Time-warped again

I am living in a virtual world and I am a virtual girl.

If that last sentence put your mind into the lyrics of a famous 1980’s Madonna song, then you are in just the right head space to join me in following God along in today’s revelation. Yes, today!  Finally I return to this blog and tell you how I’ve lost all sense of time in this pandemic age. It’s going to take a little longer for me to set the back drop, get to the drama and then tell you where I’m at so I appreciate it if you make it through the next thousand words.

The material girl wouldn’t survive in my virtual world. There is no excess, shopping experiences are limited, few movie sets exist, less glamourous events are available to display your diamonds to millions in person and spas still don’t have full services available. Instead of doing all that, if you are like me, you’ve spent a majority of 2020 and 2021 in the comfort of a small physical space and a deep mental zone.

Like me, you may have journeyed far into your inner self and pondered who you are, who are you relying on for provision and what stuff you really should be carrying on your person and storing in your space physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

The Bible says “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’.” (Hebrews 13:5)

In this past two years, some pastors would say something like this; although God wouldn’t want to plague the world, He would use this time of isolation and 6-feet distance from all that mattered to us in life to create room for Him to reawaken us as we depend on Him, should we choose dare to believe He could get us through this. One of the greatest pastors I ever had has been spending 15 minutes online each morning with his flock since the day I was searching for toilet paper, Good Friday 2020 precisely. The wisest counsel I received from this virtual sunrise communal prayer space was “make your now place your best place.”

Lord knows my mind would love to return to the 1980s when I was a carefree youth under the provision and protection of two amazing parents. There was no room for worries in my mind full of dreams then. So many times I’d return there as I slept and wander the familiar streets of my hometown, the greatest city on earth – NYC. On the other hand, if I dared to turn on the news, my mind would be forced into fear of the future and all its unknowns. Less not forget the crazy rabbit trails I’d end up on searching medical advice online (and that’s not even the just the pandemic symptoms, I had other issues arise in 2020).

I decided I couldn’t be past or future; I had to settle in to my now place. It was easy as an introvert to seize the opportunities of this digital world; remote work, gym classes, online therapy sessions, grocery orders with delivery, museum visits, YouTube concerts, professional development and much more without ever leaving my living room. I’m even more amazed how I’ve grown spiritually as I took on more and more opportunities to serve with a virtual ministry where I continue to make more new friends faster than I’d ever meet people in person. I also love the friendship groups and church small groups who met on Zoom with me and developed a closeness that would have taken years to develop. Telework, for sure, is the best 9 to 5 ever and has allowed me the breathing room to take care of my own health while being way more productive without office environment distractions.

Most of all, I learned God is my provider and He gives in abundance. I’ve reflected on His goodness in my life so many times. Oh the things I overcame and the places I will go with Jesus by my side! This shift into a pandemic world would just be another challenge I’d endure because of the trust I have in my God. I can have hope and confidence in Jesus.

Scripture says “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in ALL things at ALL times, having ALL that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8)

Some days in the last two years weren’t always bright and it would take faith without seeing to get through. In the middle of the timeframe from my last blog to this one, my world was completely shaken when my at home family dynamic completely dismantled. The way I was living my daily life and who I was living with would be ripped from me in the middle of the night like the thief who comes to steal and destroy. As if that wasn’t traumatic enough, all of this happened two months after a best friend unexpectedly died in her sleep. Grief struck again but I was equipped by faith to press through it's season (and I had a great support dog at my side).

Everything that was happening all at once would have been the perfect storm. But I took the focus to my Perfecter’s opportunity to intervene.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith …” (Hebrews 12:2)

This is my Jesus. I choose “yes” to His invitation to hold His hand as He gets me through dark valleys, gives me green pastures to rest and creates paths through raging storm waters.

With Him, I spent half of 2021 purging physical possessions. While transitioning from one residence to the next, I looked forward to weekend outings to purge stuff at donation centers or meet buyers. It took six months to inventory all of my possessions and evaluate their value in my life. The toughest decisions were made on the stuff that contained emotional value. My new place couldn’t contain the old things physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually (I literally have zero storage closets).  With God, I created a now place in a small apartment that has all many minute details that point to the memories of my favorite places. This made it easier to settle in to my current location in mind, body and spirit.

As I parted with the past I had to come to Jesus with every role I played in my more than four decades of life. And like in the end of Madonna’s video for “Material Girl,” I got in the shanty vehicle of life driven by a humble man who would take me away from the Hollywood set I casted myself in to and forge me into a land of simplicity with him.  For me, that driver has to be Jesus and GPS is the Holy Spirit. It is the only way I’ll find serenity in this mad world.

