To Be: Patient

To Be: Patient

patient: 1. bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance with calmness. 2. tolerant; understanding. 3. capable of calmly awaiting an outcome or a result; not hasty or impulsive.

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)


In our fast-food eating, cell-phone toting, on-demand watching culture we aren’t asked to wait for much, are we? Most of our needs can be met in mere minutes. This is wonderful and convenient, until we smack up against a need or want that can’t be met with the click of a mouse, pop of a pill, or ding of a microwave.

When people don’t act according to our plan or events don’t happen according to our timetable, we realize how easy it is to lose our patience. Sometimes our fallen world forces us to wait for good things—and our heart aches as we try our best to be patient.

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are you hungry?

To transform your life you must begin with changing your mind. (Romans 12)

Did you know that we can and will only do what we have convinced ourselves we can do. In regard to keeping yourself healthy and fit have you done everything you can do to keep yourself healthy and fit? Seriously? Or has it been more of a self-gratification, I can and i will when i feel like it?

Have you taken advantage of the opportunity to be fit physically and spiritually but found that your emotional wellness was ready to be checked into the intensive care unit? Or found yourself physically and emotionally well but spiritually dry?

Very rarely do I reference Oprah; but it's worth it this time around because she hit a strong point today in her mission to FINALLY combat her weight issues. What she has discovered is that it's not weight or food that she has an issue with, it's that she's hungry not for food but for love and she turns to food to find her satisfaction. My question to you is, are you hungry?

At the point you realize that you can't do it, or you feel like you've lost control; what do you turn to in order to regain control?

With everything that you have been able to do for yourself, with yourself and to yourself, is there any possibility that you can't do everything BY yourself?

Take a moment and confront yourself and see if there is anything that might be keeping you from being the healthiest you CAN be. (Search me Lord, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Psalm 139:23-24)

In order to be healthy, it must be in mind, body and spirit without the balance in all three areas, it's simply unhealthy! You've decided to do an amazing thing for YOU and you can do it! This is the way, walk in it (Isaiah 30:21).

Who do you think you are?

I've heard people say they have their "church friends" and their 'other' friends or their church life and their other life...I kinda raise an eyebrow to that cuz it's kinda like living a double life. It's as if there's some kind of seperation between the 'church-you' and the 'other-you'.

So it naturally leads me to question and ponder, does the church-you smile, worship, say a million thank-you's, laugh, cry at the tender moments, repent, do all the kind-hearted wonderful things about life? Does the other-her do all the same? So then what's the difference?

If the church-you is at walmart and runs into an-'other' friend but church-you is dressed in 'church' clothing does church-you morph into Suzie Liesalot; sorry 'other-you; or play the wolf in sheeps clothing or completely dip down the frozen foods isle in hopes that the 'other' friends don't recognize them?

Speaking of which, is there a church God and an-'other' god to play along with this charade? If the other-you goes to the god with a request that was intended for the Church God what happens then? Hmmm...kinda makes you wonder (James 1:8)

Confrontation

kuhn-fruhnt (con-together; fruhnt-forehead)

1.to face in hostility or defiance; oppose:
2. to present for acknowledgment, contradiction, etc.; set face to face:
3. to stand or come in front of; stand or meet facing:
4. to be in one's way: the numerous obstacles that still confronted him.
5. to bring together for examination or comparison

Confrontation is a touchy subject. For the person that enjoys the smell of the fight, confrontation is like a breath of fresh air. For the personality type that confrontation creates a shut down of communication, emotion and self-confidence; it feels like suicide.

I'm compelled to consider my obligation to step up face to face with the things that force me to die to myself. To face the hidden demons that prevent me from becoming who I am destined to be, the soft spoken voices of condemnation and accusation, the pleasures of self-fulfilling temptations and the ease of omission which tangles a deceptive make-believe. To recognize the opportunities: to have, do, see, touch, feel, smell, taste, enjoy; recognize that while good in the moment, terminal conclusions await my vulnerability.

Bring me to myself-a face to face defiance of the immediate things that hinder me. Even if it be myself. Bring me to a place of recognizing that life has more to offer than the immediacy I've been conditioned to desire. Bring me to a place of surrender and sloughing, a revolutionary unveiling of a woman I never knew. Bring me to a reflection of the sacrifice, slander and slaughter made for my identification. Bring me to the recognition of my hands, my feet, my voice, my stature, my vision, my breath.

Cronfront me Lord you knew me before, now and what is to come, show me the things that you don't recognize and rid them from me so that I might be a reflection of your image.