Never Too Late

"It is never too late to become the person you might have been." --George Elliot

I love days like today, days that are are cloudy, cold and windy. I love them because they make the inside of my house feel cozier, warmer and brighter. All I want to do on days like this is curl up under a chenille throw on my couch and read a good book and sip hot tea and luxuriate in the yummy goodness of home. And ignore my children and the ringing telephone and refuse to cook dinner and...

Sorry. I got carried away.

I do find it so odd, though, that when the circumstances of life mirror days like this, when the landscape of my existence is dark and cold and windswept, all I can see and feel is the outside. While the stormy afternoon only serves to magnify the warmth and comfort of the refuge of home, the difficulties of life often overshadow the warmth and comfort and coziness that can be found in the refuge of God. Why is that? Shouldn't the dark circumstances of life stand in stark contrast to all the light and comfort and protection of the home we have in the shadow of His wings?

I think it is all part of this process of becoming, this learning to live in oneness with the Lover of our souls. It takes time. And it takes much stumbling and falling and then just as much getting back up and moving forward to change our perspective. When Paul talked of being "crucified with Christ that I might no longer live, but Christ lives in me," (Gal 2:20) he was speaking of this divine perspective, this arduous journey from self-awareness to God-awareness. He longs to be that to whom our gaze is drawn when the storms come, that we might be identified with Him alone and not to the fears that threaten when clouds roll in and the winds pick up.

It is a process. It is a journey. And it is never too late.

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To Be Sure of You

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw, "I just wanted to be sure of you.

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting alone in my bedroom, rocking and staring out the window, feeling rather sad and wondering why. My husband came into the room and stretched out on the carpet beside me. Putting his feet on the stool between us, he looked over at me and asked me what was wrong. I didn't have an answer so he just smiled at me and we fell into a long, luxurious silence. After a few minutes he asked me to put my feet on the stool so they would touch his. "I just want to feel you next to me. I need to know you are there," he said.

With the myriad uncertainties in my life at this moment, it is consoling to be sure of what really matters....that I am loved.

By my husband.

By my God.

Sometimes it just helps to reach out and be sure of it.

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You’re Soaking In It!

Life as I know it has returned to a state of "normal".  I will make no attempts to define "normal", although I usually do enjoy defining the completely subjective because it helps me to bring order to my already cluttered mind.  I am attempting instead to experience moments of life rather than always trying to define them.  As founder and president of the Think Things To Death Society, this is nothing short of miraculous.  Now, where was I?  Oh, yes...
Normal.  We have moved to another state, put most of our worldly possessions in storage and are currently living in someone’s guest home for a loosely determined length of time while we catch our proverbial breath and wait on God to show us what is next.  I'm sorry, did I say normal?  I meant utterly ridiculous but utterly ridiculous is the new normal and so here we are, living on a gorgeous spread of land, complete with horses in surrounding pastures,  swimming pool,  tennis court,  basketball court, workout room, and a beautiful home with every creature comfort possible.  The sheets with the incredibly high thread count are, in my opinion, just the cherry on top.  And if there is a down side to all of this it would only be that there are around a dozen deer and elk heads hanging on the walls in the great room and I swear they stare at me when I play pool in my pajamas.
Oswald Chambers talks about being "put into soak before God".  The innermost life is where the real action is, after all, and there are times when God pulls us away from the shop window, where most church leaders live, to receive, transform, and soften in the quiet solitude of soaking.  I am just amazed at where He has us now and so I will be here, soaking and hopefully transforming.  Softening...like in that Palmolive commercial from the 70's.  It is a good day when you can combine serious spiritual content with nostalgic television commercials.  That's why I am here, people.  That's why I'm here.

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In His Lap

When I was a child and it was my weekend to be with my daddy, I couldn't wait to get in his lap and feel his arms squeeze me close to him. Nobody could hug me like he did. The smell of his aftershave and the prickles of his whiskers on my cheek were medicine to my hurting little heart and I drank deeply every weekend that I spent with him, wishing that I could hug him every day. Little boys and girls need the lavish affection of their fathers.

These past weeks, I trimmed away some of the distractions in my life for a while so I could pull in, narrow my focus and curl up next to God. I don't mean this to sound spooky- spiritual or religious. I just mean it for what it is...a little girl who needs more affection from her Daddy and the only way she knows to get it is to cuddle up next to Him.

Somehow many of us become so swept away with the distractions of life that we forget how badly we still need to curl up in our Heavenly Father's lap and drink Him in. And sadly many of these distractions, some of them good things or, even worse, ministry things, become poor substitutes for what our souls desperately need...lavish affection from the only One who knows who we really are.

When was the last time you sat in His lap?

