Good posture

Posture is important, very important. How you stand, place your shoulders and align your spine can impact your entire body. Rounded shoulders are more than just an unflattering way to stand. A curved spine affects more than just the lower lumbar. Bad posture can cause some real heartache for the nerves, blood vesicles, digestive system, discs and even the mood. Yes, poor posture can lead to depression. Did you know that not sitting up straight enough could actually be hindering your brain's ability to be energetic and positive? Even your cheerfulness could be compromised because your posture is all out of whack!
It's crazy but true, your mood and your outlook on life are impacted by how you carry yourself and your body's posture. Lay around like a slouch on the couch and you increase your risk of having your attitude fall into the same lazy, languid state. Walk around with rounded shoulders and a downcast gaze and don't be surprised if your spirit starts to wane while depression sets in.
But, take heart, there is good news. Posture can be corrected. When you stand up tall, place your shoulders back, fix your eyes forward and maintain a straight spine your mood will fall in line, too. Your energy will increase. You may find that you have a renewed pep in your step. All because you're standing up just a bit straighter.
There is no denying the power of the body's posture.
But I believe there is a posture even more powerful - and infinitely more important - than our physical posture. That is our prayer posture. I'm not talking about how you place your body while talking to God - standing, sitting, kneeling, or dancing. I will leave that posture up to you - although I will recommend that you keep your spine in alignment during prayer. (Your chiropractic bills will thank you.)
The posture I'm concerned with is the posture of the heart. Is your heart (and mine) in a constant position of prayer? Are we carrying our spirit in such a way that we are in perpetual and continual communion with God on an intimate and personal level? What is the stance - the posture - of our hearts?
The question is one worth asking today and everyday: how is my prayer posture?
The most powerful and important posture is our prayer posture. Our prayer life is our direct line to God, the Almighty King of Kings. When our posture on prayer is out of alignment the rest of our life will be off whack.
The Bible makes it clear that prayer is critically important. It impacts ever facet of our life and without it we will suffer. I suppose that's why the Bible talks so much about prayer. Here are just a few examples: 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to, "pray without ceasing." Colossians 4:2 says to, "continue in prayer..." In Luke 18:1 Jesus taught His disciples to, "pray and not give up."
The Bible and the teaching of the Lord Himself define what our posture should be. They give us the diagram for proper prayer alignment. Prayer should be continual, steadfast, never ending and hopeful. If you and I let our prayer lives become couch potatoes then our mood, spirit and entire life will suffer as a result. Prayer is that powerful. Prayer changes things. Prayer changes people and transforms hearts. Most importantly, you and I are directed by God to pray and keep praying.
So remember to stand up strong with our spine in line with God, eyes fixed on Him and heart in tune to His spirit. Once you check your prayer posture and realign your heart you just might find that the rest of your life will follow. Your mood, your attitude, your joy. Yes, even the pep in your step. It all starts with your prayer posture. So be sure to check yours today.

Happily Ever After

It's time to be honest...brutally honest.
Lucky for you (or maybe not so lucky), brutal honesty is one of my strong suits. Well, at least that's what a ninth grade teacher told me. He said I was, "...brutally honest and although that was good it might get me in trouble someday."
I hope today isn't that day because I'm about to indulge my brutally honest inner self and reveal to you the difficulties, struggles and, thankfully, triumphs of my recent days.

