Living a Dazzling Existence Requires Attention!

3 John 1:2- "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well."

Deuteronomy 30: 19 "...Oh, that you would choose life."

Several years ago I lived under the impression that to be a good Christian required somber, serious perfection. Living religious meant living as if I were in a glass case and could see all the beauty and wonder of the world but couldn't touch it or enjoy it.  I was like that in business too...workaholic always striving for the next move/what would bring me the money and status I desired. I was so unhappy and yet from the outside it looked good because I made sure everyone (including God) knew I was serious about things and getting it done, no time for fun! I mean, what would God think if I showed even a hint of "loving the world" instead of existing and pining away for heaven? Well, several life crisis and a bad business deal that I'd worked myself into distraction trying to make happen left me sidelined and miserable and no amount of prayer, fasting, reading my bible helped. There, I said it. I couldn't muster up a care for God or my spiritual disciplines of reading the bible an hour, praying 30 minutes and memorizing a scripture quoting it throughout the day. Yes, I was that rigid! Laugh all you want. That's just my unsubdued T-total personality.

During this dark valley experience  on a particularly sunny, clear Kansas day I went for a walk along a trail close to my house and while lamenting in my head about the drudgery of life, I looked over and saw a little girl swinging and laughing. Gazing at her with great longing, I remembered as a little girl swinging and gazing at the sky made me the happiest. The motivation to get on a swing overtook me (I'm a little bit so I could still fit) and so I did. I got my miserable behind on a swing and I just swung my little heart out and guess what? God cut through my mess and ministered to me right there in that playful moment. In my heart I heard Him speak Ephesians 3:20 to my mind in this way "Cheryl, you're not living you're just existing. If you let me lead your life you will live a dazzling existence but it will require attention-- to Me/My ways not yourself/ways." It was in that moment that I got it. God wants me to enjoy this life as long as I'm alive and doesn't mind me having a good time. He didn't want me miserable and perfect. He wanted me obedient and believing. My actions were not what pleased Him. My faith did. Just knowing/accepting that and I was renewed, back in balance and never did I want to go back to that religious nut who was of no benefit to any one. Who'd want to sign up for the type of Christian life I was living? Nobody and truth is, I didn't witness much either. Now that I'm open to living, having fun in meaningful ways that for me include nature, sports/activities and writing/reading...people are drawn to me in the oddest of ways pretty much everywhere I go (especially Wal-Mart, I call it Wal-Mart Ministries because I'm always picking up deodorant and somebody talks to me-- LOL). Its like a moth to a flame and no beating over the head with scripture driving them into the kingdom...we just talk and share life experiences and frequently I'm asked the reason for my hope and happy disposition. I can then tell them about Christ.

Look, all I'm saying is don't think of having fun as choosing between wanton worldliness/partying and serious somber sitting of pews in church every time the doors crack open. I've accepted this truth, I am a spiritual being who lives in a body (flesh) with a soul (mind, will, emotions) that God created this way for a reason and He wants me to primarily live in attendance to my spirit but has no problem with my flesh and my soul being well too! There is a balance to living that if you're an extremist like me you will struggle to find. You will have to spend some time to get some self-awareness of what makes you joyful and happy (prayerfully its not drinking,drugs, sex...those are dead end sins that are temporary pleasures with great long term costs). Let loose and enjoy those things fully without shame. God wants you to live a dazzling existence as long as you're in this earth suit marking more than time, its my belief He wants you in close relationship with Him receiving all life has to offer as long as you're His. Beloved, I'm praying with and for you.



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ASK, DON'T ASSUME!

James 1:5 (NIV) If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.



What do you ask for Beloved? Of yourself, of others and mostly of God? Asking means to put a question to; to seek an answer to; to seek information about. Consider this for a moment with me because in asking this question I want to differentiate between asking and assuming. Assuming means
to take upon oneself, to undertake the duties of an office, to take on, adopt, don, put on, affect the appearance or possession of, to take for granted, suppose. Between the two where do you most often reside? See, to really ask you should assume nothing. Bare, stark not knowing is something we fight with a passion. Instead we hold on to what someones told us, what our experience has taught us and most often what we want/desire. May I challenge you today to learn this principle for life and acquire the ability to ASK not ASSUME. To really acquire knowledge and receive healing, forgiveness and to be propelled forward one must LET GO so that you can begin to observe something that doesn't appear to fit in your current knowledge base. I also caution you to seek wise counsel because experience is not your best teacher, guided experience is. To fully partake of someones well-earned experience you can't be a know-it-all and simply listen and try to add it to what you all ready think/know. Intimacy, wisdom, conflict resolution, and problem solving all depend upon your ability to grow in asking, not assuming much. Recognizing God's voice, seeing His hand and realizing answers to prayers all depend upon this principle and its one that few want to be stretched out of their comfort zone to do. We wrestle most against not knowing and/or accepting and we sacrifice so much peace in living life that way. Begin today. Stop the practice of assuming and learn the principle of asking? You will then truly begin to receive. I'm praying with and for you!


