Cellie Joy Turns "2"

It is my baby's birthday today.  She turned 2.

I remember praying for fresh joy in my life, and God delivered this little slice of 

"Pie".

That is her nick name,  as we were so hoping she would be born on Pi day, 3-14-15,

but her name is

Cellie Joy,

and she brings Joy everywhere she goes and to everyone she meets.

This was not the joy I was thinking of when I was praying, but this is so much better and sweeter and fuller than anything I could have thought or imagined.  A baby was the last thing I was thinking of when I was praying that prayer, but God knew what would truly bring Joy, I thank Him everyday.

Cellie is such a reminder to me that God gives good gifts, and loves to surprise His children with JOY!  

We have had a fun day of celebrating this little love and we are glad that she is officially 2 because she has been practicing for this age for quite some time.

Psalm 32:10-11

10 

Many are the sorrows of the wicked,

    but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

11 

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,

    and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Derailed - Wrecked by Grace

Grace wrecked my life a few years ago.  I’ve been a Christian since I can remember, and I’ve also been a 

“good girl,"

 (as far as most knew, for the most part) 

because I have always been a natural people pleaser.  I never wanted people to be unhappy with anything I did or didn't do.  

The natural response to that, is to live life, but not too much and not too little.

  Don’t make waves too big, that way, nobody really notices you.

 This works good for my personality.

THEN!!!! 

 I got wrecked.

Not physically, but in my heart.

 My heart woke up.

 I realized the GRACE I had been given in my life.  I understood more fully what God had done for me and for the world.

He gave me my life, and then He gave me His life. 

It kills me! 

I was a sinner and have a perfect

 Savior- Redeemer-God

Jesus Christ my Lord

 who exchanged His life for mine.

This is GRACE.

 This isn’t me, or anything I’ve done right or wrong.

  It’s GRACE!

So I began to live in that GRACE filled place and my heart went wild. 

Wild for Jesus.

Wild for Jesus, in the way that I felt a love for Him that I had never felt, and in spite of my non-wave making personality, the LOVE and excitement overwhelmed me and made me

do things that weren’t always pleasing to people.  

I began taking risks that were out of character and I began speaking up and making some waves.

I went off the rails of who people thought I was and off the rails of what people knew me to do and I LIVED

 for the first time.

Then, somehow in the last few years I have slipped into old habits of trying to please people and conform to what people thought I should do, or who they thought I should be.

I became so confused and felt guilt instead of freedom.

I felt striving, instead of peace.

Everything felt heavy and wrong and dead.

2 Corinthians 3:16-17

16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Jesus had not left me and I had not walked away from God, I just paid way more attention to what I was doing and who I wasn't, then who God is and what He has done. 

I forgot to enjoy and live in GRACE.

I wanted to jump on a train and head the right direction and not screw up anything or anyone. 

I didn’t trust GRACE to keep me IN-LINE.

 The freedom in GRACE felt free and  unpredictable and wonderful and risky.

I missed it, but didn’t know how I had gotten back on the train, I just thought it was like losing that

 “lovin feelin’.

  I thought maybe it's just a rush and then it’s all grit from there.

I would have a GRACE thrill here and there, but would quickly retreat to safer territory.

This is such a sad look at GRACE…it’s like saying it’s all a feeling and it’s only temporary and it runs out or at the very least it gets dry and boring and hard and rigid.

This is not grace. 

GRACE is full and ALIVE and never ENDING.  It only increases as we walk in it.

It gets deeper and wider with each step.

I think that’s one of the things that I love about going to Uganda….I feel that GRACE, I know I stand out, and I know I’m an idiot to their “culture”, so I don’t try to to find the rails…I can only find the GRACE and the FREEDOM so I just OWN it and I operate in it. 

And my heart comes to life, it breaks like a dam and it flows with a fresh rush of

 GRACE.

 

I can feel my heart waking up and I am once again wrecked by

GRACE.

I pray I never retreat, that I walk into the deep of it all and feel the peace and flow and thrill of 

GRACE!

Before you think....OH DEAR GOD...what is she gonna do?  

It's not about what I do or don't do....it's about what Jesus already did for me.

I pray He has Kingdom work for me to DO, 

and no matter what I'm doing,

 I am a daughter to the King of Kings, God is my FATHER,

and I am being LOVED by the CREATOR and giver of LIFE.

*So. Are. You!*

 I dare you to grasp THAT and not be WRECKED by the power of it all.*

Colossians 1:9-12

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.