What Does September Bring?

You've heard the rhyme, "April showers bring May flowers..."  For me, September is one of my favorite months to turn to on the calendar each year.  Fall (yes the meteorological calendar shows Fall starting September 1) for me brings a sense of renewal and kind of a time to get down to business!

I wrote in my last post about Resistance...and if you look at the number of posts I have had this year...enough said.

I love how September came this year escorted by a long weekend.  I've taken advantage of it to spend some quiet time and review some of the causes of my resistance...the clogs in my creative arteries.

I've come to realize that creativity is not going to happen naturally, if I'm not focusing on the essentials of life:  joy, gratitude, discipline, relationships.  My creativity does not come because I want it to; it is a natural by-product of joy, gratitude, disciplines, and relationships I experience every day.

I am taking the "Renewing of Your Mind" challenge...(sorry no buckets of ice water)...which I hope evolves into a lifelong habit.  It comes from the verse in Romans 12:2...

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (ESV)

or as Phillips puts it:

Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold but let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

So, Barb Raveling suggests in making any kind of commitment or habit:

1. Make a plan (okay...)
2. Renew your mind at the same time every day. (Goal: 6 a.m. daily)
3. Get your ducks in a row. (Have my Bible, journal, et al. out before bed, ready to go.)
4. Remember that you have an enemy. (Duly noted.)
5. Get an accountability partner.  (Well, I've gone public on here now so it's not hidden.)

Let's face it...not much in this culture encourages joy and gratitude.  I want everything I say or do or create be an overflow of the joy and gratitude God brings to me from renewing my mind as I let Him transform me.

More later...I may be sharing even deeper secrets in the days to come.

Ponderings on Easter

It is Easter Sunday.  I am not at home.  Edster and I and the four-footed boys are in West Virginia...my home.  I am purposefully using this time to sort through some things...clean house.

But Christ is here...and the morning...and Jesus is alive!  Sitting alone in the living area of this horse camp apartment, listening to music with Arthur laying at my feet...I was moved by a particular song that came on, written by John Lemonis and recorded by the Crist family.

The closer I get to the cross,

the more I clearly see

the holiness of You and

the sinfulness of me.

There's a beauty in the agony

that draws me to this place.

The closer I get to the cross

the more amazed I am by grace.

Here is the full version:



It's easier to rush through life in a blur, not stopping to pause or contemplate...but it is an empty life.  Socrates even knew that, "The unexamined life is not worth living."

This Easter, during this vacation, I'm craving the Holy Spirit to search me to bring back the joy again that overflows in all I say and do.  That means, getting closer to the cross.

And there all becomes clear.