So close...

I have been amazed the past few days at the massive rain clouds that have lined up in the horizon around here seeming to shout out promises of rain. We have laid on our backs and identified more shapes in the sky than you can even imagine. We spotted Santa a few days ago lingering in the form of a distant cloud, and even formulated an animal parade that began with a bear and ended with an elephant.

Two nights ago I was outside jumping on the trampoline with the kids. My husband poked his head out of the back door and insisted that we clear the trampoline and come on in. He spotted lightening right over our lake on the front side of our property. We jumped off, ran in, and bragged to each other that we had successfully escaped the big downpour! The clouds we watched for over an hour grew bigger, darker, and looked heavier by the minute. They looked as full as the big bucket of water that dumps out at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. If you have not been there, when the huge bucket begins to rain down cold water on all willing participants standing underneath it, there is no stopping the flow or escaping it until it is empty!

The next morning I asked my Dad for a weather report, including an estimated rainfall reading, because I literally did not hear a thing. As usual, he gave me a quick and witty response by saying "We missed it. The rain went right up the Trinity River and skipped over us. We did not get a drop!"

This whole issue with the rain missing us echoed a thought pattern that has been running through my head. I have had times in my life when the Lord lined up everything and had me ready for my next big adventure in life. An adventure full of purpose and passion that was created just for me. Much like the rain clouds moving on by without doing a thing, I too have moved on by and I let it my dreams die or even forgotten them altogether!

Do anyone know what I mean here? Am I the only one who has let fear, past mistakes, present circumstances, or even a negative word from someone else put my plans on hold when I knew deep within my spirit that God was saying "Let's do this thing!" Whatever your deepest dreams or plans may be, I believe that if we are a new creation in Christ, He places within us a desire that is bigger than anything we can ever accomplish on our own. At some point in our life, and I am grateful that it can happen more than once, everything lines up in our favor and it is our turn to step out in faith and make a something extraordinary out of our ordinary lives with the Lord's help!

Our purposes in life are obviously all very different. Maybe your passion is like mine, and you want to write that story down on paper that has been in your heart for so long and share it with others. Possibly going back to school or enrolling in college for the first time is what takes the top slot on your list of goals. Maybe it is starting a new business, beginning a ministry, or finally following through with an exercise plan to get in the best shape of your life. We are never to old or too young to dream big and begin working on our purpose.

Whatever it is in the way of your greatest dream or dreams, move it! Do not let everything line up, hear the drum roll begin, your name announced, and then let the moment pass by. It would be a waste to let your greatest purpose pass you by because we are all meant to be a blessing to others. What a tragedy that would be to not use your God-given gifts to do something meaningful in this life. When and only when God is involved, ordinary people can do extraordinary things. We may not reach the ends of the earth with our seemingly small dream, but better to start reaching those in our own little corner than to do nothing at all. When we missed the rain last week, it was out of our control, but dreaming big in life when the Lord draws out an idea in our hearts and minds is truly ours for the taking! Don't miss it.

A glance in the right way!

I don't think I would have ever taken this on alone, but along with a group of ready and willing women, I have been studying the book of James. It is full of convicting information to say the least, with no fluff! I just knew the first few weeks that I was going to end up needed a counselor on a full-time basis. At first I felt like an onion that was being peeled back and exposed layer by layer. You see, much of James talks about our "talk." He focuses a great deal on what comes out of our mouths!!! The real source of our "talk" is deep within our hearts. That little ticker that pumps our blood also seems to be the keeper of out deepest feelings and what travels to the brain to form our thoughts. Thoughts often come out in the form of our "talk" or our actions. This chain reaction is all a lot to think about!!!

Speaking of onions and layers, I left Banner last week chopping an onion to go in our taco meat and Brazos chopping one for his hot sauce. When I came back into the kitchen to check on their progress, I saw that they had added accessories. You might be thinking aprons, but guess again. They had on sunglasses. We keep a pile sunglasses in a junk drawer in the kitchen. You can find a pair of old scratched up Dora ones, several XTO safety glasses, and some of my old ones from random dollar stores and Target specials.

When I stopped smiling and laughing out loud at the cute culinary team in my kitchen, I asked them why on earth they had on glasses. They both let me know quickly how painful it was to peel and cut up onions. They had seen me stand at the island in the kitchen crying, but they never had experienced the burn themselves... until now... They thought the glasses might shield them from the pain of the onion. Oh, my children! I thought to myself...yeah, that was me back in June when I began peeling back some of the layers of my heart in the James study. Painful, but necessary to get to where I need to be!

I discovered an amazing, yet simple truth in James this week. James 4:8 says "Come near to God and he will come near to you." This is not a game of hide and seek like I often witness during the heat of the summer in my home when the fun moves inside. The kids love to hide in my closet and it is so full of junk that I worry I may loose them for good. This verse is different than that game because the Lord is not hiding and this life is not a game. If we come near to God, he will come near to us. It is as simple as that! The Lord does not hide. He came to seek and save.

It dawned on me today that the Lord is ready and waiting for us to make the slightest motion in His direction. We don't even have to make a leap, take a big step, or move really at all. We only have to look up in our present situation, whatever it may be, and acknowledge Jesus Christ. It only takes a glance His way for life to begin changing. He has been waiting all along for us to need Him and give up the fight by admitting we do need help. The minute we glance in His direction and say we need Him, He is by our side, ready to help us with anything and everything we need!

How amazing and sweet it is to me that we don't have to do anything more than look His way. In this world, I often feel like everything we do there is a prerequisite or an expectation. The Lord simply asks us to come near! I needed that truth this week. I sometimes find myself living a life based on feelings... feeling this and that, up and down, here and there. My feelings all were settled when I got this new truth! He is near and all it takes is a glance in the direction of the Lord to get back on track.