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Posted on by Jen Weir

3 Ways to Not Show You’re a Follower of Christ 

They’ll know you by your sticker on the back of your car?

Nope.

They’ll know you by the church merch you wear?

Not likely.

They’ll know you by the cross necklace you wear?

Not even close.

The other day I was driving with middle babe, Canon, and we saw a bumper stick on a car that I did not understand. I needed him to explain it and when he did I said, “that is so stupid”.

He goes, “mom, I have a necklace like that.”

To which I said, “it’s still totally and utterly stupid, and now I think that necklace is ridiculous.”

Don’t worry, his feelings weren’t stung, he knows how I feel about tchotchkes etc. All Canon did was sighed and rolled his eyes.

I get that a lot when they try to explain to me the trendy way people attempt to share their faith with humanity and I subsequently reject the notion of the efficacy of it all.

Church merch, one of the things my husband loathed the most.

Jesus said, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

He shared this on the heels of telling His disciples He was giving them a new commandment, to love one another.

Funny isn’t how this was a new command? It’s always struck me odd that He needed to give His followers a new concept of Love. Apparently this was not the thought of the day with the rabbis. It certainly was to Hebrews back in the day, but at that particular point in time, when He walked the earth, Love each other was a bit foreign.

Incidentally, when you learn Hebrew on Duolingo, Love is one of the first words they teach. Telling, isn’t it?

In any case, as believers in the Messiah, literally we have one job, to share the incredible news of the gospel. We do this by demonstrating we follow Him. We do this by loving each other.

Church merch and cryptic bumper stickers (seriously what is it with those?) are not the way to say, “Hey! I have found freedom and healing from an incredibly loving God!”

Love is. It’s always the way.

But Love is such a foreign concept that we’ve been brow beaten to Love by condoning shenanigans and unsavory behavior that is against our perfect God.

So many shenanigans…

We cannot go by the world’s warped standard of Love and frankly, we cannot always trust the Church to know and teach what true Love is.

This classic and often overused misquoted passage gives us a peek into actual true Love, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Here’s one that is truncated on the idea and it’s rich meaning- “The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31

The truncating comes in when someone doesn’t love themselves so how on earth can they love their neighbor as themselves? Perhaps we could spend a little less time chastising the Body of Christ into loving their neighbor and helping them find the Love of their Father?

Peter chimes in with his own spin on Love with this beauty, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”. I wonder where he got that idea from.

And finally this one, that I am near constantly praying over myself and my children, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:2

That bearing with one another indicates a putting up with one another’s nonsense until they mature and grow up into the sons of God they’re meant to. In another words, be patient with your sibling, they’ll get there, they just need time, prayer and a whole lot of grace.

Understand that a cool t-shirt, sticker, or necklace is not what Jesus had in mind when He mentioned that people would know how we are His disciples.

The answer is Love. It’s always Love.

Finding Vision

Posted on by Jen Weir

Did you know there are 224 Bible verses regarding vision from both the Old and New Testaments? It would seem like vision is a big deal too our God. Is it for you?

Before we dive into vision and the importance of it for you personally, let’s see how good old dictionary.com defines vision.

(supernatural) vision; sight (from God)

Definition:

  1. the act or power of sensing with the eyes; sight.
  2. the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be: prophetic vision; the vision of an entrepreneur.
  3. an experience in which a personage, thing, or event appears vividly or credibly to the mind, although not actually present, often under the influence of a divine or other agency: a heavenly messenger appearing in a vision.Compare hallucination (def. 1).
  4. something seen or otherwise perceived during such an experience: The vision revealed its message.
  5. a vivid, imaginative conception or anticipation: visions of wealth and glory.
  6. something seen; an object of sight.
  7. a scene, person, etc., of extraordinary beauty: The sky was a vision of red and pink.
  8. computer vision. verb (used with object)
  9. to envision, or picture mentally: She tried to vision herself in a past century.

When we were knit together in our mother’s womb, we were gifted and called by God. We were born with a unique skill set, one that was put in us, to do only what He wanted us to do. 

