30 Things

So I stumbled across someones blog via Pinterest and she had put this list together of random questions to ask yourself to record different parts of your personality and I guess you get to know yourself a bit better by default. So, i've decided to jump on the band wagon and give it a go! The aim is to make my way through the list by answering one question a day (hopefully) and be done by the end of November! Feel free to join me - give it a go yourself or maybe you can relate to some of my answers! Either way, this could potentially be quite funny or a disaster...Enjoy!

(My answers will be linked from each question.)

 THE LIST:

 1. List 20 random facts about yourself.

2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how theybecame fears.

3. Describe your relationship with your parents.

4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, ifyou could.

5. What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?

6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?

7. What is your dream job, and why?

8. What are 5 passions you have?

9. List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.

10. Describe your most embarrasing moment.

11. Describe 10 pet peeves you have.

12. Describe a typical day in your current life.

13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.

14. Describe 5 strengths you have.

15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?

17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?

18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had toforgive?

19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?

20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.

21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be andwhat would you do with it first?

22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

23. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.

24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. yourfamily dynamic now.

25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, whowould it be and what would you eat?

26. What popular notion do you think the world has mostwrong?

27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?

28. What is your love language?

29. What do you think people misundertand most about you?

30. List 5 things you would hope to be remembered for.

Footprints.

It seems to me that there are two types of people...there are those who walk along the paths that are already marked out for them and those who take to the fields and create their own paths for others to follow.

It dawned on me today, as we were driving over Caerphilly mountain, that there was once a time when there were no roads, no allocated pathways...just land. Whether that be fields, forests or deserts, it was land untouched and ready to be explored. Paths were created as people walked the same ground over and over and eventually they got turned into roads.

I love it when you walk through a field of long grass and you can see where people have walked before you because the grass has been trodden down... a path had been created. All it took was one person to venture out for others to follow where they could see it was safe. I don't know about you but if I see a trodden down path on a field I naturally gravitate towards it because it's clear that someone has already been that way, which means it's bound to lead somewhere.

 

(If you haven't twigged on already I'm using the paths as a metaphor.)

 

I'm talking about leaders and followers.

There are those who lead the way into new things and those who follow and make the path more permanent. I imagine some of you are already putting yourselves into one of those catagories, which is fine, they're both equally important. But what if I were to say we're all leaders and we're all followers. Every great leader has had to learn what it is to first follow. In following we learn what it is to be humble and to live under authority... There's nothing worse than a proud leader. I believe that it is in all of us to step out of what we already know and lead the way in something new. Whether that be changing a way of thinking or inventing something new. It's in our DNA to seek more than what we already know, to be better than what we already are. The moment we decide we've reached the end of our imaginations we've settled for less than what we have inherited.

 

I admire those people who discovered countries and invented all those things we now take for granted and pushed for an unseen reality and I admire their faithful followers who humbled themselves to someone else's vision.  But if we all remain followers we will eventually reach a dead end. We can't be scared to tread new ground. We can't be scared to make a dream a reality. We can't let fear of man hold us back from breaking the mold.

 

I know Jesus and I know that his plans for me are going to lead me to places and things in which I won't have a path to follow, the path will be made of my foot prints and my hand prints and others will walk in them. If I was doing this on my own it would either be frighting or I would become proud of my own efforts but the wonderful thing about them being Jesus' plans is that he has already set the path ahead of me and he is with me the whole way. He only has good plans for me and trusting in him will take me on all sorts of adventures. See, even in being a leader I am still a follower. If you desire to lead others you must learn to follow and continue to follow by surrendering all of your desires to Jesus to gain his desires. Following Jesus is exciting when you really trust that he has good plans for you and he's not leading you blind into a mine field!

 

So let His desires become your desires and watch where he leads you!  

 

Be still.

"Be still and know that I am God."

[Psalm 46:10]

Sometimes we get so caught up in the whats, hows and whys of Christianity that we forget what really matters.

What needs to change in my life? How do I change this certain area of my life? Why do I feel this way?

I found myself asking these questions in worship the other day. What is stopping me from worshipping freely? How do I change my attitude? Why are my feelings not changing?

I came before God with all my questions, all my burdens, all my uncertainties. He had one question for me...

