A Divine Stumbling Block

Verse: Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me...But wisdom is proved right by all her children. - Luke 7:23;35

Topic: How do I live a life honoring to Christ?

Personal Piece:  This week I got some absolutely amazing news.  A good friend of mine from high school is getting married!  Marriage is exciting anyway but the story behind this particular wedding is nothing short of miraculous.  It all started in June of 2007 (or at least it did for me) just before my freshman year of high school.  I had just finished an intense book about a high school student who went through some rough stuff and received nothing but judgment.  I told God I wanted to be different and help students like the girl in the book. I had no idea what that would mean for me but I said yes to God and two years later stepped foot in a public high school for the first time.  

That was when I met Meg.  She sat right next to me in Chemistry class, giant black hoody, heavy make-up, dark attitude.  She was far from the type of person I would hang out with, but I had a God-sized burden that changed everything.  For 7 years I couldn't get her out of my head and for some reason that could only be God she kept accepting my invitations to hang out.  Well after 7 years God answered my prayers when she messaged me telling me she had encountered God.  For the last year we have been praying for her boyfriend (the father of her four year old daughter) that he too would find God.  Thankfully God didn't take as long to answer those prayers and they will be getting married THIS Saturday.  I'm so excited!

Thought of the Week:  This week wisdom has been turning over and over in my head and I am honestly really struggling to grasp it.  Wisdom is such a hard word to nail down, maybe that's why God gave us a whole book on it.  He knew it would be a hard subject for his children to really get a hold of, truth be told I'm still trying to get my mind around it.  There are so many aspects to it, it's actually amazing to think that Solomon was even able to put it into words, even if it did take him a full 31 chapters to do so.  The one aspect that's been really turning around in my mind this week is that of speech.  There are so many verses about fools talking too much and the wise keeping their mouths shut.  I often think I am more fool than wise.

This morning I read the verse above when God was talking to some people about John the Baptist. John was in prison for speaking the truth to a political leader and was probably feeling a bit down. Judging by his questions I would say it's safe to say that he was starting to question if Jesus really was the Messiah.  Jesus was just his younger cousin after all and from inside that cell it was probably easy to forget what it was like to look into his eyes.  It was during this conversation that Jesus makes a statement that has always caused me to wonder: "Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me."

How could Jesus of all people cause anyone to stumble that just doesn't seem to make sense to me. But today when I was reading that passage it all kinda fell into place.  The pharisees and John's disciples and even John himself were getting caught up in all the things that Jesus WASN'T doing. The pharisees accused him of breaking the Sabbath and therefore the law and John was confused as to why he was still in jail.  But Jesus didn't get defensive.  He knew their focus had strayed off of him and onto their circumstances so he brought it by bringing attention back to all the things he had done.

How often do I also get caught up in the things God isn't doing for me.  I have all these expectations of what I want him to do and what I think he should do and then when he doesn't come through in those ways I get angry.  But he never gets defensive.  He sits back and lets me have my little temper tantrum and then later when I'm done and ready to listen, he reminds me of all the wonderful things he HAS done.  When he addressed John's disciples he reminded them of the miracles he had done and the people that had been healed.  He showed them the changed lives of the people who were following him and then stated very simply that "wisdom is proved right by her children".

I think we as Christians spend too much time trying to prove God.  We act as if we were solely chosen to be his personal lawyer on the public forums.  We try to prove that our way of living is better, that the denial of self is somehow more pleasing and more fulfilling than their life of extravagance and comfort.  But outside of God our arguments literally make no sense.  Proving God outside a life of prayer will never work.  People aren't going to be convinced by clever arguments and they definitely aren't going to be attracted to a life of sacrifice.  Not without a pure revelation from God.

The last two months I have been talking about going after God and really pressing into him.  I know from experience that that is often easier said than done.  It's so much easier to get caught up in the legalistic dos and don'ts of Christianity then really listen to his heartbeat.  Legalism keeps us at arms distance.  We're only required to read his words and attend a church service and make sure we're presenting a perfect life for others to see.  But to listen to his heartbeat we have to get up close and personal.  We have to look into his eyes and allow our sin to be exposed, and when our hearts are in sync with his our lives will never be the same.

