Monday, June 13, 2011

Hello my name is.......



We have all seen them.   You know the ones that say "Hello, my name is........" then you are to write your name in the blank space.  The blank space?  Does my heart feel like a blank space?  Who is this person whose name I am writing in the blank space?  What name do I identify myself with?  Whose name is written on my heart.  Is Jesus' name there?  The Good Shepherd has given each of us a name, He knows His sheep by name, and they know His voice.  Is there a name that perhaps I have believed about myself that is a lie like I am not good enough, I am not pretty enough, too fat, too old, shy, angry, or a host of others?  Can I write the name He has given me in the blank space?
Recently,  I came to a greater understanding of this ongoing discovery of who Christ is in my life, who I am in Christ and who's name is written there.  Where Jesus is, there is no room for doubt, fear, anger, jealousy, pride, or anything other than the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.  I can just tell you there has been some bad fruit I have believed.  The only way I could stop seeing and believing the lie was to start seeing and believing how God sees me.  Then and only then am I able to start changing from the inside out.  I am who He created me to be even with some missing gaps that I am learning to resolve, learning to deal with as they come up and learning to discern whether it is truth or lie.  And most of all learning to fill in with Him.
When you are in the wild and out in nature birds have a certain call.   It is how they identify each other and communicate with one another.  We too have a call on our life from God to listen as He has identified us as His own and communicate with Him so that He can help us.  If I believe the lie what am I believing my life to be called to?  He is the solid ground, the Holy ground on which I am able to stand.  All other ground, all other names, all other lies are sinking sand.  He gives me the confidence I need to stand and say, "Hello my name is Barbara, child of God, daughter to the King, relative to the Creator of the universe, heir according to His promise, seed of Abraham, bought with a price, washed by His blood, held by His hand, my name written in the book of life and raised into glory through His victory.  When I believe this is who He sees me as, knowing He is the Name above all Names and is living in my heart then I can believe that about myself.  Not in a self righteous way but in a rest assured way that when asked I will not be ashamed of the Name of Jesus.
I thought it would be an interesting exercise to see when I went into a restuarant and they ask for the name of my party to give them Christ or Jesus as my name. Then when it was time for my name to be called, "Jesus your table it ready" and see how it is received.  You know there is actual power in His Name?  The demons flee in the presence of His Name.  It used to make me uncomfortable to be around people who would talk about Jesus, say His name all the time and I couldn't figure out why.  As time went on and I drew closer to Him, it did not bother me so much in fact it was healing to hear His name, it brought comfort and was like hearing the name of an old friend.  But why did I squirm......it wasn't me squirming, but the strongholds within me, the sin foothold in my life that couldn't stand to be in the presence of His name.  The more I am able to peel layer upon layer of the old name tags, when they lose their stickiness and hold on my life the more His Name is revealed.  It is not over and I am still in process.  It's a big onion.  Sometimes that means lots of tears that reap/usher in Joy.
When I got overwhelmed with my kids and I did not know what to do and wanted to yell, I would go in the closet of my room with a pillow and just scream His Name.  Somehow it helped to pass whatever was trying to rob me and my children of joy.  When I did not know what to pray I would just say His Name over and over.  I felt like I was so unprepared in early motherhood, and I felt out of control.  Kids, when they are born,  don't come with little instruction tags on their toes, so had to wing it much of the time.  I had great kids and an incredible husband, so that helped.....A LOT!  They helped me get through it and so did Jesus.
When I am faced with something new, overwhelming or a challenge,  I can NOT rely or call upon my own name, but the Name of Jesus.  The more I put this into practice the more He reveals to me His Name and what it means to be tagged with it.
So I challenge you, write His name upon your heart, call upon the name of Jesus and get tagged cause......tag He's it.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Birthday Week, Birth Feet: Soles4Souls








There are so many causes I could get behind.  Too many in fact.  Something about Soles4Souls grabbed my heart from the beginning and has not let go.  Is it my love for shoes?  I do love shoes.  Is it the fact that every 7 seconds S4S is able to place a pair of shoes on a child or adults feet.  To me that is staggering.  Or is it the amount of waste we have in our land fills due to shoes, over 300 million pairs a year, leaving a huge, pardon the pun, footprint?  I guess the more I become familiar with S4S the more I learn that I/we have much to learn about helping others, preserving our resources, and the impact one person can have in our world. 

God's word says, "Just one of us can set a thousand to flight". Duet. 32:30
Wayne Elsey had a divine appointment with an image on a television of a single shoe that had washed up on shore.  Leaving the known into the unknown and starting this organization has proved that Almost Isn't Good Enough, the title of his new book.  The more I see the more I want to do.
For me it seemed like an easy thing to do.  It is something I already own, something I already have and need to weed out occasionally.  So, giving them away knowing how much good they will do, well just blesses my shoes off.  I am literally taking that to feet and heart and ask you to consider to do the same.

June 5th is my birthday and I will be meeting the challenge of Soles4Souls Barefoot month that starts June 1st.  I may not be able to go an entire month without shoes, but on June 5th I will be going back to my birth feet and have a very Happy Birthfeet Day.  Here is a Vimeo video I made all about Soles4Souls.
I went and got my toes all gussied up, as they say in the South, for my special day.

I encourage all of you to join in for a day, part of a day, for an hour in a day or donate $1 =ing 1 pair of shoes for someone.  Lets get our feet dirty so that someone else can walk a mile in our shoes......