Robin's Nest

Nurturing hearts and minds to live an Abundant Life

Reclaim Your Resilience

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I started six documents on my computer, got frustrated, scrolled through Facebook, replied to comments, checked email, replied to emails, swept the floor, shook out the kitchen rug, stared at my computer, fed the cat, vacuumed, checked the weather, stared at the computer, texted cute emojis to Jeff, made my bed, and thought about mopping floors.

Maybe now, I can write. Or stare. Either way, I gotta sit here until I break through.

Resistance bites me on the blog I want to write and the book proposal I need to edit. Call it—blocked, lazy, procrastination, or a slimy little devil—Resistance slithers in when we decide to move forward with any good thing. All our fears show up and bring their evil, menopausal stepmother with them.

Who are you kidding? What were you thinking? You can’t do this.

It’s an all-out battle with our thoughts, isn’t it?

Maybe we want to start a hobby, a relationship, a conversation, or a whole new career. Maybe we want to stop over-spending, over-eating, over-drinking or over-thinking. We simply aim to be healthy in body, mind, and spirit. And Boom.

Resistance shows up.

Then we resist change because status quo seems safer and way more fun, right? Biggest. lie. ever. Staying safe shuts us down and keeps us small. It robs us of becoming who God created us to be.

Braden, my ten-year-old grandson, loves puns. At the playground, he saw steps standing a few feet above the ground and shaped like big, green leaves. With wide spaces in between, they stood in his way to the spiral slide. But, he was undaunted and inspired.

“It will take a leaf of faith to get there.” With his little sideways smile and laser focus, he jumped from leaf to leaf to wobbly leaf.

What stops us from taking a leap of faith?

Fear is a liar and self-talk is sneaky. Left alone, they continue to boss us around and tell us who we are.  Too late. Stupid. Incapable. Impostor. Unworthy. Unlovable. And they tell us what to do. Give up. Turn around. Don’t even try.

Stop right there. These lies don’t define us and they don’t order our destiny. We are created on purpose, for good purpose. “God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind [self-discipline].” 2 Tim. 1:7

He designed us with Resilience.

Today, we reclaim our power, sit with resistance, and pray. We tell it, “Nope. Not today. Jesus and me. We got this.”

We are on the verge of breakthrough, my friend. Step before you’re ready. Courage will catch up. Take your leap and keep on leaping as many times as it takes to shut. Hell. Up.

“So let God work his will in you, yell a loud no to the devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time.” James 4:7-8a. 

He designed us with spirit, spunk, and moxie. Whatever you call it, it’s Resilience. Reclaim it today.😎❤✌

 

“To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be. If you believe in God (and I do) you must declare Resistance evil, for it prevents us from achieving the life God intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius.” ~ Steven Pressfield

Read all about “Resistance” in Steven Pressfield’s  book: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles   

Photo from Pixabay.com

Grief’s Legacy: A Strange New Order

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It’s gone. A whole era. That shaped my thinking, my living, my being … for over five decades. My brain slowly wraps around this strange new order.

With both parents gone, it’s just weird. And no, I’m not an orphan as some suggest. I reject that to my core. I’m not a child without parents. I’m an adult who was raised by her parents. They just aren’t here anymore.

And that’s what sneaks up on me ~The weirdness of it.

I guess like any paradigm shift, especially one that begins with loss, it takes time to process.

I try to analyze it, but this change remains a blank space in my brain. And that’s okay. Because right now my mind has no familiar hooks of experience to hang it on. This is a brand new perspective on life and love and loss and learning.

I mean, I know a ton about grief. Especially in the month of May, it bubbles up fresh. But this loss, this shift of an era, cracks open a brand new place where anxiety trickles out.

Fear of death? Maybe.

But, wait … there’s something else right alongside it …

Light overpowers fear and illuminates this fleeting life. It shines on the lives that are right here … right now.

It reminds me of the day when I’ll be gone too. A whole era. That shaped my children and grandchildren ~ their thinking, and living, and being … for over five decades.

This higher awareness grows my empathy, humility, and urgency. And it empowers me to stand firm in my disdain for trivial stuff that creates gossip and whining, blaming and complaining.

“Ain’t nobody got time for that.” *

Aren’t you glad God carries us as our  hearts wrap around this strange new order? He’s creating in us new resilience and fresh ways to pass it on.

Because our kids and their kids will continue to wrestle their own life-shaping and mind-shifting grief.

So, what legacy do we want to leave? What attitude about life and love and grief do we want them to see? What re-telling of our era do we want them to hear?

That we stayed stuck and overwhelmed in its difficulties? Or that we were in it to win it and died with a smile?

I want my story to empower my people. So they won’t be defined or defeated by pain. I want death to illuminate the potential of their brief and beautiful lives, so they’ll live better, fuller, wiser, and free.

I plan to leave them a story that ends with a smile. With memories and life-giving words that come to mind at just the right time.

By God’s grace, I’ll be their anchor, their model, their fighter, their safe and happy place … their little bit of Jesus. Right here, right now. May I teach them to live well and suffer well.

