May 26, 2012

Passage of time

Today I am on campus at the University of Texas with my daughter. She is performing her solo for the Texas State solo and ensemble UIL contest. It’s been an interesting time so far.

We ended up in the Texas Memorial Museum looking for a map and a restroom. As soon as she entered, she had de ja vue to a time in first grade when she last visited that museum on a field trip. It brought back a flood of memories for me as well.

As the afternoon has progressed I’m reminded of the passage of time that has passed between us. It really was just a blink away when I acted as chaperone to the first grade field trip. Today, I visit with a young woman who is embracing her impending adulthood and dreaming about her future.

How quickly time passes and sweeps through our lives. It’s a privilege to watch our children grow and blossom into adulthood. The memories that we make along the way are really all we take with us.

What relationships are experiencing the passage of time in your life? How can you be intentional about creating moments and memories that will stand the test of time? What moments have passed that deserve some special celebration?

Posted by on May 26, 2012 in Life, Relationships and tagged , , , , , , , .

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May 25, 2012

Rest in the Mystery

I have jokingly referred to myself as God’s “Little Nancy Drew” with those who know me well. I thrive on the mysterious nature and movement of God. It intrigues my soul and somehow makes me feel alive.

There is something amazing about having a living relationship with a God I cannot see or hear. The mystery that I feel and experience His presence and movement regularly in my life is astounding. It makes me hungry and thirsty to keep searching for more clues.

As a little girl, I adored the Nancy Drew series and read them voraciously. I have a deep desire for adventure and Nancy Drew never failed to provide. Her adventures always brought her into danger, intrigue, and sometimes very precarious positions.

Somehow, her keen skills of observation always allowed her to see the mysterious pieces of the puzzle that revealed what was really happening. She was able to identify specific hidden clues in ways that nobody else could see. I really connected with her hunger to sleuth.

I really think that is part of what makes me come alive when I experience God’s mysterious movements in and around me. I am eager to discover something unseen, explain the reality below the circumstance, and piece together the clues to find the answers. Obviously, Nancy Drew has a much higher success rate at solving her mysteries than I do with the mysteries of God.

Recently, I was challenged with someone’s vision of what my soul would look like in the future if I learned to rest in the mystery. When I first heard the sentence it sounded like an oxymoron in my spirit. Mystery awakens me, makes me hungry, and ignites a fire in my belly.

The idea of resting in that space just didn’t quite compute in me. As I have pondered it and been curious about it in the last few days, it seems to be sinking in a little bit. You see, I am not Nancy Drew and I will never solve the mystery of God.

It seems to be better use of my energy to celebrate, enjoy, discover, and share the mysteries of God. As I disengage from my Nancy Drew syndrome of trying to “solve” God, I can begin to see Him differently. My soul can rest in the enjoyment of the mysterious instead of starting up the sleuthing skills.

What does the mysterious nature of God stir in you? Are you able to rest in that mystery? How do you experience that rest?

Posted by on May 25, 2012 in Creative, Faith and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 24, 2012

State of my Soul

I was hoping this morning I would wake up with the ability to verbally express something of value. Unfortunately, that did not happen. I don’t see that changing anytime soon, so I’m writing anyway.

The best way I know how to describe what I’m experiencing is with a word picture. It might seem obvious, or even silly, but it really is the visual I continue to see in my mind. I see it in my mind a little like this….

Imagine that my soul is like a pantry. The pantry is wide open, well stocked, and super organized. Everything has a place and everything is in its place.

As you step into the pantry, you can see it is well stocked and well-organized to fulfill its purpose. It’s obvious that this pantry has been well-managed, planned, and strategized to get the job done. You might even be interested in the amount of effort that went into the state of the pantry.

Suddenly, an earthquake like event happens and begins to shift, move, and disrupt this well-managed pantry. The glass bottles of jelly at the top of the pantry slip off, crack, and spill their contents and broken glass everywhere. Containers burst open, fall off shelves, spill over, and create havoc in the neatly organized pantry.

The pantry now more resembles a war zone than its former managed glory. You cannot really even enter the pantry due to the disaster in the middle of the floor. It becomes painfully obvious there is much to be done.

After my week in the School for Spiritual Direction with Dr. Larry Crabb, that is a perfect picture of how I am feeling. I am most certainly experiencing a paradigm shift in my thinking and relating. That is the story of the state of my soul today.

What is the state of your soul? Does it need organizing, reorganizing, or stocking?

Posted by on May 24, 2012 in Faith, Relationships and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 23, 2012

Mushy Mind

I am really glad to be back to blogging today. I definitely needed the break from writing last week. I am really hopeful that all the stuff buzzing around in my head will have the opportunity to get fleshed out in the coming weeks.

