Get Up…Get Going…Get Something Done

I do not have the words to describe how amazingly appropriate and timely today's devotional was. Just minutes before, I had written in my journal a cool motivational saying that had popped into my head: Get up, get going, and get something done.

Then I opened up Oswald Chambers's book, UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST. His key verse for today was “Arise from the dead…” Ephesians 5:14. Just a few sentences into today's reading, he writes, “…someone may say to you, ’Get up and get going!'”

A coincidence? No. I call it an “Aha moment from God!”

God is telling me to get out of bed and begin living again. God will not lift me out of bed, but I must initiate the process. God’s power will be made evident to me AFTER I put my feet on the floor.

“God does not give us overcoming life. He gives us life as we overcome.”

Oswald Chambers

Matthew 12 tells a story about a man with a withered hand. Jesus didn’t say to him, “Your hand is healed.” He told him, “Stretch out your hand.”

In John 5, a lame man told Jesus he wanted to be healed. Jesus didn’t reach down with His hand to him, but instead, He told him to “Take up his bedroll and walk.”

That man had no way of knowing if his legs would work, but he would not know unless he took some initiative, like getting up! No, this man who had not walked in 38 years had to do it on his own. Jesus wanted him to realize that…

not only had God healed him but that God had empowered him

...to do the very thing that Jesus had told him he could do.

The second principle Chambers addresses is the death of a dream. A dream or aspiration (a hope or ambition of achieving something) that we had earlier in our life but we let it die.

Through God-ordained circumstances, He continually reminds me of the dream He placed in my heart. Somewhere during my journey, the passion and vision I once had were kindled anew within my soul. My hope is renewed, and my dream once again seems plausible. Why? Because I am experiencing the power of God, which is compelling me to “Arise from the dead…”

Do I want to be healed?

Do I want to see my dream come to fruition?

Then I must “Arise from MY BED” by taking it upon myself to put my feet on the floor willing myself to

get up ... get going ... get something done!

Do YOU want to be healed?

“Arise from the dead” by beginning to do things you already know you should be doing.

What is YOUR dream?

“Arise from the dead” by reigniting and empowering that dream you have held at bay for far too long.

MAKE A PLAN and GET GOING!

Childhood Memories

by Judy | 0 comments

Childhood Memories

As my husband Ron and I were exiting the movie theater after viewing, Saving Mr. Banks, I felt an overwhelming urge to write. I was deeply moved as I blended my on childhood memories with a couple of the scene's that were portrayed in this movie.

Allow me to warn you, Saving Mr. Banks is not a "warm and fuzzy" film. It is the back story of how Walt Disney ultimately received the rights to the book Mary Poppins, which finally allowed him to make the movie. It took 20 years for Mr. Disney to convince Mrs. P. L. Travers that she should allow him to make her book into a movie sensation.

The author, Mrs. Travers, was a domineering and extremely unhappy woman. I wondered how someone so unhappy could write such an enchanting story.

Mrs. Travers's sad and lonely adulthood was shaped by some very traumatic and emotionally scarring events.

THE TRUTH ABOUT MY CHILDHOOD

On the drive home from the theater, I attempted to describe to Ron what had caused me to succumb to the film's emotional roller coaster—a ride that didn't stop until the final credits began to roll! During the movie, I found myself sobbing during one scene, tapping my toes through another one, and laughing out loud at something else.

I sensed that the Holy Spirit was attempting to get my attention. When I finally decided to listen, He told me that it was time for me to begin working through some of my own painful childhood memories—memories that I had purposefully buried many years ago. Why did God want me to dig them all back up again? What good could ever come from rehashing the past?

"Why did God want me to dig them all back up again? What good could ever come from rehashing the past?"

....Well, with guidance from Godly therapists, I discovered why it was vital for me to go back and dig up and examine some of those painful childhood memories. The truth was that...

For 50 years, I allowed my childhood memories to define me.

Who I was and who I was not.

What I could do and what I could not do.

How I would or would not deal with emotional situations.

