Down time

What do you do in your "down time"? Sometimes I pick up a book, go for a walk or bike ride, and occasionally turn on a movie.

This past month, as part of an intensive bible study program, I was to have a Spring Retreat and devote 12-24 hours to my relationship with God. They recommend that you do this somewhere other than home, somewhere that you feel closer to God. As I'm low on funds, traveling was out of the question. But, honestly, there are few other places that I feel closer to God than my own home. It's kind of like my own personal sanctuary.

With the other plans that I'd already had in place, carving out such a large chunk of time was difficult. Although I did manage to find 8 hours this past Sunday. The rest was spent in hour chunks here and there. (That's where I found the Red Umbrella story from earlier this week!)

When I was trying to narrow down how I should spend my time with God during this Spring Retreat I knew that my mind was too active with real life concerns to spend it quietly. While browsing through the movie section at the local library in search of good curriculum companions the thought came to me that a few faith movies may be just what I needed. Actually, I was searching for a Jane Goodall movie and when found the title led me to the rest!

Sunday I vegged out on the couch and indulged in some movie watching - 3 to be exact!





The first was a Jane Goodall movie, Reason for Hope. Ya'll know Jane, right? She's the "monkey lady" who lived in the jungles in Africa for many years studying the primates. Mrs. Goodall is considered responsible for much of the knowledge we now have available on animal life, in general, but specifically primates. Her story is amazing. The strength and courage she has to carry on...well, rent the movie!






Next was The Other Side of Heaven. John Groberg was a farm kid from Idaho. He is of the Mormon faith and was headed to the wilds of Tonga to serve his missionary time. The story takes you from Idaho, through the trip to Tonga, and shows the trials John had while serving God. This movie is based on the actual occurrences that John wrote about in his book, In the Eye of the Storm. This is one of the best, clean, action movies I've seen in a LONG time.






The last and most thought provoking was about Mother Teresa. Over my life Mother Teresa was consistently in the news. I knew that she was a Catholic nun living in India. My mother had explained that she had dedicated her life to caring for the sick there. I had no idea what that meant and to what extent she sacrificed until I saw this movie. Don't rent this movie - BUY IT!

******

The reoccurring theme in all of these movies was faith, selfless servitude, and appreciating the little things in life. While all of these people clearly had choices to live in comfort, they chose to step out and live by faith alone. They listened to their inner voice and followed it faithfully. Great things came from these decisions.


Be inspired to live lives of faith!

Lessons in Faith...

I was having a hard time sleeping the other night and God put it on my heart to read a little. I've been amassing a collection of books from the thrift store for awhile and until that night I hadn't made time to read any of them.

He led to me one about stories from the heart. This books contains snippets from various speakers and authors, some famous and some not so. I flipped to the section on Motivation.

I read the entire section and while all the stories resonated with me, two jumped out at me. One came back to me today.

*******

I volunteer for a local senior program in various capacities, one of which allows me to visit a client in their home and spend an hour with them once a week. I've recently been assigned a new person. We instantly clicked the first time we met. Today was our third visit.

While we discuss many things, all of our conversations come back to God. That's perfectly fine with me. He's the reason that I have time to spend with her after all! She is very insightful. She has had a trying time for that last several years, healthwise, which leads to learning faithwise.

Today, as we were walking the neighborhood, she asked a great question -

"If God has a part to do and I have a part to do, how do I know which part is mine?"

An answer instantly popped into my head.

"All of it is God's part. We're just His workers."

She hesitated briefly and asked her question again, this time stressing,

"Right but, what is MY PART? How do I know what I'm supposed to be doing and what I need to take care of?"

My answer again was,

"It's ALL God's. Our job is to be open to His will and do what He bids us to do. That's it! There is nothing else."

Her response,

"Right but, I can't just sit around waiting on God to take care of everything."

"I didn't mean sit around and do nothing. I just mean that it's our "job" to live our life in a way that whenever God calls us to assist Him, we do. Our job is to listen and follow the path that He sets before us."

Then this analogy came to me.

God is the Queen Bee. The Queen Bee is in charge of the hive. Wherever the Queen lands is where the hive is built. Her worker bees build the hive and wait for her to fill it with eggs. Once she has planted the "seeds" in the hive, the workers tend the eggs, feeding them and caring for them through the larva stage and until they're ready to become active members of the hive.

Worker bees serve. That's their only purpose in life. They take care of the hive and all of it's contents because the Queen needs them to do this work. She can't lay the eggs and tend to all of the work in a hive by herself and have the colony survive and thrive.

God put us here to work for Him, to tend His treasures and help grow and sustain His colony. That is our "job", our purpose in life. All of the rest is moot. When God calls us to serve, we should serve, because He asked. Without God the entire hive is in danger of dying off.

My new friend thought about that and digested it. When we arrived back at her home she talked to me about a lack of faith. What she got out of my thoughts was that she had a lack of faith where God was concerned. She prays many times a day, reads the bible regularly, and has been a Christian for well over 30 years. How on earth could she have a "lack of faith"?

Into my head pops one of the stories I'd read a few days ago. I read it. I liked it. I thought I'd understood it, until that moment. This is a synopsis of the story -

There was a pastor of a church in an area that was having a severe drought. There were hundreds of parishioners in his flock. Many were farmers and in desperate need of rain. The pastor decided to hold a special prayer meeting that coming week to pray for rain.

Preparations were made and the event was on schedule. The day arrived and the pastor was milling around the grounds. They had decided to hold the event outside and all of the chairs were set up and waiting. Something wasn't quite right. He couldn't put his finger on it.

People began arriving. They had a good turn out. Still, something was wrong. About that time the pastor noticed a little girl heading his way. He noticed her because she was carrying a large red umbrella. A smile came to his face. He began to look around at the crowd and the chairs. He knew exactly what was wrong.

No one ordered a tent. No one else brought an umbrella. You see, these people were gathering for a good reason. They were praying for a good reason. But, only the little girl had the faith that God would answer.

******

Two weeks ago I would've answered that question differently. These past few weeks have been a test in my faith. How far will I go? How far does my faith carry me? Do I fully trust in God to care for me when I'm on His missions?

I guess I haven't. I mean, I do at times but, when I'm cutting it close I try to take over the reigns and take control of the situation myself. The reigns aren't mine, they're God's.

I can go to church every Sunday, attend Bible study, volunteer at church, and memorize every line in the bible but, unless I open myself to His will and have faith in Him to guide my path I'm no better off.

Today, I have faith that God will answer and whatever answer He gives me will be the right one for my life. So, will you be the pastor or the little girl with the umbrella?

Things that move me...

One of our youth group leaders at church introduced us to something he found on YouTube. He wanted our youth to preform it for the church and our local addiction recovery center called Prodigals. Once the kids saw it there was a resounding "Yes!" coming from them.

Have you ever been shown something that moves you to tears? Have you ever been moved to the point of sobbing? You may be if you watch this.



Apparently these skits are running rampant through the Christian youth groups around the world. Our group performed this in September and it's on YouTube, but the quality of the filming makes it hard to see all of the details. This video is by a group in Australia.

This skit touched people that I never thought to see cry. Everytime is see it I find it hard not to fall to the floor sobbing. Like many of us, I've been there, done that and Jesus saved me...just like He does in this film. He saved me from myself and all of those worldly things that are so easy to get caught up in - love for others, money, looks, partying, self-pity.

This blog is my journey from the other side. This is my new life. This is my God Walk. None of this would be possible without having Jesus in my life and Jesus as my savior.

Jesus can change your heart and life if you open yourself to receive Him - yes, it's that easy...just open up and let His love in your life...you'll never regret it!