Good day everyone. I hope you are living well.
I have been focusing on my business blog as of late, which has kept me from Bits n Pieces. Our Home school starts up in less than 2 weeks and I am taking on another writing project, as well as hoping to get back to the business of writing my book. Additionally, I will continue to see therapy clients in my home clinic and manage our home (well, I pray). I know that the Lord will direct my path and quickly let me know if I have chosen well and in accordance with His will. He is awesome that way!!
God has been working on me in some great and greatly painful ways the last few months and I love it! I am tremendously humbled and excited beyond belief that our Magnificent Creator of All Things loves me so much that He would care enough to transform me, help me, move me, shake me and teach me to shine!
I have been reading a book by John Eldredge called Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive. It was given to me by a client of mine. I struggled with this book for several months; only reading small snip-its here and there and never getting much out of it. Until last week, that is. I love it when God brings things to me at just the perfect time; the time when I am ready to receive it. It's like receiving a gift.
I have been thinking about what it really means to be a Christian. What does it look like? What exactly should I be doing for God, for the Kingdom, for Eternity? I just felt discontent in my walk because something was missing. I had this nagging awareness that there had to be more to it.
John Edlredge (JE) wrote how, in the story of Cinderella, the king's son "insisted she come out of hiding." Revelation 2:19 relates that we are chosen by God. We are the objects of His love. God is calling us out. The Bible tells us to let our lights shine before men, so that God can be glorified. So then, we have a light to shine, but, personally speaking, I have been mostly hiding mine under a bushel. The truth is, we are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God! Is my life a reflection of that truth? Is yours? JE states that often we don't even know who we are in Christ and what our true self is...the one God created us to be. The unveiled self that reveals the glory of God's reflection.
In Second Corinthians Three it says, "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." See there? JE says, "we were created to reflect His glory, born to bear His image, and He ransomed us to reflect that glory again." He further relates, that we cannot bring glory to God when we are sulking around in a cellar (like Cinderella), weighed down by shame and guilt, or hiding our light. "Our destiny," he says, "is to come fully alive. To live with ever increasing glory."
I never thought of that, probably because it appears on the surface to be prideful. I don't have any glory. What could I possibly have to shine before men? JE writes that while "..pride is bad, to be sure. It is not prideful to embrace the truth that you are created in the image of God. We walk in humility because it is a glory bestowed. It reflects something of the Lord's glory."
I will continue next time further exploring this topic. I'll discuss shame vs. humility, and why we might fear stepping into this glory...plus more, because that's just how I am. ;)
Live abundantly in the joy of the Lord.
Be blessed,
Jeanne
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