stepping over fear to love a messy world
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It’s been a crazy few days around here. And guess what? It’s still crazy as I’m spending a week at youth camp pouring in to some girls who just graduated High School. Actually, I love this type of crazy!
But as I looked at this week’s DO assignment in our Graffiti Summer, I vividly saw before me glimpses of how I saw people using what was in their hand to serve the last few days.
I saw a woman blessed financially give to provide meals for 500 others.
If you are just now joining us, we are beginning the section Broken for Others in the book Graffiti: scribbles from different sides of the street. This summer a group of crazy people decided to take a challenge and participate in Graffiti Summer. Download the FREE Graffiti Study and Do guide and jump right in. You can find the introduction here under the Study and Do header tab in the header.
I never dreamed in my wildest of thoughts how blessed I would be leading you along this journey. As messages, texts, and link-ups come, I am blown away by God’s beautiful stirrings within this community’s heart. God is drawing our hearts away from ourselves and putting our eyes on others that we can bless. It’s absolutely beautiful!
In this section on Graffiti we will take a look at how God nudges us to serve what we’d prefer to run from. You’ll also look at how he equips you to serve with the ordinary things that are close at hand.
Listen in for this week’s lesson and you can follow the show notes below.
I sit across the table from a precious friend. There’s hot coffee in hand and a moment to be honest and real.
The music overhead captures my attention. The couple sitting across from us seems to be in deep conversation and my mind begins to wonder about them. I can hear my friend, but my mind is having a hard time centering on her words.
I try to pull my attention back to my moment. I want to be in this moment.
I can attest this week that the Word sure cuts to the core of your heart! As I pondered the answer I got yesterday, I realized how judgmental I had been.
It was as if there were a magnifying glass or a camera lens on my friend’s sin and that’s all I could see. I was focused in on the sin. Oh my, I am so not proud of myself.
As I realized that sin is sin, it made me think of my own sins and how I’d spent years covering up many hoping you wouldn’t find them. Do you do that too? Yea, Adam and Eve did that too. But God didn’t go looking for their sin in the cool of the garden – He went looking for them!
We can all agree that no one is proud of their sin. But can you imagine if that’s all anyone saw when they looked at you? SIN.
I lay there tossing and turning. I can’t get this week’s challenge out of my mind. I am supposed to realize that I am different and then go bless someone different than myself. Dang – I’m beginning to wonder why I wrote this Graffiti Study and Do guide and why in the world did I decide to lead it? It’s summer for crying out loud — shouldn’t we all be at the beach soaking up some rays?
The truth is I don’t want to think about how different I am because it hurts.
No, we all cry out to fit-in and to be the same. But what if we were all the same? I’m really not sure how comforting that would be either.
If you are just joining us, we are beginning the section God-Given Destiny in the book Graffiti: scribbles from different sides of the street. This summer a group of crazy people decided to take a challenge and participate in Graffiti Summer. Download the FREE Graffiti Study and Do guide and jump right in.
In awe of God and my own journey, but more importantly in awe of what God is doing in this community — in you as you take up the challenges laid out before you. WOW! If you are not participating, make sure you read the link-ups here and you’ll be amazed at what God did in the Introduction week alone.
Do you know much about him?
I have a few favorite characters in the Bible and I have to admit Moses is one.
Listen in here to get a short-handed story of his life and our lesson for God-Given Destiny.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Where did you grow up? Did you feel like you fit in? Was it a comfortable place or one with friction?
I’m so excited to be sharing over at Susan’s I hope 4 Him today. We’re talking about jumping, taking a step, and flying. You’ve got to check it out because there’s an invitation waiting there for you.
While we’re on the subject of jumping, stepping and flying, have you ever taken a bold step only to fall?
It never fails once I get up my nerve to actually jump in to new territory and do something new, many times I fall. And the fall leaves me feeling like a failure. I question myself. I bicker and of course, I say “I’m never going to do this again.” My ego is bruised and it hurts.