I can’t wait to see where Jesus takes me next and I’ll get better at sharing it more frequently with fewer words.

 

She's my girl!

Child of God
Spouse of Holy Spirit
Mother of Jesus
And a teenage girl!

As if that isn't mindblowing enough, then God invites all humans to experience the spiritual journey she had by saying yes too.

Hold on. How can this be?
Mary asked that too in Luke 1. The answer will floor you. ANYTHING is possible with God. He'll give you His Spirit.

So Mary gracefully accepts His will over her own, puts her physical life in danger by becoming a pregnant teen at a time they stoned women for that. She risks looking insane when she has to tell people she never had sex with a man. Mary will look emotionally unstable. But spiritually she'll be the strongest human ever.

Am I up for the challenge? Are you?

This is how the Catholics start their new year, pondering Mary's yes as we think of our own while making our own resolutions. Mary pondered her own faith and kept it deep in her heart. So did I at mass today.

"when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.  Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “ Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir."
Galatians 4:4‭-‬7 NIV

Mary is an heir just like us!

She's my girl, my role model. She's the mother Jesus gives us before he breathes his last human breath on the cross. She's got supernatural insight beyond comprehension I can lean on. There is so much God reveals to us with this yes, when we can truly say "yes, let my life be lived according to your will."

I'm in awe of this grace! I could write forever but I'll end here. Praying for all of us to fully receive this love of God he wants to impregnate us with so we may birth it to the world.

Blessed Solemnity!

Bad bosses and uncertain futures

These two items, bad bosses and uncertain futures, can sew such a fear in our souls. They contest our control on our destiny. They question our ability to control the situation at hand. The unknown aspect of what they can do to us gives birth to an anxiety we never knew we were capable of having.

Well, here is a public service announcement. The Old Testament is overflowing with wise counsel and examples of people who survived. You are certainly not alone if either of these are causing overwhelming feelings. Bad bosses and uncertain futures have been a bad thing since the dawn of time, since man decided to be his own boss.

Those believers who held on despite the odds were placed in the Book of Hebrews Hall of Fame.

"Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins." Hebrews 12 MSG

Old Testament believers didn't just face bad bosses, they worked for tyrants and were often enslaved. They shared cubicle space with self-centered ambitious coworkers who could torture or kill them at a moment's notice. Israel's future was uncertain a majority of the time. They lived a nomadic life, always in and out of captivity. Sometimes even their own blood couldn't be trusted.

Scripture is a place to go to seek ideas, contemplate ways ahead and most of all, learn to trust God. This is why the stories of the great cloud of witnesses were spoken through generations, penned in holy books and set in a Bible that many sought to destroy in its travel around the globe by brave couriers of the faith. The one constant in all the testimonies is God. 

He has been, is and forever will be the solid in this crazy, broken world. When you report to Him first, all else falls in place. He has your future secure, in your best interest, and when you can walk in that truth you walk in a confidence like no other.

"Keep your eyes on Jesus , who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there , in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!"
Hebrews 12 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/heb.12.1-3.MSG

So go check out the Old Testament. I've been behind again in writing because I've been lost in the book of Daniel. This young man watched his friends survive a blazing furnace and lived through a night in the lions den. He wasnt afraid to tell his bosses what God revealed about the uncertain futures even if it meant death.

Despite the odds he kept his daily routine of spiritual exercises. That communication with God on the regular kept him going. Daniel knew it was his lifeline no matter the cost. His obedience made him fearless. His faith made him strong. God was always in control.

After you read the stories of the Old Testament, comment below on the bad bosses and uncertain futures you find. Most of all, discover how to stop them from developing an unhealthy fear in your soul and share what you learned.

May His peace be with you.

He said what?

I love running into one of those verses in the Bible that just sound so crazy. Those are the ones that stick to memory banks for decades because it's so out of the box, so unexpected but so mysteriously deep. Usually they're simple and short. They come with a visual you won't stop seeing.

This week Disney give me a whole new picture for one of these verses. Hopefully I'm not giving any spoiler alerts to The Lion King by telling you about Simba looking into the water for an answer the wise old monkey wanted to reveal to him. In that moment, I thought of the man who looks at his reflection and doesn't remember what it looks like. Here's the verse:

"Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." James 1:23‭-‬24 NIV

This crazy-sounding guy wasted no time forgetting what he saw. The Bible says he immediately forgot. What an odd thing for someone to do. It seems especially odd to someone like me sitting here in American culture where everyone seems so obsessed with how they look to the point that they can't stop posting it on social media, to whatever measures of posting it the way they want to be seen. We've got people imprisoned in comparison traps over their looks because of social media.

