Learn to Dance

“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

Not Made for Mountains

“We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life — those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to …prove our stamina and strength.”

Oswald Chambers

Little Blessings Make a Full Heart

Last week I sat in a group answering the request to list 5 things we were thankful for.  It took us each some thinking, not because we weren’t thankful for 5 things, but because none of us wanted any of our 5 things to sound too small or superficial or materialistic.  But whatever, I went for it.  I said, “I know this sounds really superficial, but I’m actually incredibly thankful right now for all my clothes…and I’m REALLY thankful for chocolate ice cream.”

The other 3 girls kind of laughed–out of courtesy or awkwardness, I don’t know–and one of my friends hit me and said, “Oh-my-GOSH, Audrey” in a way that sounded like she really meant, “Yeah, that really IS insignificant, superficial, and materialistic.”

I wondered, though, why it was “wrong” for me to say I was thankful for such small things?  I personally find it rather difficult to be thankful for small things, and I actually don’t think most of us tend to be thankful enough for them.  So, I felt the need to defend myself (especially because I got hit for it!) and explain that I actually have a deep gratitude for many of the “insignificant” things in life.  That week I had been standing at my closet everyday marveling at how fortunate I was and how I didn’t really deserve a closet full of clothes, which led me to think about all the other aspects in my life that God has provided for that I really don’t deserve.  I also kept thinking, “How could I ever have felt like I needed more?” (Not just of clothes…of anything, really.)  And I marveled at the provision.

That week I also ate a bowl of ice cream and thanked God for letting it be invented, telling him that he really didn’t have to create chocolate ice cream but that I was SO GLAD he did.

So, yes, I said I was thankful for my closet of clothes and for chocolate ice cream, and my gratitude for them runs deep.

A while ago I worked through The Good and Beautiful God and one of the chapters had you create an ongoing list of blessings in your life.  I wrote so many seemingly small things on that list, and at first I was embarrassed because of what I said before–that it seemed superficial or even materialistic.  But the more I wrote down, the more it actually cultivated depth in my thanksgiving, in my sense of God’s love and care in my life, and in the joy and pleasure there is in this life God has given me.

In a world of consumerism and advertisements that tell you that you need more of x, y, and z, I love looking at my list of blessings…especially the “small” ones.  It makes me feel like the world went from being on a grey scale to being filled with vibrant colors.  The world seems more colorful, the air feels fresher, and I feel fuller.

I’d highly encourage you to start a list of blessings!

If you’re interested, here’s mine.  I was going to also add why I was thankful for some of these things, but almost all of them were because I kept thinking, “OMG, what would my life be like without this?  God didn’t have to make this, but I’m so glad he did!”

• chocolate ice cream with fruit
• a sibling who knows the Lord
• teal and orange
• white nectarines
• music that speaks in unexplainable ways
• oranges
• prime rib
• Contigo water bottles
• time spent with kids who see the world as wonderful
• Papermate pens (I LOVE these…)
• crisp NorCal air
• sunshine
• God’s presence with me
• contact lenses
• financial freedom
• the promise that God will guide me
• a voice to sing with, to worship with, to express myself
• my multi-colored scarf
• the sense of smell, taste, touch, sight, hearing
• friends to connect with musically
• provision for tasks he asks/calls us to do
• unexpected ways he takes care of me
• Chinese food
• an amazing husband and an incredible relationship
• giving us a community who loves and serves though they may barely know us
• God’s sovereignty
• freedom in my job to become who I was made to be
• a child’s laugh

I’d love to hear some of your list of blessings…especially the ones that seem little and often get overlooked or taken for granted!

Life shall come from his voice…

“To have a resurrection you have to have a death.  You have to come in and die and have the Lord speak and change everything from that point on.  There has to be that encounter where your agendas die, everything about you that makes up your life, you lay it down and he speaks.  And the identity comes from his voice.  Man shall not live by bread alone, but from every word that proceeds.  Life shall come from his voice, and the most intimate connection is the fact that he talks, and he talks with us.”

- (I forget where I found this…)

The Spiritual and the Real

“Our uncorrected thinking, influenced by the blindness of our natural hearts and the intrusive ubiquity of visible things, tends to draw a contrast between the spiritual and the real–but actually no such contrast exists.  The antithesis lies elsewhere–between the real and the imaginary, between the spiritual and the material, between the temporal and the eternal; but between the spiritual and the real, never.  The spiritual is real.”

A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p. 54