When you are close enough to God to hear his heartbeat you'll find that he doesn't need you to prove him.  Wisdom proves itself, HE proves himself.  He doesn't call us to be the answer, he's already got that covered he just wants us to be his hands and feet.  He wants us to be a physical expression of his love.  We don't have to find proof because we are the proof.  Once we let him arrest our hearts and change us then we become an indisputable proof that only the foolish will try to argue with.

Digging Deeper: For John's relationship with Jesus see Luke chapter 1 and Matthew chapter 3.  For more on Solomon see the book of Proverbs, 2 Samuel 11-12 and 1 Kings 1-11

Special Announcement: I will be officially changing my posting days to Thursday.  Since I also have Thursdays off and I like to relax and sleep in on Sundays I think this will be a good change.  Also Thursdays are the day I will have off when I move to KC for my internship so I figure it will be good to get into that groove now.

Reply to a comment that I was unable to reply to below:  I think your confusion comes with the definitions of legalism and love. Legalism refers to EXCESSIVE adherence to the law. We get so caught up in the dos and don'ts that we forget that Jesus was even a real person. This is not to say that we should throw out the law entirely but rather that we cannot understand the law if we do not understand love and we cannot understand love if we do not understand God. I heard something this week that I thought was really powerful: If God is love that means EVERYTHING he does is an extension of love. That means every judgement, every punishment, every rule is love. It is hard for American Christians to really get their minds around that (hard for me to get my mind around). The fact of the matter is without love then every rule we obey, every sacrifice we make, every person we help is just religious duty (and therefore an act of selfishness) rather than pure and holy for a God who loves us. If you're going after a lovey dovey, rainbows and butterflies, sunshine and roses kind of love then yes you'll probably lose sight of the truth, but if you're looking for the real love that Jesus offers then holiness will be a natural progression. Hope that helps.

Challenge:  Over the course of this next month, read the book of Proverbs (one chapter a day) and ask God to show you his heartbeat.  Pick one verse from each chapter to focus on each day.  Pray and meditate on that verse and ask God how to apply wisdom to your life.

Living the Dream

Verse: And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;...they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well - Mark 16:17-18

Topic: Why has God stopped doing miracles?

Personal Piece: This week has been a rather exhausting one, between abnormally long shifts at work, a ridiculously busy Valentine's shift (I still don't understand why Chick-fil-A is so popular for V-day)  and taking a 2-hour drive to go meet my first nephew, I feel like I could sleep all day today.  But the weather is beautiful and in Wisconsin you just never know how long that will last in the middle of February.  Today is a perfect day to bust out the long board and go for a ride.  Yesterday I got to go sit out in the sun and bask in both the physical and spiritual light of Jesus.  As I started the book of Luke and was overcome with the beauty and mercy of a God who was willing to spend NINE MONTHS living in the womb of a woman he created.  That's just incredible!  And yet people today would argue that he wasn't even alive at that time.  What a joke!  How many people in today's day would have encouraged Mary to scrape GOD out of her body and discard him like tissue because his existence wasn't in her plan.  Ugh I can't even imagine!  But I digress...

Thought of the Week: When I read the Bible sometimes it can be hard to believe that the stuff that I'm reading really happened.  We just don't see stuff like that anymore.  We don't see fire come down from heaven, or seas parted.  We don't see the sun stand still or walls fall down.  We don't see people healed or the dead raised.  It just doesn't happen like it did back then, at least not in the Western world.  Sometimes we might hear stories of healings and miraculous escapes in other countries but in America it just doesn't happen.  Why is that?  Why do missionaries see things happen but not in America?  I think if we really examine ourselves we know the answer.

If you're anything like me, you're comfortable.  In America we have this "thing" called the "American Dream".  I'm learning more and more everyday how much of a dream it really is.  Have you ever heard that cliche "If it seems too good to be true it probably is"?  Yeah that's exactly what the American Dream is and yet we tend to think that we as American's are the exception.  No matter what our childhood looks like we all grow up being told that in order to make anything of ourselves we have to get an education and find that special someone to spend the rest of our lives with.  We need a good paying job, a nice house and a fancy car.  And if you're a decent human being you will have 2 and half children.

I remember hearing that statistic in a number of psych classes and we'd all have a good laugh.  But as I write this entry it only strikes me as sad.  According to at least one statistic 1 in 3 woman will have an abortion before the age of 45 and most will never talk about it.  They will get married and have their two children.  They will build their American Dream but deep inside of them, hidden away from even their husbands they hold a devastating secret.  Forever they will hold the "what-if" of the child that never was, they will make excuses to ease the guilt of their decision.  After all that child would have somehow, someway interfered with the perfect plan.  That right there is the American Dream.  A life of comfort with the power to eliminate anything that interferes with it.