Simba doesn't turn out that way though. Neither should any Christian. When you read the entire chapter of James 1, you see the dilemma a Christian faces. They hear the Word but knowing and doing become two different things. The doing takes a lot of initiative and practice. To truly see the reflection of yourself as one within the identity of your Holy Father, God in Heaven, takes a serious moment of openness in heart in mind and allowance of a gentle nudge from the Holy Spirit. Simba's best friend was trying to remind him of his identity, telling him all the things he heard and loved to hear before. But only a persistent monkey could catch up with him and push the lion cub to take a second look at his reflection in the water.

That circle of life would have been at a standstill if Simba walked away immediately forgetting his calling and his purpose. But the monkey stirred the waters and made him look again. The Spirit is stirring us all within to take a second look, move beyond what's comfortable and step into the reality of who and whose you are.

Let's go back to where James started in his teaching before he told us about this man with serious short term memory issues.

"Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 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." James 1:4‭-‬5‭

Certainly for Simba a mature life was not going to happen while frolicking in a safe environment oblivious to the destruction happening in his homeland, singing worry free jingles, eating junk food and making fart jokes with his new friends.

God calls us to much more. Are you ready to really see it? Ask and you'll receive. Be ready to find joy in the trial. Watch how God grows you through it over and over again. That's the unforgettable Christian journey that fuels my every step and gives me stuff to blog about!

Content with obscurity

Sometimes I read a verse in the Bible and find the wording so clever, especially the message version.

Today's top word in Word-obscurity.

Colossians 3:4 says to be content with obscurity, like Christ.

First I was like who's calling Jesus obscure? That's interesting. Then I was like oh wait they're asking me to be obscure and be happy about it.

Can you imagine if they changed the 80s sitcom Cheers theme song to "You wanna go where nobody knows your name?" If you're familiar with the song, you'll know that this does not sell the TV show at all because it is set in a bar where everyone is happy because everyone there knows their name.

This was my first Google answer to what obscurity means:

One meaning of obscurity is nobody knowing who you are, and another definition is something that is hard to understand because it's too complex or unclear. Obscurity is the opposite of fame, and living in obscurity means that nobody knows your name. (Vocabulary.com)

So Jesus is an enigma? Sounds about right because this is why I'm such a Bible study junkie. I love unravelling this mystery. We will never get the answers but we'll always be pointed in the right direction.

The direction Colossians 3 tells us to take involves us becoming new in Christ and by walking in this way we become almost invisible to the outside world. That's hard to swallow in a world where many of us want to be understood. However, when it comes down to it, all that matters is that you're following these directions and you could walk in the confidence that God understands and that's all you need on this narrow road. 

Only God knows and there are plenty of Christian songs about that to help you feel content about this mystery. Here's one by King and Country called "God only knows," https://youtu.be/Q5cPQg3oq-o.

I could continue down this rabbit trail but I'll end this blog right here with the verse that started it all and you can let it take you on a journey God designed for you.

"Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ." Colossians 3:3‭-‬4 MSG https://bible.com/bible/97/col.3.3-4.MSG

Hopefully my obscurity has helped me with this blog because maybe nobody will recognize, once again, I've allowed a long gap between postings but it has come to my attention lately I need to get back on it. It doesn't matter if they know my name, I just hope whoever finds it learns His name. 

Praying all receive His revelation. There are so many pieces of this mystery called life that can make sense in God's perspective if we allow it. Plug in to the Word and a community that will support you in your desire to learn more of Him and you'll discover more of you in the process. It's an amazing trip! The Holy Spirit has the best GPS.

Smiles, laughter, love

Mom’s Eulogy

Smiles, laughter and love…but the greatest of these is love.

This could be my mother’s revised version of the famous faith, hope and love Bible verse. Every condolence card we received contained these words to describe her.

Faith. The smile on her face radiating from within. Faith shows the reality of what we hope for. The Bible says faith is believing without seeing. It is the evidence and assurance of things we cannot see. Mom’s smile was greater than any outward sign of ALS during her last six years with us. She beamed whenever she recognized someone who entered the room or crossed her path. Her hugs were so tight when we’d come home to visit. Her light was always so inspiring, especially to those who knew the physical challenges she endured. She met each day with a positive greeting.

