One Question Friday

Every Friday I’m going to ask a question. The questions I choose might be ambiguous on purpose. The goal is to have you answer the question according to your beliefs, where you’re at in life or a circumstance that might have recently impacted you. The only thing I ask is that you provide an explanation for why you answered the way you did.

It is my hope to understand you better through this and also to gain a greater understanding of humanity and how people make decisions.

Question:

Verbatim or Loose Interpretation?

*photos by flickr

Becoming More By Lisa Terkeurst

Let me tell you about how God opened my eyes and my heart today…

Yesterday I prepared to write a book review for Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa Terkeurst (president of Proverbs 31 Woman Ministries). Whenever I get ready to write a book review, I like to do a little digging around the internet to see what I can find about the author. After reading just the first chapter I became a blog follower of Lysa’s. Her relational writing style, coupled with her genuine, wisdom-filled encouragement made me excited to read the rest of the book. I love the way she transparently reveals her own life story in the pages, while sharing lessons she’s learned along the way. It was one of those books, where as I read it, I found myself nodding, exclaiming the words, “Yes” and “Amen” out loud and pictured sitting next to this woman at a coffee shop laughing my head off. As far as spiritual direction and vision is concerned, Lysa Terkeurst has got it going on.

Her stories are saturated with wit and applicable godly counsel of how to live a most fulfilling life in Christ. One example: Lysa challenges when you find yourself asking the why questions about the hardship you’re enduring, try to rework the question into a more useful, “What am I supposed to do with it?” Another memorable analogy, related to this blog in fact, is when Lysa compares our brain (thought life) to a dryer lint filter. She suggests that we are wise to gauge whether or not we allow our minds to be cluttered with dangerous thoughts, making the connection to a full lint filter causing a potential fire in the home.

***The book is a must buy!

But I haven’t even shared the coolest part with you yet…

Back to my digging around about the author…I already follow Lysa’s blog, but I decided to watch a little TV on the computer because I’ve altogether stopped watching it during the day anymore. I happened upon the recent clip Oprah showed recapping some of her favorite families from past shows; Lysa’s family being one, due to the way they obeyed God by adopting Liberian orphans. A chill rushed through me. You see, two years ago I was nursing my infant and me and TV got along really well then. I’d seen the Oprah about Lysa and dozens of her friends adopting Liberian orphans. I remember being moved to tears, thinking to myself, Now that is what living out your faith looks like.

Fast forward two years. I write. I write a lot. I write novels, devotionals, how to articles, short stories, essays, and I blog a ton (as you well know). I also write book reviews. I never made the connection, as I read Lysa’s book that I was reading about the same woman who made me cry tears of joy after seeing her on Oprah. There is one section of Becoming More where Lysa indicates that God speaks to us when we open ourselves up to paying attention. I’m willing to claim without a shadow of doubt, I was meant to read this book. It was not a coincidence I cried when I saw Lysa on TV two years ago and not a coincidence I cried after reading just the first few pages of her book. God has used her to inspire me and I hope so much that you will also be blessed and inspired by her story. God has great things He wants to do in your life...in my life. Hold on. This is one ride you’ll never forget!

***It was an honor to review this book for Zondervan.

Last Meal

Not long ago, on the show Top Chef, I saw competing chefs cook what was called, a “Last Meal” for connoisseurs of the culinary craft. Each one of the skilled food gurus chose which foods they’d like to eat just before kicking the bucket. I thought I’d play with that morbid, but interesting idea a bit today.

My last meal:
Grilled salmon, with a brown sugar and butter glaze
A whole loaf of fresh baked bread (hey, it’s my last meal; I’ll nosh if I want to nosh)
A bowl filled with fresh raspberries
A vine ripe tomato
To drink: Prosecco
And for dessert: Chocolate! (not cake though, I’m not a huge cake fan)

Nice and simple, right? Although I certainly like an expertly marinated steak (I'm aware fine meat doesn't need any marinating) from time to time, what I’ve listed above would satisfy.