Do you know who I am?

You see, the whats, hows and whys are secondary to knowing who God is because the more I know who God is the more free I will become in worship. The more I know who God is, the more my attitude will change. The more I know who God is, the easier it will be to live in the Joy of the Lord despite how I may be feeling.

I hope this is coming accross the way it's intended to.

If you're worrying about how something is going to work out or how you're going to get to where you need to be, stop.
           The whats, hows and whys don't matter. All that matters is that everything we do is from an understanding of who God is. It's then that we can really be still and calm the storms around us because if we truely know that He is God, we will never have a reason to worry about anything else.

So not just in the good times, or the days that are less busy, but in everything;

be still and know that I am God.

Vision

These last few days God has been speaking to me about the importance of obtaining a vision. In my last post I wrote about how we need to seek the Kingdom of God first so that what we come across on the way doesn't distract us but instead compels us to keep moving forward.
Since writing it i've started to think about how it can be walked out in my every day life and not just be some far off principle I claim to live by.
In my thinking I've realised that having a vision sets principles, morals and values in my life. If I was without a vision I would settle for anything and everything that came my way, I would give up easily, but having a vision restrains my options to obtain it.

Here's an example to help you understand; say you decide that you want to shed a few pounds. You set yourself a diet plan, you get yourself down the gym. A few days in and you wake up feeling like you've overused every muscle in your body. The only thing that is going to get you back to that gym is the vision of a healthier, skinnier you. Without that vision you will fall straight back into what is comfortable. You'll never get your great body by just not wanting to be fat. It is your vision that gives you the strength to reorder your life to reach your goal.
Vision gives you a standard to live by, vision gives pain a purpose, vision gives you purpose, vision gives you motivation and strength to persevere to do whatever you have to do to get it.


I've been reading a book by Kris Vallotton who says "One of the greatest decisions we have to make concerning our vision is how we envision ourselves." and I couldn't agree more. How we envision ourselves will determine our actions, our reactions, our behaviour and our attitude. I've been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster lately and reading this has challenged me to think about how I see myself because if I had truly decided who I am then my emotions and attitude wouldn't be determind by my situation but instead they would be determind out of who I am. If we lack vision for ourselves then we begin to let others tell us who we are and we will find ourselves being whatever others need us to be and start to rely on them for our strength and self-worth. 

But the great thing is, we have the choice to either live in bondage to our emotions, other people, our physical impulses and our circumstances or we can choose to live as free people because we have set a vision for our lives. We have to choose to take responsibility to know ourselves, to live with intergrity by training ourselves to live in accordance with the vision we have set.

So instead of acting out of how you feel or how others say you should feel, act out of who you envision yourself to be and let your vision for tomorrow determine your decisions today.

Step by step.

Have you ever got to that point where you feel like you're at the cliff edge and the only thing left to do is jump, to take that big step of faith because you don't know the outcome you just know that you can either jump or turn back?

Ever wondered how you can get to that point of trusting God so much that that leap of faith seems like a simple step? Impossible? Hmm.

Take the girl in the picture for example. She didn't just appear at that cliff edge, there was a journey that got her there. She had to take a number of steps before reaching that point where she had to jump.

I'm sure there were parts of her journey where she had lots of people around her, where there were road signs showing her the way, where there were distractions on the side of the road. I'm sure she could have been happy spending more time with those people she met or she could have brought them along with her to see the view at the cliff edge (from a safe distance). Or she could have followed the road signs and stuck to the road. Or she may have even found a great bar or church or bingo club where she could have happily been a local. These are all great if your goal is to have great friends around you all the time or to have control or be comfortable.

However, in the grand scheme of things, it's not enough to just have great friends. Its not enough to know where your life is heading. Its not even enough to strive to be an active member of the community. Eventually, they will all fall short.

This girl had her sight set on the Kingdom. Even in the simple steps of every day life her eyes were fixed on eternity so that when people fell short of her expecations she didn't lose hope, when there was no road sign to follow she didn't worry, and when she got to the edge of the cliff it was an easy step to take because she wasn't looking down to monitor her next step, her eyes were fixed on things above, where Jesus is sat at the right hand of God with all things under His feet. She had learnt to trust in God and seek first His Kingdom in the little steps she took so that when it was time for her to leap it was as natural as taking just another step.