My ex-finance is getting married...today. (And yes I'm aware that he very well could stumble upon this post someday. I'll take that chance.)
He's getting married today to a girl who seems to be a wonderful match for him. Honestly, I'm happy for both of them. Those aren't just empty words. I mean them. I want him to be happy. He is not a bad guy. He just isn't the right guy for me and , if we had married, it would have been a struggle. I couldn't see that when I said, "yes" to a marriage proposal on the beach but I can see that now. We might have stuck out a marriage for the sake of keeping a vow but I don't think it would have been the union we were hoping for.
Since our breakup my ex-fiance found another girl to date, fall in love with, propose to and now, today, marry. From what I can tell the woman he is about to marry is much better suited to him then I could have ever been. The pictures of them playing paintball together are proof. I was never going to be playing paintball. Bless the woman who does, but it just isn't for me. Thankfully for Mr. Ex, he found the woman who would dawn heavy, combat style gear with him and shoot balls of multi-colored paint in the woods. Till death do them part.
So you see, I understand and recongnize that entering into a marriage with my ex would not have been in my best interest - or his. Or his new bride's for that matter. They were meant for each other. We, on the other hand, were not.
So today should be no big deal, right? He's marrying the right woman. I was spared from a difficult marriage and possible legal proceedings.
Today should be easy. But it's not. And here's why: I'm still alone.
Oh come on, you had to have known that was coming, right? My lonely laments have given away the pleading of my heart. I want a companion! I want someone to want to get to know me! I want it so badly that it is my number one personal request prayer to God. It is borderline (or not so on the border) begging. Send me someone...please! And soon!

It has been so long since I've had a single male interest in me that I've begun to believe that there simply is no "right guy" for me out there. In fact, I'm starting to believe there is not even a single date or casual get together out there for me. My loneliness feels perpetual and, at times, hopelessly permanent.
On days like today the sting of being alone is extra excruciating. I want to be genuinely joyful for the blessing of companionship that others are feeling but my happy thoughts are stuck under a cloud of my own singleness. My desire to have what they have - albeit with someone else - keeps me from fully entering into a state of joy on their behalf.
Deep inside me there is a twinge of resentment and jealousy that I know is straight form the pit of hell. I don't want to give in to its dangerous, lustful trap yet I have tripped again and let my wandering eye take control. As a result my heart has grown discontent and my joy has tanked.

The internal struggle to break free from this lust and sin was raging inside of me this morning in the pitch black, early hours of the day. I was losing my battle until the sun started to come up.
There, right outside of my kitchen window, I saw a pink sky begin to creep up above the rooftops in my neighborhood. It was a brilliant pink unlike any I've seen before. There was no yellow or orange or blue. It was a pure pink sky as far as my eye could see.
Suddenly I was overcome with the brillance of God and His creation. Not only His creation of nature but His creation of me and my life and even my circumstances. They are not an accident, they are beautifully created by the artistic hand of God. He paints the sky with the same care and eye as He designs my life.
If He can make the sky so beautiful why couldn't He do the same with my life?
The truth is, He is doing something beautiful with my life. Right now the canvas He's painting with my days hasn't included marriage or companionship. Maybe it never will. But my life doesn't need an "I do" or a dinner date to be something beautiful. Beauty can come in all different colors and patterns - some include matrimony and others do not. What is important is who creates the design. If God is the one painting the canvas and stitching together the fabric of my life then it is indeed going to be brilliantly beautiful.

This morning I hope that my ex-fiance's bride woke up and caught a glimpse of a beautiful sunrise. Because the beauty of life is for her, too, and I want a blessed, blissful marriage for her and her new husband.
So, in case he or she ever come across this post I hope they know this: My prayers for a blessed union and lifelong friendship go out to them. I genuinely hope that the journey they travel together is one of peace, joy and an abundance of Christ-like love. Happy wedding day... and live happily ever after!

