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“I have a new job.” This is a phrase I’ve said in seven scenarios in the last year and a half. I’m not saying this to brag—I’m asking for confession. I’m not a bad employee, or have work wanderlust and can’t settle on anything—I wouldn’t like to be known as any of these things. At any rate, those jobs came at low points in the bakery season, and I hope I won’t have to say that phrase again for at least three more years.

My struggle with my chosen profession is that things move so fast—the pace of the kitchen, the pressure of “working the line,” the potential of losing a job if one small detail (like missing a garnish on a plate…seriously…) is out of place—and unfortunately I am easily overwhelmed sometimes. So when job #7 came along that required commitment, desire to learn new skills within my chosen profession, and variety in the day-to-day-work, I said yes.

When I took the part in the “Miracle Worker” play, my heart was aching at the chance to try something new. You might say I had the same feeling when I took job #7. There are always times of stress when learning something new, and in my first three weeks, I’ve been in information-dump-mode. Before kitchen life, I was used to SOPs, accreditation rules, monthly reports, student schedules and syllabi. Once kitchen life began, my brain was filled with cooking techniques, recipes, and health inspection and safety codes. Now sitting in the middle of both worlds, I strangely feel like a kid in a candy store, where all the things I love to do are in the same place, all of it new, yet familiar at the same time.

Maybe it’s not that you need to change your job or career (well, sometimes it is), but maybe you just need a change of scenery—to learn something a little step deeper about your job. What happens to you when you get the urge to try something different? I understand that some jobs and places of employment have specific ways of doing things, and I’ve worked in some like this. It may be as simple as asking what can be done to help out a coworker who’s going on vacation or maternity leave. Or suggesting ways to make what you do more efficient or user-friendly.

What if you love your job, your co-workers, your commute, everything, and yet you’re still in a rut? In the last year (especially regarding my long-term goals), one thing my sweet husband has challenged me to do is to ask God what it is that I want. God knows us better than we know ourselves, and I believe that if we love Him and follow Him, that His and our desires will align. And when you ask Him (He loves when we ask for things—read John 14-16!), He will respond. Be encouraged and have hope! New is good!

Did you ever know of a person who seemed larger than life? And I mean physically and personally larger than life as if their entire character was somehow more of a hero-type than a real-life person.

My grandfather was one of those people. He had hands that were some of the largest hands of anyone I have ever met.

He was larger than life.

And the story of his life went something like this: he knew hard work. He was a farmer. He loved his family and his friends. He was a servant to people. And he loved God.

He taught Sunday School for years—including teaching most of his grandchildren. He received perfect attendance pins for over 18 years of perfect attendance—you know, the pins your Baptist church gave you for each year you didn’t miss a Sunday. He was also an RA leader—instilling missions education into the lives of young boys. Though teaching about spreading the gospel seeds extended into the lives of his grandchildren, too.

My grandfather passed away two weeks ago today. His legacy; however, will never leave me. As I’ve reflected over the values and teachings my grandfather instilled in me, it’s taught me something of the word legacy.

What does it mean to leave behind a memory or thought that points you to something else or, in my Pappaw’s case, to Someone else?

As WMU celebrates their 125th Anniversary this year, the emphasis is: The Story Lives On. For my grandfather, his legacy will continue to live on within me. And more than that, the important ideals he taught me such as praying and giving to missions, serving and loving your neighbor, and loving people deeply are values I will hopefully pass on to the next generation.

Missions education is more than just meeting once a week to discuss missionaries around the world. It’s more than hosting a prayer meeting or having Bible study. It’s about continuing the legacy that Christ set before us—to tell every nation, tribe, tongue, and generation of His saving grace. My grandfather understood this and dedicated his life to teaching others about Christ through Sunday School,  RAs, and how he lived his life.

What legacy will you pass on? How will your story reflect God’s story?
 

At the reading of God's Word and the Spirit's faithful persuasion, I grew into hoping that the glory of God might really be something wonderful. That hope found satisfaction at table with a sweet friend.

Funny how that happens.

While waiting for our Thai vittles, conversation, per usual, turned from “how are ya's” to matters of the kingdom, of God's coming in and through us on the earth, and especially to how that is uniquely expressed through fierce and beautiful femininity. It is really a gift to meet a friend—a sister—with whom conversations like that just happen.

