The Missing Chacos

So, some of you know the love affair that I enjoy with my Chacos.  Yes, one might think, "but they're only sandals..."  Oh, my friend, if you only knew....  They are so much more than just sandals.  As a runner, my feet are very precious to me.  A runner's feet are also very succeptible to injury and pains of varying degrees.  My Chacos are the only sandals that I can count on to not cause me pain of any kind.  They are the only sandals that I can wear all day long and my legs nor my back will ever hurt.  Oh, my Chacos are very important to my overall well being!

The Youth of Royston First United Methodist Church have heard (maybe not listened to) full lessons taught on Chacos.  See, last summer, my favorite pair of Chacos broke right before we went on our summer mission trip!  I was devastated, but I was thankful that God allowed me to use that situation to hopefully, teach at least 1 or 2 youth members a lesson on falling apart, based on one of my very favorite scriptures from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, "May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, put you together-spirit, soul, and body- and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ.  The One who called you is completely dependable.  If he said it, he'll do it!"  My shoes had fallen apart, and because Chacos come with a lifetime warranty, I was able to send them back for repair.  The theme for last year's mission trip was "Broken and Poured Out."  So, we talked alot about how we sometimes have to realize just how broken we are before we will allow God to put us back together and how He doesn't just throw the peices away.  He takes the broken pieces of our lives and fits them back together perfectly, like a puzzle that only He knows what the final picture will look like!!!  Broken vessels do not perform the task they were created to perform.  That is why, in order to fulfill God's purpose four lives, we must allow Him to put our pieces back together, to heal our brokenness.  So, as I awaited the repair of my Chacos, because they were broken and unable to perform the awsome task of supporting my feet, we reflected on all the areas in our lives where we need to allow God to have the broken pieces of our hearts, our souls and sometimes even our bodies, so He may put them back together, so they will perform the tasks He created them to perform! 

Imagine my surprise and my delight, when the next week, I received not just my repaired pair of Chacos, but a BRAND NEW PAIR!!!  Oh, NO, here it comes, another scripture lesson!  Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God's masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."  WOW!!!  A pitcher is created with the purpose of holding and pouring water.  When broken, there are times when it can simply be repaired and will be able to then continue holding and pouring water.  But, there are times, when the pitcher might be so broken, that a simple repair will not do....  When we give God the shattered pieces of our lives, He creates us anew.  When we put our hope and our trust in Christ Jesus who gave His life for us, He creates us anew.  We are washed clean by the blood!  Praise God!!!  Only God knows what the completed masterpiece of our lives looks like.  He renews us from the inside out so we "can do the things he planned for us long ago." 

Onto the missing part...my Chacos have been missing for the last few days.  I had looked everywhere, or so I thought.  My mom looked at her house, my brother in law looked at his.  I had decided that I must have left them in the locker room at the gym.  Visions of some college student skipping out of the Fitness Center wearing my Chacos have consumed my mind (not that I think EC students are thieves...but, you know).  Honestly, and sadly enough, it required great focus on my part to listen to Sunday's sermon without thinking about where my Chacos might be.  In my defense, they are expensive sandals and the thought of dropping $100, which I do not have, on another pair, caused me to panic a little.  Now, yes, I know, there is an altogether more important lesson here on how I should not be so obsessed with material possessions and a whole host of other lessons on what I should allow my mind to be consumed with, but this story has a happy ending!!!

 

While cleaning our extra bathroom, for the first time in longer than I want the public to know, I found them in the bath tub!  Now, we do not use the bath tub in this bathroom, before you start to think we do not bathe ourselves or our children.  LilaBelle (third child syndrome-she gets blamed for everything) must have taken them from our bedroom and dropped them in the tub, where they were covered up by beach towels I had laid out to dry from the last time we went swimming at Emmanuel. 

This is the last scripture lesson, I promise, at least for this blog.  Jeremiah 29:13 says, "If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me."  I am not promised that if I look for my Chacos "wholeheartedly", that I will find them.  But, Jeremiah offers us the promise that if we do indeed look for God "wholeheartedly", we will find him.  If my mind is continually consumed with thoughts of God, even during Sunday's sermon, that's OK!  Thank you Chacos (maybe I should write the company) for teaching me yet another AH-MAZING lesson about our AH-MAZING God!!!  And, thank you, God, from the bottom of my heart for your many promises.  Thank you for your Word and that we can count on you to never fail us or forsake us.  Thank you for the promise from 1 Thessalonians 5, "The One who called you is completely dependable.  If he said it, he'll do it!" 

