How "complete" are you?

Every morning I get up and head to our neighborhood clubhouse and walk on the treadmill. I usually hit the "quick start" button and just start walking but recently I started entering in a time limit, my weight, and my age and then the treadmill counts down for me. Walking on the treadmill has become something I count on, I look forward to. I'm not a very active person and I like this activity. I like the feeling of being in motion. It appears as if I am headed no where yet in my spirit I am headed to great places. There's not a lot of spiritual analogies I can pull from a treadmill but when I was least expecting it God hit me with one.

"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6 (NIV)

I have been walking on the treadmill since sometime in October (2006) and I refused to jog or run on that thing. I hate jogging, I hate running. But I began to feel an urge to pick up the speed a bit. So in December I tried running for 2 minutes. I thought I was going to die. I mean it. I really thought it was over. But I survived and then challenged myself to add in 2 more minutes. Now I am up to 6 minutes. 2 minute intervals at three different places during my work out. And I still think I am going to die. But what I am doing is building up my endurance.

The other day I was running and all of a sudden the treadmill flashed this message at me, "10% complete". I think it's supposed to give me hope that I have finished part of my work out. I admit it helps. And then when I was running for the second time it flashed at me, "40% complete" and I thought, "C'mon Beth, you are stronger than 2 minutes of running. You are stronger than this treadmill. You are stronger than you were last month or even last year. YOU CAN DO THIS." By the time it flashed at me, "50% complete" I was soaking in Philippians 1:6. God had a message for me that went far beyond the treadmill.

How "complete" am I? I'm 32 years old, what percentage am I sitting at? And I don't mean in my physical body but in my spiritual soul. Each trial, each challenge, each heartache ups my percentage a bit. And God doesn't and won't give up on me until I am 100% complete. I might be tempted to throw in the towel but God always sends something or someone my way that reminds me of who I am. I am stronger than the trial. I am stronger than the pain of it. I am stronger than I was last month or last year. I CAN DO THIS. Each time I have to push harder and what happens is my endurance is built and strengthened. Each challenge that comes my way I handle differently - better. I have more grace, my tongue is softer, my spirit softer and yet stronger.

So how "complete" am I? I don't know. But I will say this, the treadmill of life has brought me to some deep, wonderful, painful places and I up my percentage point each time I look to God to be the completer of me. He strengthens my spirit and builds my endurance.

Anyone up for a run?

Are you setting a Milestone or a Stonewall?

The following post does not come from my hand but my heart agrees with it. I pass it on to you in hopes that you also are blessed by it and it is confirmed in your spirit as well.
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"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead" Philippians 3:13

Tye Tribbett has a song that starts out saying "everybody just look back".We used to sing a song in church when I was younger that suggested to "look where He brought me from". But not in every occasion do we need to look back. There are times when looking back isn't setting a milestone, but it's setting up stonewall. Sometimes looking back can hold you back; for good.
For example, the very recent last year yielded very distasteful experiences for some and God delivered you from them. Some relationships were strained or destroyed because they weren't ordained by God to be so. Some doors were closed tightly and shut to the point of lockout because God had another plan for you. Some prophetic words spoken over your life didn't come to pass, because it wasn't the time or the season, or it may have been because God wasn't speaking after all. Some goals were not met and the truth is, they may never be, because they were "good" ideas and not "GOD" ideas. Leave them behind and press on ahead. God delivered Lot and his family out of a tumultuous place on the brink of destruction with a warning NOT to look back. When Lot's wife disobeyed and looked back, she was instantly turned into a column of salt. Lot's wife wasn't just taking a glance back to see if someone was behind her. She looked back with angst at what she left behind instead of looking ahead in expectation of the deliverance that God was bringing them into. Don't be like her. In this instance, I believe the salt represents bitterness. When we revel in the past and what could have been, it is very easy for bitterness to become our portion. We can too easily embrace the negative experiences and question"why?", instead of submitting our will to God and answering 'Yes, Lord whatever your will, be it unto me."
Are you setting a milestone or building a stonewall in your life by looking back? I encourage you to let go of 2006. All of your missed appointments, limp ambitions and disappointing deadlines. Completely and totally embrace God's plan for you in 2007. Whatever it is, whatever it looks like. You may have to scrap your 2006 unfinished projects and get a fresh blueprint from the Master. One thing is guaranteed, with God leading your way, you cannot go wrong.