It was there in the shelter of our honest discussion that I finally let it all out. I expressed my frustration with glory-talk, my annoyance with its flippant and undefined usage, and my desperate hope that it might—that it MUST—mean more than its popular understanding. I confessed my anger and fear at how this ambiguous word was being used to describe God in ways that I have not and hope to never experience as part of the Lord's character...

And then I glanced up to a friend listening, beaming with compassion, and pregnant with the truth.

She, much like the Holy Spirit, would not let me escape glory, for to do so would have been dreadfully unloving. She told me straight that God is love and is about love, but there is also an aspect of God that is got at only through a different word.

Yeah, glory.

I leaned in, my heart open so far that it hurt, and tried to be patient.

"Glory has to do with God's presence, and, more specifically, with the weight of that presence. Here, imagine this. Imagine if an acquaintance of ours from college walked in. We would smile and wave, but then get back to our conversation. Now imagine if your fiancé walked in—you would have a completely different response! His presence would move you in a big way, yeah?"

I giggled. Of course it would.

"Okay, so what if the president of the United States walked in the building? We ALL would be affected. Every person would scramble to their feet and clap, salute, etc. depending on how they relate to the country's leader. By rough analogy, we would be affected by the POTUS glory. Does that make sense?"

Almost, I thought, and our food arrived. My friend offered a prayer of thanks and blessing for our meal, closing with a expression of her hope and promise of effort to "make God's glory known among the nations."

That is when it hit me.

It was like I had heard the phrase for the first time. The depth of meaning moved me and tears sprung to my eyes. 

If glory is the reality of God's presence, if it is the acknowledgement of the Lord's wonderful, loving, powerful, righteous, and Life-giving presence in the world—if it is the very Reality of God being close to us—then sign me up. I DO pray that this Reality would be made known in the world. In fact, pointing others to God's presence and care and concern and love for them is the very calling of my life. 

Living in the shadow of God's wings, walking streets aware that they are both of this world and under claim of God's Kingdom, experiencing communion with the Spirit at each breath, and over all moving about life as if God was in the room... that is what we are meant for.

God's glory, the wonder and weight of Emmanuel—God with us—is over all the earth. And that is something worth talking about.

The elders of our church called us to fast and pray for the month of April. As a family, we wanted to pick something that we could all do together. After negotiations and lots of discussion, the decision was to leave off TV for a month. Well, the kids thought that was too easy for me because I really don’t like TV that much anyway. They challenged me to fast Facebook and their dad to leave off YouTube and Facebook to make it fair. We agreed and are rounding the end of our month-long media hiatus. 

I have to say that I have enjoyed the peace that this month brought. Not only did we pray a lot more, we spent way more quality time together. Instead of movie night we were outside kicking around a ball and wrestling in the living room. Pandora praise music replaced the afternoon show while folding the laundry. We found ourselves getting to bed on time and our chore lists checked off consistently. 

I have to be honest; all of this did not come without some growing pains. About 10 days in, my daughter Faith had a little crying pity party. She loves TV more than anyone I know and during a normal month we have to set strict guidelines on how much she watches or she would actually transform into Candace from Phineas and Ferb.

“Honey, you have turned TV into an idol,” Brian told her. 

“What do you mean dad? An idol? Not me…” 

“Yes, TV has become so important to you that you feel like you can’t get by without it. The only thing we should desperately want that bad is God.” 

A couple days later she came back to us on her own, “Dad, you were right. TV was my idol. I don’t want it to come between me and Jesus.” What a sweet learning moment. Matt…well at 4-years-old, he didn’t have any profound revelations from God, but he did learn what fasting means and I think it will be a reference for him when we enter into a similar time like this again. 

Moving forward I am really thankful for this time. It reset our TV expectations going into the summer months. It also convicted me about the time I wasted on things like Facebook, Pintrest, ect. Just like my kids, I needed to get a fresh perspective on what is considered normal for my personal media use. I have to say, it is way more rewarding spending time figuring out why there is a rainbow around the throne in Revelation than catching up on the next season of The Dog Whisperer…speaking of which, I wonder if he Tweets…   

I think of the seagulls from Finding Nemo who, upon seeing Nemo in the water, began in unison saying, “Mine, mine, mine…..mine, mine, mine.”