How close would I allow people to get to me?

How far away was far enough to feel safe?

The key question became, who could I trust?

In the movie, Mrs. Travers is portrayed as a sad, grumpy, lonely woman who trusts no one. She had a beautiful home where she felt safe and found personal comfort. She appeared to have been stuck back in the days of her childhood. Mrs. Travers had seemingly no new dream to pursue. She had stopped believing that one day, that elusive brass ring would be within her reach.

No, for Mrs. Travers, her life ended many years prior.

I sat there in my soft, cushy theater seat, watching expectantly as the woman up there on that silver screen finally allowed her pent-up tears to begin falling from her once steely, cold eyes. As the tears continued to roll down her cheeks, Mrs. P. L. Tavers could have been recalling how she, as a child, had never allowed herself to grieve the loss of her father.

Childhood trauma will never heal unless those painful events are brought out into the open. Truth is the gateway to freedom. Freedom from childhood pain, shame, and guilt. Truth is what can set you free. In the Bible, John 8:32 says, "You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free."

Finally, her childhood memories were no longer being allowed to define her. The truth had set her free.

God's Word has taught me that feelings of shame, guilt, and unworthiness are all lies that Satan has perpetrated. It was time for me to take a realistic look at my childhood wounds caused by being sexually abused and growing up with a mom who had an untreated mental illness.

I was ready to replace what I now recognized as a lie with the truth. From this point forward, my journey will be centered on knowing and following God's Truth.

How about YOU?

Is it time yet?

Giving Up Isn’t An Option!

by Judy | 0 comments

Two records were set on Saturday night.

FIRST RECORD:
The King's Academy girls' varsity basketball team, coached by my incredibly awesome husband Ron, won the school's FIRST EVER Central Coast Section quarter-final playoff game! We were the #6 seed playing Sacred Heart Prep (our eternal nemesis), the #3 seed. We were up by 3 at the end of the first quarter. Up by 2 at the end of the second quarter. Up by 1 at the end of the third quarter. One more quarter to go. Could the Division 4 Cinderella team stay at the dance? YES! We outscored them 19-6 with a tenacious defense and an unstoppable offense! The final score: Sacred Heart Prep 46, The King's Academy 60! It was so awesome...

SECOND RECORD:
My emotional altitude has never been higher! Probably due to the two Diet Cokes, WITH CAFFEINE, that I consumed during halftime. But I was so thirsty and water is not my drink of choice. My adrenaline kept rising with every made basket for us and missed opportunity for them. I found myself constantly checking the game clock, which appeared to me to be moving in slow motion, as it clicked down one agonizing second after another. Finally, the numbers on the clock displayed only a row of zero's and the greatly anticipated blaring sound of the buzzer was ringing loudly in everyone's ear's. Cinderella still has both of her glass slippers and is prepared to keep on dancing!

I love being happy! To once again know how it feels to laugh and smile. To be able to process positive and uplifting thoughts to the point that I feel like I could fly! Oh how I wish that this incredible sense of joy would last longer than a couple of hours and could be enjoyed more frequently than once every few months. Knowing that for the first several years after my breakdown, I never once felt even a twinge of happiness or joy. So this is progress.

I am no longer wallowing in only the "agony of defeat," but occasionally, the "thrill of victory" lifts me up so that I can fly! Beating mental illness is all about balance and consistency. Before you can find your balance you have to start moving. I find myself "swaying" from one side to the other but I praise God that I am no longer chained to only despondency and darkness. God is continuing to renew my hope that one day He will use my suffering to be of help to someone else.

Jesus said, “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight” (Matthew 10:27).

Oswald Chambers writes, "When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get in the light.”

I am looking forward, which is a praise in and of its self, to the day that I once again find myself spending the majority of my time in the light. Ron's basketball team wasn't suppose to win and yet they did! It has been predicted that Team Judy would be defeated by Team Clinical Depression but the clock tells me that the game isn't over yet.

With God, as my Coach, all things are possible!