MY BLOG POSTS

Jesus, in Matthew 5, tells us, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Sometimes, though, as we go through the Christian life, we lose our “shine”. We get dull. Rather than being a light to point people to Jesus, we blend in to the world around us.

I was thinking about “shining” on Saturday night. My daughter, Emma, and her friends went bowling after Homecoming (yep, not much to do in Largo, FL…). I almost turned around because the bowling alley looked deserted from the outside. But we walked in and realized it was because this was “midnight bowling” where the florescent lights were turned off and only black lights were turned on.

As Emma got deeper into the bowling alley, she got brighter. Her neon-coral dress glowed under those lights. It was pretty funny.

As I walked out, I thought about how, though Emma’s dress was  bright, it didn’t glow like that at home while she was getting dressed, at the pictures before Homecoming, or at Homecoming itself. Nope, not until she stood under the black lights did that happen.

In the last two to three years, Emma’s relationship with God has grown steadily. She wakes up every morning and reads her Bible, she seeks out other believers for fellowship; before we moved here, she led a girls’ Bible study and was being mentored by godly women at our church. But, in those two to three years, life had been fairly easy for Emma. She was known at church and school, she was comfortable there. She had good friends and a familiar routine.

The move was tough on her because she had to leave so many amazing friends and influences. She left a school where she had a fabulous group of long-time friends, a church where she was plugged in and involved. She could have easily gotten angry at us – and God – for taking her away from all that. But, in what has probably been the “darkest” time for her personally, Emma has chosen to shine. She has chosen to cling to God even through the tough times. And God has blessed her for it – not just with tangible blessings, although there are those, but with internal, soul-deep blessings that will last for eternity.

And, sometimes, that’s why God allows us to experience difficulties: He wants to strengthen us, to grow us, refine us, bless us, so we can shine even brighter for Him.

So if you’re like Emma, and going through a “dark” time, don’t hide in the shadows, don’t allow the darkness to win. Stand under the “black lights” of your trial and SHINE!

My son’s K-3 teacher was named Mari Paz. She taught at a bilingual school in Madrid, Spain, and she had very strong opinions on how to properly educate preschoolers.

In our first meeting with her, Mari Paz held up a drawing of an apple and told all of the parents in the room that every child will color that picture inside the lines. If they didn’t color inside the lines, Mari Paz said she would throw the paper away and give them a new one. The children would keep working at coloring inside the lines until they got it right. She had plenty of blank apples for them to practice on.

I came home one day, not long after that talk, to find Thomas sitting at the table with a coloring book open, his little tongue stuck out, his tiny fingers moving slowly across the page, trying desperately to stay inside the lines. It made me want to cry. I threw that paper away, gave him a blank sheet and told him to create whatever he wanted. I want to foster creativity, not conformity!

This is sad when we think about a sweet little three-year-old. But what about us? How often do we feel the pressure to “color inside the lines”? We females, especially, get this. We need to look a certain way, dress a certain way, fit into a certain “mold.” And we sit, our tongues stuck out, our stomachs sucked in, trying desperately to stay inside those “lines.”

It’s just as crazy for us as it was for Thomas. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. God loves us, he created us for a purpose. And that purpose is most definitely not to try to fit into someone else’s ideals. That purpose is to be exactly who God made us to be. And we are created to be different sizes, different shapes, with different talents and interests.

So toss out that “picture” you’ve been trying to fit into, and look instead at God’s portrait of you. Beautiful. Made in His image. His precious child.

Besides, life would be incredibly boring if we were all pictures of apples colored inside the lines.

Costa Rica

Learning a second language as an adult is hard. I attempted to learn Spanish at age 30, first in Costa Rica, then in Spain. One thing you find out pretty quickly is that it’s almost impossible to completely lose your accent. As much as I wanted to speak like a native, I just couldn’t.

I stuck out a little in Costa Rica – I was taller and paler than most. But I fit in Spain pretty well. I could walk down the street and most people would assume I belonged there.

But then I would speak.

And they’d know I didn’t belong.

I was thinking about that today, and I began to wonder about my “spiritual” accent. I wondered if, when I open my mouth, people around me know right away that I’m not from around here.

In Hebrews 11, we read about some of the heroes of the faith. In verses 13-16, we are told these men and women admitted they were “strangers on this earth.” And that admission led them to a longing for their true home – their heavenly home – in a city God prepared for them.

It was not wrong for me to want to sound like a native Spanish speaker. But it would be very wrong of me to want to blend into this world.

Spain

I struggle with that all the time, though. I don’t want people to think I’m weird or label me narrow-minded or unintelligent because of my beliefs. So sometimes, I talk like the world, act like I belong here. I try to mask my spiritual accent.

And, sadly, there have been times in my life when I’ve done a great job at that, times when no one knew I was a stranger here.

And then I read about people like Enoch and Noah, Abraham and Sarah. People who, like me, weren’t perfect, but they lived a life of faith that looked absolutely insane to those around them. What they did made no sense – not even to them. But they trusted that God knows better than them, that His advice is better than the world’s, and they obeyed.

Like those heroes, we are not of this world. Our home is in heaven. Let us, like them, maintain our heavenly accents. So what if the world thinks we’re crazy?

We’re not from around here!

I did a lot of theater growing up. I tried some other stuff — like piano (meh), sports (yikes!), and beauty pageants (don’t EVEN get me started…). But theater was my first and greatest love. I was fortunate to grow up in a town with one of the top community theaters in the country and several amazing theaters in the surrounding cities, so I was ALWAYS in a show. I played everything from a mouse to an orphan to an existential wanderer….over 25 plays in all, from the time I was five until I graduated high school.

This is me (age 17) as the Wicked Stepmother in “Snow White”

Everyone – myself included – assumed I’d pursue theater after high school. Not just because I loved it, but because there was nothing else I was good at! Seriously. I was a terrible athlete and an average student. I was good at one thing and one thing only: performing.

But when I was sixteen, I dedicated my life to God at a Christian camp. I really meant it, too. I told God I would do whatever He asked me to do. So God immediately began working in me. First, he had me break up with the guy I was dating. That wasn’t too hard. But then…He made it clear He wanted me to leave the performing arts school I attended.

Gulp.

What?!

I knew what He was asking — not just that I leave the school, but that I give up my plans to be an actress.

Uh, God, maybe I heard you wrong? I prayed. I mean, Broadway needs missionaries, right? I could SO shine for You on the Great White Way. Pleeeeeeease??

But God was asking me to trust Him, to give up my plans for my life and follow His plans instead.

It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made, but I left the performing arts school – and my dream of becoming an actress – and obeyed.

God blessed my obedience in so many ways. It would take another blog – or ten – to talk about that! I have never regretted following God’s plan instead of mine. Never.

Most people make their most life-altering decisions between ages 16-24. I certainly did. Maybe you’re there, right in that window, and God is asking you to trust Him, to listen to Him, to follow Him wherever He leads.

That decision isn’t easy – believe me, I know! But I also know it is SO worth it. God knows far better than we do what is best for us.

(By the way: I still get to do theater – I direct and act, even write plays! I love that! And though it is a wonderful hobby, it isn’t my life’s passion…Ministering to teens is my life’s passion. But I never would have known that had I not surrendered to God’s leading all those years ago. In letting go of the “good”, God allowed me to have the “great”).