(by Tracy Gale - laCe Ministry.org)

Suffering - Past, Present, and Future

"None of us has suffered more in kind or degree than God himself. He has suffered in every generation of human history and in every way humans suffer. No matter where we go in our sufferings, He will be there ahead of us."

-Barbara Mouser
Knowing God, Understanding Man-

And then, it was yesterday

Yesterday

God is the God of our yesterdays.

It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return,

but God can transform this destructive anxiety

into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future.

Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in his hands,

and step out into the invincible future with him.

(Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest)

It's that time of year. Resolutions float in the air like promises we mean to keep but by mid-January will be covered with the dust of our forgetfulness or the disappointment of failure. I don't make resolutions. It seems like too much of a set-up for disappointment down the road. I always end up disappointed with myself that I didn't have enough discipline or self-control or whatever was called for. The older I get the more I realize that each day I make resolutions and each day is a new chance for me to fulfill or fail them.

"I remember my affliction and my wandering,

the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them,

and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great

love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord."

(Lamentations 3:19-26)

My year doesn't start with the turn of a calendar page from December 31 to January 1. It never has. I have a friend whose "year" always starts in June. Life just seems to happen for both of us outside of the January 1 "fresh start" that the rest of the world seems to live for. My year always starts around my birthday so I'm four months into my new year. Even so, this time of the year always causes me to stop for a moment or two of reflection. It never fails to amaze me what changes in such a short amount of time. 365 days sounds like a lot of time but in the big picture it is really nothing. And in that time plans are made, broken, changed and altered. In that time relationships are formed and relationships are broken, feelings change, promises are made and broken, jobs begin and end, and the list goes on and on.

I've had a hard yet victorious "year" so far. I'm a quarter of the way through and the personal transformation becomes more and more evident with each passing day. Oh, I have my days of set backs and my moments of yuck but the growth is evident. The one thing I still struggle to keep at the front of everything is praise. I have so many God stories and so many evidences of his hand on me and on my family the past four months but I so quickly lose sight of those when I'm in a yuck moment. So as I continue in my year and as a new calendar year begins I have purposed to be more worshipful as the storms rage around me. And I'm not dumb, there are going to be storms because life is like that. But I know, and I hope you do too, that is it the storms that test our character and grow us into who we are created to be.

I was sure by now/That you would have reached down/And wiped our tears away/Stepped in and saved the day/But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining/As the thunder rolls/I barely hear you whisper through the rain/"I'm with you"/And as your mercy falls/I raise my hands and praise the God who gives/and takes away

I'll praise you in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For you are who you are

No matter where I am

Every tear I've cried

You hold in your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will praise you in this storm

I remember when/I stumbled in the wind/You heard my cry/You raised me up again/My strength is almost gone/How can I carry on/If I can't find you/I lift my eyes unto the hills/As the thunder rolls/I barely hear you whisper through the rain/"I'm with you"/And as your mercy falls/I raise my hands and praise the God who gives/and takes away

I'll praise you in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For you are who you are

No matter where I am

Every tear I've cried

You hold in your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will praise you in this storm

Where does my help come from?/My help comes from the Lord/The Maker of Heaven and Earth

I'll praise you in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For you are who you are

No matter where I am

Every tear I've cried

You hold in your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will praise you in this storm

(Casting Crowns, Lifesong, 2005)

I will choose to praise God because so far in this year I have seen him raise up my head from grief, raise up my husband to be the man he was created to be - my protector and my courage, raise up on our behalf financially and provide for the needs of our family, bring forth those silver and gold friendships, raise my spirit within me to be who I have never been before, and knit me to my family as never before.

“Therefore we do not lose heart.

Though outwardly we are wasting away,

yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us

an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,

but on what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary,

but what is unseen is eternal."

2 Corinthians 4:16-18