Funny Friday

Playmaker found this for me last night - as I was thinking about what to post for this today....didn't really have anything. We were watching the olympics & she was surfing the internet too (she's quite the multitasker :) Anyhow, she came across this & we got a chuckle out if it so I'm hoping you will too :)

Bob was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really mad.

She told him "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE !!"

The next morning he got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway.

Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house.

She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Bob has been missing since Friday.

What to do, what to do? (so many choices)

"The only thing we can truly control is
how we respond to the events and circumstances around us, ...."
via a dear friend I've never met

(When she said it, it struck & stuck :)

Sometimes when what I really want are specific answers to particular questions (Why?!, When?! How on earth...?! etc.) it seems God has so much more for me to learn in the absence of answers - so instead of answers, He gives me directions/instructions on how to react &/or respond to whatever events & circumstances I find myself in at any given time. Sometimes I sense that He says ...

Wait * Go * Do something * Stop! * Let Me take it from here * Pour your heart out * Stop whining! Suck it up. Be strong. Courageous. Do what needs to be done & leave the consequences to Me * Show some compassion here * Have mercy * Share * Take a stand! * Back off! * Say something * Bite your tongue! * Hold on! * Let it go, already * Claim it * Proclaim it * Leave * Press on * Remember * Forget * Forgive * Don't forget * Work hard! * Rest * Bloom & grow * Uproot & transplant * Be encouraged * Be warned * Be content * Be tender * Be firm * Run the other way! * ....

Trying to sort thru' all my options based on the little I know for sure is futile but I know that if I just be still & know that He is God (& remember that I am not!) - He will be faithful to meet me where I'm at - that place I described recently. The place where, where I'm at in His Word intersects at any given time with where all the variables (circumstances, motives, feelings, etc.) combine to make whatever situation I'm dealing with unique. Even at times when I'm not reading in His Word - or not reading it as faithfully as I know I should be, often it's those words of His that I've memorized/hidden in my heart that somehow manage to make their way from my heart to the forefront of my mind at such a times as this.

¹²For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. ¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews 4:12-13

God certainly knows how to get my attention & so often He uses the events & circumstances around me to do just that. Tho' He never forces me to listen or to do what He asks/suggests/commands. That choice is always mine to make. And it occurred to me, that what makes me unique & to respond certain ways at certain times (even when others would likely respond very differently) I believe can be summed up in one word: Choices.

When you add them all up - every single good & bad choice I've ever made plus many that others have made - you get me. If any different choices had been made along the way, I'd be different. I've certainly learned a lot from my choices - & in fact, some of the most difficult lessons I've learned have been the result of making poor choices. When you factor in how my choices affect others it gets rather mind boggling, but let's not go there just now.

....My point is - as time goes on I hope to become less like me & more like Him all the time....one choice at a time. In the meantime, I hope for at least some shreds of evidence to that effect to be revealed now & then in how I choose (hopefully consisently!) to respond to the events & circumstances around me.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:14 - 18

Deep Tweet

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.

(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p 13)

via

The rest of my story (the end!) begins now

The Rest of Your (My!) Story - 21 Day Challenge
hosted by
heart to heart with holley

Assignment: Share a love story from your life.
(Remember, it doesn't have to be a romantic one...
just a time when your heart felt real love.)

There are two extremes for those of us who trust Christ as our savior. One - trying much too hard to earn/deserve the free gift of His amazing/saving grace. Two - taking His amazing grace for granted - as a license to sin bc you know that all your sins - past, present, future - have been forgiven.

I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was about 8 yrs old. Don't remember a time when I didn't trust Him - but I do remember hearing lots of other people's testimonies in which there was such a vivid before & after moment when they accepted Christ & when so much changed - how they lived, talked, acted, spent their time, etc. This caused me to wonder if I really believed that what I really believed was really real .... or was it just something I believed bc it was what I'd been taught. I thought having a life changing before & after moment to refer to would be so reassuring. I should note that at this time I tended to lean toward the extreme of taking His amazing grace for granted.

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world,
to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
I Peter 2:11

Then ... about 6 yrs ago ... my mom & my little brother died. Both were "far from normal". My mom had numerous physical & mental health issues & my little brother had Downs Syndrome. I, on the other hand, was SO normal (selfish/proud) that often I was embarrassed of them &/or frustrated with them - especially my mom. No doubt I loved them but I never really realized how much I loved them until I lost them both within about 6 wks of each other. Only then, in the months that followed, did I understand (yep - I'm a slooow learner) what God used them to teach me. In a nutshell ... I needed to be different - far from normal too! It was then that my strong will turned into a desperate & determined attempt (passion) to know God & somehow - thru' it all, my passion turned into compassion in such a way that I can claim but is hard to explain. I'm still far from perfect - except in the sense that He has made me perfect forever - but praise God I'm also far from normal & hopefully getting farther away all the time - bc God placed some very special people in my life who were far from normal too - & He's used few to teach me as much as they did.

