The Truth About Fairy Tales

As little girls we have enjoyed many wonderful tales of fantasy with princesses, prince charmings and enemies to overcome leading to a glorious ending of "and they lived happily ever-after".  The princess is always perfectly beautiful, the prince is brave and handsome, and the ending is always full of wedding day celebration and promise of love forevermore. 

In reflection of all of the fairytale stories I have seen in all my many years as a girl (we all still have one inside, you know), I have noticed that these tales were perhaps a way of teaching us to have a hope for a future beyond the life we live everyday.  Let me show you what I mean.

In centuries past, families did not have libraries of books, cds and dvds, to provide inspiration or entertainment.  They spent time carrying the stories of their family history from generation to generation by sitting around the fire and telling and re-telling the history so it would not get lost.  The same was done in the age of the Bible.  The Israelites were repeatedly told to tell the stories and testimonies of what God did to the next generation and they would continue it also.  In this way they would have comfort knowing Jehovah always watches over them and loves and delivers them.  Those testimonies were of truth, not fantasy.  Real history of their family.

Jesus spent time using stories to show the Truth of what our relationship with Him was to be like and Who the Father is.  Jesus used parables and they were effective in helping people to understand the character of God.

So let's look back at these fairytales that we have made disney rich over.  Come on, I know that there are disney princesses in your closets somewhere.   First we find the princess, who doesnt know she is a princess or if she knows she is a princess, she doesnt identify with that.  (Okay, we have now involved every woman young and old on the planet.)  Then of course there is the evil characters that bring trouble to the princess being able to be free, live as she should, or find true love. (This character can take many forms, cause we have many enemies in life, sometimes it can even be a mirror of ourselves because we are our own enemies much of the time.)  Then through some searching and sacrifice appears, the handsome prince to save the day and bring true love to the princess.  (Sounds like a Savior to me, girls).  Then there comes a wedding.

The power of fairytales, the truth about them, lies in their ability to show a story of hope and enduring love.  But we have the opportunity to experience this in life for real, no fantasy.  God sees us as princesses, not in the negative conotation that spoiled indulgent rich girls have made it out to be, but in the precious and priceless love of His life.  The girl that He desires to be full of His grace, love and beauty.  She has the whole world at her beckoning as she comes to follow His ways.  God sent the perfect prince for His princesses.  Jesus sacrificed far more than any story could tell.  He gave His life for the princesses.  He is the example of everlasting love and care.  The enemies we all face are many, but with this Prince of Peace we always overcome.

The True fairy tale would not be done without the promise of a glorious wedding where the marriage is fulfilled and the world is transformed to what was the intention all along.  That wedding day is approaching.  The Bride is preparing her most beautiful whites because the Bridegroom has brought the Truth of salvation and God will be lifted up. 

So the next time you watch a disney story - allow yourself to see the characters as they should be.  The real princesses, the True Prince and the hope of the grand Wedding to come.  That is the only place where the ending can lead to happiness.  Oh, and yes, true princesses do roar!!!

This Side of Unforgiveness

It has been a little while since I was here but it has been an important time of reflection.  God created such wonderous gifts and abilities inside each of us.  He has such awesome plans for each life as conception takes place.  Think even of that word -"conception".  We think of it as the time when the sperm and the egg meet.  But let's look a little closer.  Perhaps, it really is the moment when the "concept" of who God designed for you to be greets the life giving energy He created within the design of procreation to release the beauty of you into this world.  All the joy He must have as He places within each one gifts that He laid aside just for you.  The smile on His face as he places gifts of love, song, music, movement, artistry, compassion, intelligence, and so on and so on.  He loves us each so dearly and as we come into the womb, He desires a full life, an abundant life for each one even though He knows there are always going to be bumps, bruises and sometimes damaging obstacles along the way.  But the Creator is always near and though through those times we can not see Him, Jesus is forever there to encourage us to keep on, dont give up, survive, rise above and persevere.

For the last couple of weeks, I was instructed by my mentors to write a list of everyone and everything that I needed to forgive.  Now as a Pastor and a Counselor I have to say - ummm - really???  I gotta do what?  I have already done these things.  But wise mentors always call you on your "crap" you know what I mean.  So I reluctantly obeyed and began a list.  I thought well I know I have some anger here and some hurt there, but the list will be short.  I have already done this kind of thing before and moved on.  Little did I know that I had taken up residence on the wrong side of unforgiveness and my soul and my spirit were suffering because of it.

As I prayed and began working on the list, I began to see some roots of despair and hurt that were still very much alive and well in me. They are as twisted vining roots wrapped all around my heart, my vital organs and were keeping me in grave clothes unable to really be free.  My unwillingness to look at them gave them life and power to hold me down.  3John 1:2 says that we prosper as our souls prosper.  If our souls are broken and smothered and dying so then is our life, our health and our spirits.  It is the healing of the soul that brings the freedom in Christ.