Hope. The heartiness of her laugh. Come what may, mom was still going to have a prank to play. Life was never that serious to miss making life so much fun. No doubt you got the emails, the written notes on her board and the text messages. But as silly as it may have gotten sometimes, she instilled a hope of endurance. One time she wrote “you need a sense of humor otherwise you’ll go nuts.” We also saw mom’s hope in her heart-felt prayers, genuine thoughtfulness and constant care for us. She led us to believing all things were possible.

Love. Love was the greatest force in mom’s life. Her deep devotion to family kept us all strongly united. It is the reason some of you here have known mom for decades and you came today to remember her. Mom’s love was more infectious than any disease could ever be. Without question, the true picture of love as God wanted for us was painted before my eyes anytime I would see mom and dad together. These two were truly joined as one –they did life together daily for more than 50 years. There just is no greater love than that except God Himself who is love.

We are here today to thank God for blessing our lives with a wife, a sister, a mother, a grandmother, an aunt, a godmother, a dear friend and a sweet neighbor in Marie Cuttita. This should make us smile, triggering the memories of the times she made us all laugh. But most of all we have had a taste of Heaven by personally experiencing her love for us. That is an eternal flame we’ll find comfort in until we see her again.

Smiles, laughter and love.

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians Chapter 13 verse 13.

Thank you for coming to God’s house today in honor of my mother.

50 Shades of Grace

Bondage is gone. I admit it was good. The temporary pleasure of letting another take control, letting my mind lose itself and doing what felt good. Now my arms are no longer pinned down. I no longer worry about possessions that were never really mine any way. Bills are paid. No man has my full attention. My thinking is free. Truth is none of us are black or white. Everyone is a shade of grey. We fight the battle daily to go with flesh or Spirit. Do what feels good at the moment or suffer the wait to see what’ll happen? Ignore the opportunity to do something good for someone in crazed hurriedness of today’s world or stop and meditate on Word ready to receive the sweet whispered instruction on how to bring one more smile to the globe? Both sides of the equation require submission but who is the master you chose? You can only have one. The world only focuses only on the bondage in this popular book made movie. However, the real challenge is there inside the original text; the movie is just a sexy commercial. In the pages of 50 Shades of Grey, Anna’s mind is exposed much more than her body. So many of us have been there. We let the overwhelming temporary high take us to places we may regret later. We think we are making the choices but really we are being driven by attractive things outside ourselves. And we may even have scars to show it. I admit it was more than annoying to read the main character’s self-pity, her self-doubt, her questions demanding approval from a stranger and her lack of confidence. However, if I were to be honest, I’d see it was so annoying because I hated that part of myself anytime it tried to manifest in my mind. I’m so grateful to God for the day He showed me the road I was walking with him had a crossroad. I could go fully down that off-beat path and lose myself to a seductive world of what pleased me. It would have taken me to lots of places I may have enjoyed but it would have been lots of places. Roaming from one to another would have been the only way I could keep the high of that lifestyle fresh. Or I could do what I did, return back to the split where God was left while I thought I was having the “time of my life.” I’ll never forget asking him what he was doing there and He showed me how He was piecing together the parts of my broken heart. Without any focus on those pieces I was able to run free, untethered from my one true love, Jesus. Sure, His road forward is narrow and challenging. It calls me to do things I never thought I could do. It asks me to stand out against the grain of everything that brushes against it. But the line must be drawn. A bright light lies ahead and I’m better for staying within His boundaries that I have to believe lead to an unknown glorious future. “If my goal was popularity, I wouldn’t bother being Christ’s slave. Know this—I am most emphatic here, friends—this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism. I didn’t receive it through the traditions, and I wasn’t taught it in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1:12 MSG Jesus isn’t shy about the contract He wants me to sign. He even said it would be a bondage. He said I’d be yoked to him. My hands would be surrendered in worship and I wouldn’t be able to touch him. I’d have to believe He was there, in control, had my best interest and allow myself to be bound to His Heavenly union of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I marvel at being wrapped up in that triune knot of wonder. This is my place and I kneel at it gracefully. I await what Jesus has for me. After all, He bore the stripping, the whips, the flogging, the pressing crown of thorns, the judgment of sin, the name calling, the false accusations, the piercing nails and suffocating breath. I have to believe whatever pain I think I’m going through is actually already overcome. I’m no longer a slave to sin. I am a Child of God, exposed and vulnerable only to His Spirit. His Grace and Mercy have set me apart and within the only unity I was called and designed for.