s love.  And when we wield that love the way we are supposed to we will be able to cut through the lies that have kept people deceived for so long.

“…  and the greatest of these is love.”

T.F.Lemieux 07-18-2012

Stepping Out

Judges 6:11-16  The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joashthe Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.  When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. ” “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”  The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”  “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. ”  The Lord answered, “I will be with you , and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

The story of Gideon starts in that passage and in it we see just how hard it can be sometimes to do the things that God tells us to do.  Gideon is approached by the angel of the Lord and when he is told to go out and defeat Midian his first reaction is how can I do that?  I’m the least in my family and you expect me to do that? There is more to this story but for space reasons I will stick to this one point for now.  Gideon is asking why in the world would God choose to speak through me?  He is essentially saying look around, aren’t there so many other people who are better suited for this task?  Isn’t that familiar?  Have you ever asked that before?  I have on more than one occasion, but recently I found the courage to step out and let God work, and  it changed both the way I see myself and the way I see these kinds of situations.

I was riding with a good friend and noticed that something was bothering him.  When I asked what it was he told me about his day and what had been going on.  As I listened to him my heart began to feel so heavy and I felt that I should say something.  But the things that were troubling him were things that I had no experience in and I felt like I was far from qualified for the job. My friend had years of experience and here I was feeling like I was supposed to give him advice and guidance?  I thought who am I to give him advice here?  But I finally found the ability to open my mouth and speak…  my friend’s response was a blast of anger.  He was already so frustrated with how things were going and then I had the nerve to try to offer him advice.  I could not blame him and said nothing.  There was silence in the car for several minutes.  During the silence I continued to pray silently and just left it in the hands of God.  I honestly didn’t know what else to do.  I had really believed that God wanted me to speak to him but everything just sort of exploded, so I just prayed.  The the silence was finally broken by my friend who said quietly, “you’re right, you’re absolutely right”  I was stunned!  I mean here I had stepped out on a limb and the limb broke, but God’s hand was there to catch me.  He is so good and faithful when we are willing to trust him.  My friend then asked me what he should do and I began to speak and more and more stuff came out of my mouth.  All through that evening he kept coming back to that topic and asking me questions every chance he got and I kept speaking and being amazed at what was coming out of my mouth.  It wasn’t that I was speaking out such deep wisdom but more that it was wisdom beyond what I should have.  It was greater wisdom than I had in me.  I realized that I had taken a risk and opened my mouth and God had filled it with his words.  I was overwhelmed at that point and quite glad that my friend could not see me, with tears streaming down my face in the dark as he drove.  I had been so afraid to speak out and yet I had and then God was able to use me and speak through me.  If I had not stepped out in faith and spoken those first few words I felt God wanted me to speak then things would be very different.  I would not be writing about this for one thing, actually it is quite likely I would not be writing at all since this was all a bit of a leap for me as well.  But my friend was able to take the advice I offered to him that night and found ways to apply it to his life and change things for the better.

Since then I have had time to reflect upon that night and I have realized that there have been many times when I was in that same situation and never spoke a word because I was afraid.  I wonder how many times God could have used me to change someones life for the better if I had only been willing to speak up.  It is this fear of stepping out and speaking and or doing the things that God is prompting us to do that keeps us from seeing just how much God can do through us when we let him.  He has all the power and wisdom in the universe at his disposal but he most often prefers to use us as his mouthpiece. Why?  Well, what better way to show his power than to use such limited, finite beings as us? I know my faith has been built up from this experience and I am learning to let him speak through me more and more.  Am I still afraid? Do I still hesitate?  Yeah I do, but as I press forward that fear is growing weaker and weaker, and my spirit is growing stronger and stronger..  It is a journey and the progress comes in stages but I can not give up.  If I do then I loose and the enemy wins and I really do not want to see that happen.  Some of the greatest victories in history were won because someone took a risk.  Sometimes if we want to see a victory we have to step out and take the risk of missing the mark.  As mature  Christians we have to be willing to put ourselves on the line to see God’s power flow through us.  Obviously this is not the sort of thing that happens everyday but when it does happen we need to be ready.  So the next time God gives you that little nudge what are you going to do?  Maybe you will be at work and there will be a problem that you get the solution to.  But are you going to step out and speak or think to yourself who am I to speak up here these people know so much more than I do.  Or maybe it will be a co worker who is going through a rough time and God will give you words to speak to them.  Or a complete stranger on the street or in the mall.  The point is no matter how God wants to speak through you he can’t do it unless you open your mouth and let him use you.  So if you have been getting those gentle nudges to step out and take a risk in his name then perhaps it’s time you took that chance.  Start with something small like giving advice to a friend or suggestions at work, and go from there. You will learn as you go along.  As I said it’s a process of growth.  One that we all need to go through.  So go for it! Open up and let God work through you.  Sure it’s a risk but it is one worth taking.  As you grow closer to your creator you learn to hear and discern his voice better and better.  It is only through that close relationship that you can truly step out in faith and really trust him.  That relationship is built by spending time with him daily.  Talking with him, communing with him, loving and being loved by him, and THAT is what it’s all about.

