The Real of Brokenness

Linking up with the Five-Minute Friday community of bloggers, the prompt this week is REAL. Learn more about it here.

My sister-friend, Paulette Foster, preached a theologian’s (scholarly) sermon about the woman with the issue of blood. It was eons ago now, she called the woman Veronica. [Traditionally, Veronica came to believe in Christ when He healed her of an ailment that had afflicted her for twelve years: And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and. touched the hem of his garment: (orthodoxwiki.org/Veronica)]  It was the first time I had heard the woman called by name as it is not given in the scriptures.

 

What I want to extract from the woman’s story though is her brokenness. Inspired by our Pastor’s message yesterday, “The Blessedness of Brokenness” (Psalm 51:8), what I know to be REAL about brokenness is it brings you to your knees, recumbent and debilitated before our Savior, Healer, God.

Many of us find ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually, like the woman with the issue of blood, broken by society, stereotypes, people and their judgments, systemic resistance, broken to a state of nothingness. Pastor also referred to Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9), how that we are sometimes broken by someone who was suppose to care for us, not of intention, but by an unfortunate casualty. Whatever the circumstances, there are times of brokenness in our lives.

Like the woman with the issue of blood, it was in a state of brokenness that she became most desperate for God. It was in a state of brokenness that in her despair she ignored all the crushing constructs that were very REAL in her life.

She found her way to Jesus, crawling and clambering through the thronging crowd in the dirt and dung to touch The REAL Healer. Weakened in her body, but determined in her spirit, she pressed through her pride, her fear, rejection and prejudices. She pressed through every ‘no’ she had ever been told to reach her Creator. She touched Jesus with all of her brokenness and He touched her with His healing virtue.

“Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.” ~ Psalm 51:8

You may also like, https://simplyphenomenal.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/broken-to-be-made-whole/

The No-Plan Plan

Linking up with the Five-Minute Friday community of bloggers, the prompt this week is PLAN. Learn more about it here.

Initially, I was just fed up. I was depressed to go shopping. I was moving into a larger size in every item of clothing, I was uncomfortable in the bath tub. I didn’t like the way I looked or felt. I was fed up.

I didn’t have a plan.

I took an initial step with The 21-day Daniel Fast. I saw results after that initial 21 days that I had never seen before in my experience of trying to lose weight. I made a decision to continue eating according to the Daniel Cure adding seafood. That was over a year ago.

What I’ve learned is a plan is essential in effective executing many things we do. However, a progressive strategic plan that evolves over time can produce results as well.  For me that is what my journey has been, a progressive development of strategies to achieve my goals.

Goal-setting drives the mission, the objective you set for yourself or whatever you desire to achieve. In the beginning it was about changing my diet, that yielded some progress. With teaching I learned that was not enough, I needed to exercise. I had to make a decision to get off the sofa and move. I started with workouts I enjoyed which fueled my motivation. A few months in I hit a plateau and was advised I needed to amp up my workout routine, shock my body, do something different, challenge and stretch myself.

Not having a plan progressed into a strategic plan that has been an adventure, one that continues to challenge me in new ways to achieve my goals.

Moreover, the ultimate plan (intention; objective) is yet to be accomplished.

When The Family Gathers

Next to my God and Faith, Family is most important in my life.

Over the past months our family has endeavored to gather together after Worship on Sundays to spend time together breaking bread, enjoying conversation, loving our grandchildren, watching a movie. It was my husband and my son who mentioned that we were missing a valuable opportunity each week to gather (not that exact term) instead of just coming to church and leaving everyone going their own way. I’m so glad for the time we have together; sometimes we go out or we gather in one of our homes.

I really noticed this evening, while watching our grandchildren play together. How blessed the time we have when the family gathers for developing memories for them and with them, and how the time enriches our lives by the joy that they give.

Linking up for Five Minute Friday, the prompt this week is ‘Gather’.

http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/

The Lost Social Virtue of the Visit

Linking up with Kate Motaung and a community of bloggers for Five Minute Friday. The prompt is “Visit”. Write freely for just five minutes, no overthinking or editing. I usually write longer than five minutes and ALWAYS edit (can’t help it).

GO

We used to be a lot more social, even on social media.

I often think how people don’t really ‘visit’ much any more. I reflect on when my husband and I were a young married couple we would host the young people of our church or married couples in our home weekly, we loved to entertain, we loved each other’s company. We would play games, talk, our children would play together, we would learn and teach, just visit.

Even family visits were more frequent which now, at least for many are mostly just on holidays.

It seems the more we are connected through technology and social media, the less we are present in one another’s lives.

