2015

Well... I'm a little late in posting this.  I put it out on Facebook on 12/31/14 and wanted to have it here too.

What an exciting and extraordinary year 2014 was been!!!  During this time of year, I like think back over the previous months, savor all of the blessings and then pray over the upcoming year. How about you? 

For me, the biggest surprise of the year came about 2 weeks after my annual spiritual retreat in October when my life was literally put on a new trajectory….more about that later. For the 2014 retreat, I went back to Cross Ministries in Groom, TX for a day of rest, reflection, study and prayer. (It’s a wonderful place to visit, pray, study and just be with Jesus.)

The replica of the empty tomb at Cross Ministries had a huge impact on me during this visit. I sat in that space for quite some time thinking on Jesus’ resurrection. IF He never came out of that tomb, I would have no peace, no joy, no laughter, no hope, no promise of Heaven….no salvation. Because He lives, I have all of those things and much, much more. Anyways, after a couple hours of study and prayer in the garden area, I felt drawn out to the empty tomb again, so I went back. Resurrection was put on my heart once more and I pondered it prayerfully with Jesus…why was He pressing that word and that concept? Did something need to be resurrected in my life?? What needs to be resurrected Lord? Here is the partial revelation I got that day: In order for a resurrection to occur, something has to die….completely. Something has to be dead and buried…only to be raised up by the Lord in His perfect timing…not yours. Hmmm….

Prior to the retreat, I had been serving a lot at church and had a great feeling of anticipation of change coming, but I had no idea that Jesus would be tapping the brakes on where I thought I was going for the remainder of the year or beyond. I was eager to get the ball rolling as I sat in that empty tomb, however nothing happened, no ideas, etc., so I decided to wait for the “thing” to be revealed at the right time instead worrying about it. The very next weekend, I went to serve at church as I was in the custom of doing and it felt so very “off” to me. After serving for so many months, the drive/desire was completely gone and I felt soooo very tired that day…thoroughly exhausted. The deep peace that I had from the retreat started to slowly slip away and I knew that was something I needed to pay attention to. I reached out to the pastor and let him know that I was going to take a break from serving.

The next Friday, 10/17, on the way into work, the “thing” was put back on my heart…an idea/inspiration from 2003-2004 that was too huge for me to even begin trying to work towards back then…I made some sketches and put them in my art book and put it on the shelf.

Over the course of the next 11 years, Jesus has been filling my toolbox with key experiences, honing talents, and blessing me with new tools that are needed in addition to faith. I never stopped to connect the dots during those years, I just followed Him to the next place He led me to and dove right in and when a season was over, I just moved on to the next stop along the journey. (Here lately, He has also been reminding me of that saying that I’m sure ALL Christians have heard: God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips those whom He has called.) Anyways, a great flood of ideas came that Friday on 10/17…wowzers!! Since that day, I have been taking time to rest from church serving, but I have also been switching gears…making my lists of things to research, people to contact, and things to do & create in the first quarter of 2015. It’s a ton of things…a lot of work, but definitely a labor of love, so at every step, I’m trusting Jesus to lead and provide. I’m so excited and wish I could tell everybody more right now, but I can’t. Perhaps before the 2nd quarter of 2015??? Stay tuned….