Wildest Dreams

Isn't it wonderful that we each get to fight our own battles, climb unique mountains, acquire our own scrapes and bruises and then watch as our wounds slowly turn into wicked cool scars over the years that tell the story of how our hearts have grown, conquered, loved, lost, loved again and been made new, fashioned with even more beauty and depth of character? 

I am beside myself with how the Lord has been my helper and friend and held my hand through it all. Following Jesus is worth it. It's absolutely everything. 

But here's the thing. Learning to trust the Lord with what is MOST precious to you is the best thing you will ever do for yourself, aside from making the decision to follow Jesus. Because let me tell you something: Your hearts desires are a beautiful thing, and God thinks so too. I don't think I had let myself fully believe that until my friend recently spoke it to me during a long phone call. I'm still having to consciously choose to embrace that truth. But when she said it, I instantly realized I had been believing a lie: subconsciously I had let the unmet dreams in my heart and my experience with disappointment cause me to feel that the things I longed for most were perhaps selfish desires and that I should learn to let go of them. WRONG. Because the most beautiful truth is that when people quote the bible in saying "God has better plans for you than you could ever plan for yourself", that DOESN'T mean "boring, lofty, disconnectedly sovereign, it's my way or the highway, so you might as well prepare yourself for disappointment" kind of plans. Instead it actually means MORE GOOD. Like actually MORE BEAUTIFUL. And ABSOLUTELY BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS. God is actually STOKED on our hearts desires because he created us and loves us and legitimately takes delight in us! And he WANTS us to dream big!

He wants us to trust him enough to surrender to him all of our dreams and our desires to the point that it scares the crap out of us, and THEN to surrender that fear to him and replace it with trust. 
Because he ONLY has plans to prosper us. He watches us closely and is very interested in the desires of our hearts. And he's working out plans that incorporate both the details of our dreams and his own unique design. God has the biggest and most beautiful imagination. He is the author of love itself and therefor writes the best love stories. He is creative and funny and will surprise you with what he has planned for you. But it all hinges on trust, and your belief. You gotta let go of that iron grip and start to breath a little. His plans aren't boring or stoic or less fun. They're filled to the brim with beauty and imagination and laughter and joy overflowing. Because that's who God is. He's not holding out on you. He's waiting for you to stop holding out on HIM. Open up your hands. Trust him. He's good. 

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change" -James 1:17
-He is unchangeably good. He can't not be good and he can't not have good intentions toward us.

"But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" - 1 Corinthians 2:9
BOOM.
Also Isaiah 55:8-13.

Sorry for the 2am rants. I actually had planned to go to bed early tonight and then accidentally spent 2 hours writing this blog instead. I love you all and I hope you have hope tonight as you fall asleep. You're allowed to hope. You're allowed to dream. You matter. And your desires matter to God. He loves you. You are loved.
Goodnight.
xx

Compass

We are not guaranteed a map, only a compass. The lord often will point the way, but he doesn't give us a list of lefts and rights. Instead he challenges us to have enough faith to just walk in the direction of his compass. Not knowing if the path ahead will be sure for our footing, or disappear off a giant cliff. But the amazing thing about God and our faith in him is that our faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and not yet seen. Faith is the bridge across that cliff. Our faith in God literally calls into existence that which is otherwise impossible. It moves mountains that are otherwise immovable. Faith is the sure footing under our feet. It's the rugged wooden slats of this giant bridge, woven and nailed together with our trust in who God is. It's bound by our knowledge of his love for us and that he is good at his very nature. Ropes that are braided and strong run the length of it to give us a sturdy railing to hold on to. Knowing the character of God means that we know what this bridge beneath our feet is made of. And because of that we know that he's never letting us go and that our footing is always secure in him no matter where he leads us.

January.

January finds me with an overwhelmingly thankful heart.
I'm not a planner, or a scheduler, or a list maker. I have dreams in my heart and I know what things are stirring in me and what I feel like God is drawing me to, and for some people that isn't enough. But for me it's everything. Some people needs goals and charts to make sense of it all in order that they can more clearly and accurately see things come to pass. But for me, to feel connected to God in my heart and know that he is planting dreams and leading me onward is just the most significant blessing in my life. I'm a follower by nature and doing my best every day to follow Jesus.
It's not easy, and sometimes can feel like you're feeling your way through a heavy fog on uncharted paths. But the Lord is always near and he never leaves us stumbling around for too long before he makes it clear that we're on the right path. And if we somehow find ourselves on the wrong one, he doesn't leave us there alone and he takes such joy in leading us back to himself and his plan for our lives.

So this is my new year post. It's not a list of goals and resolutions and hope-to-do-betters.
It's just me being thankful. And content. Because God has me in his hands and I know that whatever he has in store for me this year is ultimately for my good and for his glory.

Love,
Christie

"Our praise precedes our miracles"

Writing has always meant a lot to me, but the last couple of days with my phone being broken has made me realize how much writing little things as instagram captions has really satiated my need for writing. Maybe in a bad way, maybe in a good way.
I constantly have a need to put my heart-thoughts into words, and most of the time it ends up on instagram. Which is fine because I love sharing there, and I love hearing from the people who take the time to read that stuff. But like I said, my phone has been broken this week and it's actually been amazing. Big shocker there, huh? You mean real life ain't so bad?? What a surprise.
But I felt compelled to share something today and figured I'd write it here.