I’m really grateful to all of those who wrote posts last week. It was great to be challenged and inspired by the ideas, thoughts, and creativity of others. It was a rare treat for me and I hope for all of you, as well.

Today, I confess, I have a very mushy mind. I spent 8 days in learning environment of 14 hour days. The learning was both mental and relational and very intense.

Yesterday I spent the whole of the day in my pajamas spending quality time with my dvr. My mind could not think, process, learn, or relate for one more minute. It was very refreshing to say the least.

I recognize this morning that I am experiencing a significant paradigm shift. The things I learned last week have given me a new framework of thinking. Unfortunately, my mind is too mushy today to form any tangible or expressible thought.

Maybe you guys would like to ask the questions today! If so, use the comment section or email me! :)

Posted by on May 23, 2012 in Randoms and tagged .

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May 22, 2012

TED Tuesday : Awesome

TED Tuesday today is all about awesome! Neil Pasricha gave this talk in Toronto in 2010. It’s called the 3 A’s of Awesome.

I hope you find it so….

Posted by on May 22, 2012 in Creative, Inspiration and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 21, 2012

Holding on for Dear Life

I’m happy to introduce Karin Harper to you. Karin Harper serves on staff at Gateway Church as a Grow Pastor in South/Central Austin. Check her out on Twitter @karinharper.

Karin is one of the brightest souls I know. She has a contagious energy, positive attitude, and magnetic personality. Her life is a shining example of a faith rooted in deep trust.

The other day I was reading Psalm 63 and came across verse 8.

“My soul clings to you; Your right hand upholds me.”

As I read it I was instantly transported back to Spain to an experience I had while I lived there.

I worked with youth in Spain for 4 years, helping them investigate if there’s a God and if He could be real in their lives. You have to understand that youth in Spain is quite relative. It spans from ages 13-35. This was advantageous for me since I was in my 30s, but still fell into the “youth” category.

We organized an ice skating event for the youth and there was nothing that could prepare me for what I would experience when we got to the ice skating rink. In Spain, they do pretty much everything in “mass”, but it was hilarious to me to embark on an ice skating rink that was relatively small in size, but somehow fit 100s of Spanish ice skaters at all different skill levels and speeds. I was sure this was about to be quite the adventure.

Several of the youth had never ice skated before, but many of them ventured out on their own to embark on this new skill they were soon to “master”. Not so with sweet 13-year-old, Aida. She was not about to go at this alone. She hung onto my right arm so tightly that I was sure to have bruises the next day. She literally was hanging on for dear life. And when she was about to fall, she somehow managed to do a 180 & end up right in front of me embracing me. This very same trick happened about 15 times throughout the night. (I still to this day think it has to be easier to just skate in a straight line than to do a 180 on skates & end up skating backwards right in front of me, but hey).

As the night went on, Aida grew in her confidence and by the end of the night, she hardly lost her balance at all. But she continued to cling to my arm. She saw improvement and by the end of the night, was asking when we were going to do this again.

For me, this experience was more than a night of laughs and bruises. It was a profound lesson in what it looks like to cling to God. I found myself reflecting on how much I really cling to God for dear life. I wanted Him to invite me into more adventures where I’d have to cling to Him or I was gonna fall flat on my face. He encouraged me with the thought of how trustworthy He would be if I ventured out with Him. He promised me that if I clung to Him and at any point felt like I was gonna fall, I could turn into His arms and be embraced and safely carried.

How are you doing at clinging to God? What adventure is God calling you into? Are you willing to enjoy the thrill of walking into uncharted territory with Him? Do you trust that His embrace will be strong enough & tender enough when times get tough?

Posted by on May 21, 2012 in Faith, Motivation and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 19, 2012

Created to Need Him

I am so excited about today’s post! For my regular readers, you may remember my post called, Shaken Up. Click the link to read the post if you haven’t.

My daughter, Mayson, is an incredibly wise, insightful, and discerning young woman of 16 years. Parenting her has created more teachable moments for me than I could have ever imagined. Honestly, she has been one of my greatest teachers!

This spring break I went on a mission trip to Costa Rica with my youth group. It was the most eye-opening time I’ve ever experienced! I learned so much while I was over there and when I left I was determined to carry the things I learned back with me.

The biggest thing God showed me through this trip was that I rely too much on myself. I have a desperate need for control. I’ll do almost anything for the illusion that I have control over everything in my life. In Costa Rica God showed me that this was in fact an illusion and that I need to put my complete faith in him. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, especially with my high need for control, but I was determined.

