Tag Archives: power

FREEDOM!!!!!!

03 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in Faith, Life

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This weekend for Americans is a time of celebrating freedom.  It is one of our holidays where we celebrate the freedoms we have had (albeit changing all the time) and remembering those who have given so much for our freedom.  I know few people who don’t want freedom.  As a kid I couldn’t wait until I could drive so I could have freedom.  As a college student, I couldn’t wait until I could get a job and live on my own and enjoy my freedom.  As an adult, I hope for a financial windfall so I can get out of debt and do whatever I want to do with my financial freedom.

One of my favorite movies is Braveheart starring Mel Gibson as William Wallace.  Wallace was a brave man fighting for freedom for his country and his life.  In the end he is captured and killed.  Right before he is executed, he shouts “FREEDOM!!!!”  so those all around could hear his dying word was the hope he had given his life for.

Freedom isn’t free.

Today, i was greeted with an email with the following prayer…

“Father, today I come boldly to You. Thank You for giving me life through Your Son, Jesus.  I surrender every area of my heart to You and ask that You make me whole and complete. Set me free and show me the keys to every blessing You have for me in Jesus’ name.  Amen.” – Joel and Victoria Osteen

A price has been paid for my freedom in eternity but I still seek freedom in this life.  Freedom from worry.  Freedom from fear.  Freedom from insecurity.  Freedom from financial pain.  Freedom from emotional strife.  Freedom to live with expectation and excitement.  Freedom to live seeing the world from a lens of hope and compassion.  Freedom to be able to live in a way I can minister to the hurting and the hungry and the poor and the lost.  Oh God, I cry out for the freedom you can provide me.

I have to remember that freedom isn’t free.  As the prayer says, I need to surrender some things that I hold on to.  I need to surrender my security blankets and my ways of how things should be and open myself to what God wants but it’s not easy.  The freedom I want comes with a price.

Lord, today I recognize I want things my way instead of yours.  Today I want to renounce the insecurities of opening my heart to you and others.  Lord, I am making a decision to remove those insecurities from my mind, to let go and throw them out into the cold.  Today, I replace those thoughts with these; that you love me and that you want to provide me a full and joy-filled life, that you have my best interests at heart today and forever and that I can trust in you to provide all I need.  Father, I call on you to deliver me from what holds me down and give me a life of freedom.  I ask for that right now, this day Father.  I believe in your power.  Amen.

Grace and peace.

Wounds and Respect

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in Christian Living, Conflict Resolution, Friendship

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I was talking with an old friend the other day about the struggles of his marriage.  I didn’t count the number of times he mentioned respect as an issue between both he and his wife but as I think about the conversation, wounds and respect are two topics that keep coming back to mind.

The wife faced abuse as a child from her father that I cannot imagine.  I cannot imagine how scary it was for her.  I cannot imagine the wounds it has left deep within her that affect how she sees other men, especially her husband.  I wonder if she sees God like she remembers her father and sees her husband the same way – as someone who should take care of her and protect her but cannot live up to what she wants or expects.

The husband isn’t perfect either.  He has battled his own demons that have caused problems between them that partially result from his childhood and the wounds he experienced.  He wants someone who is there, who is consistent, who in in control of their emotions and desires.  She has made choices during their marriage that conflict with all of that and leaves him with trust issues.

Their wounds are deep and ingrained after years of living with them but not doing much to address them and overcome them.  It has left them in a position where their wounds have created expectations and their failure to live up to those have caused a lack of respect for each other.  How can a relationship survive without respect?

William Ury, author of The Power of a Positive No says that we cannot respect another until we first respect ourselves.  Respect is best given from a position of power, not over another but within oneself.  If I respect myself, it is much easier for me to show respect to another because I have all I need within myself.  Gaining the other person’s respect only adds to my power but is not the foundation of my strength.

I wish I had begun to understand the power of wounds and power of respect several years ago.  I have a relationship that is in dire need of help but without the opportunity to communicate regularly.  Knowing what I know now, even in the infancy of my understanding, would have led me to greater hopes of saving a relationship that has been devastating to lose.  Hopefully, knowing I I know now will allow me to maintain and improve relationships in the future.

Grace and peace.

Power

13 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Christian Living, Faith

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It’s something so many of us want.  It’s something that cripples so many.  It’s something that can be a great tool.  It’s something that can be a debilitating weapon.  Power.

I have had power and I have been subjected to power.  I have used it well and I have misused it.  I have been encouraged by it and I have cowered under it.  Power.

Today I wrestle with the power of the emotion of fear.  I am in a vulnerable place where I can choose to cling to faith or live in fear.  I feel like I am losing the battle today, that fear is winning.  I see the collision of all the worst things I can imagine for my life and I see it all playing out.  I wilt under the idea of a great punishment.

Maybe I am simply being dramatic.

I have shared my feelings with a couple of people over the past 3 days and have varied responses.  One was from someone more fearful of my position than I have been.  That certainly had an impact on how I have seen things.  Another believes there is a plan, a way things will work out and I am in the the process of the plan.  Another believes I need to do more to change my situation.  In all these things I try to understand how I feel, what I want to do now, what I want to do next, where I believe I am being led.  In all the wondering, the door opens for fear to creep in and use it’s power to beat me down, to weaken my faith, to lose hope.  The power of fear can make me stop in my tracks, for hours or days, and just imagine that my world is unraveling.

Maybe my world is unraveling.  The virtue of being able to write is that admitting to my fear and it’s power over me, I can almost feel myself releasing the fear and looking at the words that friends have written on Twitter, not directly to me but, that have spoken directly to me.  Last night a friend was encouraging me to be bold in my faith while another person I follow on Twitter wrote, “one of our greatest temptations is to reduce God to the size of our biggest failures.”  (Jonathon Storment)  Wow, that hit me right between the eyes.

I want the rest of this day to be lived in the power of God’s work in my life.  It won’t be easy and even God says it won’t.  The power of fear is ever-present, lurking, ready to suck me in.  I make the choice of whether to give in to the fear or live in faith.  I am calling on God this day to help me, to show me a sign but even if He doesn’t I plan to choose to believe He is here, He is at work, He has a plan for me.  (Ephesians 2:10)

Grace and peace.