Untangled

Fear.

Failure.

Doubt.

Inadequacies.

Broken Relationships.

Past Hurts.

SO MANY MISTAKES!

Each is tied tightly around me.

Each is something I continue to hold on to,

So tightly it is hindering me from moving forward.

Like a rope tied tightly around me,

That gets tighter the more I move.

Lord, untangle me from my past that holds me captive.

Cause these ropes to become slack,

So that all the burdens I hold will slip away.

Enable me to move forward,

Freely.

Untangled!

Pile your troubles on God's shoulders—
he'll carry your load, he'll help you out.
He'll never let good people
topple into ruin.

Psalm 55:22

Life on Pause

Recently I have come to the conclusion that I have been living my life on "Pause"

- a temporary state of being. I have been waiting for my life to return to normal (whatever "normal" means!).

I have not been engaging in the life that is happening around me,

but watching it more as a spectator.

While living life this way,

I have slowly been advancing the frame not living into all life has to offer.

These past few months have been a time filled with weighing the pros and cons

of investing myself in something...school, church, friends, work, anything really!

And often the answer is ___________

(pause, stillness, no action.)

So having be...how do I move from pause to play?

What needs to change so I can re-engage with life?

How can I stop this temporary feeling of existence?

How can I move into a life filled with so much more...

more than I could ever hope or imagine?

I think it is time to hit play and see what happens!

Breaking Through

Small seed planted in hope

laying dormant deep in the earth

establishing roots...

growing deeper

Green sprout moving upward

little by little pushing forward

painfully stretching...

forcing growth...

onward in the journey

Finally cracking the crust of winter

reaching toward the sun

gentle flower blossoms

New Life has begun.

Winter's Death

As I look at the past two years of my life I see a desolate landscape, barren trees that seem to bear no fruit, ground covered in a thick layer of frost allowing nothing to grow. It is a lonely picture...a cold and lonely place to dwell. There is no shelter to protect me from this bitter cold for this is winter's death.

Like all seasons, life too has a rhythm of death and new life. And sometimes those seasons are long and difficult to endure.

Occasionally there is a glimmer of hope, a change in the air. The sun breaks through the bleak gray sky and for a moment I can feel its warmth and the ground begins to thaw...it seems there is a new season coming, but in a moment the clouds return as does the bitter chill of winter.

Days turn into weeks and weeks become months...

when will this season end!

It is there that I look across this landscape of despair and see a reminder that this is only a season and it too shall pass. For off in the distance...breaking through the crust of winter's death is a glimpse of life anew! What was dormant through winter...resting, waiting, establishing roots, growing stronger, gaining strength, pushing through...

a reminder that life continues even when it seems that all hope is lost and we are on the verge of surrender...

Winter's death is necessary to bring about Spring's new life.