Hey, Girlfriends! It’s Sunday and I’m writing you from an airplane seat on my way home from Boise, Idaho, where God threw a party of His Presence for 5,000 of us gathered there. They were a phenomenal group and, for me, it was love at first sight. My whole team and I really dig serving off the beaten path, so we were very anxious to get there but wondered if we should prepare ourselves for a fairly quiet group. Let me be clear. That is not what we got. I named them Noisy Boise within the first five minutes. They wanted Jesus and were willing to practically jump out of their seats to grab a word out of thin air from Him. Oh, man, I am so grateful to God for allowing me to worship shoulder-to-shoulder with such an incredible group. I will remember them (you, if you were there) for a very long time.
This weekend I did something I almost never do. I stayed over on Saturday night to have a retreat with my LifeWay team. To tell you that I’m crazy about them is a gross understatement. Through the years we’ve become a team in every sense of the word from the guys that do the set-up, sound, lighting…to the computer technicians that do the graphics for praise and worship and the power point for the messages…to the event team that actually puts on the conference and mans (or womans) it…to the entire platform team who walks into a very well prepared-for environment. Everybody does their part and, incidentally, nobody’s part is for sissies. We work our tails off. As I told Noisy Boise, we aren’t very slick but we aren’t minimalists either. We don’t give a group the least we can get away with. We drag our nearly dead bodies out of that auditorium on Saturday afternoon. The members of the team are as different as our roles and, joyously (and even unexpectedly), everybody from the truck drivers to the artists have become family. The down side for me is that the most sanguine of the siblings, yours truly, is one of the very few who lives outside of Nashville. They get to spend a ton of travel time together while I go solo. They often send me texts and cell pics from the airport and it makes me so jealous I can hardly stand it. This time we decided we’d all stay after the event, eat pizza together, play games (Travis hosted a rousing round of Fish Bowl and the card game Pit) and, my personal request, learn to do the Cha-Cha Slide. Play that funky music, white girl. It was hilarious. (And modest. Don’t mess with me here. It was just plain fun.) We had the best time ever! I laughed myself silly and dropped in my hotel bed last night thoroughly exhausted and deliriously happy. Full. God is so good. So fun. I think He had a blast last night. Maybe even laughed out loud.
But now for the primary reason I’m writing to you. Early this morning I realized that I had an all-day plane trip (HOURS!) in front of me with no extra reading material for a poor, exhausted mind. For an obsessive reader like me, that’s not a flight. That’s a train wreck. I’d studied all the way up so I hadn’t thought about the oversight till it was time to go home. Adding to the annoyance was some excellent reading material sitting on my back porch that I’m in the happy middle of right now. (I think I’ve told you before that, at almost all times, I have two books going that are totally separate from my research books: a Christian inspirational book of some kind and a novel. Forgot both.) I resorted to the magazine rack, grabbed three decent looking selections, slapped a fortune on the counter, and headed for the plane. One was Time’s 40 Anniversary Special, another was a Vanity Fair edition that looked more interesting this time than inappropriate and the third was a magazine my personal assistant really loves. It’s kind of a health and fashion thing with an over-40 flair to it. The cover looked pretty hip so I pitched it in the mix with a “What the heck.” Thumbing through it, I happened on an article that was not only well written. It was one of the most thought provoking secular articles I’ve read in a good while. (“More,” May 2008 Issue, p.90)
In the article entitled “My So-Called Genius” author Laura Fraser recounts her remarkable journey from whiz-kid-dom to an adulthood of unmet expectations and fairly ordinary life. Don’t let my crude synopsis keep you from reading the article for yourself because I won’t do it justice. I’d like to recap enough, however, to explain why I found it significant. By the time she was five she’d already been labeled “precocious” and told repeatedly how special she was. The next years did not disappoint. She was brilliant and darling and surpassed her peers impressively, drawing the attention of adults who conveyed to her in a myriad of ways that she was destined for greatness. Then came college where she entered an academic world of peers who, not coincidentally, were told the same thing. By her late forties, she’d accomplished many good things but the expectation of greatness and the sense that she’d never quite achieved it (despite a best seller) haunted her with feelings of failure. All the well-meaning forecasts had done nothing but cast a pall of perfectionism upon her and, as her consultant so aptly pointed out, “Perfectionists always lose.” The consultant confronted her with a very important challenge that I’ll paraphrase: “Must you write a great book? How about writing a good book?” Fraser describes how age and time had become precious gifts and how she’d come to reconcile the unreasonable expectations with her reasonable success. In doing so she really made me think about some things. Here are a few:
How careful we need to be – as parents, teachers, relatives, leaders, or observers – about telling gifted children how great they are going to be. It is a trap and a forecast Fraser claims rarely pans out. She points out the monumental difference between talent and having a clue what to do with it and (again paraphrasing) how genius rarely exempts people from having to work hard just like everybody else who wants to make it. I’m a big believer in encouraging young people and imitating the Apostle Paul with Timothy by telling them that they are extraordinarily gifted. BUT, as we learned this weekend in Boise, every gift is a trust placed in human hands by a holy God and it is up to each individual to develop the integrity, humility, and work-ethic to know what on earth to do with it. A gift never guarantees success. In the long run as well as the routine day-in and day-out, those with the grit to just keep doing the hard thing will often prove more effective. Gift without grit is a dang waste.
How profoundly wise God’s way is. If we’re willing to follow His paradoxical path on the winding roadmap of Scripture, we have the joy of side-stepping this ankle-breaking trap. So will a few children we’re privileged to train. Living just to be great will prove at least empty and at most unbearable. Spending ourselves for something infinitely greater, however, still fans our parched souls with the God-given need to matter, but relieves us of the relentless pain of being the “It” Person at the center of it. To live for the greatness of God IS to live the great life. Oh, I know we’ve heard it before but what if something in us clicked all the sudden? What if we all at once awakened to what a dream-killer perfectionism is? And to how pitifully small and unworthy a goal personal greatness is? We were meant for so much more. Every one of us who embraces the glory of God as our lofty purpose for living will end up doing great things precisely because we end up doing God-things. His holy hand rested on the least act renders the ordinary extraordinary. Far from the least but sadly uncelebrated, spooning soup into the mouth of the weak and bed-bound or manning the church nursery so a tired mom can go to Sunday School are acts of highest worship when offered in the Name of Christ. Though the arrogant and ignorant minimize and miss it, Christ beholds the sight like a breathtaking work of art, tilting His head and squinting His eyes to study each subtle detail. “She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mark 14:6).
Christ, the very One who called us to abundant, effective life and commanded us to splash in the cool springs of joy while living it, announced the secret to the great life without a hint of contradiction:
Pour it out lavishly, sacrificially for the glory of God and the good of man. Those with presence of mind and semblance of health are called to pour out the drink offering of their lives until the cup is turned completely over and every last drop of energy slips – perhaps unnoticed, uncelebrated – into the vast ocean of earthly need. The last imperceptible drop of your well-lived life will sound like a tidal wave hitting the floor of the Grand Canyon to the hosts of Heaven.
“I’m already great enough for both of us,” Christ says in effect, relieving the willing of their woeful burden. “Just follow Me.” For “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45).
Beth,
I love hearing about all that you are doing in the places that you go to share Gods word… The things you say are so thought pervocking…
Thank you
Connie
GBU
Well, I do believe I’ve found a few quotes from this that will be plastered across my desk via sticky notes ASAP.
Thanks so much. I needed that word of encouragement.
Blessings to you from a Florida sister.
Thank you, Beth, for this great reminder that there is no higher calling than to serve in the name of Christ. And there is nothing that brings greater satisfaction or sense of success. What a privilege to serve Him!
How awesome. I am so glad taht you were able to spend that time with the team. I know God had a good time watching you guys!!!
