Follow your heart without fear

To follow your heart means to trust your instincts. The heart is the choicest, the essential and most vital part of an idea or experience. To have heart is to have the courage to follow your convictions. When a person follows the heart, the way is sometimes contrary to what is expected. Others may say he is a fool, or he is chasing a pipe dream. However, when you have a dream, and pursue it, you are following our heart.

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears however measured and far away." (Henry David Thoreau)

There is an expression "the heart wants what the heart wants." This is true, but the phrase is often only associated with the emotions. Emotions are strong feelings, sometimes driven by love, and sometimes by intense anger. When we follow our emotions, we do not always follow our heart. Sometimes the feelings we have for another person pull us away from our dreams. Important people in our lives may not understand, or have the patience to support us while the dream becomes reality. They may argue with us, berate us or insist that it is them or the dream.

When faced with decisions, there are often times of confusion and doubts. We look at the pros and cons, weighing rewards and consequences. No matter how we turn the decision or the situation, if we have no peace, we are not following the heart. When we have no peace, it’s best to be silent. In the solitude of self, the heart will whisper the right choice. It is important not to allow emotion or desire to silence the truth our heart is telling us.

"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew to serve your turn long after they are one, and so hold on when there is nothing in you except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on'. " (Rudyard Kipling)

So how do we know the difference?

If your emotions are leading you to give up your dreams, you aren’t following your heart.

If your motives are to please those you love, you aren’t following your heart.

If you are taking the easy way, you may not be following your heart.

Following your heart takes courage and conviction. You may have to walk away from people who are important to you. You may have to confront your shortcomings, and determine in your heart to press on. Following your heart is not always easy, but the reward at the end is worth it.

Who is the holiest in God’s kingdom

Who is the holiest in God’s kingdom? Is holiness what we do or is it where the heart lies?

Salvation is a free gift from God, and all He requires is our belief and submission. It is as simple as walking through an open door, and as difficult as trying to get the locked door open. During the average lifetime, everyday living bruises us, and causes us to lock down our hearts. 

Education introduces alternative thoughts on reality. Society promotes self fulfillment and moral freedom. The truth is housed in shades of gray. My understanding of salvation is a level playing field.

We enter into God’s kingdom by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. God’s love was always with us, and didn’t increase because we are now His child. The faith we have was already measured out by God, and now becomes active. In God’s eyes when we are saved we are as holy as we will ever be. 

I have been in the Kingdom for more than 30 years. I have observed many ‘movements’ within the body: the faith movements (name it and claim it), the prosperity movement (honoring those who are well off more than those who are not), and the judgment movement (those who have trouble and illness must be secretly sinning).

While faith is the substance of following Christ, prosperity, or righteousness, is the strength of Christ in us, and judgment exists within our personal relationship with Jesus. God is in control, and these movements have passed away because they were man-made. 

Yet within the individual groups of believers, some of these ideas still exist. I met one woman who vehemently opposed Joyce Meyer, call her a prosperity teacher. I tried to explain that the Word refers to prosperity as righteousness. And this left me wondering: Why is it so hard for people to believe that God wants us to prosper?

I have an illness called positional vertigo. I can get very sick at times, and have to limit my movements. Why am I sharing this? Because I met a woman in a denomination who walked up to me and asked me if I had aids because she heard I was ill. I had never really spoken with her, and only known her a short time.

I thought, off all the illnesses a person can have, why did she leap to this one? I honestly can’t look her in the eye. Not because of her question, but because of the heart if sprang from. Who thinks these things? How can a person go immediately to one of the worst conditions in America just because another person has an illness?

I have met believers who have many rules: don’t wear makeup, don’t go to movies, don’t play cards, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t fellowship with unbelievers (now that one blows me away, after all, are we only suppose to shine the light on each other?).

I had a conversation with a young woman who had accepted Jesus as Lord. She was thinking of turning back because she couldn’t conquer all the ‘don’ts’ she was being told to do. I shared with her my own salvation experience. I was told by a woman I couldn’t be saved because I was a hippie. I thought about the statement, but knew in my innermost being that Jesus was real and that I decided to follow Him. 

I didn’t change overnight; it was years of praying, listening, and being cooked in the silver pot, all the dross skimmed off, then being cooked again.

Who is the holiest in heaven? God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. No matter what we do as Christians during our journey on earth, we cannot earn a higher place in heaven.