Goodye Worry Wart

I can't stand the term "worry wart." It makes me think of podiatrists and foot ointment. Yuck. As much as I detest the term I think I detest the character trait that accompanies it with even more passion. A worry wart is "person who tends to dwell unduly on difficulty or troubles."
Again, I say yuck.
Who in the world wants to be in the company of a worry wart? They are downers. Fun-suckers (a little Lindsey Lohan reference for those of you who think I just came up with a new term). Worry warts look at life in shades of grey, more grey and black. There is no light. There is no hope. There are no blue skies and butterflies. The cup is always half empty and the forecasters prediction for 10% chance of rain may as well be 100%. They don't see a silver lining or a light at the end of a tunnel. All they see is gloom, doom and massive amounts of worry.
So what does a worry wart worry about? The question should really be what do they not worry about? Relationships, illness, finances, the weather, the dog, dust... if you can imagine a possible concern the worry wart will be able to dwell on it and become all consumed by it.
It is easy to point to the characteristics of a worry wart and see the flaws in their ways. They are overly negative and pessimistic. They lack a rest and peace. Instead they are wrought with concern and emotional instability, letting the "what ifs" of life control their thought life and outlook.
Yet, despite all that I see wrong with the worry wart, I myself fall into the same troublesome trap. I, too, focus too much on the negative, on what I don't have, on what tomorrow will or will not bring. And I worry about it. I worry so much that today's joy gets sapped right out of my spirit. I step into the shadowy company of a worry wart, pull up a chair and get comfortable.
There is a reason the characteristics of a persistent worrier has such an unappealing name - the characteristics of a persistent worrier in and of themselves are unappealing. Both to man and God. In fact Jesus was so against worry that He spoke against it directly and with crystal clear clarity. In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus said,

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Worrying isn't just wrong because it sucks the fun out of a room. It is wrong because Jesus says so! There are many examples of Jesus speaking in parables and stories but this isn't one of them. He came right out and dealt with the matter of worry plainly and concisely so that not one person would miss this important command: do not worry.

Corrie ten Boom, a survivor of Nazi Germany who hid Jews in her home during World War two, said this about worry: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”If there is anyone you can trust (apart from Jesus) on the matter of worry then it would be Corrie ten Boom.
Hiding Jews in Nazi Germany was punishable by death. She faced the possibility of torture in a concentration camp if her acts of disobedience to the Nazi's would have been discovered. She had to feed the hideouts in her home along with her family during a time period when food was scarce and a rise in food coming into her home could have set off suspensions to the authorities. She could have worried about all of these things and more. Needless to say she had countless reasons to be a worry wart. But instead she trusted God. Corrie ten Boom lived according to Matthew 6:25-34.

There is simply no question that worry is unattractive. God doesn't like it. Your friends won't appreciate it. And the name you'll earn for your worrying personality won't be appealing, either. There truly is not a single redeeming quality to worrying.
So why waste another moment worrying? Cast your worries upon the Lord and let Him handle them. He'll do a much better job. After all, all the worry in the world won't change a thing. But God can. God can change everything. Let Him have you worry and let Him have your praise. He commands us to give Him both and in return our burden will be light, our hearts will be at rest and our name won't be one with the word "wart" attached to it.
Can I get an amen?

Heed the call

Five years to the day. One thousand eight hundred and twenty five days. Forty three thousand eight hundred hours. Two million six hundred twenty eight thousand seconds.
It was on November 2, 2009 that I surrendered my life to Christ. I didn't wake up on that morning anticipating a dramatic life change or conversion experience. It was just a Monday and who expects anything earth shaking to happen on a Monday?
November 2, 2009 was anything but a boring, mundane Monday. In fact, it is the most extraordinary and miraculous of days I have yet to experience in my life. It all started with the haphazard decision to open a book. I had purchased the Oswald Chambers devotional book a week or so earlier while vising Parkside Church but I had yet to open it. At the time of purchase (and on the morning of November 2, 2009) I was living in an out-and-out state of rebellion against God and my parents. I don't know what possessed me to buy that devotional in the first place given the state of my spiritual life but something, or someone, planted in me a seed that took that book to the checkout line in my hands. From there it traveled back to college with me where it would stay in its bag until that fateful Monday morning.
For some reason that I will never know I decided to open that devotional on that particular Monday morning. And in it I found God's call on my life: complete surrender. I finished reading the day's short devotional and immediately committed my life to Christ. I asked for forgiveness for my rebellion and ugly sin. Then I decided to obediently follow wherever God would lead.
Since that day I haven't been perfect, trust me on that! I've made mistakes, had setbacks and been angry with God for allowing hardship to befall my life. But God has always forgiven me. Even when I've ignored Him for days on end He has always taken me back.