Toddlers can get stuck on one word, “why.” We have all heard the expression, “Life is not fair.” When you were a child or even as a teen I am certain you asked for something or permission to go somewhere and when you were told “no,” and you would resort to, “Why, but her Mom said it was ok.”

Then the proverbial answer, “I am not her mother, I am your mother.” Those conversations never turned out how I would desire them to; all the while my mother was making choices because of her foresight and wisdom of the situations and loved me enough to say “no”.  There are other times within our lifetime that we will hear “no” and unfortunately each time the answer may not get any easier to hear. 

Unlike a small child who can outwardly show his or her disgust with life when it is not “fair,” adults are taught to keep it in, calmly process, then discuss the issue and create a plan to solve. Well, let me say there have been times while serving in ministry that I wish I could lay on the floor and just cry, maybe even stomp my feet, when things do not turn out as I had hoped. I believe it is okay to get your emotions out, honor your feelings, but cry out to God for understanding and fulfillment to see your difficult time through.

There are many places in Scripture where God’s chosen have cried out to Him in uncertainty, questioning their circumstances or in desperation. 

There is hope.

We can read from these same followers that they were answered and in His own timing, God provided them with the insight and understanding of how He used those events to fulfill His plan and further His Kingdom. Just remember that God sees the bigger picture and when He tells us “no” or “not now,” TRUST. It is okay to ask “why,” but do not allow your questions to become a stumbling block in your ministry.

May you rest in the words of David from the psalms:

Psalm 119:75-76
I know, LORD, that your laws are righteous,
    and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
May your unfailing love be my comfort,
    according to your promise to your servant.

Psalm 34:17
The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
    he delivers them from all their troubles.

Shine On!
Jen
 

Friends, I think I’m in for yet another life lesson. One where the exact same phrase has been used in two very different spheres of my life: “Sense of Urgency”.

In pastry school, our instructing chefs told us about a kitchen intuition that we would quickly have to adapt if we didn’t possess it already. In a professional kitchen, cooks must have everything set up before service begins, be ready for last-second changes, and know what is at their disposal every step of their shift. Cooks develop a sense of urgency that permits them to move quickly and safely through a kitchen shift in order to handle the fast pace easily. It also requires multi-tasking, juggling ingredients, mixes, hot pans, and timers simultaneously. This skill is one I wasn’t born with and one I still find challenging.

The play I’ve been involved with, Miracle Worker, has also asked of us a sense of urgency. The director needs us literally to be quicker about some things: performances start this week and sometimes we lose our place in the script or our blocking on stage. We must urgently remember cues in less than five days. In another way, there are places in the script where we portray the action much slower to what the script calls for—a deaf-blind-mute girl with no discipline is running around the house! Our reactions need to change so that the girl is portrayed as a child with disabilities (with pitiful parents) rather than a destructive animal.

These three words have come up as a potentially detrimental trait to my personal performance, in both my work and my “extracurricular” life. It wasn’t until yesterday that I began to wonder what else I lack a sense of urgency with.

Many of us naturally act slowly. It took me a whole year to decide to change careers from administrative support to a culinary path. Some of us take our time making plans, thinking things over, working out to-do lists, moving ourselves into action. Some of us don’t have a great sense of urgency to do things and it can be easy to slip into the mentality that “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. But sometimes the lack of pressure means that we lack motivation, energy, or passion. And still in other circumstances, it can be that while we prefer accuracy over speed, our jobs demand the very best of both.

Are there any areas of your life where you might need to pick up the pace some? Anything in your job that might ask more of you than you think you can handle? 

Abba Father, as we get overwhelmed with work, life trips us up, and we struggle to regain our stride, help us to find motivation in You. You are our sustainer. Help us all to learn a sense of urgency so that you can be blessed by the work of our hands and we can see Your kingdom grow. Amen!

How many of us have heard this in our lifetime? I know I have. I’m not even sure I was fully aware of its meaning either. Of course I figured it meant I need to verbalize my requests to Jesus. He knows that they are hidden in the depths of my heart but I need to trust Him enough to say it out loud. This is partially true. The Lord has been showing me a new truth to this common phrase and I am so excited to share it with you!