Love you
Amanda in SC
Thank you for sharing this. I struggle with this as a mom. My little girl is a very bright GRC (gifted) student. I want her to realize that God has given her potential but I don’t want to set her up for failure by making her think it will all just come to her -because when it doesn’t she will feel really stupid…believe me, I was told the same thing at a young age, yet here I am, finally in college in my thirties because I feared everyone else would find out that I’m not so exceptionally bright after all!! My pride just couldn’t take it as a 17 year old – and yes, my pride still takes a beating when I struggle through a basic course!
Awesome post Beth..
I like to say never become self involed that you are no longer humbled in the presence of Jesus.
And since you have your laptop on the plane, when you need some good reading just check out some of these seista’s blogs
This is a powerful word, Beth. Spend it lavishly, Paul tells us. That’s something I’ve been thinking about recently. I’m a “40 something, never quite lived up to my expectations of what abundant living must look and feel like kind of girl.” There are times when my heart resides there…but there are seasons when my “current” falls short of what I crave. And what I crave is contentment and joy in my current, for whatever task currently boasts my portion.
As of late, Christ’s Spirit has gently, yet boldly spoken this truth within…
“Spend it now child. Pour it forth. Do not wait. Tomorrow is not promised to you.”
As a writer, I’ve been prone to keeping my words to myself…saving them for some great book yet to be published. That book hasn’t arrived yet, but God asks me to spend my words for him…
NOW. Not then, but today. And thus, my obedience leads me to an end that I consider less than perfect, but one that may be his perfection in me even now.
I will continue to pour as long as…
No time table. Just as long as.
Until I come to my earthly end and walk home to my forever, where I long to hear the words…
“Well done. Spent well. Come and enjoy your Master’s happiness for always.”
Now that’s got me thinking. Let not my pouring, Lord, be in vain. Let it all count for my “next.”
Peace to you this week, Beth. You are well loved!
~elaine
This is such a wise, wonderful post Beth. I don’t think we ever outgrow that need for approval, that need to be “great”- until we can finally see ourselves as He sees us. I know I struggle with it all the time, and I’m a grandmother! It creeps into everything I do – even blogging. Do I have as many comments? How many people visited my blog? Why don’t I have as many as so and so? Oh that we could learn to find our worth in Him; to see from His perspective.
Thank you for this Beth.
I’m glad Boise was noisy and wonderful!
Beautiful and timely and spoke straight to my heart. “Gift without grit is a dang waste.” Written for me. Thank you, as always, for sharing straight from His Heart.
Hi Beth,
A prayer for you:
Lord, we all thank you for the beauty of you Jesus we see in Beth. She is special. You have your hand upon her. You are her refuge and strength. I ask that you bless Beth with a greater measure of your manifest presence. May she pour all you have given her out…let her leave on E (empty). Thank you Lord for Beth and her family. We all love her. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Barbara K.
Good food for thought! Thank you.
Beth, I smiled at your mention of the game “Pit” 🙂 Our family has enjoyed some crazy games of Pit. Glad to hear that there are other people out there as ridiculous as we are 🙂
Good thoughts, Beth — thank you! I like the insights you pulled out of the secular magazine. I have lived forever with a servant attitude — putting others first, doing my best for (and with) God so as to glorify Him. How do you reconcile service to others with your own needs? I’m so confused as to how to care for myself. For the last two years I’ve been “pouring myself out as a drink offering” to serve my husband as he battles major depression. It’s not going away….
Dear Beth,
Thank you for this lovely post. We were thinking about you this weekend. Hope you are doing well – know that your sisters in Clyde, Missouri still pray for you daily.
Much love,
Sister Lynn
Beth,
Your message is so “perfect” for us perfectionists. What a timely Word. And what a good Word to help us not try to make our kids the same kind of perfectionist that we already are and so desperately wish we weren’t. God has everything we need. He is so good.
