I came across this song this morning by Kate Voegele on the new soundtrack for Team USA. This is an amazing song. The bridge of this song was what really stood out to me. It said, “Down and out is overrated, I need to be elevated. Looking up is not enough, I would rather  rise above.” It is time for us to not just look up to God for our help and strength but to rise above. It is easier said than done but God will lift us up if we only allow Him too.

This road is anything but simple,

Twisted like a riddle, I’ve seen High and I’ve seen low.

So loud, the voices of all my doubts,

Telling me to give up, to pack up and leave town.

Even so I had to believe, Impossible means nothing to me,

So can you Lift Me Up?

And Turn the ashes into flames,

‘Cause I have overcome more than words will ever say,

And I’ve been given hope that there’s a light on up the hall,

And that a day will come when the fight is won,

And I think that day had just begun.

Somewhere, everybody starts there,

Counting on a small prayer, lost in a nightmare.

And I’m here, and suddenly it’s so clear,

The struggle through the long years,

It taught me to outrun my fears.

And everything that’s worth having,

Comes with trials worth withstanding.

So can you Lift Me Up?

And turn the ashes into flames,

‘Cause I have overcome more than words will ever say,

And I’ve been given hope that there’s a light on up the hall,

And that a day will come when the fight is won,

And I think that day has just begun.

Oh Lift Me Up, Lift Me up, Lift Me Up

Oh Lift Me Up, Llift me up, Lift Me Up, Oh

Down and out is overrated,

I need to be elevated,

Looking up is not enough,

I would rather rise above, Oh , Oh , Oh.

Chorus

Lift Me Up, Lift Me Up, Lift Me Up.

This song hits me between the eyes every time I hear it. There have been times in my life when that is the way that I felt toward God. I felt like He was taking things away from me rather than trying to give me the things that are best for me. For me, just being still is hard. I so identify with “Can i get up now?” God just wants us to be still and know that He is God, but how many times do we try to figure out how we are going to do something. We often spend so much time doing that we just forget to be still. It is when we finally reach the end of ourselves that we can sit back and let God be God. But as the line goes “Living sacrifices move”. The process of becoming who God wants us to be can be painful and it does feel like you are surgery.  While we know that things that He is cutting out of our lives will only bring us closer to Him, it is still hard to give them up. so, i cahllange us all today to just be still and know that HE is God!

Growing up, doing God’s will meant going into full time Christian ministry. I remember when I was 13, I surrendered my life to do whatever God wanted me to do. I didn’t know what exactly that was but the only options I knew about was being a preacher, Christian school teacher, or a missionary. I was eliminated from being a preacher because of my gender. I was terrified to be a missionary. I remember praying for God not to send me to Africa! So, that left being a Christian school teacher and when I was 14, I felt that God was calling me to be a Christian school teacher. By the time I was 16, I knew I wanted to be a coach and teach PE and that is exactly what I set out to do. I graduated from a Christian College with a degree in education. I remember when the doubts about my future began to form. It was my senior year in college and after I did my student teaching, I was not so sure that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, but at that point, I only had 1 semester of school left and it was too late to change my major. I graduated and went to teach in a Christian school in North Carolina. I never felt so lost in all my life. I began to question if that was really what God wanted me to do or if I was doing this because I pressured into it. The advice that I was given was not to quit after my first year and that it would get better. So, I took this advice and moved to a school outside Atlanta. I was there for 3 years and I was miserable just about the whole time I was there. (There is so much more I could write about here but will save it for another post). I finally decided that teaching school was not what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and I chose not to come back the next year. I had no idea what I was going to do and to top that off, I was going through a major crisis in my faith. Long story short, I moved to Charleston, SC and took a job working in a group home for juvenile delinquents. I fell in love with this job and it didn’t take me long to realize what I wanted to do with my life. I then worked at a Outdoor Wilderness Program in Georgia for 3 ½ years and have been working with mentally retarded children with severe emotional and behavioral disorders for 4 years. There have been many ups and downs during these years but I always felt like I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. Many people think that once you think you know God’s will that it doesn’t change, and I have been questioned on several occasions about my decision to step out of teaching. I realized a few years ago that God called me to work with children, not just be a Christian school teacher. Being that was the only thing I had to connect to God’s will that worked with children, it just seemed normal. Sometimes I question whether I will do this for the rest of my life, but I don’t worry about it because God has led me this far and He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the church that I grew up in. It is a very conservative, traditional church. Instead of a band they have a piano, organ, and orchestra. They only sing hymns. It is different from the church that I am in now and so I decided to go into this with an open mind. I love to hear and sing hymns, so the choice of music or even the style didn’t bother me. After all, how can you not be touched by When I Survey The Wondrous Cross. The thing that really struck me was that they sang the hymn so fast. I never had an opportunity to really engage in worship. Thing was, that was how the whole service was. It felt really cluttered with all the “Things” that they tried to fit in. All the announcements and specials and everything else. Although the message was good , I left there feeling like I missed something. I missed engaging in worship. I realize that Pentecostals have been accused of “playing on people’s emotions” by singing the same song over and over again, and indeed that does happen, but now always. In most services that I am in and apart of, It does not take me long to engage in worship. Maybe that is because I have been intentional about my worship all throughout the week. But even with that, it is important that the atmosphere be set to allow people time to engage in worship. It doesn’t mean dragging it out forever and ever, but allowing time for God to move on people’s heart and to change their lives. More and more I am realizing that worship was the key that I was missing in my Christian life. I have realized what a difference it has made in my life. Even on the days when I think I should have never even gotten out of bed, when I worship it doesn’t necessarily make my problems go away, but it gives me the strength to go on and face whatever lies in front of me.