I asked for wisdom...
And God gave me problems to solve.
I asked for prosperity...
And God gave me brains and the strength to work.
I asked for courage...
And God gave me danger to overcome.
I asked for love...
And God gave me troubled people to help.
I asked for favors...
And God gave me opportunities.
I received nothing I wanted.
I received everything I needed.
My Prayer has been answered.

-Anon.


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GOD'S MATH

1 Thessalonians 5:15 (NIV)

Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

In hurtful situations it is easy to find yourself responding in angry impatience because lack of peace and anger will make your base nature rise up. When people mistreat you, lie on you, saying vicious vile things about you, doing you wrong it can be devastating. And it happens most often not from strangers but from family and friends. It feels even worse when they also get other friends and family to join in their evil and collectively come against you, labeling you and reviling you. We have all experienced this. No one is immune. It happens.

What is most difficult is as a Christian who claims to belong to HIM you’re unable to do what your base nature wants you to do, what you believe will make you feel better and what the world will tell you to do. The world says pay back but giving in to anger and giving a piece of your mind never pays off. God will eventually get a hold of you, HIS CHILD and ask you what you will now do. Obey Him? Or, do what your flesh is compelling you to do which is NEVER GOOD. God commands you not to return the favor of evil. He has a different type of math from the world’s math in the equation of evil done to you and your response to it. The world says EVIL X YOUR ANGER = GET EVEN. Gods math is EVIL + PEACE + MERCY+ FORGIVENESS=GOOD MULTIPLIED. This will not add up unless you allow and accept this equation as more true than what your feelings and vision may be telling you. It’s not easy math, in fact its harder than quantum physics when you’re in the midst of an emotional situation and you're hurt... yet, it is so worth it to pay the price, to give up your will/way and utilize God’s math in adversity! You can reap a blessing when evil comes your way if you'll do the right math.  In 1 Peter 3:9 we learn - "Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." No matter how complex and difficult the situation, it always works out well when you obey God and I’ve learned it always pays off in amazing ways that bless you and others too. Truthfully that is what we're all called to do, to really be different from the world. No situation is ever permanent and we should always strive to make things better no matter what others may do to you. There's great peace in knowing God will never fail to take care of all that concerns you when you're truly striving to follow Him. He sees everything and will give you justice (He's the only one who can) so go ahead and let evil go anytime it comes--don't let it attach its self to you. Hold on to your peace instead and then when opportunity arises, you take the high road in every situation and watch God work it out for good-making sure you're better than okay, in fact, He says you're blessed in adversity because its a possibility to see Him in a new and different way. Oh how I've found this to be true. He is ever faithful!

 Beloved, I’m praying with and for you.

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Watering a Dry Life

Is. 58:11- The Lord will guide you continually, watering your life when you are dry and keeping you healthy too. You will be like a well-watered garden like an ever flowing spring. (NLT)

Some of us take better care of a plant we want to grow than we do our own bodies/lives. We will read the plant's instructions so that we pot it in the right soil, making sure it gets the right sunlight, prune the dead, decaying stuff off of it, keep it free from pests, feed it food and water it diligently. Not so with our very lives---that we will live unintentionally and inauthentic, taking any hardship as an evil thing to avoid like a plague (ease/comfort/entertainment is all we want thank you very much), we don't get rid of a thing, taking on one more possession to maintain, things we know we should say no to we can't because we feel like one more thing will make us FEEL HAPPY, working dead end jobs for a paycheck (too lazy and fearful to seek out purpose, refusing to believe doing what you are gifted at/with love/helping others= money will come), calling a relationship that time spent with someone who only causes us pain and we've invested nothing in trying to learn to love them or leave them, we eat conveniently which usually means fast food--something that is manufactured-not even close to real fruits, vegetables, lean meats and water our bodies crave and deserve, we don't exercise (who has the time), we live in filth/disorganized surroundings that we dread looking at as it screams to be cleaned or we become so comfortable with it we ignore it and don't notice its drag on our psyche... then we slide into bed at the end of a long day if we can fall asleep without aid to do it all again the next run-on day. Does living like this sound at all familiar to you?