Turn to 1 Kings, read chapter 3 verses 1-15. Solomon has just become King. Around verse five the Lord tells Solomon to ask Him for what he wants. Solomon continues to praise God for His goodness and blessings over Solomon’s father, David. Solomon knows in his heart the faithfulness of God’s word and BOLDLY ASKS with confidence and assurance for God to grant him “an obedient heart to judge… and to discern between good and evil” (v. 9).

The way Solomon approaches the throne of God with confidence astounds me!

Continue reading.

The Lord answers Solomon’s request with joy and love! This is the God we serve! In verse 13 the Lord again proves His desire to give his children abundant blessings! “In addition I will give you what you did not ask for.” Because Solomon was selfless in his requests, because he included God and knew His wisdom was the only true way to lead, God looked to Solomon and rewarded him for his faithfulness! God wants us to trust His promises. His promise to work all things for good to those who love Him!

In this way, Solomon shows his love to God. Do we approach the throne of God with that kind of boldness? Do we trust that God WILL and ALREADY HAS blessed us abundantly?

This passage in 1 Kings teaches me that God knows my requests come from a good and selfless place (most of the time, I’m still broken by sin but saved by grace). It’s teaching me not to ask God for help with a timid spirit but a spirit of BOLDNESS. Challenge yourself to see the ways God has already blessed you. Ask yourself if you typically go to God in confidence or in fear that He will not answer. TRUST that He has an abundantly blessed life planned for you.

Reflect on Solomon’s request. Continue reading verses 16-28 to learn how God specifically answered Solomon’s prayer for wisdom. Have confidence that God knows YOU! He created YOU and the desires in your heart!

I have to admit that I have had an issue with "glory." And I mean that I have struggled with it in every way. What does the word even mean? Why are so many people talking about it all the time? And how does one determine its definition when there is such a noise of conflicting ideas about it?
 
Growing up, there was not much said about God's glory. Now, before anyone starts hollering claims of Christian neglect, let me say that there was much said about glorifying God with our lives (i.e. Live such lives that would bless the Lord and, by sweet default, would point others to God's love). It was not until college that I started hearing "glory" used in other ways.
 
"Ace that test for God's glory."
 
"God's glory was just so powerful; there was no other choice."
 
"Thank you for this [academic/athletic/merit-based] award—may God have the glory."
 
"They'll come around when God reveals [God's] glory."
 
"Yeah, I didn't do it out of pride, but for the glory of God."
 
Huh? The word popped up everywhere—always ambiguous, always undefined. That got on my nerves.
 
I did manage, however, to piece together a few positions. From some, glory sounded like a kind of currency good Christians were to heap up for God's sake, almost like a spin off of the "jewel-in-my-heavenly-crown" notion. From others it sounded like one of God's super powers able to bring any sinner to their knees in an instant. More darkly, and more often than is tolerable, glory was described as something so potent and, well, glorious that a person was left stricken and stripped of autonomy in its wake.
 
This does not sound like God to me, and this ambiguous "glory" doesn't sound like stuff the Lord would want to keep on hand.
 
My angst swelled. I tried to avoid glory-talk. When folks would mention or pray about or for God's glory, seemingly tossing  it to and fro like some churchy-religious punctuation mark, I felt uncomfortable at best and downright angry otherwise.
 
Imagine, though, my experience—read: annoyance, hurt, defensiveness, and yet, strangely disarming surprise—when I came across passages like this one:
 
"My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make melody.
Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn.
I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to You among the nations.
For Your steadfast love is higher than the heavens, and Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let Your glory be over all the earth."
 
--Psalm 108:1-5
 
The Holy Spirit, it seems, will not let me put "glory" away. Spirit keeps nagging--uh, nudging--and strangely that gives me hope for my irritation. Maybe God's glory is more than this popular noise using its name.
 
Maybe it is something wonderful.
 
To be continued.

My kids love old people. It is a highlight of their month to go visit the local nursing home and see the older people there. On their own initiative they started saving all of their coloring pages so they could go by and pass them out as little gifts. I know that senior centers are intimidating for many people, but amazingly this caution has never overcome my kids. I would love to tell you it is because they just ooze the love of Jesus, but I think it is more about the attention they receive when they go.

Faith is told she is the prettiest girl they have ever seen and she can practice her singing skills receiving thunderous praise. Matt likes following his sister and obsessively makes sure no senior is left out as we pass out our pictures. He likes being told how smart he is and how sharp he looks. 