This week our church is hosting a conference that is being led by a church in the Bahamas. For the past 4 years that I have been at this church, they come every July. They take a boat from the Bahamas to Miami and then charter a bus to Jesup, Ga. Last year they brought about 135 people with them and this year they brought about 55. Financial difficulties are hitting everywhere!

Bahamians are some of the most gracious people you will ever meet. They hug you coming in and going out. It doesn’t matter that they don’t know you from Adam’s house cat! They are so genuine in their praise and worship to God. My friend Joey and I watched this guy dance for almost 2 hours. We were trying to pick up some of his dance moves to use on Sunday. We gave up…..after all, this white girl cannot dance! I have tried but it just aint happening. If I auditioned for the tv show “So You Think You Can Dance” they would use my audition as what not to do! I am okay with that though. There are other ways to praise and worship God. I left about 9:00 (the service started at 7:00) the preacher for that night had just come to the platform and he started singing. I have been in services with them and they would go until 11:00. They are not concerned about time and they are not in hurry.

The thing that really stuck with me last night was how awesome it was to be able to worship God with people of a different culture. Here we were blacks, whites, hispanics, all praising and worshiping the same God. We all had different ways of doing it, but that is what makes it so awesome. I realized that this is just a taste of what it will be like when we all get to heaven and get to worship God. None of the things that we place emphasis here on earth will even matter. I realized that it is not about style of worship but the act of worship itself. I can’t wait to go back tonight and experience the presence of God.

“When the storm breaks, each man acts in accordance with his own nature. Some are dumb with terror. Some flee. Some hide, and some spread their wings like eagles and soar on the wind.” (Dr. Dee from the movie Elizabeth.)

This quote really struck me when I heard it. Everyone of us faces storms in life. It is not a matter of if but of when. Everyone reacts differently when we face times of crisis. I agree that most of the time we do act in accordance of our own nature. I think that is why it is so important that we have a strong foundation before the storm hits. Even in our greatest storms we can soar like eagles above the wind. It is when we rise above the storm, can we see who hold us secure in the time of crisis. So, no matter what your storm is, you can only go through it but know that you do not go through it alone.

Last week I had my first experience with Vacation Bible School. The church I went to growing up didn’t do VBS they did a Kid’s Crusade. We had a blast! It was alot of work and we were exhausted at the end of it all but it was worth it! We averaged about 70 kids every night and there were 110 different kids that came at least one night. This is great considering we are not a large church. It was exciting to see the the kids getting excited about God. They got to see adults being crazy and having fun and then being serious when we needed to be about salvation and living for God. We showed them that being a Christian doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. I think some of us had more fun than the kids did! It was exciting to see new Christians in our church getting involved and being apart of these kid’s lives. On Sunday night we did a finale and we had a good number of parents and grandparents that came with their kids who do not go to our church. This was a great evangelism tool. I am so blessed to be able to be apart of something like this. We may never know the impact that this may have had on children and if only one child was brought into the Kingdom of God then all that was worth it! We laughed, we cried, we danced, we worshiped, we prayed and we gave all the glory to God for the work that He did through us!