AMEN! What profound thoughts! I recently had one of those thought-provoking experiences that seems to fit your line of thinking here, Beth. I’ve been playing piano for 50 years, 30+ of them in church, choirs, praise teams, worship ensembles. (Nobody’s better than TRAVIS!!!) Recently one of our choir members questioned me about my background, training, experience, etc. then asked, “When were you told that you had an exceptional gift?” I looked at her in amazement and had to honestly answer, “No one ever told me that.” Maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference in my life if someone had said that. Today, I take every opportunity to use whatever talent or gift God has given me for His glory. Could I have done more? Probably. Would I have been better? No doubt. Words of encouragement (not for perfection . . . I used to be one of those, too! . . . my own worst enemy) are more powerful than we can imagine. Praise God for your time in Boise! And for your Saturday night with your team. Thank you for all you do for Him, for us.
Ann in Bedford, VA
The gift of genius almost never precludes the need for grit. I told my children, both the gifted and the struggler, not to get too comfortable because the people with a gift always “die out somehwere” where the ones who continue to work at it will surpass the obviously gifted every time, in my own observation. Success in His Eyes is our own reliance upon His Greatness. I love that place of rest in how we define ourselves as Christians. Welcome home, weary Beth. Rest now in Him this day and let ordinary become extraordinary with Him. His Yoke is easy. I love you, my friend, Annette
Wow — I needed those words today. Thank you for the encouragement and reminder that what seems to us as nothing, or pitifully insignificant. is so sweet to our Savior!
Krista W.
Thank you, Miss Beth.
I recall in Believing God (forgive me, but I just can’t get the HTML tags right to save my life, so imagine that underlined or italicized) when you mentioned that God teaches you in themes, and I’ve noticed that He does the same for me. Theme of using our gifts has been a consistent theme He’s been using in my life for the better part of two weeks. In fact, last week’s sermon was about it, and I had to catch it from the narthex while I helped serve a Mother’s Day luncheon (which was my extreme privilege and pleasure) but I caught enough to know that God was trying to hit that theme home with me. He’s brought it to me time and again since then, and I have no doubt whatsoever that this current message you’re sending us from thirty thousand feet up is precisely timed for this Siesta, and countless others, to take it in and savor it for a while. In fact, I may fix a chai tea latte later tonight and journal about it on my own.
I recall months ago thinking that God was setting me up to do a great (and very public) work, and He humbled me by making me realize that I wasn’t being faithful enough with the small things. That ego thing trips me up all too often, and God’s been doing no small work in diminishing its influence in my life and work. I want nothing more than to please my Savior in any way possible, and if that means wiping down the bathtub umpteen times so my kids have a spotless place to bathe, or squirting toothpaste on my husband’s toothbrush so he doesn’t have to when he’s too tired to remember his own name at the end of the day, then I will joyfully do it.
You’ve helped to drive this current theme home for me, and I am endlessly grateful. Safe travels to you, and I know I speak for many, many when I say we can’t wait to hear from you when you’re on the ground and on your back porch!
PRAISE HIM!
Lisa in Western PA
Thank you for writing this, you really don’t know how much it means to me.
Beth – You were such a blessing to all of us in Boise this weekend. God did a work on me ….. Thank you for bringing God’s best healthy words to us. The commissionining at the end was very very powerful! Tell Travis the music was amazing also! God was moving!
Beth…Thanks for your words today, sister. You make me want to be so much more for Jesus. For so many years now you have been my “pacer” in this great race of faith. Sweet friend, as you are tired today, I’ll be liften you up so that you can continue to give us more of what you’ve got for many years to come. Love you, girl.
Beth,You are so cool! I wish I could be with you during some of these times, but as said before, in Heaven we’ll get to share forever! Thanks for allowing us into your world through your writings. Also, for reminding me that as long as I’m doing what God’s called me to do, I’m successful and blessed. I want to live out loud and live well! God bless you and welcome home again. Carla
I wonder how you knew that was EXACTLY what I need to hear today.
