Embracing My Tookish Side

A couple of weekends ago the annual Abbey Medieval Festival took place & a van load of YWAMers took off to go spend a day in the past. Naturally, I was one of them. My excuse for such a day of fun was research for my books, The Oak Guardian series & The Great Awakening trilogy. I am happy to report it was a complete success. Not only did I learn & experience new things from every day life of the Medieval past, but I learned about the sub-culture of the festival re-enactors too & it woke something "Tookish" inside of me.

“Then something Tookish woke up inside him, & he wished to go & see the great mountains, & hear the pine-trees & the waterfalls, & explore the caves, & wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.” The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

At one of the many canvas tents was a mud-oven where re-enactors were baking hardy, brown bread. They were passing it out to all of us when another re-enactor came bounding up to get a piece of the delicious bread too & after a cute little exchange he bounded away again with his fresh & tasty treasure. The girl slicing the bread looked at us with a sparkle in her eye, said "That's my dad." & went back to preparing pieces for us to try & it suddenly hit me- this big event wasn't just a once a year party for us medieval loving people, but for these re-enactors it was a way of life.

After this, I spent about an hour talking with two re-enactors, each dressed to the nines as medieval knights. One was wearing a chain-mail shirt he hand made. During our chat I mentioned the girl & her father & the two re-enactors' eyes lit up. They began telling me how there were 3rd generation re-enactors at the festival, the kids of re-enactors had raised their kids in this sub-culture & now those kids were part of the festival too. Imagination ignited, I tried to picture the life these people led, they were living in the past & present all at once, totally embracing the fullest they could get out of both. They all made their own clothes- even their shoes! They all slept in canvas tents during the festival, eating mutton cooked over open fires, singing old songs & drinking honeyed mead. The REAL festival happened when all us "tourists" left & they got a moment living in the past.

There was something about this that stirred my soul. I'm still searching for an actual name for it, I've been searching for years. The closest I've come to naming it is what writers John Eldridge & Brent Curtis call a "Haunting" in their book The Sacred Romance. Or what Erwin Raphael McManus calls the "Barbarian" in his book The Barbarian Way. These names are great, but for me they still lack something... maybe it's because IT is too big for one or two words. How can we encapsulate a feeling & way of life in one word? All I know is this It, this stirring is raw & gritty. It's sun burnt faces with dirt etched into every wrinkle & pore, it's deep laugh lines & fierce eyes, it's knowing who & Who's you are, it's living boldly & passionately even in the midst of the scariest, deadliest storm. It's the great, big & wild adventure God calls each of us to live.

So often we want our lives to be plastic clean, or just safe & cozy like a warm little hobbit hole I know about, but God's adventure is quite the opposite, I always think of impulsive Peter who was ready to follow Jesus everywhere- even death. Who couldn't believe he would ever deny or abandon his Lord, who took up a sword & cut a man's ear off, because he thought he was defending his friend. He was raw & passionate & many times Jesus had to bring him correction. No doubt most us would look at a man like that & scowl at his rough-around-the-edges attitude, but not Jesus. Instead, Jesus saw how passionately Peter wanted to be part of the Haunting, Barbarian way of life & it was Peter he chose as the foundation of his church.  

"And I tell you that you are Peter, & on this rock I will build my church, & the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Matthew 16:18

It's our choice whether we will choose to risk it all for the sake of the better & bigger story or stay safe in our cozy little hobbit holes. I for one will be following in Bilbo, Peter's & those medieval re-enactors steps, you'll probably see me running down that Road shouting "I'm going on an adventure."

Wanna join me?

Happily Ever After? Nope Not Yet

"I choose to trust in Him no matter what the circumstances. He stays the same today, yesterday and tomorrow and the truth is, that He loves us and has a plan for our lives- to prosper us, to give us hope and a future bigger than our present circumstances."

Almost exactly a year ago today the quote above was my Facebook status. At the time I was experiencing the death of a dream so closely held and my heart was bleeding.

I'm sure we've all been there. You have a dream or vision for something you want to do with your life and for those with a bit of boldness you go for those dreams no matter what, even when they're uncomfortable or seem to be going in the exact opposite direction as your end goal. I did this. I held tightly to one particular dream for seven years and year after year it fell to the ground and I mourned it all over again. This year is different. After seven years of pushing through doubt, pain, blood, sweat and many a tear my dream is finally coming to fruition.

My dream is being born.

It's a testimony of God's character, He is blissfully the same today as yesterday and will be tomorrow. His plan may not always be comfortable or easy to travel, but when we choose the bigger story He has for us, I promise you, it won't be a disappointment.

