Listen to this song first.

If God were singing this song to you, could He sing it and mean it?

Can He see a part of himself in you? Do you love as Christ, serve as Christ, and live as Christ?

 God is right there by your side every single step of the way, he really does see your every step. He laughs when we laugh, He cries when we cry, and He picks us up and dusts us off if we fall.

Will you have Christ’s reflection? Will you take His hand when he offers it?

You see God has called us to enter into a relationship with Him. A relationship is being a reciprocal self; it’s not only taking what others give you, but using what others give you to give back to others. It’s constant reciprocating motion. Its living as Christ lived, loving endlessly.

Someone once said that, “we are all chasing after something, but only one chase will last in the end.” It’s a yearning beyond all other and its deep inside us; it’s a desire to know someone else’s soul. It’s the divine chase. The desire to know Christ as He knows us.

So I ask you again. If God were singing this song to you, could He sing it and mean it? I believe the answer is YES! Why? Because he NEVER stops loving us. There is nothing we can do that will push Him away.

But the choice is yours.

You have to choose whether or not to grasp on and take the hand of Christ that is offered to you.

Take it!

What does it mean to be “pure in heart”? Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” To me, being pure in heart, means conforming to faultlessness; striving for “Christ excellence”. I strive each and every day to conform to faultlessness, it’s definitely not easy, but what in life is?

In thinking through some of my past I recall several times when I have found myself at fault for different things.

But does that mean I am not conforming to faultlessness?

 I really wrestled and am still wrestling through this, because I have failed so many times and I am sure there are more times to come, but each time I think, not only did I fail at what the situation was, but also being pure in heart. But being pure in heart is not a matter of you are or you are not. Christ is the only one who can say HE IS FAULTLESS! As Christians we are given the responsibility to grow in every area, and this is one of those areas that is part of a growth process.

I think Benjamin Franklin hit it on the head when he said, “how few are there who have enough courage to mend their faults.” It’s hard to take ownership when it involves faults because let’s face it; no one likes to be at fault. It’s even harder trying to mend them.

I remember growing up with my sister and getting into fights with her, and one day she was chasing me around the house with something she was going to hit me with, well my mom just so happened to come home from the grocery store and put a 24 case of 7-up in the middle of the kitchen. So as I proceeded to escape the wrath of excruciating torture from my sister, I tripped over the case of 7-up, broke my foot, landed on the dog and got bit. However, the first thing out of my mouth was, “It’s Kala’s fault”. Yes, she was chasing me, (I will never admit what she was chasing me with), but indeed she was behind me threatening my “life”/my arm or whatever she was going to hit me. As a child it was my prerogative to never get beat up by my older siblings, and this was one of those times. I could have sat there and let her beat me to a pulp with the mystery item she was holding, but I chose to RUN! I ran from the pain.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we should never run away from pain, especially physical pain, but this was just an example of how I didn’t want to take the blame, especially since the truth came out later that I was antagonizing her in the first place, which caused her to run after me. But I was never going to admit that I was “at fault” in that situation. (Especially when it cost my parents money to take me to the hospital to fix my foot, and take the dog to the vet to be put down, because my dad would not tolerate the dog biting us kids) It’s so much easier to place blame on someone else, especially if it relieves us from initial consequences.

But maybe claiming our faults is part of conforming to faultlessness?

 It certainly is the honorable thing to do in any given situation, but more importantly it is Christ. Christ is faultless; therefore we should strive to be faultless. Claiming your faults, I believe is the first step in conforming to be like Christ. Conformity often times means the desire to be like “x”. Well conforming to faultlessness (Christ) is the desire of my heart and if that means claiming my faults then it’s worth it.

Let the conforming begin!

Last year my roommate and I became determined to solve this sticker covered plastic cube if it meant sacrificing hours of study time. =) And trust me it did. I remember my roommate getting it pretty quickly and being able to remember the sequence of turns in which to make all 6 sides’ solid colors, but it took me longer to grasp such a concept and to this day I still have to look at the cheat sheet in order to solve such madness. As I was doing my quiet time today I was asked/ challenged to compare my life to something, and have now been Erno Rubik inspired. The first thing I could compare my life to was a toy, I know it’s so complex, LOL (I guess that is why I am a children’s director).

Anyway, I remember when I was a child and my sister and I were sitting in the back of our beastly gray van that we named Ralph, and I had just gotten a Rubik’s cube for my birthday and I was determined to solve it before we reached our destination…AND I GOT IT!!!!! Okay, I peeled off all of the stickers and put them in their rightful location, but my parents were sooooo impressed that their child prodigy solved such a confusing puzzle. That was until my mom took a closer look and saw that the stickers had been tampered with, and my mouth was washed out with soap for lying. TOTALLY WORTH IT!!! Just kidding. Children, don’t lie to your parents, they know all or will figure it out!  My mom mixed all of the sides back up and to this day it is sitting on my shelf at home unsolved. However, I could solve it now with my step by step guide, but wouldn’t be worth ruining the memory.

