Monday Moment

I love the book of Philippians. It's always been one of my favorites. I love Paul and how he writes with love and compassion yet challenging and motivating. This series is starting just that way. 

Eddie wasted no time with the challenge. He stated that joyless people are seldom pleased, disgruntled, critical, judgmental, not easily impressed...and many are in the church. Some mean well and some are just, well, mean. 

Some lack joy because of their circumstances or some event that has happened and robbes them of their joy, yet others have every reason to be full of joy, but are not. 

Joy is found in Jesus and there are commodities that we can have to make our joy evident: thanksgiving, prayer, partnership, confidence, and affection.  

Joy is not found in a trouble free life or in stuff. Without Jesus you'll still be unhappy even with your stuff. But, with Jesus, even without stuff, you can still have joy. 

Rise happened at 6:00 at the Alive center and it was a great way to end an already great day. So thankful for another one of our worship teams who led us and Justin Broome taught from the scripture, about the point of the scripture. It went alongside what we heard that morning from our pastor on joy and made me more eager to get in the Word. Nathan expressed beautifully in the outro how it's not about what goes on around us. It's keeping our focus in Jesus. 

I pray your Monday is marvelous and you see opportunities to rejoice and share the joy of Jesus with those around you. 

Happy Birthday to my #1

Happy Birthday Honey! Here's your long overdue shoutout to tell you that I'm CRAZY for you! Every year brings more fun, more adventure, more laughs, and just plain more! You're the definition of true strength, character and integrity and after all of these years celebrating together, you're still the nice one. You deserve to be celebrated each day! Thank you for rubbing off on me in the good ways and helping rub off my rough edges. I'm more thankful every year that you were born and that you keep choosing me every day! I love you! Happiest of birthdays to the man who takes the cake when it comes to husband, dad, and papa! You da King!

God always comes through

This post is part of Lysa TerKeurst’s Uninvited Book Blog Tour which I am delighted to be a part of along with many other inspiring bloggers. To learn more and join us, click here.

I'm a pastor's wife.  I love it.  I'm not defined by it, but it is one of the banners over my life along with wife, mother, grandmother, friend, sister, daughter, maybe even a few others. I've at times and in certain seasons been very comfortable in that role and thrived and other seasons have been spent in loneliness and even feeling rejected.  Everyone thinks the pastor's wife has many friends. Why wouldn't everyone want to be her friend?! Maybe because it's hard at times. Maybe because of their own expectations of what the pastor's wife is like or should be like gets in the way. That can be enough to send anyone running. The truth at least for me is that I have few friends. Few, honest-to-goodness, be there whenever, through the good and bad friends. And you find out who those are when the rocky seasons hit. Honestly, I'm ok with that.  Most of mine are in some form of ministry, we kind of get one another. Few live close by and even fewer are actual members of the church we serve in. Others are in churches we formerly served or staff we served alongside. Thankfully, in this particular season of life, my children are grown and so they are our very best friends. 

However, I can share with you a particularly rocky season filled with loneliness, where I feel like out of His mercy, and for my own good, He removed some people in the "friend" category from our life. The more I waited and expected support, the more I got questions from some and silence from others. Honestly the silence hurt the most. We still had family  and a few close trusted church leaders/friends who came alongside of us to support and pray over us, but for the most part it was my husband, me and Jesus, and that proved to be enough. It was a time when we were called crazy and many questioned us as to why we were making certain life changing moves. Of course, off the wall rumors and guessing games were a part of the journey. But God showed up in a big way and did He ever show off. He showed us things and became to us what He never could have become with people in the way.

It started in a mountain cabin on a getaway week just for my husband and I.  We went almost every year and this year didn't seem any different until we began to ask one another the hard questions.  You see we had been at a particular church for 17 years. My husband was pastor. We had raised our children there for the most part. Life was good. Church was good. It would've been easy to coast and settle. But that's not either of us. And as we talked we realized there was a restlessness in both of us. He had felt it the summer before when he was on sabbatical. I had felt it that summer as well as God began to put on my heart things I was called to do. We were both united in our spirit that God was up to something, could be a hard something, but we knew He was moving us. No clue as to where, when, even why or how this was going to happen. The questions we asked one another brought all of this into focus, but still left much in the dark. And added even more questions. 

I can tell you that the few people we chose to share with before any solid decisions were made, chose to share it as well, and some used it against us. God allowed a few to rise up and offer support and love and prayers but even they couldn't quite get a grasp on what was going on.  In the midst of what seemed chaotic and uncertain, I felt the greatest calm and peace. He led me to scripture that I could claim and hold fast to. He began showing in tiny increments that He had a great plan and no man could thwart it. He began giving my husband a vision and dreams that were God-sized and honestly a bit scary. He definitely gave us perspective on people.  I can tell you that the people we thought would've been there for us in the hardest of times, seemed to fall off the face of the earth. Others came out of the woodwork!  And then those few, who are the friends of, "whatever season you're in, we are in with you", shined brightly. 