Before we are born, the Lord carefully knit us together in our mother’s womb. He breathed life into us. As He knit us, He intricately sewed pieces of gifts, talents, desires, abilities etc into our fabric. Each strand of DNA is from Him, on purpose for the exact season and time in history we’d be born into. Some He gave the ability to be writers, some trainers, others scholars, still others judges, lawyers, teachers, and on and on. 

Did you also know? 

The family you were born into has much to do with the vision He has for you. Their talents and abilities and blessings are meant for you to build on and nurture so that in your season they can be once again reestablished or realized. Even your height, your build, your voice, your structure all matters for the vision He has for you. The very city and land you were born on have incredible significance. And if you want to get really deep, the date in your birthdays falls is important. For example, I was born in 1973, coincidentally the exact same year Roe v Wade was established. Was born into a time when babies would by law, be taken from the womb should the mother decide this to be ideal. Millions of my would be generation would never see the light of day. The timing is not lost on me and I pray your birth year and date would not lose significance for you either. 

Finding Your Vision 

Maybe you agree and understand that we all have a calling and purpose, so much so that you could recite ever sermon you ever heard on the subject. Yet in your own life, you have never found it. 

Perhaps you have bounce from job to job, career to career because maybe, just maybe this will help you find that nichè. 

Or is it possible that you heard all your life a woman was meant to raise the kids and take care of her husband, and when the kids grow, she might could consider a little job somewhere. 

As man, did you hear that you need a good job, making good money so that you can support a good family and create a good life for your self? 

Whatever the case may be, let’s begin to see the idea of vision from a truthful perspective and hopefully set you on a path to finding yours. 

Digging In

When it comes to finding what the Lord has for us, we must pause and ask some pointed questions.

Think back to what you were like as a child.

  • What did you enjoy? Hobbies, sports, activities and past times.
  • Think about when you were a young adult, what interests did you have then?
  • What did you excel at?
  • What was the catalyst that caused you to stop doing those things? What shifted for you?

The Word of God says in Habbakuk 2:2 “And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.“

There are two things to note here. Number one, we are to write the vision and number two we need to write it so big that even someone who is running past would be able to see it. I love how there is an assumption here that we would have a vision.

Just in case you are wondering if this word is for you, the answer is yes. All of scripture is a blueprint for our lives. We are meant to do the Word of God, not just read it and memorize it. So that we keep with the having two or three witnesses to make it a truth for us, we see in Proverbs 29:18, “Without a Vision is a people made naked, And whoso is keeping the law, O his happiness!” YLT

Other translations state that the people run wild or cast off restraint. Isn’t it interesting when you think of those who have gone through a midlife crisis? Could it be that person was never shown the vision God had for them so they went their own way and when they finally came to the end of themselves, they ran wild?

We must write the vision down. What God tells us in the secret place, we write it down so that we can pray into it, call it forth, grow in that area of our walk and run!

If you knew the vision and yet lost it, know this- a setback does not mean the vision isn’t for you anymore. The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable! Meaning, the gifts and calling He gave you are not able to be changed, reversed, they are final. He made you specifically with a vision in mind that you would love doing. If you never stepped into the vision because it was squashed out of you, it’s still yours for the taking. This is not the time to make excuse on why you never did something that you truly love. This is also not the time to blame your family of origin, or a spouse, or whoever stamped it out of you. This is the time to take the truth of God, His gifts, His callings are not to ever be changed. In addition, if you do not ever step in then there is a void in the fabric of history. It’s not like someone else will come along in your generation and do what only you could. Maybe your children will, if they catch a fresh revelation from God, but how much better is it to have had you step up and build a foundation for them to draft in?

First and foremost, God made you because He loves you. If you never realize the vision, He still loves you just as much. You are still welcomed into His kingdom if you’ve said yes to His Son. But to not discover His vision is like our children having a treasure in their bedroom growing up, yet never opening it. And that treasure would contain resources to live on, maps showing them to a world that was the most thrilling place- suited for them and others made like them.

Remember, it’s never too late.

It’s never too late to pick up again and start fresh.

It’s never too late to find your vision for the first time.

Moses was 80 when he went back to Egypt, he was very likely never meant to leave in the first place. he killed someone. It short, he had majorly messed up. But when it was time, God pulled him back, God used him in mighty ways. God didn’t raise up another deliverer, He wouldn’t back down even when Moses argued with Him. God wanted Moses and no one else would do.