My road of obedience all began with that one simple decision to open a book. I still don't know what possessed me to open it or why I choose November 2. I look back on that day now and I can see that it was the hand of God guiding me to the words He had destined for me on that particular day. He stirred my heart, my hears perked up, I listened and the course of my life was forever changed.
Dear Reader, if God calls, listen. If He tugs on your heart, pay attention. If He sends you a word, read it. You never know how that one little decision to follow God in the small, seemingly insignificant details of life may impact the entire course of your future.
On November 2, 2009 I thought I was just reading a few paragraphs in a book. Little did I know I was about to be reborn. And it all happened with a single decision to repent, surrender and follow Jesus.
All it takes is one single decision for you, too. Heed the call. Make the decision.

You've Got God

I like You've Got Mail.Wait, did I say like? Let me correct myself.
I love You've Got Mail.
I've always loved that movie since the first time I laid eyes on the opening credits. You remember them, don't you? The computer mouse clicks into different boxes as the music strolls the viewer down a Manhattan street right up to the front door of Kathleen Kelly's brownstone apartment. The leaves, the sounds, the jazzy music, New York City - What is there not to love about You've Got Mail?
The answer: nothing. It is the perfect movie. (This is not up for debate).
And if you thought New York in the fall with Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks and a love story involving book stores wasn't good enough then you have forgotten about George, Kathleen Kelly's aloof employee at the Shop Around the Corner. His hair is long, his expression is one of a pathetic downtrodden bachelor whose only hope in life and love is meeting a poet loving, yogi at an interpretive reading while they both sip on their chai tea at the locally owned coffee shop. He is a bit depressing but completely endearing. I challenge a woman on earth to walk away from watching You've Got Mail saying anything other than, "Aw, poor George." We all love George. Do you want to know why? Because we all have a little George in us.
George symbolizes the rejected. He's the guy at prom standing against the wall, cute in a little boy kind of way but too dorky to get a date. George is the nice guy that we all fear might finish last. Most notably, George speaks to that part of each of us that is lonely and given up the search for real true romance and lasting love. Failure and repeated rejection has left us, the Georges of the world, exhausted from the let downs and dashed hopes.
I love George because I get George. In so many ways I am George. I've experienced rejection from all sides, all directions and all modes of communication. If you can name a way to get rejected then chances are I've experienced.
And George probably has, too.
I know I'm not alone in my plight. This problem is so prevalent that movies have whole characters devoted to voicing the pains of the rejected. Nora Ephron knew that movie goers would understand the loneliness of a romantically rejected children's book store worker, so she created George - a man whose primary role in a two hour film is to be a sad sack. And why he is a sad sack? Because he has been rejected. Over and over and over again. He doesn't even use the internet anymore because as he says it's, "just another way of being rejected by women." Poor George.

Sometimes I'm tempted to be a sad sack just like George because I'm alone and because I've experienced rejection from all angles and every avenue - including the internet. George was spot on when he deemed the World Wide Web as just another source of romantic rejection. When I relive my own rebuffs from the internet world, telephone world and face-to-face world I slowly slip into a depressive funk.
Rejection isn't fun. It isn't enjoyable. Rejection leaves the rejected wondering what in the world is wrong with them. I know because those very words have haunted my thought life on the heels of rejection.
If I replay those past experiences I get down. And I stay down.
Until I get back to the Bible. It is in the Bible that I find the truth about rejection. And what is the truth about rejection? Is a to be expected. Woah! Try telling George that.
John 15:18 says, "If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you."
Before you and I were, Jesus was. And when He walked this earth He was hated and rejected. As the Bible says, His own didn't even receive Him (John 1:11). Talk about rejection!
So it would follow that if you and I are in Christ we will not be received, either. We will actually be hated. Enter massive rejected. We will come to the people we think should be our own and they won't accept us into the fold. We will be outcasts. We will be rebuffed. We will be the lonesome soul standing against the wall at prom, so to speak.
And all of this is to be expected because Jesus endured it first. He went through this same rejection (and worse) and knows the feelings of loneliness we face as a result. The road of rejection that you, George and I walk is one that Jesus has already walked. He came and faced our rejection and, as the Bible teaches, overcame it.
In the end rejection couldn't keep Jesus in a grave and it couldn't separate Him from the love of God. Rejection wasn't fun for Him. Being nailed to a cross is anything but pleasant. But even that most torturous of rejection wasn't capable of separating Jesus from God. And that is what matters most: being one with God.