There are many things He left me with from this experience. He brought home to me that He is enough! He came through, on time, every time and shattered every doubt I had concerning His plan. He gave me more confidence and boldness to walk in Him and in His way that I never would've had without this season. He taught me that people are not where we place our hope and trust. We place that in Him. Too often in my life I turned to people because I could see them and hear from them clearly. He taught me how to see Him and hear from Him clearly during this time. There were reasons He didn't allow certain people and relationships that we had trusted in to come through for us in this time. For reasons that are still hazy, He wanted us to see some harsh reality and know truth where maybe we had believed lies. And I still don't know why that is. But it gave us a better perspective on people and more belief in Him. I kept telling Him it could've been cleaner and tidier with a big beautiful bow on top. But our ways aren't always His ways. And there were things He wanted us to know that otherwise we wouldn't have and those lessons continue to serve us well. You see He will never allow people to be to us what only He can be. He will not allow that. And in ministry, as well as in life, that is especially helpful and has been since He brought all of this to fruition. He taught me that if everyone else thinks you're crazy, if God has called you to it, you be obedient to Him and believe Him. 

You see, He did move us.  And He has fulfilled God-sized dreams and visions.  He's come through in every way and in ways we didn't even know we needed Him to.  As Lysa says in her book, "the
Devil wants us to fill our emptiness with an unhealthy dependence on the acceptance of others." I've been there before! God forbid I'm ever there again. People make very poor gods! We were not created to be all that others need in any kind of earthly relationship. 

He continues to give me such  gratitude for His great faithfulness and the truth that he will never, ever let me down. And He's given me the ability to grace and love people more and in a healthy way!

Even when you’re overlooked by others, you are handpicked by God. In her new book, Uninvited, New York Times bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst will help you live like you really believe that truth! You can get your copy by going to www.uninvitedbook.com.

A picture blog Mackenzie arrived

Mackenzie James Hux

I cannot believe this little one is a week old already. A week and a day actually. She weighed 8 lbs 13 oz at birth so you know her mommy was ready to get her here, but we sure were as well. The anticipation was getting more than we could stand because she was 5 days late. Brooklynn was 3 weeks early so I think we all had our hopes up of her getting here earlier than she did. Now we know why for both girls...Brooklynn hasn't stopped moving since she arrived, just couldn't wait to get here and get started and Mackenzie was content where she was and seems to care about nothing but sleep and chilling. You may say well all babies are like that, ummmm not exactly hahaha! We tease that she heard all that was going on outside the womb and was determined to stay put. 

Yes, Mackenzie, this whole, enormous, extended family you've been born into is a bit over the top at times. We are loud and can be a bit much, but you are loved by lots of aunts, uncles, grandparents, a big wonderful church family and of course the greatest mom and dad and big sister on the planet. You will never lack for family to love on you and encourage you and cheer for you! It's a crazy bunch but it's good and God is good to have blessed us with you and you with so much family to surround you. 

We cannot wait to see you grow. We look forward to watching you find out what you enjoy doing. We know God has created you with desires and equipped you and enabled you to use those desires for His kingdom. We can't wait to celebrate the day of your salvation, your 2nd birth, as we've already claimed that and believing God for that since we first heard of you. You were created with eternity set in your heart and good works are already established for you to do. As much as we all love you, God loves you more and more and more. You sweet child have been dedicated and prayed over and we are believing God for great things! We love you so much! 

I've thrown in our pics of from just moments old to a few hours! Blog #2 is going to be just a blog-load of pics if you'll indulge me or you can skip ;)

Monday Moment (formerly MMP)

So the Monday Morning Perspective is staying the same with a name change. I like to change things up occasionally and it's been plenty long enough with this name. No great theological, intellectual reason. I just like change! And I thought it's a good time since we are starting a new study and a new service so that's all there really is to it! 

 This has been a tough weekend for our church. We lost (actually he's not lost, we know exactly where he is, but it's a loss to us here) another great and godly man John Cowan. He was a leader in every definition of the word. He served like very few others, quietly, in many areas, humbly, never seeming to desire applause or recognition. Therefore yesterday was hard, but good. It gave his church family the opportunity to come together to comfort his family and one another while worshipping the God we know to be in control even in our time of looking up through tears and saying "why him God?" Some things make no sense but we celebrate for John who is with Jesus, whom he loved and served well and showed us all through his example of what following Jesus really looks like. 

It was a perfect day, a God ordered day, for us to begin our journey through the book of Philippians. Eddie gave us a background to establish our foundation for this study as well as reminding us that in this world of much pain and hurt, natural disasters and brokenness, where people, even self proclaimed Christians, lie about others, gossip about others and intentionally hurt one another, we can live a life of peace and joy! 