"Dat's what Fenz for"

Earlier this week, Merritt, our 3 year old, said that to me.  "Dat's what fenz for, you know it?"  It was the cutest thing to hear coming from the absolute most precious curly blond haired little boy on Earth. 

This evening, while reflecting on the day's events....we ran a 5k race today, I thought about that statement.  Today, at the Habitat Hustle 5k in Watkinsville, I ran a PR for 3.1 miles of 28:33, breaking my last record of 29:45. It was awesome, amazing, overwhelming and exhausting all at the same time.  This race was tough, I'm not gonna lie.  It was rainy, wet and cold, and the course was a loop with 2 small loops around a parking lot (with a good hill in it) and then 2 larger loops (with another good hill in it).  I was running with my husband, Billy and my amazing best friend, Amanda Martin.  Boyd Guttery (my personal trainer), joined us at about mile 2, once he finished the race with a time of 17 minutes flat. 

Once Boyd joined us, he immediately set in with the usual coach talk, meant to encourage me and make me angry all at the same time.  I must admit, though, that looking back, I am absolutely astonished by how motivational his calm and strong voice is to me.  He kept saying things like, "You're strong, you've worked hard, you've put the time in" and "see that guy up there, he hasn't run 10 miles, you have, now take him, come on, push it."  And you know what, it worked!!! 

Having his voice in my ear, despite Amanda telling him to shut up....haha, did remind me just how hard I have worked over the past 6 months, in particular, just how strong I have become. I have become stronger by putting in the time out on the road, even in the cold and the rain, even on days when I would have rather slept in or when my knees were screaming at me to just stop.   That's what friends are for, right, to encourage us to be better, stonger versions of ourself that more accurately portray the image of Christ. 

With each step, with each run, with each PR, I am amazed at what my body can do.  My mind tells me to stop because it hurts; I'm out of breath, gasping for air, and yet my legs just keep going....carrying me closer to that finish line.  With each step, with each run, with each PR, Luke 1:37 becomes a reality, "for nothing is impossible with God."  Nothing can compare to the feeling of crossing the finish line and realizing a goal that you have worked so hard for.

I am thankful for friends that text me to ask what my time was....  I am thankful for friends that concern themselves with the things that are important to me and for family that never misses the opportunity to tell me they are proud of me for all that I've accomplished.  That's what friends are for. 

I am thankful for the opportunity to tell you that you too can accomplish whatever goal you have set for yourself.  Surround yourself with the right people.  Tell everyone you can what your goals are for accountability.  Set a goal, then work.  Don't be afraid to work hard!!!

Be careful what voice you listen to.  Will you listen to the voice in your head that tells you that you can't do it or will you listen to the one that tells you how strong you are, the one that reminds you of just how hard you've worked?  Will you listen to the voice that tells you to give up because it's too difficult or that it seems impossible or will you listen to the voice that tells you, "for nothing is impossible with God"? 

Good friends are hard to come by.  My good friends helped me realize another running goal today, and we had a great time doing it.  My good friends have encouraged me to be a better person, a better follower of Christ.  Dat's what fenz for, you know it?

 Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend."

High Heels and Sequins

There are some hurts, some feelings of inadequacy, anger, bitterness, that even a great pair of heels or shiny high heel boots cannot mask, that even a new, shiny Brooks Brothers handsewn sequin top cannot cover up.

When I woke up this morning, my first thought to put on the Crown Chasers Facebook page was something like this:  Ladies, get fixed up, put on your makeup, fix your hair really pretty and just feel great today. 

We were running late today for church, had an overall crummy morning and then as I sat alone (for what felt like the first time in months), it hit me!  How often do we do this?  How many women spend countless hours getting gussied up and spend obscene amounts of money to have the latest and greatest in fashion?  These things are fine, in fact, to celebrate my 50 pound weight loss, I got new heels, a celebration made even better by the fact that they were 75% off.  But, here's the point, those things can change how we look, maybe even how we feel momentarily.  They cannot change our heart.  They cannot forever hide how we truly feel about ourselves.  Those things cannot mask the betrayal of past lovers, the heartache over the loss of loved ones, the regret of past failures, the disappointments caused by the ones we love taking us for granted.  So often, we lie to ourselves that everything is OK.  We put on our mask, go out into the world and pretend that we're not falling apart because to admit that we are falling apart means that we are not in control.  The fact is, we never were in control to begin with.  God is in control and He is waiting for us to fall apart, just waiting for us to admit that we don't have it all figured out.  Once we do that, it invites Him in and only He, only God can put the pieces of our life back together.

