A simple solution to get you the BREAKTHROUGH you need!

Do you feel stuck in this season? 

Are you questioning why you can’t seem to get to the next level? 

Do you wonder when your breakthrough will come? 

The solution might be simple.  It’s time to burn the ships. 

The picture above is the Sea of Cortez and was also my view for the past week from my 9^th floor bedroom window (rough I know).  In 1519, Captain Cortez landed here and commanded his sailors to burn the ships.  Yep, burn the ships!

Why? He didn’t want them thinking there was an option of returning.  Cortez forced his sailors to get established and figure out how to survive and thrive in this new land. 

Often as one season ends in our life, we find it hard to move forward and completely let go.  Currently many of us are in a season of transition and if we aren’t careful this season will never end.  We all have meet people, who are still in the same place of frustration they were 5, 10 years ago.  Their “transition” has become a permanent season.     

Again, maybe the answer is easy.  We need to burn the ships.  What this looks like is different for everyone, but the principle remains the same – if you always have one foot in the past, you can never fully run in the future.

Looking over this beautiful view, I am trying to put myself in the shoe of the sailor, as I watched my Captain burn the very vessel that brought me here.   Even if I thought my Captain had seriously lost his marbles, I would still be forced to move on.  My mindset would shift to the new task, opportunity, or challenge at hand, with no option of Plan B (return to the ships).  With only Plan A in front me, I would start to strategize how to take the land and forge ahead.  I would be ALL IN, with two feet running forward, equipped with a new mindset and new perspective all because my Captain burned the ships!

So, where are you today? 

Are you looking back at the ships, wondering if you might hop back on? 

Do you recognize you need to burn the ships? 

Are you forging ahead, taking ground and discovering new land? 

Maybe it’s time to have a BIG ole bon fire!  Smores anyone? 

Did Jesus have a belly?

We live in world consumed with weight and waistlines.  Magazines, commercials, and billboards are quick to let us know that who we are is not enough.  We must be healthier, thinner, and stronger.  We must look younger, toned, and fit.  We must, we must, we must be something more. 

Has this always been the case?  Was how you looked that important in Jesus’s day?  Were Martha and Mary constantly sizing one another up wondering who looked better that day?  Regardless of the struggles then, I think our hearts have always been the same.  We want to fit in, we want to belong, and we want people to like us. 

I don’t know if Jesus had a belly.  My natural assumption is to think He was the fittest man to ever live (being perfect and all).  What I do know is Jesus lived life to the fullest yet with great wisdom and discipline.  He knew how to respect His body and at the same time knew how to enjoy Himself.  How do I know this?  His first miracle was turning water into wine at the point in the party when most of the guests were already too drunk to enjoy it.  Man, I bet that was some good wine!

Jesus knew who He was and who He wasn’t and because of that He lived in complete freedom.  He lived free of the opinion of the others and acted from the command of one voice, His Father’s. 

For many of us, this freedom is what we long for, dream about, and hope to one day live from.  We want to be confident in who we are, who we are not, and because of this walk in confidence. 

I would have hated to been the guy/girl at the party who missed Jesus’s first miracle (and some great wine) because I was consumed with what others thought of me, and therefore probably drunk. 

I wonder what times in my life I have missed a miracle because I was too pre-occupied with what someone else thought of me? 

It scares me to think about it, but I am praying that my motives would be different and my guess is your hope is the same.  

So, grab a glass of wine and let's toast!  A toast to freedom.  Freedom in knowing who God says we are, and not to what the world says we should be.   Freedom to walk in this confidence, always ready to drink His best wine!

And on another note, what do think?  Did Jesus have a belly - even just a little one?! :)

What's the question you never want to hear as a writer?

What exactly are you trying to say? 

I mean, I think I know, but what do you mean?

There they are, the dreaded questions every writer hears at some point in their life.

Translation?  Your attempts at communication have failed.  Try again.

Recently, I had TJ (my sister-in-law) read my latest poem below and her first comment was, it's good but what do you mean?

Now normally, as stated I might be crushed but with poetry this is sometimes just the response I am looking for.

I then asked her, what she thought it means?

After throwing out a few thoughts, she said she liked it, but it makes you think.

EXACTLY! I hope this poem makes you think.  Ponder it, chew on it, and digest it deeply.

And I want to know, what do YOU think it means?! :)

Soul’s Beat

There is a beat within my soul,

It burrows within, much like a mole. 

Deeper in, it moves, further down,

Oh, what is inside, what will be found?

It thirsts, it hungers, I speak no more,

So dry, so tepid, so rustic, and sore.

Homesick I cry, for who could be able?

To meet all my needs and render me stable.

This beat forever awakening me,

Never silent, but always, buzzing as a bee.

Swish, swish, there it goes, like waves on a shore.

Leaving only one thing, me starving for more. 

It won’t go away, not now, not ever,

It’s constant, you see, like everyday weather.

I look to those waves, the ocean so vast,

It’s here I am at home, for it’s silence at last.

No end in sight, so much to behold,

I peer at the ocean, or do I peer in my soul?

Would YOU rather go whitewater rafting OR down the lazy river?!

 Whitewater Rafting 

vs 

Lazy River 

Which would you prefer? 

I prefer BOTH, and I imagine God's river to be the perfect combination of each, with the lazy river providing wonderful drinks and appetizers along the way AND the rapids to be full of adventure and excitement!  Heaven is going to be great! :) 

Revelation 22:1 

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, 

flowing from the throne of God down the middle of the great street of the city. 

River of Love: poem 

There is a river that I know,

it twists and turns and ebbs and flows.

I grab a tube and here I go!

Away I am off; riding along, before I know it I am singing His song. 

A song of love, a song so sweet, a song I know never tasting defeat.

Me and my tube and me in His River,

It’s His presence alone, which makes me quiver.

It’s not the water, the waves, the wind, or the sand,

It my Daddy above, who holds my hand.

Where the river goes, only He knows.

I feel His current, as it tickles my toes. 

My tube, the water, the land on each side,

None which I trust, only Him as my guide.