Quotes of the Week

I love quotes. Love them. Here a couple I picked up this week that I thought I'd share.

         Enjoy.
             Think.

"Why do people go through tough transitions? Because they have hope. They have hope that there is something better on the other side." 

How confident are you in your hope?  

"As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates other." - Marianne Williamson

Be free. 

My Greatest Desire: Freedom

Freedom.

It's such a loaded word. In the USA we like to think we're free...free to be whoever we want, free to voice our opinions, free to worship as we choose, etc. People have and will continue to fight and die for our freedoms, but how free are we really? Not even just as citizens of the United States of America, but as human beings. 

My desire and love of freedom comes from two distinct places in my life: 1. my fear of being trapped and 2. my experience of being in bondage to an addiction. I've explained the first in a previous post and I'm sure there will be more to come on the latter.

The verse at the top of my page, or in the inserted graphic, is my life verse. John 3:8.
To me, it is a perfect image of freedom.

God has given all of his followers the gift of the Holy Spirit, who seals our salvation and serves as our guide (among other things) in life. As we grow deeper in our knowledge, understanding, and relationship with God, we become more like Him and more like the person He has created us to be. This gives us the freedom to blow wherever we please, just like the wind- without an obvious place of origin or destination.

Some of my favorite things about my freedom in Christ are that...

• I'm free to explore the desires and passions God has given me with reckless abandon. 
• I'm free to fail and not be "successful."
• I'm free to follow the Spirit's guidance even if I don't know the big picture yet.
• I'm free to make choices that do not make sense to you or to anybody else. 

What are some of yours?
Are you experiencing true freedom?
What is keeping you from it?

What Are You Afraid Of?

My last post nicely provided a segue into this topic of fear. As a kid I shared some of the typical childhood fears such as being scared of the dark, thunder, and silverfish (yup, they're gross). I'm beyond thankful that in the past few years of my life I've been able to shake all of those fears...but there is one I'm still holding on to.

I am terrified of being trapped. 

The thought of being stuck or contained emotionally, physically, spiritually, or mentally literally makes me nauseous. I think the explanation of this fear is that in being trapped I experience a(n)...

                                  loss of control,
                                          inability to escape, 
                                                  and ultimately, powerlessness.

Needless to say this causes some conflict in my life. The first area that comes to mind for me is always marriage. I'm going to be stuck with the same person forever! That just sounds awful. I can't even stand to have only one group of friends or live with the people I hang out with...how am I going to date and then marry and then live with the same person without getting tired of him?!

(Before you get too concerned, I've been debriefing my thoughts and feelings on the topic of marriage for a few years now and I'm gotten my feelings of shear terror down to only slight apprehension. God is good and merciful.)

The other example that has popped up recently has to do with physical location. Now that I'm out of school for the moment and have my own apartment and job, I'm terrified of being stuck in Madison forever! And what's worse is I only get 10 days of vacation! I'm never going to be able to travel! I've been known to go places on the spur of the moment and now I'm unable to. I. DO. NOT. LIKE. THIS.

This weekend, the speaker at church taught from the story of Jonah and told us that the places we don't want to go are examples of us saying "no" to God. I realized that there aren't places I wouldn't go, but there plenty of places I wouldn't want to stay. Namely, all of them. My fear isn't of God telling me to go somewhere, but of God telling me to stay somewhere.

However, I recognize that as a Christian, I'm not called to live a life of fear or of being trapped. I am called to a life of glorious freedom. (John 8:31-36)


I have experienced the freedom in going many times in my life. I have not yet discovered the freedom in staying. I pray that God will show me. 

What are you afraid of?
Why are you afraid of it?
Where would you never want to go or stay?