Friend, God wants you and no one else will do.

It’s never too late to receive a fresh vision and finish the work God began in you. He is faithful and desires to finish it, you are totally and completely equipped for it. In fact, you have likely been training for this your whole life.

You must not quit, and you must press on when you get the revelation that the vision was lost.

On Monday, Septemeber 26th, we hosted a class on helaing our vision. If you are more of an auditory learner, I invite you to listen in and gain some fresh insight share here.

The LORD is My Peace

Posted on by Jen Weir

“He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.” Psalm 23:2

We’re in the middle-isa of a series in which I am walking us through Psalm 23 from the view of God’s covenant names. If you missed our first post, you can read about it here. In addition to starting the series, I share there about what it means to make a covenant. I would be remiss if I didn’t share what it means to be in a covenant, however. In a covenant agreement typically it is an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or perhaps not do something that is specified in the agreement. In the case of marriage, let’s say, the couple covenants to honor, love and be faithful to one another until death separates them. On a different vein, a covenant can also be a business deal- one promises to pay a certain amount by a certain or the other party has the legal and binding right to take a specific agreed upon action to get their money back.

With the Lord, and within the gospel, a covenant means a sacred agreement or mutual promise between God and a person or a group of people- those who believe on His Son, Jesus, in the case of the new covenant. When God made the covenant, He set the terms, He made the promises and we simply agreed with Him. If we are in covenant with Him, we get the blessings He has promised us. If He doesn’t give those blessings then He breaks His covenant promise with us, which God could never do. If we are not seeing the promises in our lives, the problem lies with us, not God on account of He made a promise to us that if we obey Him and His word, we will experience those promises.

In our walks with the LORD it is important to understand what is covenant and what it means to be in covenant because really, most do not experience the blessings and goodies in Jesus because they do not realize who they are what they have in Jesus. It is not realized simply because most cannot get out of their own emotions (the soul) to see and receive them.

Psalm 23:2 describe yet another one of God’s covenant names, YHWH Shalom, the LORD is Peace.

Peace is one of the goodies promised in Jesus as our right and privilege of being in covenant with God. He made us a promise that if we follow His ways we would be led to green pastures and quiet still waters. When storms spring up in life, can I tell you, it is not our God. Goodness, we are called sheep in the Word of God and have you ever seen a sheep stay anywhere near a place that is as tumultuous as rushing and stormy water? The LORD our Peace offers a resting place for us to experience His luxurious love. A good shepherd knows where ti pasture his flock, a perfect Shepherd knows even better. The green pastures spoken of here in the Psalm would be a stunning resting place, free from all fear. The Hebrew word for quiet waters is מְנוּחָה (menuha), or literally, the waters of a resting place.

This idea of the waters of a resting place reminds me of the woods in Massachusetts in the Winter. Many hiking areas on the East Coast also have lakes and little rushing rivers flowing in and around them. During the Winter however they are either dried up or completely frozen over. The stillness of the waters underneath the ice is incredible. A once rushing river of waters has been forced to quiet down for a season.

The Lord is My Shepherd

Posted on by Jen Weir

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. (מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָר)

Psalm 23:1

This Psalm is oft quoted for a variety of reasons. The oddest one that leaps to mind is when it’s recited at a funeral or someone’s death bed. Nothing about this Psalm says death, dying or drying near to any of that. In fact, quite the opposite. 

Since the death of my husband I think about death and diseases a lot. Not in a morbid weird way but pondering why people get sick and die that know the Lord. Before you send me a message with your reasonings attached, let me save you the digital ink and tell you- you don’t know and neither do I. There could be a number of reasons. None of which amounts to God’s will. It is not His will that we physically die. If it were then why did Jesus raise not one, not two, but at least three people while walking the earth? (Raising the son of the widow of Nain, Luke 7:11–17, Raising the daughter of Jairus — Luke 8:40–56, Raising Lazarus — John 11:17–44)

And why did He tell us we would do greater works? I know, it’s a hard one right? (John 14:12)

And why on earth do believers get sick, so sick, and sometimes die? These have been grapplings when I go prayer walking. As I pray over the city I live in, or drive on the streets I am fully confident that the Lord means for all who know Him to be made well. And yet… 

The one thought that keeps popping up is the problem does not lie with God (it never does), but rather with us. 