A few months back we were delivering valentines and stopped by the room of a man who had lost most of his speaking ability. He had large tumors covering his bald head and was obviously having a challenging time with his memory and motor skills. As we entered the room, a sweet little old lady in a red Sunday suit greeted us. She was fixed up from head to toe with fresh make up and her hair curled sweetly. “Come right in here and see my valentine,” she said.  “I came to visit my sweetie here on Valentine’s Day and brought him a cake. You know we have been married for 70 years and he is just as handsome as always.” She went on to tell us how she had gotten too weak to care for him at her home any longer, but she comes by to visit him every day. “He still is my sweetheart,” she said as she stroked his disfigured head.

Later on as I was thinking about the amazing love of this lady, I pulled my kids aside. “You know, real love is not about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and all of those Disney fairytales. Real love is that sweet lady in the red suit. Did you see how she saw him as her prince even though he did not look like a prince any longer? That is the love that mommy wants to have for daddy and I want you guys to have for your husband and wife one day. That is how Jesus loves us.”

70 years of covenant love. This is what has been lost in my generation. This is the true definition of marriage. This is the love that echoes the love of Christ for His church and shows the world a glimpse of heaven on earth. My prayer is that in 60 years you will find me in a little red suit on Valentine’s Day with my sweetie rolling off into the sunset on our white power scooters.

There is a lot happening.

This morning as I was bumbling about for the coffee grinder the thought occurred suddenly that the entire world was happening. Right then.  I was zapped with the realization that in the same moment that I groggily scrambled eggs and sliced bread for toasting, such tiny and mundane events, the world was bustling with life and teeming with stories.

The thought brought my morning kitchen rituals to a pause.

I was blessed in that moment. I was blessed at noticing the soft light beaming its morning hello and the green leaves waving back, hearing the neighbor's pups romp about in the dew and the many commuters buzzing  by. Things simple and profound, I know, were happening here... and everywhere.

Everyone is busy. All are about something, every single human on the earth. There are thousands of stories all being told at once, and yet only one at a time.

This universal happening of the world has been lost to me of late. I have been completely absorbed in my own goings on. That is probably because there really is much ado at present.

Allow me to explain.

A month or so ago I decided that it was time to move from Birmingham to Atlanta. My fiancé Aaron, who lives in Atlanta, agreed wholeheartedly. This was decision was bolstered when our (absolutely fantastic) church there in GA offered me a wonderful position dealing in worship leadership. In exchange for planning, facilitating, and leading worship every week, I would live rent-free in the church’s hospitality suite. That suite is in the church building, which is on a farm, which is in the middle of east Atlanta, which is 12 minutes away from where Aaron lives.

Yeah. I was—am—super excited.

However, in the meantime, I have been working full-time at the farm-to-table restaurant, finishing a major writing project, chiseling away at my perfectionism, planning a wedding, and traveling every weekend this month leading worship for youth events, all the while marketing my little townhouse for sublet and packing boxes for the upcoming move.

Also, we have been in the midst of tax season here in the USA. And, just to reiterate, Aaron and I live in different time zones.

I would like to say that I have handled this well.

In some ways, I have. I have enjoyed my life, this happening story with all its goings on. I have known God through them and have been blessed by the challenges of time and deadline and responsibility. These personal happenings have been a pleasure with which to engross myself. 

But, there is something I have done poorly. There is something I have looked over. It is this other happening. I have zoomed in too far, looked largely to my own affairs, and have almost forgotten the happening world around me.

The world is spinning and groaning and evolving and bustling and thriving and hurting and brimming with LIFE.

Oh, I have missed this. I have missed this conscious, intentional awareness of life. I have missed the thrill of knowing with each breath and blink life comes and goes for us all. 

For the Master is made known in such breaths and blinks. The Creator is glorified in a waving branch and a dancing shadow and in our human notice of them all.

Oh, how I have missed You.

There is hope as I sit and breathe deeply, drinking in the sights and sounds of a day's closing. There is a lot happening, and I thank God for simple reminders of the profound and the large. I thank God for poking a hole in my haze of days so that I might not miss out on Divine happenings in this world...for reminding me that I am small, but important, and a chosen participant in it all.