You may be feeling like George and I today, totally rejected and completely depressed. George and I understand your emotions and we sympathize. Most importantly, Jesus sympathizes, He relates and He understands. Bring to Him your hurt and your lonely burden and let Him fill you with His love. When you and I come before our God broken and rejected He is faithful to fill us with His compassion and companionship. He will accept us and love us just the way we are. The world is going to hate us, you can count on that but God loves us more than we will ever know and more than we can comprehend. So come to Him and let His free gift of acceptance lift you from the downtrodden state of a sad sack and into a state of overwhelming joy.

Every morning

I wake up every morning in a bed by myself. Well, not exactly by myself. Pippy is there. Every night she curls up at the foot of my bed and immediately falls asleep. I never thought I'd be sharing a bed with a dog. I was always one of those "dogs stay on the floor" kind of people. That is until I met Pippy. She entered my life and all of my rules about dogs flew out the window. Dogs riding in the car to run errands? Yes. Pippy does that almost daily. Dogs on vacation? Of course! Don't dogs deserve a break, too?And dogs wearing raincoats? Duh, if its raining!
As you can tell, Pippy changed my perspective on a dog's place on the family tree. And she changed my sleeping arrangements. I went from sleeping solo to feeling out-of-place if my bed isn't filled with my furry friend.
As usual, this morning when I woke up Pippy was there, right where she always is, but still I felt all alone. My mind started wandering to marriage and life-long companionship - male companionship. Don't get me wrong, I love Pippy and our sleeping arrangement but sometimes, many times as of late, I have been wanting to add to the arrangement. I've been longing for a husband.
It was still pitch black outside my window as my longing once again set in. God promises to give His obedient children the desires of their heart. Well, this is the desire of my heart but it feels like a million miles away from my reality. There is no prospect of a companion in sight. I survey my life and I don't even see a glimmer or a spark of any possibility for a mate in the future. As I laid there this morning thinking on my singleness and my husband-free bed I began to mourn the marriage I've never had and lament what I deem a grim future in the matrimony department.
And then God shook me. Well, not literally but internally. It dawned on me that I was already in the presence of all the companionship I'll ever need. And I'm not just talking about Pippy.
Every morning I wake up in the arms of Jesus. I may not be able to see them but that doesn't mean they aren't there. I may not be able to feel them but that doesn't mean they aren't holding on to me. Jesus has promised to never leave me. He made a vow, a commitment with the shedding of His blood. And He hasn't abandoned that promise. He is my constant companion all day, every day...even in the wee hours of the morning.

As I laid in my bed longing to be held my a man I could call my husband I was reminded that I was already in the arms of my most faithful lover of my soul. In the midst of my lament a scripture came to mind, a message of comfort in my time of need. I couldn't place it to a reference but I knew the words by heart, "The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning." 

It wasn't until I got out of bed and found that scripture in the Bible that the irony of it hit me. Lamentations 3:22-23. 

In the midst of my lament Jesus reminded me that He is enough to quiet my discontented heart. His arms are big enough, strong enough, faithful enough and loving enough to hold me every morning for the rest of my days. The union I share with Him is the only union I'll ever truly need and it is more than enough to satisfy my soul.

My lament of the morning has given way to praise for the privilege of waking up next to Jesus. Who am I that He should love me so much that He would keep me company every night and wake up ready to comfort me every morning? And who am I that He should have given me such a faithful little furry friend to keep my feet warm and toasty even on the chilliest of mornings? 

I am blessed. I am overwhelmingly blessed by the steadfast devotion of my Savior, the Lord of Lord and King of Kings, the One I wake up with every morning.