Thank you, Beth, from a woman who was constantly told as a young girl that she would “one day” be a stunning beauty and would light the world on fire. Now half way through my 40s it has dawned on me that “one day” has come and gone and I have never felt like the stunning beauty I was promised to be. After analyzing that for the last few years I realize that I am a very attractive woman (though I’ve never felt that way in any moment that really mattered)but so what! When I was a small girl I went to some sort of amusement park that had giant mushroom figures in the park. Supposedly you could make a wish on the mushroom and it would come true in the middle of the night (or so that is the way I’ve remembered it). After wishing to turn into Cinderella I waited up all night (or so my 5 year old self thought I did) to see if I would indeed turn into the beautiful princess. I did not. Surprise, surprise! Funny that I remember that event so long ago, but I think it was a humorous and simplistic foretelling of the life I would lead – constantly waiting to turn into something bigger and better than what I am. Just in recent years have I realized that what I actually turned into was something much more than what I had hoped for.
I fear that so many of us women are still waiting to grow up, to become, even to turn into. The truth is God has made us all we need to be, and you are so right that the key that unlocks the magic of it all is service, holy and selfless service that helps others but ultimately glorifies God. When we serve it is like putting on the magical glass slipper that opens up a whole new world to us. It reveals who we were meant to be all along and makes us more beautiful than any garment, or makeup, or fresh haircut could.
Thanks for your profound blog. I apologize for my lengthy comment which is actually more of a blog entry in and of itself! You just hit me right where I’m at!
Love you and praying for you! Kay
Oh, Beth. I’m one of the lucky ones who got to spend the weekend with you here in Boise. What an absolute blessing. I always feel like being with you (either in person or while I’m working on one of your studies) is like being personally invited to sit at the feet of Jesus with you and soak Him in. I’m a Boise Siesta (thought about getting a t-shirt to wear this weekend that said so!) and I can’t tell you what a blessing it was to have you here. My mind has been spinning with all of the amazing things God was trying to say to me. It was like a drink from a bubbling spring on a hot summer day to know that somehow my FOO wasn’t an accident and that God will use my experiences for his Glory. Hallelujah! Some of my FOO are coming to stay with me next weekend and I really needed to hear what you had to say in preparation for their visit.
I held it all together pretty well for most of our time together. Until the end, that is. I can’t tell you how humbling it was to receive your commissioning. It brings tears to my eyes even now. So much so that I can hardly go on typing this. It hit me like an anvil on Wylie Cyote’s head. I can’t ever remember a time in my life where someone had enough faith in me and what God was going to do in me to think me capable of half of what you expressed. Seriously. I can’t type through the tears. I was so humbled and felt myself so unworthy of anything of that magnitude. Thank you for genuinely believing in me. I know you don’t “know” me, but I still believe you do believe that God can do a miracle in me. Thank you for that. For that level of confidence in me, but mostly in God. That you’re so sure he wants it that you’re willing to come here and tell me. God used you in a mighty way this weekend and I count myself lucky to have been a part of it. It really is something I won’t ever forget. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for me. I praise God for you.
I’m so glad you got to stay on a little longer and enjoy some time with people who are so dear to you. I know they were blessed by it. I hope you enjoyed our beautiful city and that you’ll come back sometime soon.
{{{Hugs}}} from a Boise Siesta,
Britiney
Sounds like a great party. It also sounds like there are some chirstian people out there who are taking parting back. yeah! :0)
I would like to learn the cha-cha slide….who knows maybe one day, you’ll teach me.
I wish I knew you would be neededing a book to read I have one for you, but you won’t find it at the store….yet…unless you are in Down Town Franlkin TN and happen to stop in at Landmark book sellers. Maybe I’ll have to send one to you.
Perfectionist….I am so far from that one, weew honey,to have to do something to a prefect end, ….that would be the end of me.
I’m gald you had fun, not only at Noisy Boise, but with your Nashville friends as well.
Party on with your badslef.
Becky
Beth:
Thank you for the reminder. It dovetailed with my husbands sermon perfectly. God used both to speak volumes to me.
Glad you had tons of fun this weekend.
Kim B. in AZ
Peace is often a simple exchange…trading pride for humility…trading have to’s for His will…trading failures with forgiveness…trading selfish ambition with servitude… It is like bearing under the weight of a heavy load that you suddenly realize can come off… if only you are willing to part with it.
