Inner Delight

Confronting and overcoming obstacles while sitting around a dining room table this past Saturday wasn’t about the food. In fact, that peppermint popcorn? Yum! The only obstacle between those kernels of buttery sweetness and my mouth was having only two hands to deliver them. What I’m talking about transpired with a small group of women who’re responding to God calling them to write…to write their stories, explore ideas together and share them with others, learning how to do that effectively. There are casserole-sized doubts and pressure cookers of misgivings and feelings of lack in each of us. As we opened our hearts we found serving platters of encouragement, affirmation, camaraderie, and strength, with a smorgasbord of humor on the side. And I came away with a feeling that I’ve struggled to identify. 

It is a sense of something special and wonderful happening, like when you’ve got the soup kettle on the stove,

and the ingredients are starting to simmer, smelling absolutely heavenly and promising. It finally came to me as I journaled later. I'm calling it "inner delight" and it lines up with a prophetic word given to me quite awhile back. 

It was about 30 years ago; I was attending a women's Bible study in a small church with a friend. During the small group discussion and prayer time, one of the women said that she had a "vision" pertaining to me. She “saw” me leading/teaching/mentoring women in some way. At the time I kind of scoffed at the idea, being a busy wife and mom raising four kids and I couldn't imagine women wanting to follow me anywhere or listen to anything I had to say. And this whole idea of “prophetic vision”? Lets just say it was a dish I was dubious about sampling.

Looking back I can see how God has led me through doors that I wasn't expecting, stage right and stage left and behind the scenes, has brought me through a variety of experiences, including leadership training and positions, and now He shines a light on this particular spot, the spot He intended all along. The inner delight that comes of being where He has called and prepared me to be as He overlooked

my initial scoffing, and the knowledge that He gave me the desire of my heart—His recipe for inner delight. Could be the woman in that Bible study group had a preview glimpse of it for me.

And these women I am privileged now to sit with at a table are ladling out all kinds of tasty words to savor.

A CARDBOARD TESTIMONY

STUCK IN A STAGNANT SWAMP. 

UP AGAINST A BRICK WALL. 

WANDERING IN A MAZE. 

SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE.

MISSING THE ACTION.

AN ACCIDENT WITHOUT PURPOSE.

Umm, yeah, that’s been my reality the past few months. And I’ve felt as much like a cliche as those phrases. BUT God hasn’t been stuck, wandering or missing. I couldn’t see behind the curtain where He’s been busy putting answers together for the requests I was making: #1) to be in relationship with other Christian women local to my area who desire to write, and #2) to find a way to serve in His kingdom.

It meant stepping a bit out of my comfort zone to attend an event where I basically didn’t know anyone. It was called “Safe Harbor”. And through that window, a light glowed, showing a pathway to explore. That pathway led to something called “Rooted”, a 10-week class at Calvary Community Church in Sumner, Washington. In a small group setting, we shared our life stories with each other, saw how God is present, cheering for us and empowering us, knitting us together as a community in order to be of service to each other as well as the larger community around us. 

At our Rooted Celebration Evening last week, along with several dozen other people, I 

participated in The Cardboard Testimony. My cardboard sign proclaimed on one side 

where I’d been before Rooted, and on the other side where I am today.

My small group leader asked us to choose a new name for ourselves. The name that jumped out at me was MASTERPIECE, designed on purpose with purpose, not an accident at all. 

Going forward I’m stepping into a new role, as facilitator of the women in my small group from Rooted. There’s the answer to my second request. My first request? Well, at that event I went to outside of my comfort zone I met a woman with a powerful story who desires to write a book and who needs encouragement in getting that done. She introduced me to two other women who want to write and are looking for encouragement. They asked me to mentor them! I think we’ll all be mentoring each other as we each have something to offer. 

RAFTING OUT OF THE MUCK.

A LADDER OVER THE TOP.

GPS THROUGH THE MAZE.

FOUND THE CHISEL.

ON STAGE.