What would you want to eat for your last meal?

*photos by flickr

Styrofoam Ball

Warning: This post is not green. It might not be green, but it’s full of life.

Is your brain a Styrofoam ball? Stay with me…when you read blog posts, do you skim by them or do the things you read stick with you? I wrote an article for Exemplify about how to retain what we read and it got me thinking. I read so much during the day. At one time I can be reading as many as six books. In addition to that, I read magazine articles, dozens of blog posts per day and my share of school updates.

So what sticks?

I love how a Styrofoam ball in its original form is a white fresh clean slate. It’s filled with such potential to create. And what creating occurred in the pictures I posted?! When I first imagined this post, I envisioned a bunch of pencils protruding from a ball. These pictures feed my analogy much better.

My question is simple, not only do you retain what you read, but does it influence you? This happens often for me when I’m reading beautiful prose or descriptions in a novel. It stirs my desire to work harder to invent sentences like that. Also, I’m reading Lysa Terkeurst’s, Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl and it’s impacting the way I think. After fighting with my husband the other day, the last thing I felt like doing was praising God, something Lysa encourages to do in times like this, and it was her encouragement that led me to do just that. It helped.

Finally, my initial vision of protruding pencils comes in handy for this question: Are you just shoving pencils into your brain or are you discerning with what you read, causing your mind to be decorated like these balls, with their flowers and genius designs?

Anything sticking to you right now?

*photos by flickr

What Are You Building?

A friend and I were talking the other day and she springs this one on me, “Most people are busy building their own kingdom or God’s kingdom.”

She wasn’t quoting the well-known verse, “You’re either for me or against me” but she might as well have been.

Did you know bricklayers often start off learning their trade in an apprenticeship? What word do you typically think of when you hear apprentice? Okay, not Merlin. Not what I was going for, you Monday morning mind. Learning…Studying. I was hoping you’d guess one of these. What’s my point? We learn to build a kingdom for either ourselves or for God. Who are you paying attention to and studying? Because we are building, it’s just a matter of whether or not the towers are idolatrous selfish creations or if they reach for the heavens, pointing to God.

~~~It’s so easy to brush this off, easy to say, I’m not doing anything blatant; spending hoards of cash, or touting myself every opportunity I get. But building our own kingdom can look so diverse and wear such a pretty and innocent mask. In church yesterday God whispered one of the ways I attempt to build my own kingdom. I seek validation. I love validation. Sometimes I even adore validation. I. I. I.

And what verse did our pastor direct us to after God lovingly convicted me of my own kingdom-building idol…

“Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what
account is he?” Isaiah 2:22

I find it worthy to invest time learning about and studying the One whose kingdom will never perish. I’d be wise to dedicate my gifts and efforts working to build His kingdom and I may not get any validation on the way. In fact, I hope I become so focused on building the layers up that the only validation I seek comes from God.

“Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.” Psalms 45:6

*photos by flickr

**I'm over at Live Beautiful later today

One Question Friday

Every Friday I’m going to ask a question. The questions I choose might be ambiguous on purpose. The goal is to have you answer the question according to your beliefs, where you’re at in life or a circumstance that might have recently impacted you. The only thing I ask is that you provide an explanation for why you answered the way you did.

It is my hope to understand you better through this and also to gain a greater understanding of humanity and how people make decisions.

At the risk of resembling a line from Hair or reverting back to childhood:

Sunshine or Starshine?

*Head on over to 5 Minutes for Faith to read about Thinking it Through
**Since my post went live at a weird time yesterday, I wanted to let you know I have an article at Sage Ministries.
***photos by flickr

Give It A Name

Check out this time-lapsed video of a storm. It's less than a minute and I've decided it needs a name. As I watched it I exclaimed about ten different praises that could work.




What would you name it?

I'm fairly certain this post isn't showing up on Blogger radar, but that's okay because it gave me an excuse to come back to include a link to an article I wrote for Sage Girls Ministry that's live today.

*thanks to YouTube for the video