Do you work here?

The other day, as I was waiting for my husband to go into the movie theater, a lady asked me if I worked "here?" .  I don't know why she asked me that, except I was in the right place in the hallway, waiting, even though I wasn't uniformed as a theater worker.  

Perhaps ...to her I looked like I worked there...but I don't.   It made me stop and think why she would see me way.  Then God nudged me to say..."You are my servant and were created for good works."  Yes, at the movie theater, in the hallway, waiting in the silence of the crowd.

Ephesians 2:10   "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

We were created for this.  You, me, we ALL were created for good works. More aptly put, God created you with good works designed for you when He created you. He actually has put inside you gifts that are unique only to you. 

Perhaps you don't feel so gifted right now, but have you ever thought about how just listening can be a gift?  Did you know that crunching numbers to give balance to someone's checkbook is a gift?  Did you know that sharing a verse can be a gift of encouragement?

A way to give back to God is to tap into and give the good gifts that God gives us.  And to serve Him with what He has gifted you with.  It could be your time, your talents, your specific abilities, your business at hand or the service of your hands.

We can do so much for the kingdom when we look past ourselves, and our little-self-centered worlds when we become noticers of the needs around us.

Last year, God asked me to give the gift of encouragement, but it came at a time when I was so discouraged in my faith. I had lost sight of God's purpose.  When I told God how discouraged I was, His response was..."To be encouraged you have to give encouragement." 

How could I give something I didn't have to give?  I had to dig deep.

I made a list of all the verses that God had personally encouraged me with.  I shared with those who were waiting on God for something.  I wrote out these verses on note pads and put them in obvious places:  

Psalm 27:14 "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." 
Psalm 33:20 "We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield." 
Psalm 130:5 "I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope."

I started noticing others were as discouraged as I was. As shared encouragement, I memorized encouragement.  I spoke so much encouragement to myself by serving others a verse of encouragement.

In the good deed of encouraging of others, God gave me a great gift. God encouraged me and developed a richness in my soul, right in the middle of my discouragement.

God loves to bless his children, not only for our benefit but for the glory of God, who gave you the blessings in the first place.  Have you ever thought that you were gifted? We were created by a Holy God who has given us abilities to be a help to others. He plants in us a desire to help others and the skills in which to do so.

God doesn't want us to hoard the blessings we have been given.   There are times when God asks things that are uncomfortable to give.  "We must help others in the way they need it, not in the way I want to give it." ~ Craig Groeschel.

One Saturday God taught me a great lesson in uncomfortable giving when He asked me to clean someone's toilet.  A group of us had set aside a Saturday morning to welcome a new local business to our community. The project at hand was cleaning an old automotive repair shop. We were all willing to help and wanted to make a difference with our hands, so we took our gospel-shod feet to the new place of business with all the gloves, cleaners, scrubbers, and brooms a team could need.

The team dispersed into our respective corners and took to cleaning every inch of that greasy building. I turned around to find that my corner included the mechanic's toilet.  That little corner was in great need for a clean-up.  My heart sunk a little more as I realized God had planned that little task for me. There was dirt and grime everywhere.

Honestly I wasn't too excited about giving my time at that moment. But in cleaning that dirty, messy, neglected toilet God spoke to me over and over.

"To show the love of Christ, you have to meet them in the middle of their messy lives, just like I have met you in yours. My love for you is evidenced in the works of your hands." ~ God.

As I wiped and stroked away the dirt God cleaned up my attitude about serving love and being a noticer of someone's need.  God taught me share a deeper gift of His compassion that day. To learn what compassion really means we have to look at the Compassion giver, Jesus Christ.  And that day, God bent me over someone else's mess to show me how to share His compassion.

Because of His great love for us, Jesus Christ came to be my rescue. I have not been saved to hoard His love but to share His love. When we share the love of Christ through the service our hands, our time, our gifts, our skills the church is not only built a little stronger but also the name of Christ is also brighter. Christ's love and compassion shines into our hearts, our families, our homes, our communities, our church.

By the richness of God through the good works of His people the church is built by cleaning, or music making, or giving, or teaching, or driving, or....well you get the picture.  PLUS the name of Jesus is edified. The goodness of God is reflected by the good deeds God is asking us to do and share with others.

When all the cleaning was done in the repair shop, it was sparkling with the love of Christ. Your service maybe the one good deed that leads someone closer to Jesus, so always let your light shine to reflect the Father's goodness.

Go the extra mile and give! In the comments below, share how God has used a kind word or deed to help someone.  Yes, you work here...this is work here...but it's the service that matters.

What is God asking you to share with someone? 

What act of kindness can you give in your community to shine the love of Christ?

(To read more about my toilet cleaning experience - read here.)

When it your dreams get hard

Seth Godin calls this season "the dip".  He is a very wise man in respect to dreams.  Wait...he's just wise in general.  End of story.

He also advises people who are producing that there needs to be a "ship" deadline.  And it's easy to stand back and say he dreams with finesse and flavor, with dipping and shipping well. As a business-social media-writer-speaker-leader-guru, He is very successful in the dreams department.