I wonder when, if ever, we will regain some of the social virtues we used to enjoy. They were so important to building relationships and nurturing family.

STOP (Just noticed I didn’t start the timer.)

“And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,“ ~ Acts 2:46

Don’t Miss The Beauty

I’m linking up with the Five-Minute Friday community. Simply use the prompt and write freely for the five minutes. You can learn more here. This week’s word prompt for Five-Minute Friday is OPEN.

This week I experienced an impactful film, The Book of Negroes. It is a miniseries based on a novel written by Canadian author, Lawrence Hill. The film turned out to be so much more than I anticipated. I was interested because it is Black History Month and it was something new. The story is about the life journey of a woman who was taken from her African homeland as a young girl and the five decades of her life after being brought over the ‘big river’ to America. It is about how she endured and triumphed over the unimaginable despair of slavery and the ultimate love story of she and her husband.

These stories and films are difficult to view for many because of the grief of the historical reality depicted in them. Sometimes our world view and quick assumptions cause us to tune out or turn away from some things prematurely and we miss the beauty. I know because I’m guilty of measuring reality television that way, although I have found that I am usually correct in my perception at least as it relates to my personal value system.

The story of Aminata Diallo was one of beauty that I am so glad I was open to experience. The award-worthy performances of Aunjanue Ellis and Lyriq Bent as well as young Shailyn Pierre-Dixon has been seared into my mind. I love how the writer created this beautiful, strong, smart, determined, courageous, tenacious woman who ‘had trouble dying’, who was ‘not killable’, who was ‘no man’s property’. She did not give in to death in any form though it loomed and pursued her throughout her entire life. Even the love of Aminata and Chekura Tiano (who as a young boy was one of her captors) endured the unthinkable until they returned to their homeland as free people. Watching it was like a roller coaster ride, so many emotional highs and lows, but had I not been open to another film or story about slavery I would have missed the beauty.

It is true in life each day, media bombards us with images of tragedy on a global scale. If we are not open to see and experience God’s beauty, our lives can be filled with misery. We must not let the tragedies confine our thinking or consume us, we must be open to the beauty.

Don’t miss the beauty.  

He Took My Heart By Surprise

The Five-minute Friday word prompt is WHEN

The moments that take your breath away.

It was the first evening of a regular week or so I thought.

Then it began, a Valentine’s Week when he would take my heart by surprise.

It started with a Valentine’s e-card. Then I arrived home to find a gift on my pillow that promised little expressions of love every day of the week.

It was this evening, the moment when I took it all in and thought what a week it has been and there is one more day to go.

I have been overwhelmed with and by his love in a special and memorable way.

He said, no one would out-romance him.

He took my heart by surprise over and over again. All the little gestures, gifts and expressions of love, text messages and an e-card every day.

The moment when I just settled into it all and said, Thank You, Lord, for blessing my life with someone who knows and loves everything there is of me.

The moments this week and for the past 36 years when he has and continues to take my heart by surprise.

I’m linking up with the Five-minute Friday community. Simply use the prompt and write freely for the next five (or so) minutes. You can learn more here.

KEEP On Keeping On

KEEP is the Five Minute Friday prompt by Kate Moutaung today … each Friday a community of bloggers write for five minutes on a one word prompt, no over-thinking, no editing, no proofreading, just write, then link up here, http://katemotaung.com/five-minute-friday/

KEEP On Keeping On

My fitness journey seems to be one without a destination. Sometimes it feels like a running wheel, going and going and going. Every goal starts and ends with another one.

There are days when I want to just chill, pull back, get some balance, concentrate on something else. It is consuming, often overload. The nutrition, the workouts, the progress check, the set backs and stumbles, the plateaus, the ‘you’re not there yet’. Then, trying to motivate others, be an example, staying true to yourself and your commitment. There are days! But I have to keep on keeping on.

Determination doesn’t always roar, it is not always a crashing wave. Sometimes determination is a little ripple wave, just enough to KEEP you upright. A cool pooling around my ankles to remind me of how far I have come, what I have achieved, that I can do it, I just have to keep on keeping on.

So for myself and you, “Believe in yourself, take on your challenges, dig deep within yourself to conquer fears (doubts, whatever). Never let anyone bring you down. You got to keep going.” ~ Chantal Sutherland

 

Don’t You See It?