We can draw closer to God always by learning to let our nature, our thoughts, our judgment, and our hearts give way to what God is doing in our lives. For me, that is deflecting my pride, keeping my tongue, being submissive to the rules at work, doing good wherever I see to do it, and handing my tendency for melancholy over to God every time I find it swimming in my soul.

It is remembering that we live in an imperfect world, shrouded in darkness, and it is my ‘job’ to shine a lot in this darkness. My light is kindness (even when I don’t feel kind), consistency in my actions and reactions (even when I want to slap someone), smiling, and listening for the opportunity to encourage, provide, and perform a good deed for someone. 

And I do this for unbelievers. Imagine that?  

Lifting God Higher

I have to share a song I heard this morning. It’s Higher by Unspoken and it will move your heart and soul. What amazing lyrics. The words are an echo of my heart. I ordered the CD Follow Through tonight.

This is my favorite verse:

“The devil's got a target on my heart and my soul

But let me tell you, brother, what the devil don't know

The lower I go, the more I'm gonna lift you….

Singing hallelujah 'til I hit the dirt, oh...”

Honestly, all that life throws at us, we hit the dirt often. As I am lying in the dirt, I look up. I remember that God is good all the time. Even when it seems so bleak, God is there, and I do need to remember to use these opportunities to lift God higher. 

What we can learn from Pearl Harbor Day

Pearl Harbor Day is a remembrance of the attack on the United States December 7 1941. In the early morning hours, Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor, killing 2,335 servicemen and wounding over a thousand others. Sixty eight civilians were also killed. The Japanese attacked with warning. The pilots bombed airfields and damaged eight battleships. Among these is the Arizona, which exploded and sunk killing about 1,100 men on board. The attack on Pearl Harbor marked the entrance of the United States into World War II.

To my surprise, many of the people I work with didn’t even remember Pearl Harbor. One guy responded “Why should I remember something that happened 25 years before I was born?” Maybe it’s just me, but I believe that as an American I should be knowledgeable of my history. I know that America is not perfect, but being aware gives the country a chance to learn from mistakes.

Personally, I am concerned about the state of the nation. There are so many folks who offer opinions without understanding the who, what, when, where and why of the circumstance. I remember what it was like before the civil rights movement in the 60s. I was young, but I remember Martin Luther King’s speech. I remember watching the violence and bigotry in the country, and seeing African Americans leading the way for equality. I remember the Vietnam protests and the brutality of the 1968 democratic convention where protesters were beaten and gassed on national television. I remember the 1970 shootings at Kent State, where the National Guard opened fire on protesters, killing four students and wounding nine others.

When the Twin Towers fell, Americans were firmly behind the invasion of Afghanistan and some wanted to bomb the entire Middle East. The War on Terror was coined, and the United States entered into the global war on terror. But who remembers the bombing at France’s Orly Airport attack on July 15 1983. The bombing killed eight people and wounded 55 others. Terrorists bombed the 1972 Summer Olympics killing eleven Israeli athletes and one German police officer. Terrorism was largely ignored by the United States until it reached our borders, just as it did on Pearl Harbor Day in December 7 1941.

In my home town we experienced unbelievable riots over the shooting death of Michael Brown. This lead to the Black Lives Matter movement. But, at the same time folks were marching for Black Lives Matter, a nine year old girl was killed by flying bullets while she did homework on her bed. Black Live Matter didn’t protest this.

Am I rambling? Some. But all we experience now in America is rooted in what has happened in the past. And, because some have forgotten the past, the country continues in turmoil. 

Choosing a heart of peace

We live in a stressful world, dealing with rudeness and a lack of empathy for others. I made a decision some time ago to choose a heart of peace. For a while now, I have been letting God work on my heart to react with peace. It’s not always easy, but it is always worth it. By choosing peace, people are easier to work with, because they have no cause to react to a peaceful answer. 

Romans 12:18 advises us “If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone.” This can be a humbling process, at least it is for me, because my part is to stand firm and not allow gossip, disrespect, or the need to be right interfere with my peace. I have learned that trying to argue with people leads nowhere. I have learned that gossips and disrespectful people are digging holes for themselves.

I remember poems I have read, and what my Mom always said about me. I march to the beat of a different drum. Henry David Thoreau wrote “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”  Being a Christian I am marching to the beat of a different drum. But God also wants me to walk in the measured beat of the world, understanding that without Christ, we lack understanding.

One of my favorite poems is also a source of advice and remembrance when I am in stressful situations.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute                                                                      
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
 And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! -  Rudyard Kipling