That is part of my dream also, to be a social media-writer-speaker-leader-guru in this author-rich or  bloggerific-dreamy world of mine.  I'll leave the business part to you wonderful number crunchers out there.  If you want to apply to be mine, send me an email at janellekeith53@gmail.com.

Jon Acuff reminds me of what I am awesome at...starting a dream.

Jeff Goins reminds me of what I am not so awesome at....finishing a dream.

Lysa Tuerkerst reminds me that I am inching towards imperfect progress in this dream.

God reminds me that I am a grace-starving girl in my dreams.  

And right now that's about how I have been working my dreams.

I have looked in my very empty soul spots and tried to pigeon-hole myself into everyone else's niche.  I'm really awesome at comparing, I have won many blue ribbons in that class.  I've been comparing my dreams for a long time with a mile long list of published authors.  Much longer than I would like to admit here.  

I'm inspired by the best writers I know.  But now as I let God fine-tune my skill, I'm letting Him inspire me and create His best writing voice. 

I gave my writing voice back to God.

I did something life-giving...I stopped comparing my words to those of others.

A small thing that is benefiting in big ways and with a dream like this, I'm rolling up my sleeves and digging in.

Right now, in this pit of words, it's kind of gritty with the successes of others slapping me in the face.  I want to be awesome this:  writing my perspective of who God is, like words could ever encapsulate His greatness.  Perhaps, I should just stick with what He's teaching me.

In these unknown days of faith, I am learning a new facade of God's language.  Is it okay that I go a bit deeper to fully investigate what that means?  Yes, ...but it's about to get harder.  So hang on...

(That's me giving myself a little pep talk)  Maybe you need a little pep talk too.

When you signed up for this day, your life, your dreams or your 2014 goals you probably thought it was going to look a little different didn't you?  Isn't that always the wayof new beginnings ?  We are disappointed first and then we have to back up and re-group and put a little muscle and hustle to the things we want in life.

We end up working hard on projects, finding out what you have really signed up for in the messy middle.  But we ignore that it's going to get hard work when we are starting a dream.  We are blinded by the work part and tend to just focus on the dream itself.  

So are you ready to give in to your excuses or are you choosing to lean into your determination to make your dreams happen?  How about that dreamy 100lb-lighter picture of you on the refrigerator, or that photo of you with a full head of hair and six-pack abs, or you before or after children.  

Don't we love to fast-forward to the finish line of our dreams before we cross the start line?

My heart is already there too.

Starting a dream or goal is easy, finishing them is hard.
Starting an exercise plan is easy, consistency in moving your body on rainy, lazy days is hard.
Starting an healthy eating plan is easy, but saying no to a bowl of chips on game day is hard.
Starting a reading plan to grow your faith is easy, letting the Bible teach you is hard.

I have found that when the going gets tough, I give up too easy.  God didn't promise this was going to be easy, this step of faith that He called me to.  God did promise that He would not leave me in my dream frustrated and stuck in the messy middle of it all.

So why wouldn't He bring a dream specifically for me where I'm going to need Him in a big way?  Yes, it is hard work to trust, to have faith, to work on being the best Janelle I can be.  But the Power that is alive in me is greater than the powers that are at work against me.  

What kind of pride would I have to snub the Dream-giver the dream building process and think I can accomplish my own dreams on my own efforts?  

How about I leave this business-social media-writer-speaker-leader-guru busyness to the One in charge of my dream in the first place?  I'll just be over here in the corner, covered up with more words than I can handle, letting Him lift my head, and letting God show me His way in this dream of mine.  I can write hard, obey hard, and leave the hard results to the One who gives me a lot of grace by the google-load to handle this hard dream process.  This is not a sexy, popular, public place but the One who dreams of the Impossible already sees every place of imperfect progress, ship dates, and practice sessions of muscle and hustle.

1 Corinthians 9: 15-18 ~ "Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or impugn my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. "(MSG)

Sounds like a great plan to me.  How do you handle your dreams?

Kickin' The Tires on 2012

It was the other day, as I was writing in my prayer journal, when I realized the error of my ways.  I foolishly thought that if I prayed over one word for an entire year, God would only show me one lesson connected with that word.  

God doesn't work like that.

What I  found was, when you pray about a problem, or an seek an answer to a question, or pray a word for 365 days,  well....you do find God alright.  
What I have found is ....that our creative God gives you exactly what you ask for, but in a more interesting and challenging way, let's call it a bigger and greater way.  

Because God is just that...Bigger and Greater.

When I said I was seeking "rest" for my one word for 2012, it seemed tiny in my mind.  I needed it desperately but to me it was a tiny matter none-the-less.  I really thought it would be one of those small blips on God's prayer radar.  In the scheme of all that I still need to learn about who God is, honestly, rest or the art of resting was not one of my top God-I need-an-answer-to-this-heart-issue, nor was it high on my spiritual priority list.  

I might have been just kickin' the tires on this one-word-a-year prayer idea.

So how did God teach me to rest?  He didn't.

When I sought Him for answers, He taught me to submit to His Sovereignty.

