Posted on

Plan B aka the long winding road of life…

 

Hello World,

We’ve all heard this quote before….”Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon…The older I get, the more I realize that is true…But for the Christian, we have to realize that that the plans we have for ourselves may  not necessarily be the plans that God has for us…a bitter pill to swallow sometimes when a cherished plan hangs in the balance, but something to be reckoned with all the same…I was talking with a friend last night about some of his current life circumstances, and I finally had to let him know that God speaks through closed doors in our lives as much as He does through open doors…And sometimes those doors seem to be closed due our own folly, yet He still allowed it to happen because of His plans for us…

I think back to when I first decided to live a Christian life for real just after graduating from college…With God on my side, I just knew that I would get a good job at a magazine or newspaper….It would  only be a matter of sending off my resume and cover letter…But that was not the case….It took me THREE years to get a decent job in my field…and the economy was good back then….It really freaked me out at the time…Let me brag for a minute…I had graduated from one of the notable journalism schools in the country, and I had skipped the entrance exam to get into j-school due to my SAT score…I had journalism scholarships…I had good grades particularly within my major…I had four journalism internships on my resume…and I had ambition…but I just couldn’t get a job in my field…

I couldn’t figure out why AFTER I turned my life over to Jesus Christ, my life got worse instead of better…After so many closed doors, I wondered if God really intended for me to be a working journalist after all…In fact, I ended up working in public relations for a minute…Looking back, I realize that I was going through God’s boot camp so to speak…It kind of reminds of what happened to Jesus after He was baptized…he was sent to the desert to be tempted by the devil for 40 days before He officially started His ministry…In my case, I believe my period of testing happened so I could get to know God…I prayed and cried a lot during that time…As most people know, it’s during the bad times of our lives that we learn the most…And sometimes that includes making a plan B…

Thankfully, today I am a working journalist…My plan A is still God’s plan A for me…but I was (am) willing to go a different way if that is what God wanted…I’m reminded that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son on an altar although Isaac was God’s cherished gift to him…and God told Abraham that would be the father of many generations to come…I’m sure that Abraham wondered how this was going to happen if he murdered his only son…but he was willing to do what God asked…and just as Abraham was about to commit the deed, God showed up with a ram in the bush for him to sacrifice instead…God wants us to be willing to sacrifice anything for Him…even our plan A….

Still, I am encouraged by the many verses in the Bible that clearly show that God always has our good in mind even when we are going through the bad…

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Any thoughts?

P.S. This Yolanda Adams song really encouraged me when I was “going through…”

P.P.S. Lil Wayne ain’ gon’ work when you’re “going through…” 🙂

 

Posted on

Dream a little dream…(R.I.P. Corey Haim)

Hello World!!!

I’m writing this post an hour later than I usually do…I wonder why… 🙂

Anywho, when I was in high school and was blessed to have a boyfriend (wish didn’t happen very often), I knew that that the death knell of the relationship had rung when I dreamt of them…I don’t know why this happened but it did without fail…looking backing I wonder if this was God’s way of preparing me for the sad inevitable or maybe it was just something my subconscious mind picked up on before my conscious mind did…

Still, I do know that dreams are one of the ways that God chooses to speak to us…It happens over and over again in His Word…God uses dreams all thoughout the story of the birth of Jesus Christ….

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.  Matthew 1: 20-21

And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they (the Magi) returned to their country by another route.  Matthew 2:12

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”  Matthew 2:13

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”  Matthew 2:19-20

My father, who also believes in the power of dreams, and I have had numerous discussions dreams, and he has given me tips on how to decode dreams. I have also attended a seminar about dreams in 2004 which was moderated by Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, a clinical psychologist who has conducted dreamwork seminars for over 25 years in the U.S., Europe and Asia.  I was blessed to have him interpret an important dream of mine in front of the whole class. I cannot share it here, but I thank God for using that dream to showing me a bit of my future…I have also read some literature on dreams and have Googled numerous dream interpretation Web sites…

Everyone dreams….but every once in a while, we dream something that stays with us…These are the dreams that we are meant to seriously consider because God may be trying tell us something…Most experts suggest a few tips for dream interpretation…

1. Keep a journal next to your bed. In the morning or in the middle of the night, as soon as you wake up, write the dream down…You don’t want to forget important details that help you decode your dream…

2. The language of dreams is typically symbols….For instance, if you dream of a toilet, you may be flushing someone or something toxic out of your life…Consider what symbols mean to you personally and what they may mean in literature…I love to Google dream Web sites to figure what symbols mean….

3. Consider the events of your life at that moment…I typically have dreams at stressful times of my life, and my dreams often tell me truths that I need to know and act on….

4. And of course, pray and ask God for illumination…

Any thoughts?

P.S. Check out this song, “Dream a Little Dream” by the the great Louis Armstrong…listening to his songs always make me think of episodes of  “Tom and Jerry.” Guess it’s because they used to play those kind of songs in the background…Probably had to be born in the ’70s to remember that… 🙂

Posted on

It’s March….Where Are You With Your Visions for 2010?!

Hello World!!!

So what’s up y’all? It’s March…time to check in about our goals…How are we doing? A few years ago, I made a vision board hoping that the images would somehow manifest in real life…and to my surprise, even today those images are becoming reality…I haven’t made a vision board since then but I do write down my goals each year…And while all of my goals don’t necessarily come true, I am amazed how many of them do without very much effort on my part sometimes…it’s as if there is magic in writing them down…This principle is illuminated in God’s word…

“And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.”  Habakkuk 2:2

Actually, it’s not magic…I think that in writing our goals down or creating a vision board, we input the images and words into our subconscious minds. And then our subsconcious minds go to work to enable us to take the actions that we need to take…And of course, God works on our behalf to make our goals come true if they are in His will for us…

So as I said before, we are three months into the New Year…how am I doing? I’m working it out….How are you doing? Let me know…

Any thoughts?

Check out the video for “Optimistic” by Sounds of Blackness!

You hear the voice of reason
Telling you this can’t never be done
No matter how hard reality seems
Just hold on to your dreams…

As long as you keep your head to the sky,
You can win as long as you keep your head to the sky….