BUT, the story doesn't stop there. Even when your dream is born into a tangible world and takes its first tentative steps, wobbling on shaky legs and breathing in the crisp, thicker air it's still only the beginning of the journey. I'm reminded of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis where the ghosts couldn't walk on the soft grass because it was like walking on glass and even the smallest of apples was too heavy to carry. Just like those shadowy ghosts in The Great Divorce, our dreams have to step onto that land of sharp green, where picking up an apple is the most difficult thing ever.

This is where I am. My dream is here and I have to walk these new steps with it, it's a place I've never been before, so I can't walk comfortably, instead I get just as scared as my dream does. I can almost see my dream and I walking down a mountain path, tentatively stepping over fallen branches and avoiding the prickly bushes on either side. It's funny, I always thought once it came I would be a different person- that I would be someone I could admire, someone strong and wise, someone qualified for the job, but I'm still me, I've just walked a little further down the Road Tolkien talked about and I have no knowing where my feet are taking me.

It's terrifying but also exhilarating.

I'm being stretched and prepared and it makes me realize that even when I think the "Happily Ever After" has come, I still have to remain vulnerable and teachable, because this dream I've been given to care for needs me to remain pliable. The Big Story has only started and I find myself at that Call to Adventure moment and I must choose the adventure or turn back. If I turn back now, my dream and I won't experience the Big Story, but only a shadow of what it could have been. How incredibly awesome and powerful is our choice!?

We all love the end of the story because we can sit back and relax knowing the characters we loved are living a life of contentment, but even for them, the adventure doesn't stop there, we just don't always get to see what happens next.

Now I must choose... Will I choose the call to adventure yet again, knowing full well my dream and I will be at the mercy of the Story, knowing what we experience will not be safe and may in fact be very difficult and painful?

It's terrifying, but I defy any one of you not to be stirred with excitement by that Call.

So, what is my answer? Let the drums roll, let the many peoples shout. My answer is a resounding yes. It will always be YES, because no matter the difficulty ahead, my God is a mighty warrior and His plans for me are for good and I love the adventure because it gives me an opportunity to put my faith in action. I will choose to trust Him no matter what the circumstances, knowing when I come out the other side, my dream and I will be better for it and the Bigger, more Glorious Story will be told.

What will you choose?

Re-shoots, Deadlines & Miracles

Life has been one big adventure as of late, filled with being creative, working under pressure & being a part of miraculous answers to BIG production problems. I won't go into all the gory details, but I did want to share one quick story...

If I haven't said it before, I work with a film production company called, The Initiative. We are a fairly new little company run out of Youth With A Mission & last year we made our first feature film called, The Umbrella. Check out our website if you want to know more.

 

The Umbrella is in it's last stages of reshoots, we just sent off the final cut to our colorist & also to our composer. Times are very exciting. This last week we ran around like crazy, trying to get everything ready for the re-shoots & the following is just one little story from our ventures... 

 

It was Thursday night & Friday was our biggest re-shoots yet. Only, problem. Our actress cut all her hair off! When we shot with her last year, she had flowing, shoulder length, golden hair & now, she looked like Tinker Bell, cute as ever, but a big problem for the continuity of our film. Solution? Go to the nearest mall & search all the hair related stores for hair extensions or one of those clips with a fake bun. Not the greatest idea, but hey, it would work... right?

5:30PM, stores are already closing & the director is talking seriously about cancelling Friday's shoot. I ran to the mall, not willing to give up yet. -There's no excuses in filmmaking.- It HAD to work. At the first store I talk to one of the ladies working there & she cringes, saying nothing will work. She says our actresses hair is way too short to support any extensions. I suppress the knot growing in my throat, thank her kindly & head to another store. By this time my partner in crime, fellow crew member Proby & I realize this venture is going to be pretty costly. Most hair extensions are about $150 & we only have about $10 to work with. YIKES! We enter another store & find something similar it's also cheaper, but still way too expensive for us. And still the question tumbles through our brains- Will it even work? We head to the dollar store hoping against hope that we will find something there. Once there our hopes are dashed. Our hair is frazzled from worry & I'm begging God for help. 

 

We're desperate now, more stores are closing for the night & we are running out of options.

In a last ditch effort we decide to try the salons. Time is short so we split up. I head to the nearest salon, Proby heads to one down the way. When I arrive at the salon, no one is at the counter & I tell myself to remain calm, life as I know it is not over yet (me dramatic? Never) A kind lady approaches the counter & asks if she can help me. I smile. "I have a really bizarre question for you."