 

“Confronting the reality of our own mortality is important because it obliterates all the crappy, fragile, superficial values in life. While most people whittle their days chasing another buck, or a little bit more fame and attention or a little bit more assurance that they’re right or loved, death confronts all of us with a far more painful and important question: What is your legacy?” ~ Mark Manson, blogger & author

 

*Quote: Sweet Brown 🙂

To read about Hope in the midst of grief, go to:

https://genekiepura.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/the-worst-christmas/#more-3581

 

 

 

Flip Grief: Live On and Love Well

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If you follow my writing journey, you may remember my daughter, Ashley Nicole. She was born on May first, 1984 and passed away nine days later. So, on this anniversary of the day she left, I honor her little life.

I grab grief and flip it.

It’s amazing what we see when we look at it from another angle. It doesn’t mean we hide our pain or stuff away the memories. We simply see grief in a new light. Not something to get rid of, but something to teach us.

We own it.

We let it increase our capacity for pain. We let it grow our ability to live and love with purpose. In so doing, the people we lost live on.

Because of our losses, there comes a day when we can look in the face of profound grief and smile. A few weeks ago, by God’s grace, I did just that. I greeted guests who came to our church for a funeral.

I never met fourteen-year-old, Ellie Cuiching, but soon learned she didn’t lose her nine-year fight with cancer. She kicked its butt and inspired whole communities. It didn’t take long for Ellie’s message to spread nationwide and beyond.

Pain, sickness, and death can be flipped and used for good.

Because of grief, I can empathize with Ellie’s family. I saw their strong spirit as they allowed joy and grief to coexist. There were smiles and tears and hope and raw sorrow. They let it all intermingle.

Empowered by Ellie’s legacy, they are determined to live on and love well.  

My pastor attributed Ellie’s courage to this: “She knew she was loved. She found purpose in her pain.” And her parents found strength in knowing, “God’s grace is truly amazing.”

Can you see that power? God uses a heart that is gouged by sorrow.

Will you believe it’s possible? God fills our emptiness with peace so we can know deeper joy, deeper compassion, and a higher purpose. We honor God and the ones we miss by embracing those still here.

Dear friend, there are days we feel the full weight of our sorrow. I bet Ellie did too. Yet, she tells us, “Live on and follow your dreams.”

Child of God, we are loved. We find purpose in our pain because God’s grace truly is amazing. He took the cross and flipped  it into something beautiful. So, we can too.

“What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.

God, take all these messy-beautiful broken pieces and show us how to use them for good.

To see more of Ellie’s story visit: https://www.loveforellie.com

The Old is Gone, the New has Come

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“I always get where I’m going when I walk away from where I’ve been.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

Aaahhh … Spring. We see new life and fresh starts popping up all around us. Seeds sprout and reach through cold ground to push away the old dead stuff.

And we are invited to do the same. To get rid of our old dead stuff.

Salvation is just the amazing beginning, my friend. God loves you where you are but he doesn’t want you to stay there. “Since we have died to sin, how can we still live in it?”

The old is gone, the new has come.

“Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” With that same resurrection power.

 Sweet Jesus, that’s Good News.

“Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also consider yourselves dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”

Oh, my heart. Be still.

Our old self was crucified with Christ. With a softer heart and a new spirit, we are dead to sin. It has lost its power over us. It’s not our evil dictator anymore.

Unless we let it control us. Remember, we are our own worst enemy.

As we walk with Jesus, we reclaim our power and grow into who God created us to be ~ whole and free. As we press on and up to change the parts of us that don’t look like Jesus, we get a God-fashioned life, renewed from the inside out. He reproduces his character in us.

Makes sense. We are created in his image. So, we’re actually getting back to our original design.

How do we do that?

The night Jesus was betrayed, arrested and beaten, he promised to send a Helper to take his place. He said it’s better this way, because he doesn’t just walk beside us ~ he lives in us. He’s our guide, our comfort, our teacher, our transformer.

So, we stay connnected to our power source. We talk to him and study Scripture. We let him take spiritual inventory and watch ancient-yet-relevant widsom change us.

We hang out with like-minded people and sometimes not-so-like-minded people. We do whatever it takes to keep our minds on what is good and true and right. We stop listening to old thought patterns, their lies and unhealthy habits. We get rid of snarky self-talk that holds us back from our divine design. We let him define who he is and who we are.

We baby-step. We toddle. We fall. We get up. We walk. We run. And we are patient. It’s a lifelong journey because there’s so much we get to learn and become.

And we are tough, my friend. Old stuff creeps up and we say, “Nope. Not today. That’s not who I am anymore.”

Jesus’ Spirit ~ alive in us ~ empowers us to not give in, give up, or go back.

This Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Wow. Now, that’s a life-giving list. And we get to cultivate these our whole lives. Pretty cool, eh?

“So, let’s not get tired of doing what is good [and true and right.] At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

Remember, my friend. Jesus’ life didn’t end on the cross. His help didn’t stop at the resurrection. When invited in—he not only saves us, he changes us.

We died with him, we rise with him.

“I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great his power is to help those who believe him. It is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him … far, far above any other king or ruler or dictator or leader.”

When we know that we know that we know we are free from sin’s power, we grow up and push away old dead stuff. We reap a harvest of abundant life. And so will those around us.

Child of God, when we let in the Light, we bloom into something beautiful.

“

Romans 6:4-9; Galatians 5:22-23; Galatians 6:9; Ephesians 1:19-20

Photo from Pixabay.com