I found I had dealt with some stuff with my father and all of that, but I did not realize the pain I felt and the hurt from my dysfunctional relationship with my mother.  Pain, hurt and floods of memories and emotions came to the surface and the lies of shame and unworthiness washed up with them.  This side of unforgiveness is painful.  Living on this side of unforgiveness is not what God wants for anyone.  It is indeed a journey and it will continue, but I am giving notice today - I am packing up and moving.  This side of unforgiveness is not where I (or anyone else) belong.  The lion-hearted girl will roar again in a way she has never known before.

Feel Like A Woman

Doing bills and making shopping lists and updating the calendars in my home often brings me to a moment of reality.  Dont get me wrong we are very blessed but we all can dream big right before that paycheck arrives and then when you start to disperse it out to the necessary people it seems not so grand. 

Have you ever noticed how we expect one thing with great anticipation that some long awaited fulfillment will come and then "Bam" as Emeril would say, we are awakened by life.  If we let it, it can quickly discourage and dissappoint us.  But if we just approach it with a little humor ~ well we grow from it and keep right on moving on. 

I have no magnificent blog for you today, just a little humor for you to take into your weekend and your next round of reality.  Laugh - it does a body good!  Have a great weekend.

Feel like a woman
On a Trans-Atlantic flight, a plane passes through a severe storm. The turbulence is awful, and things go from bad to worse when one wing is struck by lightning.

One woman in particular loses it. Screaming, she stands up in the front of the plane. "I'm too young to die!" she wails. Then she yells, "Well, if I'm going to die, I want my last minutes on earth to be memorable! No one has ever made me really feel like a woman! Well I've had it! Is there ANYONE on this plane who can make me feel like a WOMAN??"

For a moment there is silence. everyone has forgotten their own peril, and they all stare, riveted, at the desperate woman in the front of the plane.

Then, a man stands up in the rear of the plane. "I can make you feel like a woman," he says. He's gorgeous! Tall, built, with flowing black hair and jet black eyes, he starts to walk slowly up the aisle, unbuttoning his shirt one button at a time. No one moves. The woman is breathing heavily in anticipation as the strange man approaches. He removes his shirt. Muscles ripple across his chest as he reaches her, and extends the arm holding his shirt to the trembling woman, and whispers: "Iron this."

Face to Face

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
       - Eleanor Roosevelt

A teacher I once had told me to prioritize my tasks by doing the things I dislike the most, first.  Then they are out of the way and I could enjoy the other tasks I liked.  It worked, I did my math first, which I did not like and then I would finish up with my Literature and Writing.  I never aced the math classes, but I did get through them and passed.

This past two months, I have been trying to avoid what I could feel in my spirit was coming.  As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I have gone through counseling and deep times of prayer to God to let go of so much pain.  But as my life is changing, for the better, God has been quietly and gently drawing on me that there is another level that is now ready to be removed and when that happens, I will have broken forever, some chains that have kept me bound.

This time the journey is about intimacy.  Oh, I have a love for people and a burning desire to see them set free from the emotional pain and suffering they have endured throughout life.  I preach and teach about truth, responsibility, boundaries, priorities and letting go.  But when it comes to myself, (counselors are not the best counselees) I keep people at an arm's length.  Even the ones I desperately want to be nearer too.

It is this fear of pain and abandonment that creeps its disgusting head up and whispers to me that people can not be really trusted and they always want something from me, to take something from me. That my very person will be malled and ripped at if I get too close.  Childhood abuse, especially sexual and violent does that.  It plants a seed, a lying seed that you will be diminished if you let relationships increase in your life.

This past month, I came face to face with that fear.  People I love and care deeply for have been trying to hold me and encourage me that it is a safe place. I can lean inward and discover the newness of unconditional love.  I resisted and God shoved a mirror in front of my face and what I saw was this fear, this thing I hate was in me.  I wrestled, I shifted blame, I wanted to run and hide, but had no where to go.  Wherever I went there it was, there I was.  One friend said, "If you dont pull up that root, it will prevent you from going onward!  It will stop you from fulfillment in your walk with God."  My heart stopped for a moment as the truth of that saturated through me.

On my knees, face to the floor, petitioning God to show me, heal me, take this all away.  I don't want to go through this process of emotional and spiritual surgery again.  It is exhausting and after all I am supposed to have it together.  There was the latch, pride had locked my mind on this nonsense.  I turned the key and said to my Father, "Ok, whatever is Your will, I will do it."  I made contacts with those who would be close by in this process and determined to change some unhealthy patterns.  It will be a journey, life is that very thing.  But I will keep on moving.  I will do the thing which I thought I could not do.  People this is how we get our "roar".  From deep within, a primal instinctive cry to connect with the Creator and let that sound resonate well beyond us to others who must walk the same valleys and hills.

I invite you to walk with me.  I will share, laugh, cry and challenge myself and you as God removes this next layer.  We all need friends as we take our jouney.  Thanks for coming with me....

Pastor V

So Blinded I Had to Turn a Deaf Ear

Proverbs 3:5-8 (New King James Version)

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
      And lean not on your own understanding;
       ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him,
      And He shall direct  your paths.
       ⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes;
      Fear the LORD and depart from evil.
       ⁸ It will be health to your flesh,
      And strength to your bones.

