“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” ~ Proverbs 4:23

 

Cornucopia is a fun word. Until I’m awake at 3 a.m. thinking about it. So, what’s a girl to do but roll out of bed and take notes?

We know cornucopias as a classic symbol for abundance and thanksgiving. They’re often depicted as a horn-shaped basket lying on its side with grapes, pears, apples, pumpkins, and ears of corn spilling out.

It makes me think of our hearts. We fill them with good and good spills out. And we know the reverse is also true. It’s a tricky balance, isn’t it? To protect our mind and spirit from filling up with negativity and worry.

Jesus knew we’d struggle. “Don’t worry about these things, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. First and most importantly seek His kingdom and His righteousness [the priorities, attitude, and character of God], and He will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:31-33.

He invites us to enjoy life. To stop stressing over earthly things and to focus on our spiritual needs. In Galatians, we see an abundance of spiritual fruit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

God has already provided what we need to live a full life. All this spiritual fruit ~ and so much more ~ is available to us. As much as we want.  In fact, we can be so full that the very life of Jesus spills out.

So, our heart is kinda like our own little cornucopia.

And you know what? When we daily fill up our mind and spirit with this good fruit,  worry stops stealing our peace and joy.  Anxiety doesn’t get to decide if we’re thankful, grateful, and blessed. 

And the really cool thing is: We get to be the overflow. 

Someone Jesus loves needs us to be the calm in her chaos. The joy in his sorrow. Kindness in the midst of all this anger. And the patience, gentleness, and self-control amid too many harsh words and way too much hustling.

Around the Thanksgiving table and out in the stores, we get to be different. We get to share the attitude of Jesus Christ, right here and now.

This is the key to living our life empowered by abundance. What a joy and a privilege to be filled up and flowing over. Thankful, grateful, and blessed to be a blessing.

 

😎☮🍇❤

 

“October is my favorite color.” Not sure where I read that, but yes. An extra month of autumn, please.

Fresh air, orange pumpkins, green gourds and Halloween memories. As a kid, I bet you did what I did: Rummaged through Mom’s big box of old shoes, purses, dresses, fedoras, and flannel shirts. Those were the best costumes.

But, what about in our everyday life? It’s easy to put on masks, isn’t it?

Performing and people-pleasing can overshadow who we want to be on the inside.

Sometimes we wear our religion like a label. “Hello, I’m Baptist … I’m Catholic … I’m Lutheran … I’m a Christian …”

It’s become a cultural habit.

We grip it like a magic ticket. Punched and done, we act like it reserves us a place in heaven. As if that’s enough.

Maybe our faith is more like fire insurance. We’re not quite sure where we stand with God so we keep it in our back pocket “just in case.” We whip it out when things get bumpy.

Is it enough to obey rules? To check the boxes on a list of dos and don’ts? Do we want to stay in a dry, guilt-driven, and self-defeating system?

Nicodemus had an inkling there was more to this Jesus he’d been hearing about. He was a prominent member of the Jewish ruling council, the Supreme Court of Israel. Pharisees were all about power, prestige, and performance. Many were puffed up with pride, setting themselves above the common Jew. They relied on their strict rules and religious systems to make them right with God.

They wore faith like a costume.

Jesus called them “white-washed tombs, which look fine on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all kinds of rottenness.”

Whoa.

As you can imagine, the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus much. They watched him close and asked loaded questions to set him up. All that talk about the Spirit and healing people on the Sabbath messed with their power and their comfortable, religious habits. They liked to keep things surface level with a few private sins on the side. They liked hard-set rules that kept people in line.

But, Nicodemus wanted more. Empty rules and religion no longer satisfied him. So, he risked his reputation and talked to Jesus, one-on-one.

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miracles you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus told him it’s good to believe his teachings and miracles. And it’s also good to obey laws and do what’s right.

But “Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to: God’s kingdom.”

What? Born again? Is that really a thing?

God created us: Body, mind, and spirit. Until we allow our spirit to be reborn, part of the real us is hiding—is dead actually. We aren’t fully  living our divine design. Like Nicodemus, we sense something is missing inside. And we’re right.

Our relationship with our Creator is incomplete.

At Jesus’ last meal with his students ~ his diciples ~ he told them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Then he made a promise. “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate [helper], who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.”

The person we were born to be is fully formed by something we can’t see and touch—the Spirit. 

The only way to be right with God is to have a relationship with Jesus. One-on-one. We do that by inviting him in to live in our spirit and to teach us to live without sin so we can be his hands and heart to a seriously  messed-up world.

So, what about Nicodemus?

We don’t hear about him again  until after Jesus’ death. He wraps Jesus’ body in spiced linen and puts him in a tomb. Which seems nice and appropriate, but here’s the kicker: It was a huge no-no for Pharisees to touch dead bodies. Nicodemus would have been “unclean,” and unfit to do his religious duties. Displeasing his colleagues, he’d  have lost respect. His position and performance sullied.

But, you see, Nicodemus shed his church-y costume. I believe he was born again and grieving. He chose a relationship with Jesus to fill the longings of his soul. Jesus filled that empty space in Nicodemus. The place  reserved only for the God who made him. His insides became more important than his outside. He was tired of being defined by performance and his need for approval. So, he gave up surface level religion and chose a one-on-one relationship with Jesus.