A consuming fire

In 79 AD Mount Vesuvius erupted. Volcanos had erupted prior to that fateful day and they have certainly erupted since but there is no more infamous and devestating volcano in recorded history than the eruption of Vesuvius. That volcano leveled cities and buried them in ash. It demolished towns and obliterated whole populations of people. Molten rock, stones and ashfall laid waste to the land it attacked and stole the lives of the unsuspecting inhabitants below.
The story of Vesuvius is well known and often taught in grade school. If you recall the lesson from your days spent starting at a chalk board then you probably remember that Pompeii was the most notable of cities destroyed by Vesuvius. For most people that it as much as they will ever know about Pompeii. It was in Italy and it was destroyed by a volcano. But there is more to the story of Pompeii.
The town of Pompeii was established at the foot of a volcano, not the greatest of locals but apparently that didn't raise alarm bells for the inhabitants because they built up a thriving port city. In 89 BC they were annexed from Roman rule and that is when things really started boombing. They revamped their infrastructure, built temples, grew their economy and added to their population. Suffice it to say, Pompeii was popping.
But then strange things started happening: earthquakes. It started in 62 AD with minor quakes and then in 79 AD the world as Pompeii knew it erupted. Vesuvius woke up and consumed the whole town below in a show of volcanic force that has yet to be duplicated.
What makes the eruption of Vesuvius even more chilling then utter death and destruction is what was taking place right before it erupted. Just the day before it came to its fateful end, the town of Pompeii had been celebrating "Vulcanalia," the festival devoted to the god of fire.
It is presumptious to say that because the citizens of Pompeii worshiped a "god of fire," the true God reigned down on them with all the fiery fury in His power. I won't pretend to know the mind of God. But there is a lesson in the life and tragic death of Pompeii. It is the lesson of being consumed.
No matter who you are or what time period you live in there will always be a temptation to become consumed with false gods. The false god doesn't always fall into the category of a bronze statue or angry volcano. Sometimes the false gods are money, relationships, material possessions or even something as seemingly good as compaionship. When put on a pedistal and fixated upon those things become all consuming and, in turn, all destroying.
There is only one thing that is to consume us and that is God himself. As Hebrews 12:29 says, "our God is a consuming fire." In Deuteronomy it says that our God is a jealous God, wanting to consume us. He doesn't want idols, fixations, money or any earthly desire to consume us. Those are all false gods that will only destroy us in the end. But when you and I are consumed by God we are not headed for a firey end. We are consumed by the God of love who will take us up to Heaven when our time on earth is done. We have the privilage of being consumed by the God of the universe who knows every detail of our past and has every second of our future plotted on the palm of His hand. There is no other god like our God. The god of fire that the citizens of Pompeii worshiped led to death. Being consumed by the one and only God leads to life.
In Pompeii, back in the late BCs and early ADs, the citizens of that town fell into the habit of being consumed. First they were consumed with building a city they could take pride in. And by human standards they succeeded but that life of material and idol fixation didn't lead to an eternal life. They worshiped fire and statues and false idols but their worship gave way to their destrction. The town they labored over and the gods they worshiped pointed straight to their utter ruination when Vesuvius consumed them in a firey furnace.

You and I face the same temptation that the citizens of Pompeii faced. We can become consumed with the wrong things. We can worship false idols and labor for fleeting glory and worldly success. But it will all end in ruin.
Being consumed by Christ and the love of God is the only path to eternal life and everlasting glory. Our jealous God wants all of our attentions, all of our worship and every ounce of our dedication. When we give that to Him here on earth He will give us a beautiful ending that leads straight to the golden gates of Heaven. There we will come face to face with our God, the all consuming fire, who will be waiting with open arms to greet us into His House of endless praise and worship.
Dear Reader (and dear self), don't allow yourself to become consumed with the false gods that abound on this earth. Fix your eyes on the God of the universe, the King of Kings. He alone is worthy of praise. He commands us to submit ourselves to Him and be consumed by His mighty power. So let Him have His way. Fall into the arms of your all-consuming fire and let Him have His way in your life.