When I sought an end to my waiting, God taught me strength and a purpose in abiding.

When I sought truth, and God showed my sugar-coated well-digested lies.

When I sought a deeper faith, God showed me His faithfulness.

When I sought an awareness of His Presence, He taught me to be still and listen.

When I sought direction, God showed me His wisdom.

When I sought His strength, God peeled back the cover on my weaknesses.

When I sought His heart, God showed me the least of these in Africa.

When I sought His peace, God showed me my fears.

When I sought His light, He showed my darkness.

When I sought confidence, God showed me my pride.

When I sought action, God brought stillness.

When I sought freedom, God showed me my sin.  

When I sought understanding, God showed me to follow and obey.

I sought His love, God romanced me with His words.

I cried the word rest..so many times, with so many words and 

sometimes with no words, and with many tears.

God bent down and listened each time.

I made more room for rest in my life and God showed me the most Perfect Rest.

God deepened my trust for the One and Only True Rest.    

What did God teach you in 2012?

The Pretenders

I think it's interesting the way we pretend.  We Christians really project the wrong image.  We act like we have it all together....like we don't have any problems.

Think about how many times we respond with....

 "I'm fine" when asked if we are ok?

You say..."Not much" when asked, "What's God up to in your life these days?"

And this line..."Oh, I don't have anything to share, life is great!", when asked "How can I pray for you?"

Hey...don't ask if you really don't want to hear the answer.

I don't know why we do that.  


Are we that prideful that we can't be open with each other?  


Get real.  Be honest.  


We all have problems because we live in a fallen world.  If nothing else we all know there is someone who needs Jesus and one person who could be prayed for.


There seems to be a very fragile glass house we like to construct around our perfect structured lives, to make it appear like the Christian life is grand.  It's the story we like to share with people because we don't want to be a burden with our own little problems, or our big problems.   But in doing so we really are cheating God. 


We are robbing God of the glory that belongs to Him.  By not being open and honest with our struggles, we dismiss the chance to give witness of any kind of God-change that happens, if we allow the work of God to take place.  


I might be guilty of this myself.


To outsiders, it might appear that I have all things under control and put the nicely ordered details of my life in a neat little Christian package with a pretty pink bow on top.  But honestly I have the same kind of struggles in many areas just like you.  


God is growing me into becoming a quirky God-fearing woman but it's not without my fair share of lessons along the way.  Buy me a cup of coffee sometime and I can tell you some stories.


Some potential believers think that they have to clean up before accepting Christ.  One look at our less-than-perfect-but-clean-on-the-outside lives and it makes Christianity look so unattainable.  What is needed is a wrecking ball loaded with God's awesome-ness to hit dead center on target to the delicate barriers we have carefully crafted.  


I don't have it all together.  I don't know of one person who does.  There is always something that we are hiding, covering up, or tucking into the inner ugly places and we don't want to deal with it.


Let's be honest with each other.  We need Jesus daily, we need to show our weakness and struggles with others so that they can see how God is working in our life.  We need addictions to be revealed so that we can be a living testimony to the saving and healing power of Jesus.  We need to go to our own burial grounds so that Jesus can roll away our stones and say "Come forth!"


I can't bring any perfection to this picture.  But I am thankful that God brings Jesus to the picture and sees me in His eyes of perfection.  By faith, I can share in that perfect big picture, but I know that I will never have it all together until I land in heaven.  I can't fix my broken parts.  God can and always has a better answer.  Let's just say...He has a lot of work to do.  


"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." Ephesians 3:16-17

God has made great progress too.  At each turn in this road He will show me my godly response and actions as He aligns my heart with his.  If only one step at a time, with just enough light for the very next step, He will guide as He leads, fixes and heals.  With each correction, it's He who is the Answer to the questions, the why's, the hows, the whatever's.  There is plenty to give witness to from this heart. 


I don't assume to know it all.  But I love the One who does.  Oh and that protective glass barrier...that was destroyed long ago.  Ask me...I'll tell you!    

So This Chaos...

I have figured out that there is chaos in my life. 


There are a lot of things, stuff, activities, work, play where things are out of balance. 


I want to do something about it.  From where I sit and type this...there is no physical rest in sight.  


With this chaos, comes spiritual clutter.    


So in this mess...it's a good thing God has my tomorrows.


I have been taking a hard look at my world.  It pays to be critical of yourself sometimes under the scope of the Holy Spirit.  


All I can do is offer my perspective about what God is doing here in my spaces and places.  


God has been decluttering my heart.    


That's a good thing.  That brings healing.  


It brings open spaces, open places and revived beginnings.


For new things to begin, for the new.


For peace to invade, for God's comfort to infect.


For God's work to perfect and complete.  

Philippians 1:6  "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

There is work to be done.  Who's with me?

Let's think about this messy work an act of worship.

I wait expectantly for what is in store as well designed changes.

As I unhinge myself from the familiar things here on earth that will one day turn to dust, please God fill me with your Spirit's refreshing awareness of peace and rest.  

I rest in His organized hand of gifts.  I seek Him as the most prized possession of all. 

Let's roll up our sleeves.