Which led me to Psalm 23. Thinking how many quote this at a funeral and hospital sick bed, I realized goodness, we sure take a beautiful word and cause it to suit our needs. In a desperate moment to bring comfort, we quote a Psalm that if we knew what it meant, perhaps we would have raised the dead or restored the sick one back to health. Could it be that the lack of seeing people raised from the dead and cancer irradiated lies within those who pray, or perhaps even those who teach others about the Word of God? The thing is, when we don’t see things line up in our lives the way the bible says they are suppose to, very often we blame God or rewrite doctrine to fit the circumstance we find ourselves in. 

Let’s forget about sick and dead people for a sec, let’s instead think about those in lack. Maybe it’s you or someone close to you has a lack of some kind. According to Psalm 23 David is reminding himself that the Lord is his Shepherd, in Him he lacks nothing. In Psalm 34:9 David admonishes the rest of us to fear the Lord with the promise that who those who fear God will have no want in them, there is nothing reserved or kept back from them by God. 

Interesting…

Verse 10 of Psalm 34 says it again in a different way, even the young lions lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing. 

So rather than following Romans 12 & not being conformed to the world but being transformed by renewing our minds, our culture has made a habit of being squeezed and pressed into the cultural norms of the day. Seems we find a twisting scripture to suit the needs of the day instead of forcing the days to look as scripture told us they would. 

Interesting…

The word in the Greek for being conformed is the word used for being pressed down, molded and shaped to be an identical replication. In other words, in Romans we are told emphatically “don’t be squeezed into the pattern of this world’s mold”, but we are to instead let transformation take place by renewing our minds. 

Renewing our thought life.

Renewing our emotions.

Renewing our will. 

Renewing our affections.

Renew how we do everything, think about everything and feel about literally every single thing. 

The Word of God says if we fear Him and following His ways, we literally lack no good thing. Not just nothing, we won’t want for any good thing. The surrounding culture will tell us we need to seek other means of provision because economy, viruses, cut backs, markets etc. But the Word of God says the total opposite. Fear God, lack no good thing. 

That about sums it up, doesn’t it? 

In Psalm 23 you’ll notice is the script talks about God’s covenant names. A covenant is a no way you will ever ever not never break the binding agreement you made otherwise, you promise if you do break it, you will be torn into two gruesome pieces. When people cut a covenant back in the day, they would take animals, cut them in half and walk down the middle as a symbol to say “If I break this covenant may what happened to these animals happen to me”. That my friend, is a serious deal making. Incidentally, this is the pattern that marriage follows, hence the walking down and aisle with “witnesses” on either side. It’s a symbol of a covenant relationship. As a child who has had parents remarried 4 times, I pray that we begin to view it as such once again. 

The thing is, God Himself, made a covenant with Abraham. Fast forward to us, Jesus made a new and better covenant with us. Hebrews 8:6 says, “Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as He is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises.” The shed blood of Jesus on the cross made it possible for us to now share in all the blessings of Abraham’s covenant and more besides! 

So when you see the name LORD in all caps like that in scripture, that is a clue that what is being said is a covenant name, or about to describe one of His promises to us. His covenant name means He swears by it, He holds fast to it and He will never break the promise of being that to and for us. 

The covenant name being addressed by David in verse one is YHVH Jireh, the LORD is my Provider. One of God’s names as Provider is basically Him saying He cannot not be anything but what that word means.He is not a man that He should lie.(Numbers 23:19) Names are a huge deal. Your name means something, it is a prophecy over you and your life and even your character. But humans can let themselves and others down by not living up to the name they have. But God, no way. God never lets anyone down, He can’t. It’s impossible for Him to not be the name He says He is. 

That is God as YHVH (yahweh) Jireh. The Lord is Provider. You can call Him, Provider and pray to Him as Provider. The early Pilgrims certainly did. Hence we have Providence, RI. That was a name they called God, Providence. They KNEW He was Provider. 

