(AYOG – A Year of Growth – YOGA spelled sideways and just as good for you!)

Good morning!

Well, how did it go yesterday? Your first hard thing?  Not so bad?  Even better than that?

Awesome!  Thing one done!

I called my counselor yesterday, my first thing. I haven’t met her yet, but I can tell it’s going to be a good fit. Her voice, her demeanor made me excited to meet her face to face at our first appointment next Wednesday. Growth in healing is on its way.

Thing one done.

Are you ready for more?

A few things occurred to me when I got up this morning.

1.  Every hard thing we choose to do is primarily hard because of either FEAR, PRIDE, or SELFISHNESS. I spent some time going over scenarios that I know are coming up on my “hard-to-do-list” and every single one of them fell under one of these categories.  Is it just me or can you say the same?
2. Many of the hard things we choose to do will require FOLLOW-UP or MAINTENANCE.  Again, the vast majority of things on my list are not  one time and it’s done stuff.  It just becomes easier as I keep practicing it.  As I step out in faith and do it again and again.  Yes?
3. Satan runs the fear, pride and selfishness campaign.  So each time I’m saying “Yes” to Jesus by my obedience in doing the hard thing, I am saying “No” to Satan (with his myriad of reasons falling under those three categories) and the desire to run the other way. 
4. Jesus has my insides, Satan only has the outside.  Remember the verse, “Greater is He who is in me than He who is in the world”?  Jesus is the INSIDER with the overwhelming advantage.

Which is the perfect transition to the scripture playing over and over in my head this morning:

Okay, not a new verse.  We’re all familiar, right? But have we just memorized this verse and lost the power of what it really says?  Jesus gives us the the strength to do ALL THE THINGS that He asks us to do. Because He is in IN me! In YOU!

Once again, if He is offering the ASK, He will provide the HOW.

My hard thing today is to take cookies to my new neighbors.  We’ve all just moved into this new condo complex and no one knows each other.  What a great opportunity, right?  Perfect chance to share Jesus’ love with people.

Normally, this would not be a hard thing for me. How hard can cookies be? This has always been part of our 13 moves, and the method we’ve used to meet our neighbors.  I’ve always lived for this stuff.

But, this time, I just don’t want to.  How ugly is that?  I don’t need any more friends and why do I always have to be the one to reach out? No one even eats cookies these days any way.

What categories make this hard for me?

I would say all three.

FEAR – The follow-up is the fear in this case.  What if meeting them requires more of me than just a plate of cookies and a smile?  What if Jesus wants me to invest more deeply with some of these people?

PRIDE – There is just something humbling about walking up to a stranger’s door and offering them something so insignificant.

SELFISHNESS – I’d rather just sit in my new little place and have FRIENDS over for cookies instead.  Plus it takes time and energy and I might have to go and buy some ingredients.

Pathetic.

Still, God ASKS. Because it’s not about the cookies. They are just a visual of something more. Reaching out to my neighbors, sharing His love is not about me at all. It’s saying “No” to the enemy and “Yes” to Jesus.  I need to get over myself – my fear, my pride, my selfishness.  I need to remember why He offers me the privilege of touching people’s lives in concrete ways.  BECAUSE HE LOVES THEM SO MUCH and He wants me to be the skin on that love.

Am I going to say no to that?

Am I willing to sacrifice a little bit of time and the tiniest bit of myself, to walk up to these strangers’ doors and give them a plate of homemade cookies that symbolizes so much more than empty calories?

Am I willing to put myself out there to others who might ask something more of me?  Who might actually have questions about Jesus down the road?

Growth requires hard things.  And while the only part of this that’s difficult is myself, this is one step in letting Jesus chip away at something ugly to create something more beautiful in my heart.

Tomorrow I will look a smidgen different in the mirror. And I will have met my neighbors.

Jesus and I will bake and deliver cookies together today. Because He is greater than my fear, my pride and my selfishness.

What is your Thing Two today?  How can I pray for you? What can you claim Jesus’ strength to do in and through you today?

What one action will say both “Yes” to Jesus and “No” to our arch enemy?

I think I see your new muscles emerging…:-)

Prayerful for you because we’re in this together,

J