Well, since it is almost Father’s Day, I thought that it was only fitting that I should write about my dad. My dad is definitely his own man. He loves golf, NC State football, his family and God(but not necessarily in that order!). I joke with him that when he gets old all we have to do is put him in a recliner in front of his big screen plasma tv and as long as he can watch Fox News, ESPN, and the Golf Channel he will be happy. My dad loved his kids but hated recitals and there were many over the years. Piano, trumpet, clarinet, voice, band,and choir recitals. He would stay long enough for my brother and I to do our thing and then he would leave,but at least he came. Even to what he called our “Salvation Army Band” recitals. I got my sense of humor from my dad. My dad’s way of showing affection is to pick on you. I guess I should be scarred for life but I knew that was my dad and I knew that he loved me. Last Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law and I were picking on my dad and he got irritated at us. I looked across the table at him and said, “You can’t get mad at me, I am my father’s daughter!” He laughed and told me I was right. We call him the “Gadget and Gizmo Guy”. If there is an electronic device, he has it. He had a GPS before most everybody else did. He even has a GPS for golf courses!

If there is one major lesson that I have learned from my dad, it is you are never too old to do God’s will. He lost his job after 25 years of working with the same company. While he was out of a job, I never saw him panic. He knew that God was going to take care of it. He began to feel that God wanted him to work at the church that they went too. My mom had been teaching at the Christian school for years. It turned out, that they needed a business manager and my dad was hired. He still works there. Both of my parents have been an example of faithfulness to God, and to their family.

I am sure that we have all met people who seemed to have everything together. They seemed to have the perfect job, house, kids, marriage, etc. How many of these “perfect” people have you gotten to know and realized they are just like everybody else, barely holding it all together. I often think it must be tough to have to walk around being the picture of perfection. These are often the people who have the nervous breakdowns. They cannot keep up the facade. I feel that is often what happens to burn people out in the ministry. They just cant be perfect all the time. The truth is, everyone one of us comes with our fears, insecurities, compulsions, and baggage. I think the difference is what we do with them. Often people do not feel like they can make themselves vunerable to other people for fear of rejection or people gossiping about them, so they plant on the smile and go on about their day. I have long accepted that I am not perfect and never will be. I have accepted my weaknesses and my prayer is that God will use these to help someone else. It is such a freeing experience to be rid of other peoples expectations. The only person I am living for is God. The song “Perfect People” byNatalie Grant off her new album Relentless hit home with me the first time I heard it. The chorus especially. There’s no such thing as perfect people, there’s no such thing as the perfect life. So come as you are, broken and scarred, lift up your heart be amazed, be changed by a perfect God.”

Never let ‘em see you when you’re breaking
Never let ‘em see you when you fall
That’s how we live and that’s how we try
Tell the world you’ve got it all together
Never let them see what’s underneath
Cover it up with a crooked smile
But it only lasts for a little while

[CHORUS:]
There’s no such thing as perfect people
There’s no such thing as a perfect life
So come as you are, broken and scared
Lift up your heart and be amazed
And be changed by a perfect God

Suddenly it’s like a weight is lifted
When you hear the words that you are loved
He knows where you are and where you’ve been
And you never have to go there again

[CHORUS]

Who lived and died to give new life
To heal our imperfections
So look up and see out let grace be enough

I just about wrecked my car this morning when I saw that gas was now $4.09 in the city where I lived. My first reaction was to panic after all I drive about 80-100 miles a day back and forth to work and other places that I need to go. I have cut back everywhere I can cut back short of eating Ramen noodles every meal. My second response was to try and devise a plan to fix this. Maybe I could convince my job to let me work 4 days a week. Then I came back to my senses and realized that although it feels like a crisis to me, it is not a crisis to God. After all, He owns it all. Then a song that I had learned as a child came to my mind. It took me a minute to remember all the words after all it has been over 25 years since I sang the song. The song was “He Owns The Cattle on A Thousand Hills”.

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills,
The wealth in every mine;
He owns the rivers and the rocks and rills,
The sun and stars that shine.
Wonderful riches, more than tongue can tell -
He is my Father so they’re mine as well;
He owns the cattle on a thousand hills -
I know that He will care for me.

I had turned my radio down so I could recall the words and when I turned it back up, the next song on my shuffle was “He’ll Make a Way” by Clint Brown

If I trust the Lord, He’ll make a way for me

For I know in Him I got the victory.

He will provide, He will supply

If I trust and obey, He’ll make a way.

I realized that this situation is totally out of my control and I just have to trust the Lord to take care of it. He said that He would supply all our needs according to His riches in glory.