 As I was thinking about how this toy represented my life, my first thought was what was on the inside of such a sculpture. In the center there is a pivot like mechanism that allows the cubes on it to move, however there are 6 cubes that never change and they are on the middle of each side. Yellow, Blue, Orange, Red, White, and Green are the colors that make up the cube and the object is to obviously get all 6 sides one color. There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible positions of a rubik’s cube with only 1 position of each cube that is possible to SOLVE it! With that many possible positions, no wonder my parents knew I was lying when I told them I solved it. LOL

I have always wanted to live my life as God intended me to as His daughter. Being a child of God holds its responsibilities and rewards, and many times we can get caught on what we get rather than what God has called us to do as a responsibility. I want to live my life with Christ at the center, like a Rubik’s cube, I want Christ to be my pivoting point! No matter how many turns and decisions I will make through out life I want to make sure that one foot is firmly rooted in Christ. I want that to be the number one factor in making decisions and I want that to be my main focus in life. The 6 sides I would describe as Scripture(Green), Reason(Yellow), Experience(Orange), Culture (Blue), Tradition (White), and Others (Red). Four of those you might recognize as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, and I include those because those are important in my life.

Scripture allows us to grow, many times we associate the color green with growth because it represents the changing of seasons with death in winter to life in spring. As a follower of Christ, God calls us to His word. To read His word, to share His word, and to hide His word in our hearts. It is our guide as we strive to be like Christ. It is our responsibility to read God’s word so we can grow in this in order to help others grow. Another side is reason, which I would associate with the color yellow. Yellow is a primary color and cannot be “made” by mixing colors together. The same is with reason, it cannot be made, and it is what we know to be reasonable within ourselves. However, that doesn’t mean what we think is reasonable is the same as what others perceive as reasonable. It’s simply rational thinking and sensible interpretation to what we know and have been taught through many facets.

I represent those around me with the color red. Red is the universal color for love. God calls us to love the people of the WORLD as He has loved us. This is not just those we personally know and love, but the 6,905,720,135 people in the world. This is the chance we are given to view the world in God’s eyes, without judgment, without an agenda, without jealousy, but with pure Christ-filled love. Orange represents experience. It’s the occurrences and situations of our lives that allow our eyes to be open to view the things that are happening all around us. It’s getting in and getting your hands dirty. It’s being there for one another and gaining insight from everything we do. It’s serving.

Tradition, I would represent with the white. It’s what is what we have grown to always known since we were created. This is what contributes to our understanding of the things around us. It is authentic, it’s transparent, it’s white. Finally is culture, which would be represented by blue. With reason and others mixed together you get culture. It is a sensible interpretation that we are called to love those around us, which creates our culture. Culture can have a multitude of meaning for different people, but I view it as the time and place God has created us and placed us at this very moment of time. I have lived in and through many different types of cultures, but I know that I am where God has called me to be in at this moment in time.

Scripture, Reason, Tradition, Culture, Others, and Experience…it all comes back to one…GOD

While these sides are not easy to define, and everyone has different sides, I would challenge you to define your pivot point. What makes up who you are? What do you live by? And who do you live for? Your sides will be different than mine, and it will look different to others, because God all created us with uniqueness, but He wants us to have the same pivot point, so no matter what our sides may be or how many positions we may view or hold, we will all have Christ at the center of our lives. Our pivotal point in which we can have one foot on at all times!

80 words. It’s crazy how the meaning of a single word can bear such great meaning. Yet when crafted together can describe a lifetime.

This may all seem a little backwards because, how can you be at something if you don’t find it first. The answer is simple….How do you know you’ve found it if your not at the center in the first place? I just answered the question with a question, which makes things more complicated, but let me explain. I heard someone say, “You have to be at the center to find the center”. Can you guess who it was? If you guessed a potter you’re right. She explained it like this…

If you’re going to make a piece of pottery you have to be at the center of the wheel to find the center of the vessel.

With this illustration in mind…apply it to your own life. If I am not at the center of Christ, meaning if I am not fully captivated by His grace, and not following His will for my life, then I will never find the center. My life will always be off balance. God keeps things in balance. He is the potter and we are the clay, but if we are to mold others into Christ followers we need to be at the center (Our relationship with Christ must be genuine and we must be servants as God has called us, if we are going to find the center of others.) If we ignore our own relationship with Christ and the responsibilities of serving and everything God has called us to do and be, we will not allow others to be at the center. If that happens we are hindering the Spirit from working in the lives of others by our lack of commitment.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be at the center so I can find the center. Because since God has called us to GO and make His name great to everyone we come into contact with then I better be prepared. So join with me at the center, so we can go out and find the centers of others, and help change their centers, to be at the centers, so they can find the centers of others too.