Have you ever found yourself to be struggling with symptoms of illness, yet still functioning and then your defenses and immune system can take no more so you end up going to the doctor?  Then you begin to recover and you suddenly realize once you begin to feel incredibly better that you had been sicker than you thought for a much longer time than you thought, because you had accepted the weakened state of being as the norm?  Once you are well, you feel stupid because you thought you WERE being strong by making yourself keep going and shrugging off the symptoms, only to realize in the end you were really BLIND to the truth and if you should have acknowledged you needed help along the way to maintain real endurance and health.  This is where I have been.  I have such an issue determining and maintaining boundaries and God is trying to help me see this.  Yet, I keep doing what I do not want to do.  Then I end up hurting others and myself.  I think the scripture above in Proverbs kind of says it all.  A new friend of mine just said last week that Proverbs was his favorite book and he is indeed a wise and balanced man.

Alot of this has to do with the words that we tell ourselves about a situation.  Alot of it is the lies that replay in our heads from our past and from the devil, he wants us to remain blind and sickly.  It is about whether we choose to listen to the life giving Words of life that come from the Lord or if we give place to the words of deception that bring death to our spirits and physical bodies. 

So this morning in prayer, I was reminded of a story that I think shows what I mean.  I hope it brings you life today.

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell
into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how very deep the pit was, they told the
two frogs that they were as good as dead. "Oh my, there is just no way!" some of the frogs shouted.  "Never gonna happen!" other frogs weeped aloud. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd
of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and
finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs were saying and expressing, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was DEAF. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

 We need to turn a deaf ear to anything other than what God says about us and just keep on jumpin!!

Be blessed today, my friends ~ Pastor V

Lunch with God

I have had a lot of thoughts about the people that God puts in our lives and the impact they can have on us.  Many times we say or think that we can not see God or His love for us.  But really we see tangible moments of that through our encounters with the people that come across our pathways.  The ones, we walk with, the ones, we work with, the ones we go to school with and even the ones we have lunch with...

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where
God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups 

and a six-pack of
Pepsi and he started his journey.

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old man. He was sitting
in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to him
and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink of his Pepsi
when he noticed that the old man looked hungry, so he offered
him a Reeses.

He gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. His smile was so pleasant
that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered the man a Pepsi.
Again, he smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all
afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.

As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave,
but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back
to the old man, and gave him a hug. He gave him his biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his
mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What
did you do today that made you so happy?

"He replied, "I had lunch with God." And before his mother could respond,
he added, "You know what? He's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"

Meanwhile, the old man, also radiant with joy returned to his home. His
son was stunned by the look of peace on his face and he asked, "Dad, what
did you do today that made you so happy?"

He replied, "I ate Reeses Peanut Butter cups in the park with God."

And, before his son
responded, he added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a
listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all
of which have the potential to turn a life around.

People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
Embrace all equally!

Have a blessed weekend and have "lunch" with someone soon!

Pastor V

Is Your Hut Burning?

My roar has been quite raspy lately.  I have had a setback that I was not expecting.  But who ever really expects a setback, you know.  I have stomped around here lately saying that I was quitting everything.  That somewhere I got in the wrong line and ended up in someone else's life and assignment in life.  Then today, I ran across this story of encouragement.  I hope it lifts you as it did me today.

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhibited
island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned
the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually
managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the
elements, and to store his few possessions.  But then one day, after
scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the
smoke rolling up to the sky.  The worst had happened; everything was lost.
He was stunned with grief and anger.  "God, how could you do this to me!" he
cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was
approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was
here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they
replied.

It is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. But we shouldn't
lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain
and suffering. Remember, next time your little hut is burning to the
ground----it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.  For
all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive
answer for it:

You say: "It's impossible" God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)
You say: "I'm too tired" God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)
Those who hope in the Lord will renew their Strength. (Isaiah 40:31)
You say: "Nobody really loves me" God says: I love you (John 3:16 & John
13:34)
You say: "I can't go on" God says: My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians
12:9 & Psalms 91:15)
You say: "I can't figure things out" God says: I will direct your steps
(Proverbs 3:5-6)
You say: "I can't do it" God says: You can do all things (Philippians 4:13)
You say: "I'm not able" God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)
You say: "It's not worth it" God says: It will be worth it (Roman 8:28)
You say: "I can't forgive myself" God says: I FORGIVE YOU (I John 1:9&
Romans 8:1)
You say: "I can't manage" God says: I will supply all your needs
(Philippians 4:19)
You say: "I'm afraid" God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (II
Timothy 1:7)
You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated" God says: Cast all your cares
on ME (1Peter 5:7)
You say: "I don't have enough faith" God says: I've given everyone a measure
of faith (Romans 12:3)
You say: "I'm not smart enough" God says: I give you wisdom (I Corinthians
1:30)
You say: "I feel all alone" God says: I will never leave you or forsake you
(Hebrews13:5)

Many Blessings and Much Love!
Pastor V