I was on one of those “God highs” on the way home. I felt more empowered than I ever have. The thing about having these moments with God is that Satan comes right in to destroy this. Of course I knew this, I was prepared for anything, or so I thought. What happened next was the thing that’s tested my faith more than anything I’ve ever experienced. My youth group and I were in the Mexico City airport waiting out our 5 hour layover when we began to feel the earth move under our feet. At first we all stared at each other with disbelief but someone disrupted this with a cry of “EARTHQUAKE!!” Everyone scrambled trying to find somewhere safe, panicking, yelling, but all I could do was sit there and pray. I had to just have faith that God was going to get us through this. The earthquake finally died down about a minute and a half later and everyone was fine. We soon learned that it was about a 6.6 in Mexico City. I was in complete awe of how God had provided for us.

This whole experience taught me one of the most important things I think I’ll ever learn, radical faith in God. I know I can’t rely on myself because I can’t provide for myself one thousandth of the things God can provide for me. I was created to need Him. But I also learned one more thing and this is equally as important; when you ask God to test your faith radically, don’t doubt that he will. It took an earthquake to open my eyes. He didn’t hesitate.

Posted by on May 19, 2012 in Faith, Inspiration and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 18, 2012

Radical Faith

Today you have the pleasure of meeting Debbie Bryant. Debbie and her family moved from Los Angeles to Austin last year to be part of the Gateway family. Follow her on Twitter @dreamerdebbie

Debbie is a free-spirited, generous, and creative soul. Her creativity supports unique perspectives, loving relationships, and joyful encounters. Enjoy her creative challenge today!

Following God is an adventure, to be sure. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on one’s perspective, it is not however a “choose your own adventure”. We often think we would like it to be such. If we had God’s power at our disposal along with our dreams ready to fashion into reality….oh the adventure we could imagine and create. Secretly, this is what we hope. Yes. This is just what would bring us the happy, contented life we seek: we’ll provide the inspiration, and he, the man power. Perfect.

Then a thought (we shudder to think it could be the Holy Spirit) completely intrudes our mind and psyche. We feel guilty for ignoring the prompting at first, but what a silly, little, annoying and intrusive thought. The thought of course referring to this sense of “knowing” that God can do very little with half-hearted devotion….that he wants everything including our most vivid dreams, motivations and inspiration. Then, and only then does he fully endorse our dreams with his power. God will not be an accomplice to fulfilling our selfish lusts or pursuits. Our hearts sink as we begin to reluctantly acknowledge the truth. Perhaps the loss feels insurmountable. Maybe we’re angry. Yes, very angry that indeed it seems this adventure has no “choice”. It is then we are forced, ironically, into a choice.

The choice is simple, but not easy. Our way or His? We can choose to blindly obey and surrender all our expectations and longings with the faith that we might experience God’s blessing and will in our life. This option feels risky, and it is. God’s ways are not ours and his plans are higher than ours. We intuitively know this would mean potential pain and sacrifice. Hmmm…like a living sacrifice, perhaps?

The other, more seemingly attractive option is to choose our own way as we continue believing we know best what we truly need and thereby alienating ourselves from his endorsement. We may rationalize: “How much will I really miss his approval?” I’ve made my own way before and things worked out okay. God forgave.

In light of this choice between surrender and self-fulfillment, I feel challenged by the words of Peter when Jesus asked if he too would leave as many of his other followers had in response to the “hard” teachings of Christ; Peter replied “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” What would we possibly think could offer us life outside of Christ? Plenty of things could bring satisfaction at first glance when we use our eyes of worldly reason. When we use the eyes of faith and of the Spirit, we know with certainty a different reality. Our hope, our help lies in no one and in nothing other than Christ himself. If Christ alone has the words of eternal life, I long to jump in with both feet…. To surrender and obey with radical faith…Otherwise, what really is the point? The choice is ours after all.

Posted by on May 18, 2012 in Creative, Faith and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 17, 2012

A Beautiful Symphony

 Today’s guest post is by someone very close to me, my husband, Todd O’Brien. My surprise at finding his submission in my inbox turned to delight after I read what he had to share. He is a brilliantly creative musician and human being with a spirit that spreads joy and laughter to the world.

Todd works as a Marketing Executive at Dell by day, but lives and breathes in creative spaces. He is incredibly gifted as a leader and has used that in Corporate America for 13 years. His unique ability to combine strong leadership skills with unique creativity sparks life, fun, and laughter wherever he goes!

As a musician I am drawn to beautiful sounds. I hear music in a noisy city, a thunderstorm, and even in the a dead silent snow-covered forest. It is all about the rhythms, syncopation and varied pitches. A cricket, a bird, the wind, construction machinery or  a street full of honking taxis – it all seems to work together in perfect harmony.  I remember as a kid making music out of my chore of vacuuming the house. I think I have hummed every interval of harmony with the family Hoover.