"Oh good, I love those." She says.

I sigh in relief and then launch into my story. The lady smiles as I continue to babble incoherently, then she excuses herself & says she may have a solution. Leaving the counter she heads to the back of the salon, by this time Proby has come back from the other salon with no luck.

I silently plead with God for some kind of miracle. We are out of time.

The lady comes back to the counter with a box overflowing with wigs of red, black, gold & brown. "I have no use for these." she says, "Maybe they could help."

I take one & look at it. She gets out a plastic bag & begins piling as many wigs as she can inside. All the while telling me how happy she is someone can get some use out of them. She digs in the box for all the blonde wigs & once satisfied that she has given me all of them she throws a few more red, black & brown wigs into the bag before handing it to me- free of charge.

WHAT?!

I'm speechless.

Do we really have a golden strand of hope to hang on to? (See what I did there?)

I thank the lady profusely before making a mad dash back to the office where I gather my unsuspecting co-worker, Zakk, to be my model as I fiddle with the wigs. We're all on the edges of our seat now, wondering, hoping, holding our breath to see if it's going to work.

Answer? It does.

It's a Christmas miracle! OK, it's not Christmas, but it's still a miracle. Thank you, God.

Lesson learned? God cares about the details of our lives. Not just the big important stuff, but the nitty gritty stuff too. He's pretty awesome like that :)

What the Flowers Taught Me

Once upon a time, there was a place
where everything was measured 

in values. Flowers were usually 5
values each, jars were worth 3 and 

buttons were worth half a value. Even people
were measured in values. 

Everyone prided themselves on knowing
their exact value, but there was one girl 

who had trouble calculating hers.

Sometimes the girl knew she was worth
50 values, other times she 

was sure she was only worth 10 and still other
times she convinced herself 

she was worth a 1,000 values.  Every day
the girl would try to tally up her 

value and every day the number would change.
Those around her would shout, "I'm worth
10,000 values." Or, "I'm worth 9,000 values."
Frustrated, she began to lose interest 

in many of the things that normally brought her
joy. After all when you think

you're only worth 20 values, there's
not much you can purchase.

Then one day a beautiful bouquet appeared for the girl. 

"Wow." she said, "this is surely
worth at least 30 values." Someone 

thought she was worth it! She relished
her flowers, taking in their scent, 

tracing their delicate shape with
her eyes and admiring the wonderful, 

bright colors. A few days passed
and the flowers began to droop. 

A few days more and they were all but withered.

Again the girl began to lose interest
in what normally brought her joy, 

but it didn't last long, for another
beautiful bouquet appeared. These 

were more beautiful than the last
and there were more of them too. 

"These are worth at least 50 values."
she said and again she was amazed 

someone would value her so much.

As the days and weeks passed
new bouquets took the place of the 

former and each time they
became more splendid than the last. 

The values increased too- 70
values, 100 values, even 500 values! 

The girl was amazed and began to
wonder where the flowers came from. 

Who was it that thought she was
worth so much? Who gave them? Joy for 

life ebbed back to her like rays
of sunshine and her laughter was 

often heard before she was seen.

One day she came bounding
into the room and caught a boy 

replacing dying flowers for new ones.

You!" she said, "Is it you who's
been increasing my value?"

The boy smiled, "While I am the Messenger
Prince, it is not I, but another, the King, 

who has been trying to show you your value."

Her hearts deepest question tumbled
out of her lips, "What is my value?"

"Why haven't you figured it out yet?"
the boy said. "Your value is higher 

than any number you know.
Indeed it goes beyond infinity."

The girl looked at the boy with
wide eyes. Could she really be 

worth so much? Valued at such
high measures? She looked at the new 

batch of flowers and knew what
he spoke was true. There in front of her 

stood the most exquisite and rare
flowers the world had to offer. One 

petal was worth at least 2,000
values and each flower held at least 50 

petals AND there were about
60 long stem flowers! This alone would 

have been enough for the girl, but
even the color of the flower had a value.

As rare as the flower was it had
only ever been found in yellow, peach 

and pink. These were blood red,
making their value doubled and tripled 

the normal values. To top it
off they sat in the most fragile and

creative crystal vase she had ever
seen. She knew it's value was probably

close to 10,000 values by itself and
here it sat with the rare and precious 

flowers worth more than she could
calculate and they were for her. Not for 

any reason in particular, simply
just because. She was valued more 

than infinity because her King said so.

