I get inspired when I hear stories of radical transformation.

You know, the ones where God met them in their darkest moment  and they left that season permanently changed.  Our testimonies hold the potential to bring freedom to someone who has lost their way.

Revelation 12:11 “And they (we) overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of their testimony.”

No 2 stories are the same.  You are the only person on this planet that will ever get to live your life. You are the only person who will make the connections with the people you meet.  Only YOU.

I may not have experienced a prison cell encounter with Jesus, but I have experienced Jesus in my darkest hours over and over.  Just when life seemed hopeless, there He was.

Transformation is happening in my life, because I know that I’m not the same woman I was years ago…

When I was an 18 year old hot mess who who needed to fully surrender her life to Jesus.

or

When I was a 29 year old hot mess who needed a refresher on how to fully surrender her life to Him.

or

When I was a 39 year old hot mess who yet again needed to be reminded that her life is hidden in Him.

Colossians 3:3 “For you died (Jen) and your life is now hidden with Christ in God”.

When we meet Jesus. We get a choice:

To give Him our lives or not.

Have you given your life to Him?

 

 

 

I caught myself lost in thought tonight reflecting on the journey the Lord has had me on over the last few years. I often wonder how much I’ve changed from all of this.  There are remnants of my life that have remained the same but most have not. I seem to just keep chugging along as I wait for God to land me in a spot long enough to fully process the seasons that are behind me.

Everyday I see new life and everyday I hope for more. I long for the day when life’s rhythm becomes my new normal and I don’t question if I’m able to rebuild, because I have proven that I can.

I’ll be 41 this year and I’m still believing for this to be the best decade of my life.

Over the years I have been intentional with writing out the dreams for my life. I recently found a scrap piece of paper tucked away in my Bible from a few years ago.  On it, I listed out the dreams I had “for the next chapter“. Back then I had no idea what was just around the corner.

Here are a few things that I’m discovering about being a dream chaser:

Writing out your dreams fills you with faith to believe for them even when things go awry.

We don’t always get to choose the journey to our dreams.

Waiting will always be an ingredient.

Following Jesus is risky.

I don’t know what your dreams are today but I encourage you to write them down, and then wait a bit to see what wild ride you take to get there.  Life is full of adventures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Corinthians 13:12

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and I can feel the signs that a new season is finally breaking forth.  As with any new season, I am trying to brace myself and prepare for the changes that will occur over the summer months.  My favorite twins are moving out and moving into a new phase of life as young adult men.  They’ll be making the transition in the next few weeks and it has my heart reflecting on the joys and the journey we’ve ventured together over the years.

Everything about this is natural and healthy and everything about this is hard and painful.

What a paradox.

On top of that…. my littles’ are coming and going and I find myself with more time on my hands than I remember having for years and years.

We’ve all had so much change and we all know there’s more to come and such is life.

Over the years God has hounded in the importance of me knowing how to let go of things with elegance and also how to embrace change when it comes.  Neither of those things are easy to do, but both are a requirement for every ordinary life.

As I sit here on this glorious sunny Sunday afternoon trying to picture what my future will look like… Trying to control how often I’ll see my boys and wondering when we will have “family time”… I realize that yet again Daddy God is calling me into a deeper place of trusting Him.

I sense that my job in this season is to just sit still and keep my hands open to His will for my future. He knows the broken pieces of my life and He knows how to put it all back together.

I can’t help but think of the word God gave me at the beginning of this year… The word ORDER.

God is the God of order.  He knows the process for wholeness.  He knows that we mama’s like order.  He knows that it’s hard to see the season come when your children venture out, yet He designed it to go like this.

He knows what we need more than we do.  He knows the gift given to us in letting go and the treasures we find on the other side.

My prayer:

Daddy God… I already love and hate this season.  I know that it’s going to be painful and joyful at the same time.  Help me to trust you more deeply as you lead me to what’s next on the road ahead.

 

I’m sitting here on this glorious Monday morning. It’s my day off and I’m enjoying myself some Rita Springer while sipping on a delicious cup of flavored coffee. I’m thinking about things I want to do this summer when life is less busy and I’m in-between semesters with school. When you live in a state that is cold and gloomy for half of the year, you get excited to dream for sunny summer days.

That’s where I am today.

I’ve been so caught up in reading text books and listening to lectures that my dreaming and just plain living has been lost.

A few years ago around this time I was working on my first garden. I spent the whole winter reading up on organic farming. I was big into kombucha and kefir and my farm friends too.  I realized as the year unfolded and my garden began to sprout, that God had given me the dream of gardening for more reasons than I knew.  It gave me purpose. It brought me healing.

My oh my how things have changed.

So here I sit and I ask God the same question I do from year-to-year.  What do you have for me this year God?  What crazy adventure do you want to take me on that will stretch me and grow me all at the same time?

Whatever it is – I say YES.

Please don’t let me limit it.

Please don’t let me miss it.

 

 

 

If you’re a dreamer like me, you’re always envisioning a life that is yet to be lived.  You play out scenes in your mind of places you wish to go, and people you want to bring along with you for the journey.  You create a series of scenarios where you wind up happy no matter what…and

life

is

good.

You always win, because you’ll find the good in whatever situation you find yourself in.  I love the dreamer inside of me. She’s gotten me through the toughest of days and continues to fight right along side of me for my future.

Oh the pictures I’m painting in my head these days.  They are full of beauty, adventure, and so much happiness.  I see His wonder and His awe.

Some would say that it’s just a coping mechanism, but I say it’s a treasure.   I know it’s just the core of who I am and who I was created to be.

The further I get, the brighter life becomes.

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