Gratitude

Good Monday, My Friends! Today, I added to my Gratitude Journal. Consider starting your own! It may change you.

Have a blessed week!
Alexis

This Moment

"Daily work is not drudgery or pressure-packed, but cadence and beauty. This work is our slow dance with God."    - Ann Voskamp

Do we realize that THIS life, THIS day, THIS activity, is holy? Do we realize we are with God in this moment? Do we realize this moment IS God’s plan for us? We have the opportunity at every moment to spend intimate time with our Father, Creator. He has made us for this. He longs for us to turn our eyes to Him and open our arms, hearts and minds in this moment. He is waiting beside us, within us, for an invitation to participate in our every moment. No matter what we are doing. We are missing billions of opportunities to be infused by Boundless Energy, Infinite Knowledge and Perfect Love. How many seconds, how many moments, opportunities, are in a lifetime?

1 billion seconds = 31yrs 251days 13hrs 34min 53seconds
2 billion seconds = 63yrs 137days 21hrs 21min 4seconds
3 billion seconds = 95yrs 24days 5hrs 7min 11seconds

How many moments are we willing to waste? We could have already wasted a billion, even 2. And WE are wasting away as a result. Yes, even in our most difficult work, our deepest trenches, our maddeningly mundane, we can be filled to overflowing with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:17b-18) Let’s take THIS moment, EVERY moment to share intimacy with the Father. Let’s talk to Him, listen, thank Him, and appreciate THIS moment as a gift from Him – part of His plan for our life – and give Him the opportunity to fill us with the boundless, perfect gifts that are only His to offer – the ONLY gifts that will truly satiate us and infuse us with the power to enter into the next moment stronger, better, more complete than we entered the last.

Father, thank you for the billions of opportunities I have to be intimate with You here in this life. Forgive me for the opportunities I have wasted. Remind me to invite You into the multitude moments I have yet to experience so You can fill me with Yourself. Thank You.

Invite Him to THIS Moment!
Alexis

Gratitude

I added to my Gratitude Journal today. Check it out and start your own!


Blessed!
Alexis

End of Preface

Welcome to the last chapter in the story of how this blog began. Thank you for journeying with me thusfar. I pray it has been beneficial to some of you in some way. This is still just the beginning.

Monday, February 22, 2010

[Entire reference can be found at this link. Below is an excerpt.]
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2010/02/do-not-let-anything-keep-you.html

"Do not let anything keep you
from flinging out into the streets, eyes and mouth full of His wonder,…

and awe is why I grab the pen and I make the record,
and Beauty is why I scratch it down late, day after day,
and He makes the pulse race and brushes the tear clear and cups the life tender


and this is why I hurtle over the high fear
and disparaging words can't keep me and splaying shortcomings can't keep me and illness, work, obligations can't keep me,

and He is my blaze and He is my burn and and I cannot be muzzled because what can separate from the telling once the eyes have seen?


Could there be anything greater than this,
the bearing witness
to the sighting?

I give testimony.
And I cannot
not."


I have let even nothing keep me from beginning my blog. I must schedule time to do it or it won’t happen. Tonight. No excuses. Tonight.

God is working on something else in me, too. From the excerpt below, [Another subject for a future post.] I am reminded.  Is God in favor of savings accounts and investment portfolios? I know there is good in planning and preparing and taking care of our responsibilities. Yet I also know there is good in charity, generosity, meeting others' needs and living outside of our comforts. I suppose as in many things there is a balance. But where is the fulcrum? Where do responsibility and generosity intersect?


The same can be asked of my priority list. I hardly ever seem to meet the top few of my responsibilities and priorities, much less find time for ministering to others. I think I am called to do it all simultaneously. What an awesome calling for me! Awesome in the sense that everyone, including me, would truly be “full of awe” if I was ever able to do it all. Even once. I don’t doubt that God can do it through me, in me. I only doubt my willingness to let Him. Again, the common prayer request, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”
  
Tuesday, February 23, 2010

I did it. I started the blog. I obeyed. It’s messy, it’s not perfect, it’s not even satisfactory to me, but I obeyed. It is begun. I don’t know the software, I can’t customize it the way I want and I don’t have time to spend on it right now. But I have obeyed and that is the important part. It is truly not a blog of my own making, and that is best. If it were, I would have spent longer on the preparation, design and content, and it still wouldn’t be started. God, use it the way You see fit. Guide my posting, my thinking, my time. I give it all to You. It is Yours. Please frustrate my efforts to make it mine. It must be Yours to be of any value. Guide me in how I share it, when and with whom. That is the next step.


As I look back at last week’s post I think perhaps my Lenten season has begun. [Another subject for a future post.] Is this blog the place where I give up myself and exist for the sake of others? I hope so. So far it is. I certainly don’t want to bring attention to myself in this way. This environment is too uncontrolled for me to be comfortable here. I don’t have the time to control it. I can’t control the image of me that I convey to others. And that is the crux. I leave up to God what he wants me to reveal to the world. I have to. This is the crux, the cross, I bear. Glory to God the Father. Not to me. Only faults and weaknesses and humanity revealed from me. Sins, scars, bruises, mistakes, ugliness. All mine. And in all of that, is revealed the true God who heals, forgives, restores, redeems, loves and makes beautiful. In revealing my utterly embarrassing depravity, God reveals His true Glory. Himself. Thank You, Jesus.

And that, my friends, is the purpose of this blog - to reveal the heart and character of the One True God by revealing how He works in my life. Without Him we are all faulty, weak, lost and ugly. With Him, we are beautiful, powerful, complete, and have a purpose. A destiny.

I pledge to you and to Him, that I will do my best to share with you only His work in my life. I will present to you His glory, character and redemptive work by sharing with you my reliance on Him. If I ever start to present even a hint of self-righteousness, pride or attempt to share in the glory that is His alone, you have my permission to let me know! He has called me to be brutally honest with myself and reveal it through this blog. My tendency is to present a lighter, prettier, more self-flattering version of the truth. I know this will be difficult for me. He has much to teach me and I have much to learn. Yet if I do not share the complete truth, I have done nothing of value for you or me. Will you help me hold myself to this standard? I'm sure God will. In this way we will work together to reveal the truth. Jesus will become clearer, revealed for all to see. May it be so.

Thank You,
Alexis