You can imagine the party in my ears when I actually hear a symphonic orchestra. It is magical and moves me like nothing else. One night I was trying to go to sleep and I kept hearing a very faint music. It sounded like two singers engaging in a vocal tango. I could not pinpoint the source. After checking every electronic device in the house and standing in multiple corners trying to pinpoint the duet, I finally solved the puzzle. Two mosquitos we dancing together on our ceiling while humming pitches that fit perfectly together. Ok maybe I am a bit of a freak, but that was an awesome experience.

I think of all the beautiful sounds I miss some days when I get stuck in my head worrying about what is going to happen or being consumed by what has already happened. My symphony of life becomes mangled and sounds a bit like Mr. Holand’s freshmen band class. I don’t stop to enjoy the world around me and I miss magical moments.

Have you rushed into your day and missed the music or have you stopped today to listen to the incredible world around you? 

Posted by on May 17, 2012 in Creative, Inspiration and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 16, 2012

Sustain

I would like for you to meet Mario Morales. He serves as a Pastor to students with RockPointe Church in the Leander and Cedar Park area. Follow him om Twitter @mariomoralesjr

Mario is an inspirational and exceptional leader to the younger generation. I’ve seen him celebrate teenagers in their most beautiful moments and hold their hand on their darkest day. He leads from his heart and lives out every word he speaks.

This past Thursday I had a student break his neck in a football scrimmage at one of our local high schools. If you were to know this student you would quickly learn that football is “life” for him and hearing the doctor tell him, “You can never play football again,” was devastating. Through surgery and through therapy he will walk and he will recover but a part of his life has been affected greatly by this. Part of me didn’t know how to pray for them or what to tell him because of the way he was feeling at the news of never playing football again. That’s when I read across a word in Psalms 3. The word was Sustains.

Sustains: To support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, endure without giving way or yielding.

I thought to myself, “This is it,” how long have I missed this? You see most of us will notice the fact this boy will walk again, is going to recover, and most importantly is alive. However what we tend to forget is most of us at some point in our lives have had something taken from us or have lost something that may seem small or irrelevant to the fact that we are alive and well, not to mention some major losses as well.

You see God stopped me in my tracks to tell me, “You don’t know what to say because you know he is going to be okay, but right now he has lost something that has meant so much to him, and it has given him a sense of identity, he has lost a love of his.” You see regardless of what a child, teen, or adult loses we have the opportunity to see that God SUSTAINS us where we are at, no matter what size of loss we are going through.

I quickly learned what God wanted me to share not only with my student and his family but also in my life. God was telling me that no matter how great or how small the loss is in my life, He wants me to depend on Him to SUSTAIN me. He wants to use what I go through, big or small, to make His name known and most importantly His love known to those around me by the way He SUSTAINS me.

Posted by on May 16, 2012 in Faith, Inspiration and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 15, 2012

TED Tuesday : Shared experience of absurdity

Today’s TED talk is one of my absolute favorite, as it makes me laugh until tears stream down my face. It was given by Charlie Todd at the TEDx event in Bloomington in 2011. He is the creator of Improv Everywhere and he shares videos of his bizarre Improv events from several years of research, pranks, and creativity! This will be 12 minutes that inspire you through laughter, Enjoy!

Posted by on May 15, 2012 in Creative, Inspiration and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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May 14, 2012

Life is a Work of Art

This week will be full of diversity, creativity, and perspective. Let’s engage together in conversation around each post shared by my guests this week! Today, that conversation is going to be led by a very special 13-year-old.

Creighton is my son and is a brilliant artist. He has a very generous, compassionate, and creative soul. When he heard I was looking for Guest posts this week ,he was excited to have the chance to share his own gift with each of you.

Art is one of God’s finest creations. God can show us art in the smallest of things, in our lives, and even in others’ lives. I feel that God has given me the gift of being able to see art, and make it.

Sometimes we don’t see art right away. I sometimes spend hours just sitting with a blank sketchbook staring out the window. I believe that our lives are like that sketchbook, that God created us with blank pages and it’s up to us what we use those pages for.

In my life, I intend on using my pages for whatever God wants me to. If you want to be a lawyer or a business man, that may be what you want and you may even choose that. But ask yourself, is this what  God wants for me? Am I using the tools He gave me to make my life something that He wants and will please him?

You may not have artistic abilities but God gave you a blank sketchbook and tools. So it is up to you to make your life that He gave you a piece of art for God.

Posted by on May 14, 2012 in Creative, Faith and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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