Stop seeking friendships & relationships. Stop seeking a job or successful career. Stop seeking the answers to all of your questions. Don't even seek a happy Christian life.

"Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." [Matthew 6:33] 

We've got it good.

Plan A.

Ok, so if you know me you'll know I would happily watch Will Smith movies all day & I don't think I know anyone who couldn't. We all know him for his acting and slightly less publicised Hip Hop career but it's only today that I saw a bit more of the real Will Smith. You know - the human who doesn't have super powers or have every conversation from a script.

I watched an interview where he shared what he believed to be the secret to his success and I have to admit, I have been inspired. He was driven by the desire to do good and the want for the world to be better because he was here. I would happily quote the whole interview but there were 3 things he said that really stuck out to me and have challenged me to think about how I measure 'success'.

"Being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity. What's the point in being realistic?"

What is the point in being realistic? If everyone were realistic in their ideas and dreams then we wouldn't have moved past the stone age.
Reality can be defined as "That which exists objectively and in fact." and therefore, if we never thought further than reality as we know it then we would never know and step into new realities. For example, what if Thomas Edison had let his daydreams be boxed in by reality? We would still be living by candle light!
Our world is how it is now because people have a natural desire for more. Reality isn't enough. Reality is boring.
Success is only acheived when we acknowledge our reality but we aren't held back by it. We don't have to be defined by our reality because we have the ability to define our reality.

"He who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right."

This statement is so true. So many people don't succeed because they give up trying. You know, if you never give up you're going to succeed eventually.

This is exactly what I mean when I say we can define our realities. The moment you speak something out, it becomes your reality. So if what comes out of your mouth is "I can do this" ,that shapes your reality. If it is "I can't do this", it has the same effect.

A lot of the time we blame our circumstances or situations for our failures but we must come to understand that we aren't ruled by those circumstances but it is infact the choices that we make that decide the outcome.

"Theres a redemptive power that making a choice has, rather than feeling that you're at affect to all the things that are happening around you, make a choice and just decide who you're going to be, what youre going to be, how you're going to do it and the universe will get out of your way."

"There's no reason to have a plan B 'cause it distracts from plan A."

If plan A fulfils your heart desires, gets you excited and pushes you forward, why would you create a plan B? Plan A will only fail if you give up on it. Plan B will only be needed if you choose it. So why waste time planning for something you won't need. Put everything into Plan A! An idea will only become a reality if you work for it. If plan A isn't working, I can only question your commitment to it.

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Now I know there's probably atleast one person reading this thinking 'where's God in all of this?' Well, lets go back to the first quote:

"Being realistic is the most commonly travelled road to mediocrity. What's the point in being realistic?" Well, With God I choose to live in a different reality... a heavenly reality where all things are possible and nothing can hold me back.

Second quote: "He who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right." God tells me I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and therefore to say 'I can't' is to diminish the power of Christ.

Third quote:"There's no reason to have a plan B 'cause it distracts from plan A." My plan A is Jesus. Jesus is the truth and the truth is the only thing that's ever going to be constant. Which is why I am not afraid to give everything I am to Plan A... Success? He's already won it all.

"You cant be scared to die for the truth. The truth is the only thing that's ever going to be constant."

He goes before me.

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8

This week I was reminded of how much God cares for me. I walked into a situation where I was scared of being humilated because my thoughts had run away with me and I was aiming for something that wasn't there, i.e. I doubted my hearts desires and I doubted the promptings of the Holy Spirit. But I took the plunge nonetheless and of course, God proved faithful.

So there I was, ready to be made to look stupid or be disheartened, and then I find out that God had already gone before me to prepare the hearts and minds of the people I was going to see and to confirm with me that the promptings I was following were from Him.

I had a moment where I was just totally blown away at the thought of God speaking to someone about me.
I mean, God has spoken to me about other people to encourage them plenty of times but I've never really thought about it in this way; God cares about me and loves me so much that He would talk to someone else, about ME!... just to confirm what He has already spoken to me.
He doesn't have to do that... but he does it anyway, because He loves us and doesnt want us to be confused or frustrated in the plans He has for us.