Whoa! What a powerful word. By putting our focus on bringing glory to the Lord, we will be blessed far beyond anything that the world can measure.
Personal greatness is such a let down. When life is over and done with… very few people will remember how “great” we were. BUT living a life to the glory of God is a life that just keeps on giving. Eternal recognition is by far a better goal that worldly recognition. I’ll take that.
The Journey Continues ~
I just came inside from walking on the beach with my husband. I was praying while walking and decided to see if you had something to share with us today.
And how blessed us Siesta’s are to have your friendship and words to uplift. Beth, We thank you for your outreach!
With “Heaven Bound” blessings,
Kim Safina
http://www.kimsafinathejourneycontinues.blogspot.com
Oh Beth,
What a great encouragement!!! “Gift without grit is a waste.” How true, I love that! Thank you for a most timely word for my life. I was just encouraging my 13 year old with that exact point. With all the graduations lately, he needed to realize it in not just gifts that get you far in life, it is the “grit” of just choosing to work hard and not quit.
Thanks again~
Your Siesta,
Lynn
Well said, Siesta Beth. I will tell my friends what to expect when they minister in Boise this summer at the Order of St Luke Conference, a bunch of great sisters in Christ…there must be great brothers in Christ there too.
God bless you and refresh you.
Amen. Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen!! I was one of those children. Around 7th grade, I stopped trying. I was afraid of failure. My English teacher told the class I was “a classic example of an underachiever.”
Praise the Lord, I finally figured out that living my life poured out for Christ is all that matters. Not being perfect. I’m 32 now and doing big (and itty-bitty) things for His glory. And reminding myself each day that abiding in Him and following His call is my (and His) greatest joy.
Love you, Beth!
Beth:
So glad everyone had such an awesome time in Boise. Someday, I’m going to get to go to a LPM event. 🙂
Thanks for the reading suggestion and the excellent insight.
I love all the LPM team. You are all so awesome and give so much. Thanks.
Siesta Marita
Thank you for traveling up to Noisy Boise – we loved every second of it and felt God’s presence in a huge way! Boise will be very busy fanning the flame!
Amen – and amen.
Dear Miss Beth, Thank you so much for this past weekend – for offering yourself as a drink offering and making yourself available for the power of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in you and witnessed and experienced by us. I feel like I have learned so much – and what an answer to prayer! I have been praying that I could and would open myself up to GOD with abandon and give Him complete access to my heart and life so that I can do the things, the impossible things, that He has prepared in advance for me to do. I have been praying for the supernatural ability to know how to reach and make my self accessible to the true act of loving GOD and loving others – specifically in reaching women for Christ and giving them a new message of hope. After this weekend, I feel so much more equipped, encouraged and commissioned to fan the flame, step out on faith, and do “the thing” for Jesus! May GOD be glorified in all we do! You be blessed this day, in Jesus name. So much appreciative love, *jodi
Oh, Beth. What joy fills my heart to see a post from you on your way home from our fair city – Boise. My heart is full after the conference this weekend. I feel renewed and I’m so thankful. Nothing compares to a contented, full heart of joy!
I love what you have to share about perfectionism. I have been learning just that thing the last few years – that perfectionism shouldn’t have a place in my life. It’s something I have to continually fight against – expecting so much out of myself. But I’m determined. I’d much rather embrace and enjoy life with arms wide open than be so hard on myself. And I want to give the same thing to my children. Baby steps. 🙂
I so wanted to wear a shirt this weekend that said, “I’m A SIESTA!” but my heart was hugging you just the same. Get home safely and keep us in your hearts.
So beautifully spoken Beth. Our oldest daughter is one sharp cookie and we are so darn careful around her not to puff her up further than the Lord can take her. One can only pray as a parent that we guide our blessings in a way that encourages their gifts and talents and that they be used all for HIS glory. This parenting gig is tough…no doubt about it. Thanks for the wonderful reminder!! Love the game Pit too by the way.
wow, Beth – but i know exactly how that feels. Everyone always bragged on me – “you have such a beautiful voice”, “oh i love to hear you sing”, etc. But because I am not on Broadway or made a CD or written songs, I feel like a huge failure.