As Christians we have bought into the lie that we too deserve that life of comfort.  Our high school graduates are pressured to attend college, our college graduates are pressured to get married, our newly weds are pressured to have children and then the cycle begins again when we start to ask our children what they want to be when they grow up.  We expect answers such as firefighter, doctor, president and encourage them to make decisions at the age of 7 that will put them on those paths.  We laugh when they say they want to be a superhero or a princess.  I personally never want my child to answer that question with an occupation.  I want my child to answer with quality.  I want them to be strong and kind and creative and most will probably chuckle and ask them again.  Right from the start our children are doomed to a life of unhappiness because they are pressured to make life decisions long before they have discovered who God has created them to be.

When I was a child, I wanted nothing more than to be a mother.  But the pressures of that question were always heavy upon me.  What did I want to be when I grow up?  What did I want to do with my life?  I went through the gamut of cliche answers but none of them ever sat well with me (I hate being cliche) finally when I was fourteen God and I had a conversation where he tried to show me what he wanted me to be.  But the conversation was translated through societies lens of occupation and money and I determined to be a counselor.  I don't regret going to school, there were a lot of amazing things I learned through that time (mostly about myself) and God has confirmed to me through a number of prophetic words that that time will not be wasted.  Even still I know that the image I have had in my mind is not the image that has been in God's mind.  I still don't see his vision clearly cause I've still got American colored glasses stuck to my face.  Not to mention a lot of pressure to take the next step in the American Dream.

Miracles happen when we are aligned with God's will but Americans tend to live out of alignment. Money may not be evil but it certainly is the root of all evil and we live in a rich nation that is deeply rooted in selfishness and therefore evil.  The thought of losing our phones, internet, cable, car or house strikes us with fear and the the thought of sleeping on the ground, having no clean water and only one change of clothes, the thought of making less then a dollar a day is unthinkable to us and yet it is how many people live.  People in third-world countries have no choice but to trust in something divine to save them and that's where the miracles come in.

We have to let go of the American Dream if we ever hope to live God's dream.  Jesus said that those who truly believe in him would be able to cast out demons and heal the sick and speak in other languages.  The man who rose people from the dead said we would be able to do greater things than him.  I have to ask myself what I believe in more.  My God who I can't physically see, or the money that is unreliable.  The American Dream says money, God says there's more.  I don't know what more entails, I know that some pretty incredible things are involved.  I also know some pretty scary things are involved (demons are nothing to mess around with).  But there's a longing in my soul that a degree and a fancy house can't fill.

Digging Deeper:  For more information on abortion from a Christian perspective there are a number of books you can check out.  Gianna Jesson's book "Gianna: aborted and lived" is an incredible testimony of a woman who survived abortion.  "Atonement Child" by Francine Rivers is a fictional story about the bondage of abortion.  If you or someone you know has had or is planning to have an abortion, know that it is NOT your only option.  Even Christians make mistakes and there are pregnancy care centers in every major city that are willing to help you, whether it be in finding other options or finding healing from an abortion of the past.  Don't do it alone.

To get to know yourself better here there are a number of tests you can take.  The most accurate personality test I've ever used is the MBTI test which can be found at 16personalities.com.  To find your Core Values try www.onlinepersonalitytests.org

Challenge: No matter where you are in life it is not too late to take a step back from the American Dream and discover what God's dream for you is.  Find out what 5 things you value most in life, your strengths and your longings.  The better you know how God created you the better you will see what he created you to do.

The Taste of Glory

Verse:  But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. - Psalms 33:11

Topic:  How do I worship God when I don't feel like it?

Personal Piece:  This week has been a crazy roller coaster.  Last Saturday I had a bit of a break down after work and my pastor called me out on some stuff that I really needed to hear.  Not that I didn't know what he was telling me but hearing it come out of somebody else's mouth was exactly what I needed to hear.  The butterfly illustration from last week was really needed too.  As of Monday I've decided to make a big change and get into a physical cocoon.  Starting in July I will be moving back to Missouri for 6 months to live in full time prayer ministry.  I'm nervous for sure, I struggle to pray for an hour a day most of the time and this will require 6-10 hours a day which sounds exhausting but it also sounds like exactly what I need.  So if you think of it pray for me cause this year is going to be CRAZY.