There's much more to my story - some of it I've shared in bite size pieces on this blog. The circumstances surrounding my brother's death added a whole other twist to it. And after "all of that" (I'll likely share it here sometime. It's just so hard still.) I nearly lost my mind. Literally. Here I went to the opposite extreme - & tried so hard to make up for taking advantage of His amazing grace & to be deserving it - but never succeeded. I wrestled with God in much the same way that Jacob did & eventually, I was wounded/humbled(!) in much the same way Jacob was too. Like him, I will never be the same. This was my before & after "moment" - which in reality lasted for months in which God went to great lengths to respond to the cry of my heart for Him to make Himself real to me & to convince me that He would never leave me. It's hard to wrap words around but I'll likely spend the rest of my life attempting to.

Ironically (& I use that word loosely) about this time - & after reading one of the books in the series that inspired this blog - I was inspired to look up the meaning of my name. My mom had always told me she named me Joyce because of the joy she experienced when I was born. So - you can imagine how stunned I was to learn here that my name really means Experienced in Battle & to learn of it only when it finally fit like a glove.

I was challenged here recently to summarize my story into SIX (yep - 6!) words - as if summarizing my whole life story into one very short all encompassing tweet! I gave it some tho't & soon realized it wasn't so hard....

Made perfect forever. Being made holy.

.... because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever
those who are being made holy.
Hebrews 10:14

The first part is done. Final. Written with The blood of Christ (permanent ink). The last part - aka the rest of my story - which, by the way, begins now - is likely (based on my history) to be a difficult process at times - one in which The Author will need to edit a lot in order to make it good.

And we know that in all things God works for the good
of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

So - stay tuned for further details of the rest of my story - which, as far as I'm concerned, has already proven to be an extremely remarkable MyStory of HIStory.

How do you feel? (TROMS Pt 14)

Emotions make great messengers & bad bosses.

via

The Rest of Your (My!) Story - 21 Day Challenge
hosted by
heart to heart with holley

***

Q. What are your feelings saying? What's true?

A. How I feel continually changes - but the answer to this question is one of the few things that consistently remains on the short list of things I know for sure. At any given time, I know for sure how I feel.

B. What's true? That's easy. Truth is real/reality. But knowing what's real, right, wrong, true, false, etc. is not always easy.

Recently I heard a pastor caution against opening your Bible in search of specific answers to particular questions. Instead, he encouraged reading God's word daily, as you'd read most any book, & to look there - where you'd be reading anyhow that day - to see what God has to say about your most pressing questions. This made a lot of sense to me bc I've learned that one can essentially make the Bible say just about whatever they want it to say. In one situation this seems right & in another it doesn't. I believe that's bc there is a time for everything. What's right in this situation might be wrong in that one. By reading God's Word "this way"/daily (well... almost) I find that He faithfully meets me where I'm at - that place where all the variables (circumstances, motives, feelings, etc.) combine to make whatever situation I'm dealing with unique. So often, when I'm done reading I feel both convicted & encouraged - & so I sense His leading about what to do & what not to do & where to go from here & where not to go from here. This is where my relationship with God gets quite personal. It's hard to explain but nonetheless, from experience, I've found this to be true.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light,
so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

John 3:21

How do you Guard your heart? (TROMS Pt 13)

The Rest of Your (My!) Story - 21 Day Challenge
hosted by
heart to heart with holley

Holley shared that when she learned that part of the Greek word for contentment means "to raise a wall against.", this verse came to mind:

"Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life [aka The source of your story]."
Proverbs 4:23

Prior to that she viewed contentment as a barrier that could block her dreams - but suddenly she saw it as just the opposite....protection for her heart...Like a lock on a little-girl diary, contentment keeps safe what matters most."

***

Q. Am I (Holley) the only one who struggles with contentment? What helps?

A. At times I struggle w/ contentment, in the sense that I get bored easily - but it helps to count my blessings. It may sound trite - but it's true. When I shift my focus from what I want/wish/hope/long for - from bigger/better/faster/newer/shinier/etc. - to what I have & what I'm able to do, I tend to be shamed into asking myself - how in the world could I possibly want more?!

⁶But godliness with contentment is great gain.
⁷For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

I Timothy 6:6-7

What's your story statement? (TROMS Pt 12)

A Story Statement is a lot like a Mission Statement. I like the word "story" because it implies creativity and freedom as well as reminding me that God is the Author.

- Think back on everything we've covered: Strengths, Skills, WWW. Then create a sentence with this structure...

To bring + (what) + (who) + (how)

- How we live this statement will change many times during our story.

via:

The Rest of Your (My!) Story - 21 Day Challenge
hosted by
heart to heart with holley

Assignment: Write a one sentence rough draft of your life story statement.

I found this to be among the most challenging questions/assignments so far. - & Holley said to spend less than 5 minutes on it! It's just .... I wanna do so much w/ the time I have left & the very nature of the assignment seems so specific/limiting/confining. Hmmm. Maybe I'm just a bit claustrophic. Anyhow .... I decided to go ahead & do the assignment but to keep it very general so as to keep my options open! :) Here goes:

To consistently & creatively use my strengths & skills
to share the love of Christ in personal & practical (meaningful!) ways.

Well now - that wasn't so hard. Now that I've done it ... I'm glad I did - tho' I'm too embarrassed to tell you how much time & thought I put into it. If this were a timed test, I'd have failed miserably ... but hopefully the final exam won't be so tough bc I really like this statement & am hoping that my "rough draft" will suffice as my final answer too.