Start Strumming

As I stood on the front steps of Jackson Hall at Emmanuel College today, the memory movied in my mind of something that I will never forget. It was a normal-not-so-special afternoon in the spring of 1995. A few of us were hanging out on the steps of Jackson and someone had a guitar & was strumming around, making melodies, laughing, just having fun. I casually picked up this unfamiliar instrument and then it happened...I strummed the strings. In that instant I told myself, "I think I can do this!"

It was in that moment hope tied itself to the potential that paved a way to the reality of today. It wasn't until years later I actually got a guitar and started to teach myself using the little pocket chord book. However, I look back and I have to smile because I see how God lines things up, pushes things back, moves this and that to position His children for something good - His purpose alive in us! He has worked all along in the microscopic details to arrange these "God" moments - when He speaks destiny to our hearts. I'm not ashamed to say that I have BIG VISION for my life & family. I dream big and honestly, I want to dream even bigger! Jeremiah 33:3says, "Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come." Lord, I'm asking, believing and dreaming for the remarkable!

It is God who puts those deep desires inside our hearts for His pleasure & our purpose. The quest is to simply find the tools He placed in us for His kingdom use AND for His glory - NOT OURS! Maybe it's time to pick up where you stopped dreaming, dust off disbelief & lies and start strumming.

If it's not a reality yet, we are still responsible.

We cannot allow ourselves to stop growing, becoming, falling more in love with Jesus because we're in the waiting room. It's in the waiting where our character & patience is cultivated & shaped so that when the dream is ready, His workings inside of us has produced humility to hold it with the tenderness to carry it out. It's all by His grace & blood.

I have owned 3 guitars so far. My first, the sweet Takamine, was a Christmas gift from Brad. Now it's home is with a little boy in Honduras. My second guitar was my first electric...Fender...another Christmas gift from Brad. It belongs to another little boy in Augusta, GA...Caleb. My 3rd, the beautiful Alvarez, and yet another Christmas gift from Brad, is my favorite and best buddy. I plan to pass this to Maisey when she is ready. (Did I mention how much I love Christmas?) These guitars were expensive for us but we knew they were great investments toward the dream. Our passions will cost us just like God's passion for us cost Him His son. Be willing to spend and be spent for His dream.

God desires for us to not limit His potential in our lives because if we do, we make Him out to be small. He is big. His plans are big. His dreams are big for each of us but most of all, His love for us is big and will be the foundation in which the dreams He gives makes a difference in our big world. So when you hear yourself tell yourself YOU CAN DO THIS...believe it and with His help, you CAN!

Philippians 4:13 (Amplified Bible)
I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].