Thought of the Week:  When we think of Moses the first thing that often comes to mind is the plagues in Egypt.  We think of this strong powerful man who didn't take no for an answer and kept standing before Pharaoh day after day to plead for his people.  The funny thing is Moses wasn't the strong public speaker a lot of us like to make him out to be.  At least not at first.  When he first encountered God in the burning bush he told him that he stuttered, and that speaking wasn't his thing.  I really relate to that encounter.  I tend to stutter a lot when I'm talking to people who intimidate me.  I struggle to get the words in my head out in a way that makes sense and a lot of times my tongue gets so tied I can't even finish my sentence (One of many reasons I love writing so much).  Moses had a similar issue with speaking and when God told him to go he protested.

We often talk about God's rebuke, how he told Moses to go anyway and trust him but we forget that God also said that his brother Aaron would do the speaking.  Once in Egypt Moses wasn't the one who spoke out against Pharaoh it was Aaron who did that.  Aaron was the voice and Moses was the ears.  He didn't get to his place of leadership by doing all the talking, he was appointed to leadership because he listened.  Those days in Egypt were just the beginning of his prayer ministry.  He prayed to God and God told him what would happen, when to go to Pharaoh, and what to have Aaron say when they got there.

It was the time spent on Sinai that really changed Moses.  He spent 40 days with God going over the ins and outs of God's law and really making it a part of his own heart.  He didn't just memorize the law, he got to know the heart of the God who wrote it.  Spending that much time with Yahweh was bound to change him and by the time he came down off the mountain you could sense the confidence in him.  He was no longer a man plagued by social anxiety, he no longer stuttered over his words, he had encountered Yahweh and he was no longer afraid of man's opinion.  Moses' relationship with God was so intense that he eventually spent so much time with God that his face began to literally shine with God's glory to the point of him having to cover it up.

As amazing as Moses is the person who always sticks out to me is Moses' aide, Joshua. Joshua and and a number of leaders were invited to eat a dinner with God incarnate (also known as Jesus).  They shared a meal together and then Moses went further into the mountain with Jesus. Joshua wasn't invited to go all the way up the mountain with Moses but he got as close as he could.  He sat at the foot of the mountain and waited for 40 days while the rest of the leaders went down and got bored. They had eaten with Jesus but after 40 days they forgot everything that had happened.  Joshua didn't forget because he never fully left that moment.  As the people moved on toward the promised land Joshua stayed close to Moses.  When Moses went to meet with God in the Tabernacle Joshua would wait outside and take in as much of God's glory as he was allowed and he would wait there until the glory lifted, often long after Moses had already left.  I believe this is why Joshua was picked to succeed Moses after his death.

These two men are such an inspiration to me but Joshua especially.  He wasn't chosen to speak to Yahweh face-to-face like Moses was but he didn't care.  While many others just went through the motions and even begged Moses to hide his face from them, Joshua wanted to experience as much as he could.  I don't know about you but there are some people that I have encountered in my life that seem to have such a close relationship with God that it makes me feel like a fake.  I hear the way they pray and see the way they worship and though I know it isn't a comparing game I can't help but wonder if I am not as 'christian' as I thought.  Those are the moments I remember Joshua.  He could have compared himself to Moses and withdrawn like the others but he only compared himself to himself and experienced as much as he could.

As the leader of the Israelite's I'm sure there were a lot of other responsibilities that Moses had, the people were constantly demanding his advice.  As his aide, Joshua would have been right there with him.  Yet, I honestly don't think either of these men ever considered skipping out on their time with God.  They were two of the busiest men among the people and yet they still made time to go, and they never regretted it.  They took their time to really savor him and when the time came they didn't want to leave.

We can't truly encounter God when we are just trying to force him into our busy schedule to check something off our list.  At first it may be difficult to spend time with God, we probably won't feel like it, but encountering God isn't about our emotions.  We worship God because he is worthy.  We listen and obey because he is God.  We serve with joy and excellence because he is deserving.  We don't deserve the gift of his presence, we don't deserve to experience his glory, and the truth is we might not experience it every day but we enter in anyway.  Sometimes the closest you can get is the foot of the mountain or outside of the tent.  Don't give up and don't compare.  Joshua didn't have a ministry like Moses but he still encountered God in his own way, he still saw miracles and he was still used by God.  If you push through the boredom and lack of motivation you too can experience his glory.