The call as always is to find peace with God by being saved by the grace of God. Then we can have the peace of God despite our less than desirable circumstances. 

We also started our Sunday night service back that we now call Rise. It's my husband's vision of a service that will raise up leaders as well as believers who will then GO into our city and other cities with a passion to see people come to know Jesus. Thank you to those who have prayed earnestly, worked tirelessly, and served beyond their feelings of equipping and allowed God to do the equipping and use them to do an incredible work. They have been selfless and followed their pastor's leadership of helping with what God started impressing on his heart last summer. Thank you to all of you!! Eddie was on fire last night as he preached on the Church emphasizing that it is built on Jesus and our church will not be built on any person other than Jesus! There was such a sweet yet powerful Spirit among us and God showed up and showed off. Keiffer Mendoza always does a fabulous job leading worship, his sincere heart is evident as he leads and he is surrounded by gifted artists who lead beautifully together. Thank you to all of the many volunteers who make Rise a reality! 

I was thrilled that all and every generation was represented last night. Come join us! It's a great way to end your Sunday and be ready for Monday morning. 

Freedom from comparison. Freedom from taunting.

We are a culture that compares.  We use the phrase "let's compare notes".  We compare all kinds of things. We compare schools and churches and ministries.  We compare neighborhoods and cars.  We even compare problems and stress levels.  And outfits.  And people.  And jobs.  And ourselves against others.  I think at times comparison gets a bad rap and I've bashed it myself.  It has the potential to be dangerous and get out of hand but it doesn't have to be.  It can be unhealthy.  But it can also be helpful and beneficial when it's done the right way for the right reasons.

I was thinking about it the other day.  It came to mind because my second grand girl was born.  We were just talking about how this birth compared to the other.  How do their sleep patterns compare, their color, their size.  Pregnant moms always tend to hear lots of pregnancy/birth stories.  And to hear sports dads talk...either about themselves or their kids... Comparison.

With the Rio Olympics being on the past two weeks, there's been a lot of comparison talk.  The scores of athletes, their abilities, their training and coaching.  What got me really thinking was the picture of Michael Phelps swimming in a final against a rival.  So much "pregame" talk by media about this race.  So much made of it and the taunting that was going on by one of the swimmers.  Then there was a picture that truly captured my attention.  The one of Michael Phelps swimming and totally focused on where he was going and the other guy swimming next to him with his eyes focused on Michael Phelps.  Comparing no doubt.  Michael Phelps won the race and a caption I saw read: "Winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners."  How true that can be.  I can't remember the rival's name.  I do remember the name Michael Phelps.

We are also a culture that loves to taunt.  We are prideful.  We want to be first and best and thought well of.  Our pride is killing us and we kill relationships hanging on to it trying to look good and be right, even if we aren't good and we aren't right.  Appearance means everything to us so we try to knock others off of their game thinking that will make us look better.  It doesn't.  We look childish.  We look hateful.  We come off as mean.

Phelps seemed to look past the taunting. He ignored it.  Didn't look to the lane next to him.  He focused on HIS race.  He focused on what was in front of HIM.

How much better would life be for most all of us if we didn't pay attention to the taunting.  You know, those people who love to push our buttons to get a reaction.  Those who distract us because we get all tangled up in their drama or arguing with them or defending ourselves.  Those who thrive on drama and love to argue.  We focus on stuff that doesn't mean a "hill of beans" as my grandmother used to say.

How much better would life be for most all of us if we didn't do the unhealthy comparison, focusing on the people in the lanes next to us.  If we just ran our own race, focused on what God has called us to do, stopped arguing, defending, trying to make a point.  Stopped getting caught up in the petty things.  What if we tried instead to, not look the other way, but look God's way. Kept our focus on Him.  Said, politely, even if through gritted teeth, "thank you", and then just walked away.  Mouth shut. We would be the winner.

If we are prone to compare, why don't we do it the healthy way, and not compare ourselves to others but to ourself.  Maybe compare how much closer we are to Jesus this year than last year.  Are we growing in our faith how WE  should, not how OTHERS are?  Are we doing a good job parenting not compared to our neighbors but based on how God tells us to parent?  Is our marriage what it should be, not in comparison to our siblings or best friend, but biblically?  Healthy comparison.

One good thing about aging is you've lived to see how much better things work out when you learn to recognize the enemy in a situation and know that he's working to distract, throw you off of your game, keep you from making a difference for the kingdom because we get all caught up in the moment.

Staying in our own lane, focused, free from distractions, free from comparisons, free from the taunting always leads to more joy, more peace, more satisfaction, and more wins.

          Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw
          off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run
          with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the
          author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross
          scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider
          him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary
          and lose heart.  Hebrews 12:1-3

Let's do what He's called us to do His way.