A few things have inspired this blog post:
1) It’s St. Paddy’s day
2) Green (not sure if that counts)
3) One of my bucket list goals is to get into a bar fight in Ireland (not sure why, but the plan is to go in with a football helmet, mouthpiece.. You know the whole Little Giants get-up (I hope someone gets this reference)! Also, have it be known in no way am I planning to start something out of anger, malice, or facetiousness. I just plan on politely asking a stern jolly Irish good fellow to punch me so that I have a good story for the kids one day! And afterward we will sing a few songs and become the best of friends… I have a lot of time to think this stuff out!
4) See how many Lucky Charms references I can tie in to this thing.
That being said, none of that has much of anything to do with what I want to write about. Just trying to reel you in (don’t stop here please)
It being the Lenten season, I decided to do things a little differently this year and not only give up something but give up a couple things in order to add something.. I gave up sweets, which is pretty easy and I gave up any form of drink in order to give the money I would pay for drinks to build and fix clean drinking wells in Uganda! This one is more of a challenge, never really noticed how much Bojangles sweet tea, Chick-Fil-A Lemonade or Gatorade..
and don’t get me wrong I don’t want this to be about me, cause it definitely is about Jesus and all the GLORY and JOY is going to and for HIM!
The point is we should take great pride in using ALL of our gifts, resources and abilities to increase the Kingdom and make Jesus name known! That being said, SACRIFICE is key.. Now I’m not gonna make a pitch here for your money that’s not what this is about, it’s about finding and realizing your passion and giving to that in order to give God the Glory and Charm whatever that may be! God wants your heart more than anything and for you to invest with your prayers and EVERYTHING you have!
This is what I am learning through this pre-trip process, “WE CAN’T PLACE GOD IN A BOX”!!! Be it like hiding your lucky charms as marshmellows in a cereal or defining yourself by societies standards instead of living out life as the AWESOME person God has intended you to be… We serve a God that is always looking out for our best interests, we just don’t always focus enough to see things through His lenses! Something I struggle with daily.. But think about this God is supporting us and He will provide!!! Awesome, right?
One of my other endeavors is finishing a couple reading plans of the Bible… Shouldn’t be hard but let me tell you, I’ve been learning persistence and dedication haha but staying true to the course! One is B90X, reading the Bible from cover to cover in 90 days (currently in Isaiah and a few days behind but no worries) and then for lent I’ve joined in with some friends at Vintage Church in Randleman, NC to read through the Gospel of John in 40 days. Check out the link for the plan and some awesome blogs about the passages! Never too late to start..
But here is where I want to go from there, today’s reading was John 5:1-29 in which Jesus healed the invalid at the pool. What a story, Jesus gives this great command to “pick up your mat and walk”. This stands true for all of us, what will it take for us to take what is crippling us and place that faith in Jesus and pick up our mat and GO!
You know, reading through this I got to thinking about how much I relate to the Jews in this story. They went to Jesus and asked Him what gave him the right to perform miracles on the sabbath? They fit Him in this mold they had, I do this all the time, I try to hang on with all my might to what I consider mine and limit Jesus in all His power.. Just like the leprechaun in the Lucky Charm commercials trying to keep the kids from enjoying his Lucky Charms, we like to grab something sit on it and keep it to ourselves!
Not the way it should be at all!
We should be laying all that we are and all that we have before the feet of Jesus, because that is where we will become SATISFIED!!! That is where we find the Lucky Charms!!
So check it out, in this Lenten season try and find something you are passionate about and give your ALL to GLORIFYING God through that! AND WHATEVER YOU DO REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO BOX THAT CAN CONTAIN OUR GOD!!! There’s not a bigger Box to put Him in either!
And pray for our team and support, it’s so AWESOME seeing things come together!!
Also, if anybody wants to try and figure out the total number of Lucky Charm references and give me a comment with the correct number, first person I’ll send you a Jesus Party/Doulos Band.. Who’s feeling lucky?
Thanks for the LOVE and SUPPORT thus far…
Song stuck in my head this week below, enjoy
JESUS PARTY