Nicodemus was reborn and he was free.  To live a new life in that spirit-to-Spirit connection. 

And it all began with a simple conversation.

😎❤🕊☮

 

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” ~ Romans 10:9

“So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death. We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours—except that ours are sinful—and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins. So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us.” ~ Romans 8:1-4 

 

 

 

 

“As the trees show us the beauty in letting go of their leaves, let us show the world our own beauty by letting go of all that holds us back from becoming who we truly are” ~ Siobhan Kukolic, “How Beautiful Letting Go Can Be” 

I’ve been told I have a non-anxious presence. Well, not lately. But, I’m  learning to let my peace shine again.

This inner calm, reflected outward, is part of our divine design and essential to our greater purpose. So it’s worth the fight. How do we get it and protect it?

We remember His Presence. Always here.

We remember His Promises. Always Faithful.

The tricky part is to apply these truths when we are tired or worried. Our human nature wants to give up and give in.  So, it takes work and persistence to invite Jesus’ Spirit into our mood or situation when we don’t feel like it.

But, that’s when it’s most important to pray. As we go about our day, in meetings, in traffic. In check out lines and in school pick-up lines. We keep the conversation open with the King of Kings. We “go to the throne before the phone.” Any time. Any place.

It’s a choice that becomes a habit which connects us to our truest source of help.

When anxiety ramps up my heart rate, I know I’m being too self-reliant. Like even now, as  it races to get this written and posted and I wish I hadn’t drank that second cup of Hazelnut coffee …

The greatest tool of our soul’s enemy is to  keep us focused on ourselves. Our our fears, our hurts, our rights, our plans. Then Boom. We’re anxious, worried, fretting. And we can’t let it go.

But, when we remember to surrender, we become less self-reliant and more Savior-reliant. When anxiety shows up, we recall Scripture and say it out loud or in our heads. We breathe and pray and let go of our need for control because it harasses our mind, creates dis-ease in our body, and steals our smile.

When we feel stress ratcheting up, may we turn to God’s Presence and Promises. As many times as it takes. May we protect our peace and be the shiny calm in this worried, hurried, and anxious world ☮🙏📜🦔

“Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your specific requests known to God. And the peace of God which reassures the heart, that peace which transcends all understanding, that peace which stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus is yours.” ~ Philippians 4:6-7 AMP

 

Check out one of my favorites: Jason Gray,  “I’m Gonna Let it Go”

Photo: Tree & leaves & designed by Dee Everson  https://www.artclassesbydee.com/peace    Put together by me 😎 Quote on picture: Anonymous

 

 

 

On my desk, draped over my printer, are two scraps of denim. I cut them from a twenty-year-old pair of jeans that were faded and frayed in just the right places. Perfect. Until a hole ripped wide open and exposed my chicken knee to the winter cold.

They’re now my favorite summer cut-offs. But what to do with these darn denim pieces?  I can’t throw them away. I tried. First, in the trash and then I tossed them into the bottom of my hamper where they sat for months.

Grief is weird, isn’t it?

It’s almost a year since my mom passed. While it’s still hard to look at her picture, my senses are wide open to her legacy. It’s quite simple and organic. And that’s where she sneaks up on me.

Like last week, when I used a spoon to get out bits of eggshells. When fruit flies flocked to my bananas and I mixed their death potion: water, dish soap, and apple cider vinegar. In summer recipes for cole slaw and potato salad and fall cooking of soups and apple crisp. And especially in our favorite guilty pleasure: the tater tot casserole Mom always took to our high school sports banquets.

So, a legacy lingers.

And I smile at how much we learn by osmosis.

This interweaving with people doesn’t just end. Especially with our parents. The connection started before we were born. It’s a beautiful mystery, isn’t it? Not just flesh and bone, but soul and spirit.

It makes sense that pain jabs the pit of our stomach. When we see a picture or hear a song or smell a smell. But, beside that ache, we sense something even more real and present: God is there. Wooing us and wanting us to trust His comfort:

My Child, I’ve got you. Rest. Feel. Grow. Pass it on.

So, what about these scraps of denim? I see Mom at her sewing machine transforming worn out jeans into cool stuff. Quilts and hats, overalls and purses. Whether in the kitchen, the garden, or at the dining room table, she was always mixing, painting, gluing, and growing something.

And I’m inspired to not just leave a legacy, but to create one. With intention. To live it out loud, right now.

Because now I see life more fleeting. More lovely. More difficult. More urgent.

I want to build a legacy and leave an inheritance that’s simple, ordinary, profound. Rooted in love and service and selflessness. One that sneaks up on people at just the right moment and makes them smile.

So, let’s invite Jesus into the ache before we sink too far into sadness or regret and wishing things were different. His earthly life shows us how to live and grow this paradox: To use our pain for good purpose.

“Living your legacy is … about showing up for your life, engaging in deeper, more meaningful ways, and making a difference.” *

May we love well and live now. 

Peace for your journey.

☮💕🖖🙏

 

*Author Sharon Olson, Living Your Legacy

Photo from http://pixabay,com