Tags

Apostolic, Christian, hope, Jesus Christ

This is what God says,
the God who builds a road right through the ocean,
who carves a path through pounding waves,
“Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? – Isaiah 43:16, 19 (MSG)

An Aromatic Perspective for Life

Five Minute Friday: BLOOM

We live in a world where everyone is consumed with their devices, checking social media, surfing the ‘net, living life through a brightly lit screen.
We’re missing the blooms. The blooms of God. What He is doing, saying, commanding, in and of us.
Even in His Sanctuary, we’re recording and capturing photo moments, scrolling the timeline, texting our neighbor, checking dining menus. Ouch!
He is blooming new things in a realm so much higher and wider than who, where, or what we are or think.
No, we don’t see it. We’re missing it, we’re missing Him.
Every day it seems we’re running, but we’re not gaining any ground; we’re striving, but we’re not increasing … we don’t see it.
We’re taught that vision is not in the eye, but in the mind. In the mind is where we see what God is doing in ourselves and in His Kingdom.
We must be alert and present more instinctively by our spiritual nature to see the blooms (the evidence) of His planting in and through us.
The blooms of His redemption plan for mankind, of His call to holiness, of the great hope He gives us of eternal life in Him.
My son said recently, ‘we must never become a spectator church’, but we must remain spiritually engaged and connected to God, Who He Is, and what He is doing that we may be representative of Him in the Earth and to a world that does not know Him.
The evidence of God’s doing is always in bloom, springing forth, bursting out!
Look UP unto Him, don’t you see it?

Because I Choose, I Belong

Tags

Apostolic, Christian, inner strength, Motivation, Overcoming, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Women

It was so odd.

I chose my seat, the same seat, in a group session at work, where I am the only African American in the room. I sat in the first seat near the speaker to be sure I could hear her. Nearly fifteen other people sat at that table 3-5 seats away from myself and the speaker. Even when they were prodded by the speaker to move closer, no one did. It gave me the feeling I didn’t belong. I still am a bit bewildered by it (knowing it wasn’t my hygiene), but I literally have no clue.

It is a dark, lonely place where we feel we don’t belong.

It can be a dangerous place where we feel we don’t belong.

It is a place that compromises our wholeness where and when we feel we don’t belong.

This quote, though, from Ansa puts the responsibility of belonging into our own hands.

“Claim what is yours. You belong any where on this Earth you want to.” ~ Novelist Tina McElroy Ansa quoted by First Lady Michelle Obama (Spelman College Commencement, 2011)

Here, Dr. Maya Angelou further enforces it, “You only feel free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place …”

We belong ‘every place’ so we must claim our place, our belonging.

It is a challenge when we feel like we don’t belong. To find ourselves always on the outside looking in, trying to fit, wanting to be accepted, needing to belong.

We must choose to belong. Many environments and situations are out of our hands but we must not let them frame our entire sense of belonging.  We must find the place we want to be and include ourselves through our sense of purpose, abilities and contributions to be apart, to belong. When we get out of our comfort zone, make new discoveries and enjoy the things we love and are passionate about, we make our own place to belong. We must decide not to be controlled by the opinions, perceptions, judgments, prejudices or indifferences of others, instead we must choose to belong.

It is my choice. Stretching myself beyond myself makes place for me to belong.  When I use my giftedness in a place, for a cause, in a group, I make my own place to belong.

Even when I may not feel accepted, when I claim what is mine, I belong.

Even when I am rejected, when I claim what is mine, I belong.

Even when I am unsure, when I claim what is mine, I belong.

‘What is mine’ is my choosing to belong.

Because I choose, I belong.

I’m linking up with the Five Minute Friday group again.  

Find Your Essence

Tags

Apostolic, Christian, Education, health, inner strength, self renewal, self-care, wellness

(Five Minute Friday: EXHALE)

Take everything out of your hands.
Sit back in your seat.
Let your arms rest.
Close your eyes.
Take a deep breath through your nose.
Exhale through your mouth.
Again.
Now slowly open your eyes.
Rub your hands together. Feel that heat? It is an energy source that you can give back to yourself, to your essence.
We’ve been taking these cleansing breathing moments during my Nourish Up (Nutrition) class for the past few weeks. It is amazing how a brief concentrated exercise can renew you just by closing off everything and EXHALE-ing.
Releasing it all into the atmosphere, like a vapor rising into the air.
These cleansing breathing moments are available to us freely, at any given time during our day, during our lives.
We’re so overwhelmed with the cares of life and being and doing so much and often more than we should.
Our lives are a whirlwind of tasks, responsibilities, activities, commitments, engagements, stressors.
Family, work, ministry, school, life!
We need to exhale.
For a brief moment, stop, find your essence. Linger there even for a brief moment.
Releasing it all into the atmosphere, like a vapor rising into the air.
Exhale.