It was then the girl realized not only
she was worth and valued more than 

infinity, but every citizen was worth
and valued more than infinity, her joy 

increased with new purpose. She
joined the boy, the Messenger Prince 

and became the Messenger
Grace, to help spread the news 

with flowers of great price.

(c) The Lesson of the Flowers by Charis Joy Jackson

for the boys who brought me flowers

~

This little tale is something God has been teaching me as of late. So often, we as a society let ourselves be defined by what we do, what we wear, what we listen to, who we choose as our friends and so many other things. We let them define our value and are constantly let down because no matter how "cool" we think we are none of those things can give us our true value. There's only One who can say who we really are and it's our choice whether we will listen to Him or not.

I for one am letting Him tell me who I am and you know what! I'm being amazed every day by how much He loves me and how cool He thinks I am. My little story is true, He really did shower me with months and months and months of new flowers. Every week I'd walk into my office and a new bunch of bright beauties would be sitting there, a silent, but fragrant declaration of God's love.

At the beginning of last year I told God I wanted to know what it meant to really be loved.

The Bible says "We love, because He first loved us." (John 4:19) We will never be able to love well until we let Him love us first. It can be a humbling experience to let someone else make the first move and for the first few months of 2012 I was terrified. I had never fully understood why my friends told me they loved me or why they even wanted to hang out with me, but God was determined that I would know what they see and more importantly that I would know what He sees in me.


He started off the year with blessing my heart with the news my sister was cancer free, then He followed that up with the funds and ability to fly home to see my parents.The rest of the year saw many more gifts from my King including a trip away to a fancy resort, another trip to the coast with my Lost Boys, a trip to Melbourne, coffee dates, new dresses, flowers and more. I didn't have to pay for any of it. It was all His gift of love to me.

I'm not saying last year was all daisies and tulips, in fact there were many times of hardship, pain and lost dreams. My sisters cancer came back for one, which was hard for me to understand, but through it God held me in his warm embrace and let me weep on His shoulder. All the while he stroked my hair and cried with me. I knew He really cared, I knew I could really turn to Him in every battle. I knew He loved me beyond any shadow of doubt. Then a few months later my sister was in complete remission, not even a sign of any tumor anywhere, I rejoiced and He rejoiced with me.

Throughout 2012 He taught me the importance of vulnerability in love and reminded me that if I really wanted to accept His love I would have to remove any walls of protection and trust to His good heart for me. It's not an easy thing to let someone so completely in and I am still learning. However, I can say I am completely undone by His goodness and love.

Recently, one of my friends posted a quote from the book Les Miserables, she's reading it at the moment and was being overwhelmed by the author's description of the Priest's relationship with God. I had to smile when I read the quote because it's exactly how I feel at the moment. It read, "He did not study God, he was dazzled by Him..." I am being dazzled by Him too.

"It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Hebrews 10:31  

What about you? Will you take the risk, will you become vulnerable and let your walls down? Will you let the Love of your life show you how GOOD He is? Even if you don't believe in God, what do you have to lose? If He's not real, nothing will change and you can shrug your shoulders and carry on, BUT if He is real (and I know it!) your life may just become the thrilling, terrifying and wonderful experience you've been looking for. So. What do you say? Ready to jump?

Judge Not

Last week I went to a conference on faith and healing. When I first got there I realized how much I don't like hanging out with people any more. I've spent so much time hiding away in the safety of my home over the last few months, that staying in a dorm with 11 other girls and sitting for long hours in a crowded room listening to inspirational stories didn't seem like a good idea. Yet somehow I volunteered for the job... hmmm? Maybe the extrovert in me was screaming to get out.

I'm glad I listened.

It wasn't easy though. On arrival all I wanted to do was hide. People were too bouncy, loud and happy. Eck! Then as I pushed myself to engage and interact with those around me, I remembered why I love people so much. Every single person is so unique and interesting. It's like God gives me glimpses of how entertaining and beautiful people really are.

The conference started and immediately I found myself wanting to run and hide again. Or worse, judge those around me. Conferences always seem to pull people's personalities into extremes and there were definitely some extreme mannerisms and I definitely found myself judging them, criticising them in my mind for not being real or genuine. But then God started whispering a verse to me... "...work out your salvation with fear and trembling..."(Phil. 2:12b). Then fragments of Dances with Wolves and other stories started to pop up in my mind about how the Navahos, Mohicans and so many others were judged for their "savage" ways of dealing with things. People didn't understand their passion or dramatic ways. That's when God reminded me of King David, dancing before the Lord in his underwear...