One of my very favorite scriptures from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 MSG offers this promise.
"May God Himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together-spirit, soul and body- and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ.  The One who called you is completely dependable.  If he said it, he'll do it!"

Chasing Crowns is not always pretty, no matter what we're wearing or what we look like.  Chasing crowns is not always high heels and sequins.  Pursuing our relationship with Christ most often, or at least at times, can be an ugly thing.  Before you disagree, let me explain....the closer I get to Christ, His light exposes everything ugly and dark in me.  Growing closer to Christ means that my jealousy, my anger, my hatred, will be exposed.  It is only then that Christ can continue His transformative work of making me more like him. 

Sometimes a crown chaser has to stop running, and be still long enough to reevaluate what it is they're chasing.  What am I running for?  What is it that I'm so desperately searching for?  If the answer is anything other than simply the truth of Christ, then all our efforts are in vain.  If the answer is anything other than to create for ourselves the same image Christ has for us, we are running in vain.

Just now, as Merritt was watching Spongebob, (I know, I know...)  I heard the line, "You can't hide what's inside."  That is absolutely true, we cannot hide what is truly inside us.  What's inside us comes out in how we treat other people.  If we have no respect for ourselves, we won't respect others.  If we are angry and bitter inside, then we treat others angrily and we hold grudges against even those we love. 

The image of little girls playing dress up, trying on their mom's high heels and make up comes to mind.  Only, we're not little girls anymore and the consequences of playing dress up are much higher.  Relationships are at stake, our children's well being is at stake, perhaps even our own sanity is at stake.  This next statement should be censored and is rated R, but trying to hide who we really are by how we dress, how much make up we wear, or even with  how much we work out, for some of us is like choosing to make love with the lights out.  We want to hide what we look like, who we truly are, like wearing a padded bra, or sucking our gut in when we take pictures.  For still others, trying to hide who we truly are and how we truly feel about ourselves results in them freely offering themselves ,especially sexually to someone other than their husband, to someone who is not worthy of being trusted with who they are.  What Christ really wants from us, what our spouses truly want from us is just us.....for us to be real and who we truly are.   But, that is often too difficult to believe or accept, that someone, anyone, even God would love us just for who we are.  Thankfully, there is hope for even the most broken. 

Ephesians 5:13-14
"But everything exposed by the light becomes visible-and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.  This is why it is said:  "Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."" 

Letting Christ shine on us might be painful for a while, but if we let Christ expose the ugliness in us, He will begin to pick the pieces up and put them back together, ultimately forming the image He has created us to portray.  We let God expose the ugly things in us; we apologize to the ones in the path of said ugliness. Then, guess what???  We become a light!!!  "Everything that is illuminated becomes a light."  Praise God!!!

I have friends who have seen the movie, Safe Haven, and loved it.  On the trailer, it says, "It's not what you're running from, it's what you're running to."  I agree with that statement.  What we're running from plays a great role in what or who we end up running to.  For me, I am running from past mistakes and countless failures.  I am running from the 230 pound woman who hid behind her weight in fear of actually being used by God .  I have always been afraid of so many things, afraid especially of being "exposed".  No more!  Running has helped me to freely  "expose" myself in some ways....to gain confidence in who I am in Christ.  Choosing to be made uncomfortable has helped me to know the love and acceptance of Christ in so many ways I never would have.  Being made uncomfortable keeps me humble. 

1 Corinthians 9:25
"Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever."


Final thoughts:  Let us each and everyone, examine the crowns we are chasing.  Let us choose to let Christ "expose" us and make us a light to shine in dark places.  Let us not run for a crown that will not last, but for one that will last forever.  Let us trust in Christ to transform us into the image He has created us to portray.  Let us not hide behind high heels, sequins and lipstick, but let us see ourselves as Christ does, masterpeices just waiting to be revealed.