You can exist as described for long periods of time until a crisis shakes you out of the monotony OR you decide to stop living your life like this and DO LIFE BETTER and BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED. You can you know! Want to water your dry life? It starts with honesty and its at first an inside job. Only working on the outside things are like putting bandaid on cancer. First deal with the foundation of your life.  Decide to submit your life to God. That's first/foremost. Begin to make time to study spiritual things and realize you're not just a body coasting through life. You have a spirit and its going to spend somewhere eternally, this time here on earth is temporary. Death is a 100%. We all leave and how do you want to spend eternity? Figure that out FIRST.



Secondly, what is in your life that needs better care, what's in your life that needs pruning and throwing away? This can apply to people, possessions, places you go, habits you have, ways you think/talk---tell yourself the truth not just what you want to hear or want to think...self examination is tough stuff but worth it. Desire truth, and pray for it asking God to examine you (Psalms 26:2) and show you the real so you can cooperate with Him and fix your life for the better. This act is needed  especially if you're dishonest in any area of your life, unless you're pathological you know where you're dishonest with yourself and others...this is a draining, drying way of living. A well-watered life requires TRUTH in every area. Ask for it. God will give it, trust me and then respond with right and truth. It will be so worth it to sober up to authentic, truthful living. To be who you really are, unashamed and real. Lying or living a lie is like being drunk...its deceptive and you're too full of it to know what you're really doing and who you really are in this state. Getting sober about living your life isn't simple but its easy once you make up your mind to do it.


 Dearworthy, you have to decide you want to live your life to the fullest and then manage this decision daily. It won't just happen no matter how much you wish for it to, it will require intention (deciding what's important to you); action (easy isn't necessarily right, be willing to do the tough stuff of a disciplined life) and then leave room for the sun (fun and unexpected blessings that may be in disguise). I'm praying with and for you!





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Intimacy Without Disappointment

Proverbs 14:12  "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."

We are created for relationship. No one survives this life well without touch and real intimacy, being KNOWN by someone who truly cares/loves you. On this, my single journey one of the biggest lessons I've finally gotten through my thick skull is that I can't trust the surface/first blush of things with people. Few things are as they first appear-- certainly not people. No one, not even me! Experience, taking the time to pull back, see people in different settings, circumstances and situations reveals things about them to be paid attention to, no matter how groovy the chemistry is and how you feel. And, some people can lie without conscience, saying just about anything to manipulate you and keep up a good act for a period of time. My sister/brother, hear me well--- It behooves you to go deeper than a few encounters before you get all willy-nilly with that person you're "feeling." Simply staying on the surface (where most stay and want you to stay too) can quite possibly lead you to deception about a person and most often about yourself. See, few want to go deeper or make things transparent. Few want to expose who they really are until you're on the hook with your physical or feelings. When insecure, unstable people feel its safe to take off their mask, boy do they ever and you will see beneath all that disguise, the image/mirage you were so sure of and attracted to is someone that you have no idea who they really are! Happened to me enough to stop myself now and really pay some attention to who people really are by time, deed and not by what they say. Its also a good thing to do periodic evaluations of every relationship you're involved in to make sure you're not blinded by deception. Staying in anything not healthy, where you're weak-willed or accepting less than your standards and values will drain you mentally and emotionally and its best to get out good and get out early before you've invested the best years of your life in something that had you evaluated it early on, you would have run at the first sign of crazy instead of enduring a slow, sure death.


  For me, I've learned the best way to avoid false intimacy in relationship with someone is to keep feelings at bay, pray and ask God to reveal who a person really is and then once you see it you need to accept what is revealed and go deeper or run fast. I've learned the hard way not to be such an open book, trusting and naive. Predators and deceivers look for that to lure you into their lair. Its best to pump my brakes and let time and experience reveal if they're capable of intimacy without disappointment--you're worth no less than that. Beloved, I'm praying with and for you!






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2011 Life Vision Casting

 Habakkuk 2:2-."Then the LORD answered me and said, "Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run"


Ecclesiastes 3:1- "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven"


Proverbs 29:1- "When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful."


Jeremiah 29:11- "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."