T.F.Lemieux 7-11-2012

Letting God…

We all know that God speaks to us, and we all know that God likes to speak through us. We know that He can speak to us and through us in many ways if we are willing to let Him. And we do let Him… for the most part. However most of what we are willing to let him speak through us is limited by how much we care about ourselves vs how much we care about him. OUCH! yeah that hurts me too, but it’s true isn’t it? Think about it, we are willing to let God speak through us to tell someone at church he loves them, or maybe we are willing to let him use us to tell the person we work with or our neighbor that he loves them. Or it could be that we are willing to let him use us to speak to a complete stranger on the street or in the store and deliver his message of undying, selfless love for them. Maybe you are willing to let him go even further, it does not matter because the point is we all seem to draw the line somewhere. We have our limits to what we are willing to do and say for him.

But what if? What if we didn’t have those little boundaries? What if we didn’t draw a line and simply let him speak to us and through us by any means possible and say anything he wanted to? It’s a scary thought I know but I think it’s one we all need to think about a lot more. What if we stopped worrying about what people might think of us and just stepped out and did anything he asked of us? What if we stopped letting fear control what we will or will not say and do for him? What if we stopped trying to make his words, his ideas, his vision, fit the little itty bitty picture we have of the way things should be. What if we just let go of ourselves and let God say and do whatever he wanted? You see most of what we allow him to do and say through us is pretty safe isn’t it? If we paint a picture or write a song it is always so nice and pretty and easy to present to the church because it “fits the mold” of acceptability. The same can be said about the songs, the poems, and the books we write, as well as anything we actually do or say to others in his name. Yet we say that God is in control. We tell him that we will do whatever he wants us to do and say whatever he wants us to say. But somewhere in the back of our minds we are holding back. If we do hear him telling us to do something that is risky we rationalize it away and forget about it. Well maybe you don’t but I know I have.

So what does it take to do whatever God asks of us? what does it look like when we let go and let God use us in any way he wants? Scripture is full of examples. Look at Gideon, he stepped out and followed God’s leading and he took on an army that outnumbered his and and had better training and better weapons than his. Then before he engaged them he looked his army over and sent some of them home… and then some more… Now that is crazy. THAT is taking things to extremes. Was he afraid? I bet he was at some level but he didn’t let it control him. Through his actions he made a statement of faith in God that said he trusted God to come through no matter what.

But Gideon is only one example, there are many many more, the prophets are some of the best examples I can think of. They were children of extreme faith. They were not afraid to do whatever God told them to do. Ok yes sometimes they were afraid but they didn’t let it control them and dictate what they would or would not do for their God and King. They said and did some of the most outrageous things recorded in the Bible. Could you imagine tying yourself up in a very public place just to get God’s message across? They cared more about what God thought of them and what he wanted from them than they did about their own lives or their dignity. They knew that getting God’s message out there to the people that God loves so much was more important than anything else. That’s the point isn’t it? God loves this world so much he gave his only son to die for everyone here. He came down and humbled himself before all men to live as one of us. There is so much he wants to tell this world but most people never realize that it is really his voice that has been calling out to them all along.

This is where we come in. We are HIS hands, we are HIS feet, and we are HIS mouthpiece. We all have a part to play in the kingdom of heaven and no matter where you are or what your gifts are God wants to use you to speak out to someone, to touch someone’s life near you. Are you an artist? What would your art become if you let him have his way? A musician? What transformations would happen to your music if you allowed him to have complete control? What about on the job or as you go through your daily routines? In what ways have you held yourself, your gifts, your voice, your very life back from him? In what ways could you allow God to speak through you or your gifts more than you already do? This are deep questions I know, even as I am writing this I am feeling challenged once again. We are all called to “go into all the world and preach the gospel” but what that looks like for each one of us depends on the gifts God has given us and how we use them. So many times we think in order to be witnesses we have to go out and pray for people or hand out Bibles etc… but there are many times when God wants to use us in different ways. We just have to be open. This life we live as God’s children is one of growth, and it is that growth that propels us further into our destiny with him. There is so much more I could say but for now my question for you is what are you going to do? The next time God asks you to do something that takes you out of your comfort zone how are you going to respond? I am interested in your thoughts as well so feel free to comment.

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:25

T.F.Lemieux 7-4-2012