So when David says, “the LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want”, he is actually using two names for God. Shepherd and Provider. The name Shepherd has a list of attributes in itself! Think of a shepherd with its sheep. Protector, comforter, rescuer, defender, and provider. 

Times & Seasons of Trauma

Posted on by Brenda Chamness

Trauma Bonds To Time…

“Lori” dreaded the month of March. She didn’t know why; she only knew that every year during this month, she sank into a deep despair and couldn’t seem to pull out of it until sometime in April. She tried to lift her mood by spending time with her family, or going to see inspirational movies, or meditating on Scripture, but nothing worked. She had resigned herself to a month of depression and desperation. Lori was suffering from a Trauma Bond to Time.

During ministry sessions, we discovered that Lori’s best friend died in a car accident on March 4th, when Lori was only eight years old. She was heartbroken to lose her friend. Her parents did all they knew to help her, but she was deeply affected by her first experience of death. To make matters even worse, her pet dog got out of the fenced yard, and was never found. Lori mourned the second loss even more than that of her friend, because her dog was her comfort. Everyone tried to cheer her up, to make her feel better — but nothing worked for weeks. Lori finally pushed her grief down, and moved on with her life. However, her sadness was stored in her emotional vault, and she also formed the belief that “bad things happen in March.” As she grew older, anytime something disappointing or negative happened during the month of March, it added to the growing evidence that proved the danger of this time of year.

Time passed, and the connection to that original trauma at eight years old was forgotten, but the stored emotions remained in Lori’s subconscious mind, reminding her annually through unexplained sadness and grief. As we worked with Lori to process and release the retained emotions, and dissolved the false belief/negative expectancy that bad things happen in March, Lori was able to gain great freedom from her yearly bout with sadness.

A trauma bond to time can occur when we experience something that is extremely painful or troubling or frightening. Our feelings get “wired” to the timeframe of the event in our subconscious mind, and can also be connected to other things like smells, sounds, colors, etc, This is similar to how PTSD occurs, although the bond to time is cyclical instead of perpetual, If you lost a loved one near the holidays, and now find it difficult to enjoy this time of year, you may have a trauma bond to time.

So how can you discover whether or not your current feelings are tied to something in your past? Here are several steps you can take:

  1. Ask yourself, “When is the first time I remember feeling this way?” When you recall a time, then ask “Is there any earlier time than this one?” Remember that there are often layers of events that seem to reinforce the emotions because they get internally categorized and filed in the same place as the original event.
  2. Once you discover the earliest time or event, ask Holy Spirit if there is anything you need to do in order to release the pain/fear/trauma. This might include someone you need to forgive (yourself? person who hurt you? God, if you blamed Him at the time?) It might also include something you need to repent of, liker bitterness, judgement, resentment, etc. Whatever Holy Spirit reveals to you, do it. If you need help, call on Jesus Who daily intercedes for you, and He will help you.
  3. Next ask, “Is there a lie that I believed or that was formed in my heart about this event? About myself? About life in general? About God?” If so, first repent of believing the lie (repentance is {metanoia – Greek} which means to change your mind.) Then ask Holy Spirit to give you the truth that will break the power of the lie (false belief.)
  4. Pray something like this: “Father God, I repent for believing the lie that _____________________, and instead receive your Truth that ______________. I choose to release all of the accummulated pain/anger/fear/sadness/rejection/anxiety (whatever the stored emotion(s) is/are) to You right now that are connected in any way to this time and event. I ask You to take them from me as I release them. (Pause to allow Holy Spirit time to remove the trapped emotions.) Now I ask You to give me Your peace/strength/courage/calm/acceptance/freedom (whatever is opposite of the things you released) in exchange. (Pause and receive all that He has for you.) Father God, I ask You to dissolve all trauma bonds and triggers to the emotions, lies, pain, fear, etc., between me and every time, place, space, and dimension. I thank You for setting me free by Your power and grace, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

This is a very simplified example and explanation of trauma bonds to time. If you need help, we are here to assist you in getting freedom from anything that hinders you from experiencing the peace, love, and joy of Jesus!

  • * The story of Lori is fictional, but is a realistic example of some of the trauma bonds to time we have helped clients release.