When you realize that human beings can’t make or unmake you look at memory a bit different. Yes those dreaded past things that we thought once were behind have come to the forefront in a differnt way. Those things are a part of us, yes, but they do NOT define us. We are defined by how God relates to us. Identity and definition are two completely different words, which can have the same ring to them if not looked at carefully. Identity is who we are in Christ and how our relationship with Him, impacts our character. This type of identity is defined. When we give the power of definition to others we are now in painful territory.We are not defined by what others say or think, those are mere formalities in which society has once labeled acceptable. Not saying that a definition isn’t true, but it is not how we are identified by Christ. When we remember this, it is then that the abiding flame of God’s presence is identified in us, with the responsibility of sharing this flame with others…because that is how I want to be defined!

1:52pm

To this very day I have lived approximately 8,253 days.

Within these 8,253 days I have experienced love, heartache, loss, joy, war, hatred, and ambition. I’ve seen wealth, starvation, sickness, wounded, poor, materialism, and tears. I’ve learned what true love really means and how loves feels. I’ve see God’s beauty among the many miles I’ve traveled. I’ve walked barefoot in another country. I’ve been up, I’ve been down, and I’ve been in between. I’ve been lost. I’ve been discouraged. I’ve been uplifted. I’ve studied. I’ve learned all I could. 8,253 days. It took me 8,253 days to accomplish these things, and much more not even mentioned. But God is beyond time. He is beyond life stages and measurements. He’s beyond life accomplishments and failures. He’s beyond our fears and wildest dreams. Because He knows that all we need is Him, and once WE realize this it takes just a second. It was in that 1 second of that 1 day that changed my life forever. The other 8,252 days cannot even compare to the day I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ and chose to follow Him.

How many days have you been given? And have YOU experienced that 1 day that can change your life?

11:14pm

For those of you who have talked to me since October 10^th you probably wouldn’t describe my attitude towards work the greatest, and I would agree with you. First of all my sincere apologies for such a bitter spirit, but I guess when you work in Christian environments for the past 5 years, switching to a secular one can be quite challenging. Nothing against them, they are just not my cup of tea. So if it’s not my cup of tea, you are probably wondering why it made it in my “Many Blessings” blogs (which I am doing for the month of November…so if your reading this keep reading you might see your name LOL…of course in a non-creepy manner). Despite my moaning and groaning I am thankful I have a job.

Currently 5.8% of the population is unemployed, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you have 6,880,147,017 people in the world it comes out to be 515, 048, 527 people. Over 500 million people. My statistics are rough around the edges so don’t take me to the Census Bureau, and I know some of that population are children and people who chose not to work for certain reasons, but I know a good chunk of the 500 million are unemployed. Which breaks my heart and silences my complaints about my current retail position.

I knew when I moved to Harrisburg, I would have to find supplement employment to help out with finances, but my heart and passion screams children’s ministry, small groups, volunteering at different organizations around the community, visiting children who participate in the ministry on their lunch break, and finding the best way to better serve the children of Harrisburg. When I think of children, I think of innocent, fun filled, energetic, hand crafted miracles of God. Small fingers, toes, and ears, but despite their size they have the biggest hearts of any of us. My heart yearns to make known to the city of Harrisburg the love of Jesus Christ.

12:03am

Holidays with my family consisted of baking more than we could even think about consuming, putting up the Christmas tree (if we ever got it down from the year before), and a house full of parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, and grandparents. I remember when my sister and I were old enough to wrap presents, my mom would put our presents in boxes and make us wrap them ourselves…we would soon find out after they were wrapped that we were putting our names on them. Too bad we didn’t know before, we could have known what we were getting. One year I even remember getting money before and buying and wrapping my own present and giving it to my mom to give to me on Christmas day.  I am so grateful to have had the past 21 years of holidays with my wonderful family. I didn’t even realize the number of years that have gone by until now.

This year the holidays are going to be different, but I am excited and very thankful for a home away from home with the Chute family. Being away from my family has been a very difficult thing to experience and to be honest the closer we get to Thanksgiving and Christmas, the harder it gets, but the love and support from the Chute family that God has provided will help overcome the homesickness. Doing life with them the last couple of months has been wonderful. Oh the times we have had and the memories that have already been made in such a short time. They have no idea how special they are to me and how special they make me feel. I am honored that they call me family and treat me as one of their own.

Tammie is a wonderful woman of God who is merciful, loving, and the greatest friend a girl could ask for and I love her like a sister. Chad is the third brother I’ve always wanted…not a day goes by without him picking on me. (Don’t worry I give him a hard time). He is a wonderful man of God who is so willing to help (even when you are on the phone with your mother) LOL…Their marriage together is like one I hope to get in the future…so full of life, love, and laughter with a biblical foundation. As a godly couple they have raised 3 wonderful children into bright, enthusiastic, and so full of love teenagers who have also put their trust in God. I will gladly claim them as my nephews and niece. Their family brings so much joy to my life and I am very thankful for each and every one of them. I am so undeserving of their love and time they so graciously spend on me. I am truly blessed.

Thank you God for the Chute Family!

11:12pm