Sheesh. God sure knows how to lay it thick sometimes. I got the point. Don't judge. Though I may not always understand why people do silly things, God sees the heart and I don't need to worry about it. He's the Judge. Not me.

As soon as I was able to get this through my thick skull, I not only saw these people in a different light, but I became more free to be ridiculous. Ok maybe I wasn't dancing half naked during a worship song, but I was definitely letting God move me and by doing so, He was allowed to bring some serious healing. He lavished my little heart with his magnificent Father's love. He held me close so I could hear His heart beat. He spoke words of life over me and released a giggle bomb-- I was laughing so hard I was crying. He did all this through different people at the conference. During one session a father pulled me into a tight embrace. I didn't think about what others around me were thinking. I didn't even hesitate to let myself lean into him. The result? A God experience like I've never felt before.

We may not always get the ways of the Lord, but who are we to judge what He choses to do? The bible says "His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts." (Is. 55:8-9). He gets it, we may not, but how cool would it be if we could switch off that judgmental button and just go for the ride God has for us?

My personal belief is that it would be the best ride of our lives.

So, who's with me? Who wants to agree with David when he said " I will become even more undignified than this..."? (2 Sam. 7:22a) It won't always be pretty. People will still be human and judge you, ridicule you, maybe even despise you, BUT, as that good ol' prophet Nehemiah said, "Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." (Neh. 8:10) As long as we stand in the Presence we won't be worrying about what people think.

One final thought. The key note speaker at this conference said when we focus on the problem looking for answers, we won't find it there, because the answer is not in the problem, but in the Presence." I was reading through the Psalms today and God just confirmed this even more...

"Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? 

Why are you crying the blues? 

Fix my eyes on God -- 

soon I'll be praising again. 

He puts a smile on my face. 

He's my God."

Ps. 42:11

I challenge you. Think about it.

Yes, erm I mean No. Umm NO!

I just saw an advertisement for a diamond ring, the slug line above the sparkling stone said something along the lines of "Ethical Diamond Rings"...

It got me thinking, how funny is it that we have to put words like "Ethical" into advertizements about diamond rings... I know specifically that there is the whole concern that people don't want to be buying blood diamonds, but this isn't the first time I've seen something like this and it's not always for diamonds. Why is it that we have to put words like "ethical" into our adverts? My theory is because people are no longer trusted on their word. We have fought more and more to find a way to make our products look important and cool and healthy. We do anything that we can to make that happen, including twisting words and truth.

Many people these days say that truth is relative, but is that really correct? Are there not some things that we all agree with deep down inside our hearts? Let's take the blood diamond for example. Am I right in thinking that most, if not all people, recognize that blood diamonds are wrong. The movie Blood Diamond had all of us in the western world demanding jewelers to tell us their product was blood free. We all agree that it is wrong. This is truth and it's not relative. It's solid. Truth is truth. What's true for me, is true for others. Not "What's true for me, may not be true for you."

I'm not going to launch on a big spiel about what truth is and what it is not. The only one who can really tell you what truth is or not is, is God. I will leave the issues to Him. What I do want to talk about is how our culture today is searching for things that are real and solid to their core. Could it be that we are looking for people, businesses, etc to be truthful?

There used to be a time in history, when you could walk into a store, grab what you need, turn to the owner and say, "Put it on my tab." Neighbors could come and ask to borrow a cup of sugar, because you knew they would give you back sugar when they could. What people said was what they meant.

How far has our world come from this? We hesitate at lending things, we hesitate on trusting that a person will show up when they said they would. Why? Because our word is no longer our word.

Being a person of your word is one of the most important things to me. When I tell people something, I want it to be something they can trust. I can't even begin to tell you how angry I get if things change and my word becomes something that is no longer truth. One of the reasons this is so grounded in me, comes from a story I read from the Bible...

The Israelite's were told not to make alliances with any of their neighbors and when one of their neighbors disguised themselves as a nation that had traveled far to come and make an alliance with them, they readily agreed, not taking time to seek the Lord. After entering the agreement, it was revealed that these were their next door neighbors. Immediately, the Israelites wanted to break their alliance and fight their neighbors for their deception, but God told them that they had to be men of their word.

There is so much more to this topic that I want to discuss in future blogs, but for now, I want to challenge you to join me in my goal to see our word be our word. If you say you are going to show up somewhere, be there. If you promise to do something or return something, do it. Let your "yes" be "yes" and your "no" be "no". I know I still have far to go for this to be something I live by, but how different would our world be if we all lived this way...