Make a Great Dash

Posted on by Jen Weir

The little line between the point of your birth and the day you finish and go Home to the Lord, that is your dash. Are you making it great?

When I first became a believer it was at a youth camp. I wasn’t a camper, I was a counselor. I did not truly know the Lord, but rather I was a Cino (pronounced chino), a Christian in name only. No fruit, zero lifestyle change and really to look at me no one would have thought I believed in God. My friend needed a warm body and having nothing else to do that Summer so I said “sure thing!”. A free trip to the mountains in So Cal, um, yes please! Truly God had different plans for me. At that camp a man named Rick Countryman spoke arguably one of the most memorable sermons I have yet to hear. The Lord has used sermons and preacher’s TedTalks to impact me, but none to the degree this guy’s did. It was titled ‘How to create a great dash’. The dash being that little space between when you’re born and when you step over into heaven for eternity. For the last twenty six years that title has rolled in my mind over and over. I often ask myself, “how’s the dash looking?” and with the death of my husband last Summer, the idea of what will my earthly life look like once it’s finished has hurdled to the forefront of my mind.

There was a time in my life I thought leaving an impact on the world was of utmost importance. You know how the world says to leave a legacy now. Make a mark, leave the world better, etc. I now would argue against that. Leaving an impact can veer treacherously off to the self serving side of the road. Having fallen a number of times into a pride, arrogance and yes, self centered ditch far too many times, I do my level best to steer clear of that one, thank you very much. Leaving a legacy is less about those around you and more about yourself. Otherwise you’d be helping others around you create and impact. There’s a massive difference though few can see it.


I recently celebrated my 49th birthday and the idea of my dash came screeching to the front of my mind yet again. My “new year” begins the day of my birth every year. For most of the world their “New Year” begins on January 1, but for me, I have often considered my birthday to be my fresh start of sorts, should I need one. At minimum I prayerfully consider the path I’m on, goals, whether physical, emotion or spiritual and how I might need to course correct for the next 365 days. This year was a little different than the past 22 birthdays because this was my first as a widow. That whole thing is still relatively new and I am still figuring out how to maneuver through it all, but this birthday was a splendid opportunity to lay down some goals, vision cast with the Lord and ask Him to once again course correct my life. As an aside, this is also the time I do a major soul check in. On the Hebrew calendar my birthday falls during the month of Iyar, which is a time of the year the Lord reveals, deals and heals the emotion body- I am always happy to step into His perfect timing and ways. This birthday I was more than happy to give Him the space to swoop in with some Holy Spirit refreshing and restoring of my broken emotions. Needless to say by the end of the month I smelled like a stunning apothecary of emotional wellness having used an insane amount of essential oils to assist the more stubborn negative emotions.

Making a great dash is rarely about leaving a legacy and more about doing the work God prepared in advance for you to do. Though the legacy part can and many times after does accompany a great dash, if that is the focus, we can go wildly off course. Psalm 139 says each of us have a book written about us, and Galatians says there are works prepared in advance for us to do. Yet so many of us are like hamsters on a stupid wheel doing someone else’ work and someone else’s book. Few know their calling and fewer still know how they are divinely wired in order to accomplish the purposes in their lives God means for them. The world is more than happy to offer ridiculous personality tests to guide you in the way they feel is best. You can find out anything about yourself from what number you are (really, we are reducing ourselves to a number?), to what color we are, and even what kind of cheese we might be. (thank you Facebook) I am mozzarella in case you’re wondering…The Church at large has done an incredibly poor job of equipping saints in their gifts and callings, but rather they are more than happy to post announcements about helping in childcare because after all, that’s the greatest need. Be that as it may, if you are not divinely designed to help and lead children, you have zero business helping in a kids’ ministry. No matter how great the need. Yet if you are gifted and called to writing, speaking or scrubbing floors, unless there is a job in any of those, you have no business doing anything else. It’s like this. Imagine if you worked at a restaurant as a waiter or waitress. Imagine that you saw the orders piling up on account the place being swamped for the Sunday crowds and so you decided to help cook the orders. What do you suppose your boss would say? If you were not fired on the spot you’d at minimum get a stern talking to. Why then do we assume we must step up and fill in for a perceived need in a church or even work setting? If you are not a cook, don’t go to the kitchen and start cooking. That’s a dumb idea. If you are not a server, do not start attempting to take orders for customers. Also, a dumb idea. Likewise, if you are not designed to be a doctor, lawyer, accountant or teacher, do not go to school to become one only because momma, daddy, grandma, grandpa or uncle Freddy want you to. If you are not equipped and made to do that, you are doing someone else’s job. And, you’re making a horrible likely fruitless dash. Do what you are divinely designed to do. Always and only.