Digging Deeper:  Moses' story can be found throughout the book of Exodus.  For the burning bush experience see Exodus chapter 3 and 4, for the plagues on Egypt see chapters 7-11, for the meal that Moses and the leaders shared with Jesus see chapter 24, for what happened when Moses came down from the mountain see chapter 32, and for Moses' encounters with God see Exodus 33:7-23 and 34:29-35.  The story of Joshua's calling can be found in the book of Joshua.

Two references I intended to put in but ran out of room for was 1) Mark 9:14-29 when Jesus casts out a demon that the disciples failed to cast out.  When asked about it Jesus responds that there are some demons that can only be cast out through a life foundation of prayer. 2) Mark 10:46-52 where a blind man calls out to Jesus even after being told to be quiet.  When Jesus finally comes to him, Jesus asks the man what he wants even though it is obvious that he is blind.  Jesus makes him spell out his request instead of just assuming.

If you are interested in entering into the cocoon and want more information on the internship I am doing you can find it at www.ihopkc.org

Challenge: Set aside some additional time this week to really press into God.  Try to set aside time every day to not only read his word but also pray.  Remove all distractions (turn off your phone and go some place where you'll be alone) and keep a piece of paper and a pencil nearby.  Ask God the things on your heart and make sure you spell out desires.  Often we expect God to fix the problem but we don't even know what it is that we want from him exactly.  Write down any verses, stories or revelations that come to your mind.  Resist the urge to go online and look something up on your phone, you can do that at a later time  Keep a separate piece of paper to write down any distractions. This will allow you to let those thoughts go and refocus on God without worrying about forgetting to feed the cat or put away your clothes.

The Big Bang in You

Verse: Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God. - Psalms 31:5

Topic: How do I know when I'm hearing God's voice?

Personal Piece: It never ceases to amaze me how God works.  I usually choose the topic for these posts the week before actually writing it but every week that topic ends up being exactly what I needed to learn as well.  The word I wrote down at the beginning of this week was "Choices" and I am in a place right now where I have to make a pretty big choice that will effect the rest of my life.  I have to make a choice to stay where I am out of fear or take action against mistreatment.  I've always been the type of person who doesn't make any move until I have everything figured out.  I like to know I'll be able to fly before I take the leap so it's a little scary to be standing here on the edge without any wings.  In my head I know God will catch me but my flesh tells me it's safer to just stay on land where it's safe.  And so I wait...

Thought of the Week: Butterflies are absolutely amazing creatures.  I'm sure you've heard them in numerous illustrations as examples of transformation but let's talk about them again.  The caterpillar is fat and slow and is constantly hungry.  It may be happy to sit on it's little branch and eat leaves all day but it isn't truly free.  We as the observer know it has the potential to fly one day, we know that there is more to its life then it's chubby existence and we wait excitedly for that transformation.  Then one day the critter gets tired of eating and decides to spin this web all the way around itself and hides itself away from the world.  Then comes my favorite part, the caterpillar literally turns into goo everything that once made it a caterpillar is stripped away and melted down.  Then the miracle happens that goo restructures itself into something stronger and when that shell breaks away something completely different appears.

We are all like butterflies and like butterflies we start as caterpillars.  We're slow, fat and hungry.  I'm not talking on a physical level but on a spiritual level.  We hunger for something to fill the deep longing of our souls and no matter how much we eat we just aren't full.  We could be eating the good stuff too, maybe you're feeding your soul on the word of God, but if it's not sinking in then they're just words that will leave you still hungry.  We get fat on the diet of this world, filling our souls with media and gossip in the hopes that it will satisfy but it doesn't and the "fatter" we get the "slower" we get.  You know what I'm talking about: anger, fear, doubt, jealousy, confusion, addiction, pride, guilt. All leading up to the devourer of souls...depression.