Think about it.

The BIG and short of it

I've always loved to write. It's been one of my biggest passions in life. I love the freedom, the creativity and the adventures. I love to lose myself in the story and the world it creates. Sometimes, story is more real to me than life. Maybe someone reading thinks that's unhealthy, but I chalk it up to the wild imagination God gave me.

Throughout my twenty-nine years of life I've written several short stories and started several novels, but I've never had the staying power to complete them. I've often wondered at this. Wondered if I am not disciplined enough or talented enough, but I think it's more along the lines of loving my new worlds so much that I don't want to see them come to a close. Does that make sense? I do the same thing with scrapbooks. Several of the adventures I've gone on in life, the people I've met and the places I've gone fill pages and pages of scrapbooks. However, I never finish them. I hate to see those adventures come to a close, because I know that the people I met or the places I've been will slowly leave my immediate circle of life and be shoved in some corner to be covered in dust, only to be pulled out every once in a while to relive the memories.

Maybe I have a problem of letting go.

It's true, actually, but I am growing in this process of holding life in my open palm verses clutching it tightly in my fist.

At the beginning of of this year, I made a resolution to start writing more. I set an easy goal for myself. Twelve short stories for the whole year. That meant I only needed to write one short story a month. Easy. I told a friend about this idea and he decided to join me, we were going to embark on this together, so there would be accountability for us and we would have to write, because someone was waiting to read.

So, I started a short story. I wrote out the basic outline of what I wanted to happen and once satisfied, I started writing. Around page nine I realized I was still at the very beginning of my "short story". I joked that I was writing a long short story, but then again around page twenty-three I realized I could no longer call my story a short story. So I joked about writing a novella. Then again around page fifty I realized it was a novel.

Excited about my tenacity for the story I shared it with my sister who is a published author, shared it with my mom (who's my biggest fan) and then shared it with several other friends who love stories. Every single person giving me positive reports. This served to fuel my passion and love for the story even more and my fingers flew over the keyboard.

This "short" story began turning into more and more of a monster, until I realized I wasn't just writing a novel, but the first novel in a series of seven! Welcome to the Chronicles of the Oak Guardian. Wait, what? How did that happen?!

I'm convinced this has come about because of God. Somehow it was like I finally got it. I didn't hold tightly to my story. I didn't over analyze every single word and every single character. Instead, I trusted the story and trusted God's desire to co-create it with me. The result? I have a finished draft of the first book and have already started the next.

Now hear me out, I'm not saying my book is going to be the best ever because God co-created it with me, what I am saying is that when we learn to hold things loosely it gives God room to expand our horizon. It gives Him room to tell a BIGGER story, then the small, "short" story we intended.

So often in life we let fear of failure or even fear of success hold us back. We tell ourselves that only those people over there are good enough to accomplish great things, or only those people have the creativity, or the smarts or the charm to pull off the impossible. Maybe, just maybe, God is wanting us to know that any one of us CAN pull off the impossible, because He wants to give us those impossible things. Does that make sense? Let me put it another way, if someone tells you you're beautiful or handsome, what's your response? I know for years and years my response has been "Oh, you need glasses" or some thing along those lines. Why can't we believe that those people are maybe telling the truth, that we are beautiful? Maybe all along God has been telling us that we can accomplish those things that feel so far out of our reach and it's been us that have turned the deaf ear and said, "Keep dreaming, that could never be me."

I started off a short story and let God turn it into the first novel in a series of seven. Something meant to be so short has turned into something massive. What if God has something like this in store for you and He's just waiting for you to hold your dream in the palm of your hand so that He can turn it into something BIG.

The road still stretches far out in front of me. I am after all only 1 draft in to the first novel of seven, but somehow I'm not nervous. Somehow I'm not concerned that I won't have enough to write, that I'll get near the end and feel like I'm beating a dead horse, why, because I know that my Creator, who lives in and moves in creativity will be there each step of the way to reveal more and more of the BIG story He's got....

If you've managed to keep reading this very long blog, congratulations. I leave you now with this challenge. What are the passions you have in life? What is the BIG story God has for you? Will you step out of the mediocrity and step in to the adventure? Or will you let fear hold you back? I beg you, trust God. He's the ONLY one who is trustworthy and the best part- He has a GREAT adventure for each one of us, if only we will let Him be a part of it. Hold your dreams and passions with an open hand. Invite God in to your hearts dreams and marvel at the BIG Story He has for you. You may just find yourself pleasantly surprised.