Your dash, my dash, they are all incredibly different. And no one can tell you what yours is except God Himself, because He is the One who created it for you. This is a hard one for me because I have this gift of seeing people’s callings in like 5 minutes of meeting them and about 80% of people I know are not in fact, doing the thing they are meant for. Worse yet, the kids I know, about the same amount are headed to college, are in college or doing a job solely based on the level of income it will produce. I weep thinking of songs never sung, books never written, paintings never seen or inventions never realized all because we never knew what we were created to do. Sadly many folks never step into their calling because of wounds from childhood and false beliefs. Gee, it’s no wonder kids today don’t even identify as who they were born as.


Dashes are powerful when you think of it. Leaving a legacy, while seemingly noble, can dissolve into utter rubbish when broken down. If one is only thinking of leaving a mark, that leaves out quite a lot of opportunities because who says something is a legacy? No one who left a great legacy set out to leave a legacy, you know? Pretty sure Harriet Tubman never said, I’m going to be one of the greatest people ever known and leave a great legacy of freedom fighters. What she did do what rescue slaves and shuttle them to safety. She saw something worth fighting for, she did what she was born to do. Conversely, there are dozens and dozens of people who made her job possible. Only through their efforts was Ms. Tubman successful. Did they leave a legacy? Not a bit, because you and I do not even know their names. But did they fulfill at least a portion of their purpose, you can bet on that. Anne Frank. As a thirteen year old Jew, she likely wasn’t thinking about leaving a legacy or time capsule for future generations. Quite the opposite if you’d read her diary. She was a typically teenager- self focused, self serving and frankly, quite a whiner. But her unintentional book has stunned million and impacted an untold number of people. That is a great dash. And, that is a legacy left unintentionally.

When my husband died it was tricky to see my purpose anymore. Not because he was my whole life, far from it. In fact, that was a sticking point in our marriage. I had heard Rick Countryman’s talk, my husband had not. My husband was rarely moved to do the thing God called him to. He was an incredible artist, powerfully so and did little with it because he was told as a young man “there’s no money in art. That’s not really a career choice.” Parents often do a lot of damage to their kids without knowing, all because they think in terms of “good living”. For me, making sure everyday was on point with my purpose was critical, that is hard in a marriage when only one thinks that way. I was raised with a grandpa that said “it doesn’t matter if you’re picking fly poop out of pepper, as long as you’re happy doing it, go for it.” An he meant it. And my mom thought the same. Not really encouraging me to do my dash great, but it didn’t stick in the hamster cage either. Seeing my purpose was tricky because of tremendous grief and belief problems I wrestled with after losing my husband. Watching my kids grieve their dad is unbearable at times. When you become a widow at an early age all of a sudden everything you believed gets question by your own mind and consequently for me, so did my calling. My new year/birthday helped right that.

When you think about your dash, what comes to mind? Is it great? Are you doing what you were designed to do? Do you even know what you were designed for? I’ll give you a hint, it rarely has to do with how you make an income. I love when people ask what I do. I now respond with, “are you asking how I make money? Because what I do and how I make money are vastly different”. It tickles me to see the look on their faces as it does either two things- ones, gives them the hint that asking me how I earn a living is grossly inappropriate and none of their business, so they shut it. Or two, ask me for further info on what I really do, which opens a whole world of healing for them personally- since that, is in fact one of my purposes in my life. Seeing people set free and healed emotionally is a stunning part of my dash. There are many more aspects to it, but that is one of my favorites. Friend, don’t go another day without evaluating your dash, you don’t know how long it it. My husband’s was only 55 years. Oh and, it’s never too late to begin making it a great dash. Oh and if you want to utilize my gift of seeing what your designed to do, you know where to find me.