MASTERPIECE.

DON’T LOOK AT ME!

One of the first descriptions about me that I remember hearing as a child was, “She’s shy. Don’t even look at her or she’ll cry.”

Wait! Wait! No worries, friends! While I still do cry easily, there’s no need to turn away. I’ve come a long way since then. But I’ll be honest with you. My shyness hasn’t disappeared, and temperamentally I’m an introvert so it still takes a lot of effort for me to engage in conversation or interact with people I don’t know. In previous blog posts, Role to Minister and MonstrousLimitations vs Super Power, I dealt with this. Good for me to review!

Good to remember also that once I get started with a particular interaction and can focus on the other person, and as long as I give myself time to re-energize afterward, I generally enjoy it, which is what I’ve experienced over the past few days.

In my last post I shared about “Be the One”, a mentoring program, and the writing opportunity I’ve been offered. What that entails is getting the stories of the mentors and mentees, how the program has affected them, and then putting the stories into readable form. The plan is to undertake that task the first couple weeks of May. In addition I was asked if I would take on interviewing local businesses that sponsor the program and get their feedback. I said, “Yes.”

Whoa! That’s a whole lot of interacting with people I don’t know, folks! So what motivates me to overcome my shyness and get out there and do it?

Well, the idea that kids are falling through the cracks when there’s a God-designed someone for each one of those kids to throw them a little life line, and here’s a program that can match these people up if only the word can get out there sort of starts the fire in me. And as I said in my previous post, my heart responded to that scenario in a big way. This is the purpose God designed me to fulfill—helping to get that word out there.

So far the sponsoring businesses I’ve contacted have been incredibly receptive and willing to share their hearts for the program and this community. I admire them!

Now, excuse me while I re-energize before it’s time to gather up

my interviewing paraphernalia for the next interviewee.

HEE-HAW!

My writers support group explored inspiration last month, and we took a look at why we write. The meeting was…inspiring! So why haven’t I written much since then?

Well, I think sometimes I need something more specific to motivate me. I’ve been praying for God’s direction in my life for my writing. And I believe He is sending some answers.

A few days ago, my sister and I met with Nancy McHarness who founded Partners for Schools in our local school district. She told us about the “Be the One” mentoring program she launched last year in the high school and middle school.

When she presented the opportunity to assist in a writing capacity, I felt my heart respond in a way that I haven’t experienced in a long time.

I don’t know the details of how God will move in this response yet but I am continuing to search His heart. As we all know, searching God’s heart requires reading His words, His Word.

My daily reading is taking me through Deuteronomy. Plod, plod, plod through Duty-ronomy, right? Still, I’m seeing God’s heart is there.

“If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don’t ignore your responsibility.

Take it back to its owner. If its owner does not live nearby or you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then you must return it. Do the same if you find your neighbor’s donkey, clothing, or anything else your neighbor loses. Don’t ignore your responsibility. If you see that your neighbor’s donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it back on its feet!” (Deuteronomy 22:1-4 NLT)

Okay, I’m a farmer’s daughter but it wasn’t a donkey on the side of the road that hee-hawed to get my attention. What grabbed me is a concept.

“Don’t ignore your responsibility.”

My responsibility in and with my writing is to help return something lost, to give something back to my community. The ramifications of that can be minimal, or they can be monumental. Either way, my writing matters. Our writing matters. For me, seeing HOW it might matter is a huge boost of encouragement to engage my mind and my fingers in releasing what God has put in my heart.

I am eagerly waiting for the next steps. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, here are some of the reasons I came up with for why I write, from the silly to the serious:

• The voices! The voices! The voices!
• Something has to go between the beginning of the sentence and the period.
• Someone has to keep the alphabet alive.
• In order to keep my keyboard happy.
• Because the words won’t put themselves on the page.
• I might be able to express a thought just a little differently than everyone else.
• It’s my nature to encourage with words.
• There are stories only I can tell.
• Worlds are like chisels used to expose reality.