I call depression the devourer because it is the end result of any number of issues,  it is the effect, not the cause.  when you are angry or afraid or jealous, people can see that, they can confront you and help you but when those emotions hit their max a person falls into depression.  Depression is numbness, it's reaching a point where you're so sick of the problem that you forget there even is a problem.  Many depressed can smile and laugh, they can have deep conversations and expose their heart to others, not all depressed stay in bed or find they have no appetite though that would be too easy.  If you pay attention and you'll see how rarely people's smiles reach their eyes, how fake the laughter is, you'll realize that you talk about yourself more than you talk about them and that there is always one area that they skirt in conversation.

The depressed are those that have been eating and eating of this world but they are tired of eating. Like the caterpillar they have reached their max.  They're tired of the lies, tired of the garbage but they're not sure how to get off the branch.  What caterpillar's do instinctively, we have to choose.  As mindless insects they don't know what will happen when they make their cocoon but we do.  We know that making this choice is going to turn us into goo.  We're not ready to be melted down.  It seems much safer to stay on our little branch and since it's expected we keep on eating.  We're afraid of what will happen once we're defenseless inside that cocoon so we choose instead to remain in the comfort of our depression.

But let me tell you something: God is the cocoon.  While you're in the process of getting turned to goo he will hold you together.  When everything that you are gets melted down he will protect you. He won't let you go until you are ready.  The same God who performs the miracle in each individual butterfly will do the same in you he will take the goo that you become and reform it into something even more beautiful.  What's amazing is that nothing is added or subtracted from that goo it's just restructured.  God doesn't turn you into a completely different person he just shows you how to use what you already have to fly.  When a butterfly breaks out it leaves its cocoon behind but we don't leave God behind our cocoon of safety becomes the sky.  The never-ending vastness that we get to enjoy for the rest of our lives.

So how do you know when you are hearing God's voice?  If you're asking this question you're probably back on the branch.  The thing about us fickle humans is that far too often we return to the branch even after we've become a butterfly.  We have the whole sky above us and the delicious nectar of heaven's flower to drink from but we start looking down on that tree with it's fattening leaves and we miss it.  We go back and before long our wings fall off and we're a caterpillar again.  Thankfully it gets easier, the pain isn't so bad the second time it's easier when you know what it's like to fly but we still have to go through the process, still have to spend time in the cocoon.

So if you're on the tree (whether you returned or never left) make sure you are feeding your soul a healthy diet of truth from the word of God.  Even when it doesn't seem to fill your longing the truth is what will prepare you for your time in the cocoon.  It's like reading a love letter but never meeting your lover in person you can fall in love with the words and the heart but you will not have the full picture until you see his face.  Like the caterpillar's instinct, God will tell you when it is time to get in the cocoon and the more depressed you are, the more lost you feel, the harder he is calling you.  Depression is a resistance to the life we know we are meant to live, it is a resistance to change and a surrendering to life on the branch.  Don't surrender, don't be afraid.  Let him enclose you in his love and then enjoy the freedom he brings.

Digging Deeper:  For more info on butterflies you can visit answersingenesis.org where you can find a very detailed explanation of everything that happens to a butterfly from egg to death.  Including all the small changes it goes through before the cocoon.  There are many other articles online but this was by far the most detailed I found.

If you are struggling with depression a great book I have used in the past is "Moving Beyond Depression" by Gregory Jantz.

For those who know someone who is struggling understand that being there for them is the best solution.  It does no good to push someone off the branch before they've got wings of their own.  We are butterflies not birds.  But there are things that help.  Depressed people will often use the excuse of being tired when they are depressed.  I will frequently ask people "Are you tired cause you physically tired or emotionally tired?"  The answer is a good launching place for a conversation on depression. Conversations with depressed people can be frustrating on both ends so be patient.  Many depressed people do not know how to talk about it because people do not ask.  The cause is something that was lost long ago and they will have to find it again.  More than likely deep emotions have also been shut off so be patient and don't stop trying.

Fun Fact: This entry was supposed to be another installment of the story of Peter, focusing on his choosing to follow Christ but when I started writing the word butterfly came into my head and greatly took over.  So these words were entirely from God to me and now to you.

The title came from the idea of the Big Bang where the world was created from goo.  While I don't believe in the Big Bang or evolution the transition from caterpillar to butterfly is much like a Big Bang inside of us.  Something is formed from the nothingness or the goo of our pasts.

Challenge:  Just meditate this week on this idea of being a caterpillar and determine what is holding you back from entering that cocoon.  If you left before, why did you go back?  If you are depressed what is causing it because that is what is probably holding it back.  What Big Bang choice do you have to make?