I think sometimes we worry about how we are going to see Gods plans for our lives come to pass and we take each step as if it is dependent on us.
But that isn't the case. (Thank you, Lord)
You see, if God tells you to walk from one side of a bridge to the other, I think He'll provide the bridge... Don't you?
If God makes a plan for your life you can rest assured that He will go before you and pave the way and then He will be there for every step of it.

So we should take each step not as if it is dependent on ourselves,
but as if it is dependent on Him,
He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Get lost.

Have you ever been in a situation that, when you're in it, it seems hopeless and completely controversial to what God has promised, yet once you're out of the situation you see that really, God was using it all along to get you to where you are now?

One thing I love about God is that He will take you down any path to get you to where He needs you to be.

These last few days I've had this reoccurring thought... "What if I just walked and got myself completely lost? What an adventure it would be to find my way back again." I kept pushing this thought to the back of my mind thinking nothing of it but then I came across one of these life quote picture things and it gave my weird thought a bit of a meaning.

"Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself."

It's so true that when you're put into the unknown and sometimes the uncomfortable, you discover things about yourself that you never would have discovered had you not gone through it.

I think we sometimes stick to what we know to be comfortable and 'normal' and never explore the rest because we're scared of the weaknesses in us that may show themselves. But Jesus said to Paul "My strength is made perfect in weakness." and then Paul goes on to say that because of this;

"I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong."

We have a magnet on our fridge that says "A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water." Similarly, it is in the unknown, the unfamiliar and in the uncomfortable that we see the strengths and weaknesses in a person. But by Gods grace, we can know strength in our weaknesses because He is our strength.

So why not go and get totally lost, challenge your character, find out who you really are and then let God use every part of that person to bring His Kingdom.

New Years Resolution

So we've successfully made it to the end of the 1st day of 2012... It seems like quite an appropriate time to blog.

Everyone decides to make some kind of New Years resolution around this time and lets be honest, most will power through for a couple of weeks until they have to make some kind of compromise and suddenly that chocolate that you gave up is now sat on your hips.

All jokes aside, the New Year is always a good time to take a step back and take a look at where you've been, where you are now, and where you are heading. Last night, (not to brag or anything) but we really did have the best party ever. When the night was over I could feel my cheeks aching because I couldnt help but smile the whole night!

The place looked great, the food was great, the music was great, the company was fabulous!  & You'd think that was enough to get me excited but the truth is, I've never been as excited as I am now about the potential that this year has.

Up until now, i've lived my life in yearly stages, September to September. Every year has been planned out for me by school planners and programmes but right now I'm learning that I'm not confined to yearly change. Change can come next month, next week, even tomorrow. For some people, this might seem quite scary. I know I like to have everything planned out. I'm one of those people who will happily make a list to plan out my day. So the thought of not knowing what the near or distant future holds could potentially scare me.

However, I can't remember ever being as excited for life as I am now. For me, 2012 holds so many uncertainties, nothing is concrete.  But there is one thing I'm sure of, and that is that I serve a God who is first of all good and has the perfect plan for my life. So I have no reason to be scared, instead I put my full trust in Him who is without limits. That's not to say that I'm going to sit around and wait for something good to come my way.

Proverbs 16:9 says "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Trusting in God for my future doesn't mean I take a back seat and just go along for the ride. God delights in making plans with us. I planned to go to university next September to become a midwife. I didn't get in to any of the Universities I'd hoped to and suddenly the whole career path I had planned seems a million miles away. I should be worried right? Wrong. I made a plan, God's directing my steps.

I still hold on to His promises and the vision He has given me. So I will do what I do best and continue to make my plans and allow God to direct my steps. You see, He loves me so much that He would willingly give me the desires of my heart. He may take me on a journey to get me there but I know that He works all things together for my good and for His glory.

I hope you're starting to understand why I'm just a little excited right now.

Whether I reach my goals the way I expected or not doesn't really matter because I can stand firm on the promises of God that He has a good plan for me that gives me a hope and a future.

So my new years resolution is this;

Not to compromise on the promises of God but to keep moving forward into all that He has for me.

What's yours?