Doesn’t matter that I sing and worship at my church and that I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. There’s something killing my dreams because I thought I would be…something else. That I would be needed and wanted. I’m not even sure what to do with these feelings. But I’ve been praying alot lately that God would help me to be content with where I am and not to long for what He doesn’t want me to need.
Thanks for giving me something more to think about here in this dark little part of my heart.
That post is one this achiever is going to need to sit with for a while. Thank you for continuing to share your life and thoughts with those who read this post.
Thanks for taking the time to read what we write back. God’s love in you is gorgeous. I pray He continues to work on that in each of us.
Bless you all as we each look at what perfectionism has robbed in our own lives…
Jina
Beth,
As the mother of one of those that the school system has labeled “gifted,” this post was for me.
Thanks for writing it — much to ponder. Off to do that now!
Blessings, friend!
Dori
Your Well
your well is deep
a gift from the
Sovereign hand of God.
Your well is full
to rejoice the hearts
of many.
When your door is
shut the water fills
every point of your land to -bitterness.
But when your door is open
it floods many, and sweetens
the smile of your heart
and many.
Your well is deep
is it there for you to keep?
Is it not His gift to you to replenish
the souls of those without?
To fill their hearts with joy
and sweeten their smile?
Keep the door open wide and
hold not deep inside.
For God’s door is open wide
and sweetens the hearts of many.
-aea
Our pastor is so quick to remind us (as often as is necessary), that the person who was in charge of making sure the preschool class had Koolaid and graham crackers is equal in God’s eyes to anyone on the platform at “Big Church”. I’m often reminded of Mother Teresa’s famous quote: “In this life we can not do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” My deliverance from perfectionalism was when I realized that when God looks down from Heaven, He sees all our heads as equal. No one is greater because she does a supposedly ‘greater’ work. He loves us all the same, and what He loves most is a heart that is wholly His. Thank you, Beth and Noisy Boise,for the reminder.
Oh , Beth. Such beautifully inspiring words. I have printed off parts of this and will put it on my bathroom mirror. Thank you for reminding us , how the LORD sees our unremarkable -to-the-world gifts , so that we will be inspired to continue giving til it hurts. Because the One this is ALL ABOUT ( !! )sees and acknowledges. We praise you Lord.
I love you Beth.
Elizabeth
What a fabulous post! Thank you for that! I am currently doing “Search for Significance” by Robert S. McGee and this just reiterated what I’ve been letting soak from my head to my heart.
Thank you for this!
I needed it tonight!
First, I really need to read this! Second, I have a standing ovation for my God!
I have been wanting to come to San Antonio so much and I just felt guilty to spend the money on me to come. I have had a lot of medical expenses over the last few years. My husband told me to go and that we could afford for me to go…but still I had no peace. I told him I wasn’t going to go and then I stopped and prayed and asked God to provide the money if I was to go. I got a call Thursday from my church. They said something was waiting for me in an envelope at the office. It was an anonymous money order in the amount of $600. The exact amount I calculated that it would take me. I told no one about my prayer but God alone. I was not surprised at God doing this but just that He would bless me when I am so undeserving. He is giving me the desire of my heart to go and be with all my siestas! How I praise Him
Praise the Lord for a great LPL in Boise! And for a rejuvenating retreat with your Lifeway Team too… I’m so glad that you got to spend some time just having fun with them! Sounds like you all had a blast.
I love what you wrote when you said, “Everyone of us who embrace the glory of God as our lofty purpose for living will end up doing great things precisely because we end up doing God-things. His holy hand rested on the least act renders the ordinary extraordinary.” Thank you for this reminder, Beth. May our focus remain on His glory and may He transform the ordinary into the extraordinary in us!
Much love and appreciation,
Tara