Most of us spend more time planning a menu or entertainment than we do our lives. It is amazing the way people wake up and just bumble through life day after day and only a crisis or life running off the rails gets our attention and makes us examine how we're living. May I encourage you today? First, pray and invite God to help you through this task. It may not be easy and may invoke some pain (which is why people avoid it). Once you've prayed, spend some uninterrupted time examining your last year of life in these areas: relationships (with God and others), work, finances, spirituality, physically and mentally. Write down what comes to you and how you feel about each area. Looking back will help you realize your history is doomed to repeat itself without intervention. Planning or vision casting is the best way to intervene in your life not coasting or being on autopilot. 


Here's how to vision cast---remember, what you celebrate will increase so as you've reviewed the good things in those areas of your life spend some time thanking God and praising Him for those things. Seek to know what did you do repeatedly to get there and see how you can maximize those efforts this next year of life?  If you're unhappy with any area of life what do you need to do to gain change in that area? Write those things down in steps. For example, finances is an area where many of our lives are off track. We need to live within our means and use the right methods and tools for us and our priorities to manage our finances. What do you need to do to learn your money style, how you earn it, spend it, save it and what can help you in doing those things better? Once I've done my written history and cast my vision for the next year, I then like to get visuals for these things and create a vision board with just the pictures and one sentence for my goals/plans under each picture. Record these things in a way that matters to you because you'll be changing and  it will be evolving all year long because we know the only thing constant in life is change and the best laid plans do get changed rather we like it or not but that should not keep us from planning our way, amen?




Once you're done with this process let's pray again and invite God to approve, remove and show you the motivation behind each of the things you've written down. Use this list all year long, set an appointment on your calendar to review your vision board (weekly, monthly) to move your life along in a way that recognizes time is the only thing you don't get a "do over" with--once time is gone, its gone, so use all the time you're given living a life that matters. Beloved, I'm praying with and for you!

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FILL HER UP!

Ephesians 3:19 (New International Version)

¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Jeremiah 20:12 (New International Version)

¹² LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous
   and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
   for to you I have committed my cause.

Psalm 26:2 (New International Version)

² Test me, LORD, and try me,
   examine my heart and my mind;

How diligent are you at examining your life? Not from a crisis standpoint either--its usually only then that we will examine ourselves and usually that's a little late...but, how often do you look over your life to see exactly what is in it--the good, the bad and the ugly? Personally, I like to get silent and in solitude and put my life under a microscope regularly with the Lord. Its not time-consuming nor is it discouraging. Its the best thing I can do for myself. It is a check-point to see the course of my life and encourages me to empty out what's not good for me and fill up with what IS GOOD for me. I've found in my life if I don't spend time doing this I get on auto pilot, taking on a lot of good sacrificing the best, accomplishing things daily but not really moving forward and most of the time forgetting God/our relationship in the process.

When I coach people to perform this simple act self-examination, to get silent and in solitude over the course of a day or a weekend most often they will throw up lack of time, can't get alone and/or they flat out don't think its necessary. They will claim to know what's going on in their life full well. Trust me I tell them, "no, you don't or you wouldn't have these lingering and consistent issues." Truth is silence and solitude terrify most people. The need for noise to drown out reality, distract and entertain ourselves is rampant in society. See, what you won't confront you won't change. Not really. You may temporarily adjust behavior around a crisis but until you empty yourself of the root causes of your behaviors you're doomed to repeat and repeat and repeat. Its of vital importance to ask God to examine you, to probe your life and pull out the root causes of situations and circumstances that are causing your life to stay off track. He will, you know? Sadly, most of us want to keep the people and things in our lives because of comfort or perceived loss (losing what hurts you or isn't for you isn't really loss, its really gain).


As 2010 comes to a close I encourage you to not follow the usual path of new year's resolutions and only looking over your life/goals when there is a crisis. Resist gradualism, be deliberate and sit silently for a minute and make a list of what is going on in your life by issues most important to you. Once you have that list bring it before God, read scriptures, listen and pray. Make decisions and decide how you will manage those decisions. Take action and be proactive in your life so its full of good and empty of that which causes you stress/is bad for you. It won't just happen, you will have to do something! Beloved, I'm praying with and for you.

Please feel free to forward CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr to friends and colleagues, but please forward in its entirety. CEENOTES with Cheryl Carr is written and distributed by Arete1 International.


(c) Copyright 2010 Cheryl Carr and ARETE1 International.