Today I've been locked in my room listening to sermons and listening to worship music.
A quote from one of the sermons I heard recently was "Our praise precedes our miracles" and that quote literally floored me. It's changed my perspective. It went along perfectly with something HUGE that God has been teaching me for the last couple of years. Thankfulness and praise. Thankfulness and praise must always come first. Choose a thankful heart. Praise God always. In all circumstances. Always. And since I've begun learning how to do that, everything has changed. It's honestly a pretty easy thing to teach yourself once you start to get your head around how incredibly worthy God is. Stacked up against anything. No matter what you're facing or what is going on in your life. God is always bigger. And if you don't feel it, declare it every day until you do. If God isn't bigger than your circumstances it's because you haven't magnified him in your mind. If everything else isn't paling in comparison to God's sheer goodness and glory, it's because you haven't acknowledged him in your heart. And once you start to do and to declare that, everything changes.
Choosing to thank God even when things are going horribly horribly wrong is the only response that we should have. Having an awful day? Worship. Can't make sense of anything in your life? Praise God. Because worship is the doorway to God's presence, and God's presence changes everything.
It changes our outlook and rearranges our priorities. Why? Because God is good at his very nature. In him is no darkness at all. He can't leave anything he touches the same as it was before. So when we worship and when we lean in to him, we're reaching out to a God who is ALWAYS reaching back out to us.

I could go on about this forever right now because it's what God has been drilling into my head and my heart lately. And the more I choose to worship him and draw near to him, the more things shift and my perspective is lifted towards heaven.
But I just want to encourage you to try it. Your words have power. Declare the goodness of God over your life and your circumstances and recognize that he is bigger and is capable of more than you ask or think or imagine. And then watch how things change. Worship. Worship is not limited to singing songs. You worship with your heart. With your actions. With your life. With your voice. If you can't sing, do it anyways. If you can't dance, do it anyways. We can waste our breath complaining about how things aren't exactly as we want them to be or we can choose to use our voices to declare God's goodness instead, and realize that if we have the Lord, we have everything we need.

I have a playlist of my favorite worship songs if anyone wants to listen. Find a good worship song and let it be your anthem. Declare the lyrics over your life. Music is so powerful and I truly believe God works so much through worship music in my own life. I know a lot of "Christian" music is cheesy, but there is some really great worship music out there if you look for it! Here's some of my favorites: worship

Glaciers

How often are my prayers begging God to do something or to change something or to give me clearer direction or a certain issue? Always pleading and half believing. Don't I have faith? Don't I know my prayers are heard and indeed are being answered and have already been answered? God's answers to our prayers oftentimes come to us in a form comparable to a glacier. We're desperate for God to move and we want answers immediately. But what happens is that after a while, maybe even years, we look back and find that our circumstances have changed. Our prayers answered. The glaciers have shifted. The ice melts. The ice thickens. The form changes. And it's only evident now after the years have passed and we have the eyes of experience to compare the two. Keep pressing into The Lord for answers. Continue to lay your requests before him day after day. But know that he is already at work. He has his magnificent plan and nothing will stop him bringing it about. It just might be a slow moving process. One that you can't see with your own eyes just yet. One that builds character. One that melts away bad character. One that evolves slowly over the course of God's hours and days, not our own fast paced schedules. Let us have patience and ask God to give us faith and to help our half hearted belief. To help us see evidence of his hand at work, but even when we can't see it, let us thank him for it. Knowing that he is constantly working on our behalf, no matter what our circumstances may show us.

Love,
Christie

The Plants Have Eyes

Blogging twice in one day? Who am I?

I was out walking one evening and noticed that all the plants in our neighborhood have such character. 

I  realized that they are all actually creatures with funny personalities, so I decided to do a fun film photo series where I gave them eyes and tried to capture their spirit.

I just like them!

God is so creative. He created everything with such unique detail and so often we don't even give anything a second thought. But now I try to look around and imagine everything with eyes and it's a lot of fun! 

Love,

Christie

Perfect in Weakness

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." -2 Corinthians 12:9

This verse is everything.
In every valley and pit that we may ever fall into in our lives, in all our vast misunderstanding; God's understanding is infinite. In all our incapabilities, God is capable of more than all we ask or think or imagine. In all our shortcomings, we have the ability to overcome through the strength that God provides for us. That he willingly and joyfully provides. He delights in being our helper and taking us that extra mile when it's hard for us to take that next step. We do it through his strength. If you're trying in your own strength, you won't get there. You'll only get frustrated with your circumstances and frustrated with yourself and you'll reach the end of your rope before you've even begun. But it's because we weren't meant to go through this life in our own strength. We are weak and it's because we desperately need the Lord and his strength.

I was praying last night and was focusing so much on what I didn't know and how I didn't have the answers or the capability to navigate on my own. How I needed wisdom and direction and how I just didn't know how to fix anything. But as I was sitting there feeling empty and inadequate, my focus began to shift and instead of telling God what I couldn't do and how I didn't have the answers, I began thanking him that HE knows the answers. That he has understanding when I don't. When I'm clueless, he is all knowing. When I'm incapable, he is MORE than capable. When I'm weak, he is strong. And suddenly that verse had new meaning for me. It's perfectly okay that I am weak. It's okay to be at my wits end. Because it gives God the chance to be all that I need. When we are nothing, God is everything. This is how it should be all the time. We should constantly be existing in this state of nothingness and denying ourselves so that God is magnified. We get so comfortable being independent, when really we are desperately dependent, by nature. God created us to desperately need him. It's a gaping hole that will go on desperately being void until we seek and pursue Jesus whole heartedly and allow him to fill that hole. And I woke up today and instead of focusing on my problems and confusion, I thanked God for my inadequacy, because it means I get to rest in him and stop trying so hard. Living life in pursuit of our savior means that we're no longer running this race alone. It means that we have infinite strength in times of weakness. It means that we can actually rejoice during hardships because it's producing in us something greater and it's refining us.

It means we have hope when everything appears lost.
It means that when we have nothing left to give, we can surrender to a God who provides everything we could ever need.