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In The Stillness

Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.
Meister Eckhart

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God."
When I consider what it means to be still and to know Him as God, I think of the mysteries of the cocoon and the resulting transformation that takes place after a season of isolation, of darkness and of stillness. And none of this "cocooning" takes place quickly but over the course of time. To the casual observer it would seem that nothing is happening. Some may regard being still as idle, unproductive and wasteful, but nothing could be further from the truth. To be still before God is to silence the myriad distractions that life has to offer and to focus on the extravagance of simply enjoying His presence. It is possible in this unhurried exchange that our pressing questions might be answered, our deepest hurts healed and our priorities become realigned, but more often than not, those things just fade into the background and the nearness of God becomes all that we see.

I believe we must be intentional in setting aside seasons to seal ourselves into a "cocoon" where we are forced into stillness and away from distraction. This doesn't have to happen in an isolated retreat setting. It can simply mean cutting out so much of the "excess" activity in our lives for a season. The sole purpose is to spend longer quantities of unhurried time with God, soaking in His Presence and becoming preoccupied with Him and Him alone. This is such a time for me. For the month of August I will not be spending time on Facebook and I will not be posting anything on my blog. I sincerely hope this won't kill my blog traffic and that you will all be here when I return in September, but regardless, this is what I need to do. I am really looking forward to the stillness and when I return, I hope to have some tasty things to share with you all.

Happy August!

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Soulmaking

When a husband and wife come together in the most intimate of connections it is called lovemaking. Love is not actually made in the act of sex, it is merely expressed in a wildly intense way that only God could have imagined. And when each of us joins together in the closest of intimacy with our Heavenly Father, it is called soulmaking. Likewise, the soul is not made in the intimate dance between the Father and child but it is expressed in a wildly intense way that, again, only God could have imagined.

There is an ineffible discovery of soul and self and eternal identity that can only be realized in the tender moments of exchange and connection between Father and child. And the self that is realized is really just the true reflection of Who He is and how He desires His image to be reflected in us. And these reflections of His face in each of us are as unique and different as each snowflake that falls to the earth, not one resembling any other. It is the constantly changing environment within a cloud that makes each snowflake uniquely different and so it is with each of us...our ever changing surroundings cause us to be a reflection of the Father's heart and face unlike any other. This must cause the heart of our wildly creative God to burst with excitement over the endless expressions of His true self that are then possible to be seen and enjoyed in the earth.

However, many of us have been deceived into viewing such exchanges with God in much the same casual way that so many view sex. It is for our own gratification, serving the purpose of meeting a base need in such a way that the heart need not ever be engaged. How cheap and shallow an imitation is this of the deeper reality that He intends for us to know when our hearts are engaged and our souls are brought to life in a fiery, breath-taking intertwining of flesh with the divine. Soulmaking is an incomprehensible union worthy of our pursuit that will move us toward, as Sue Monk Kidd puts it, "recovering all that is lost and orphaned within us and restoring the divine image imprinted on our soul."

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How Do You Measure?

How do you measure the worth of what you do for God?

Do you count the number of souls you have won?

Do you count the number of trips you have made to the nursing home or the prisons?

Do you measure it by the growth you see in the life of the one you are mentoring?

Do you measure it by the positive feedback you receive from those to whom you minister?

Is it measured by the amount of your private giving and secret service to others?

Is it measured by how you feel about what you do to serve God?

Oswald Chambers had this to say about it:
"The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private, profound communion we have with Him." (emphasis mine)

I have to agree with him. And I cannot get away from this verse that I have quoted so many times.

"I don't want your sacrifices, I want your love. I don't want your offerings, I want you to know Me." Hosea 6:6

And so I ask myself, "Am I giving Him what He wants?"

Are you?

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Truth-tellers

"The essence of friendship: the 'unbuttoning' of oneself that invites intimacy, followed by the ability to step into that close, vulnerable space."
--Sue Monk Kidd

I cannot fathom life without my truth-tellers. Truth-tellers are intimate friends who love you enough to enter into the messiness of your soul and tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Many are the leaders in the church who have no truth-tellers in their lives and for most of them, failure is an inevitability because for those who have no one to hold a mirror up to the soul, pride becomes a constant companion.

I spent this past weekend with two women who are truth-tellers in my life and I came away from their company with a clearer understanding of the largeness of the Love of God and the graciousness of His Holy Spirit. To see who you really are through the eyes of intimate friends that love you enough to speak uncompromising truth is a gift and a privilege.

Do you have such people in your life? Are you willing to make yourself vulnerable to another that they might see you as you really are? Have you given anyone permission to examine your messy interior and help you set things right? If you lead in any capacity, find at least one truth-teller and put them on speed dial. Allow them to help you tend the garden of your heart and then watch and see the bountiful harvest that follows.

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Why Do You Obey God?

Do you obey God because you were taught to, because you are afraid of not obeying Him, or because of how you were raised?

What do you do when life takes unexpected turns and things do not turn out as you thought?

Are you willing to be misunderstood by others who only see what you do but do not see who you really are?

Are you truly content to follow a course of action that you know God is orchestrating even though onlookers may call you crazy?

In his book, "The Seven Longings of the Human Heart" Mike Bickle writes, "A life characterized by affection-based obedience is a life in which a person knows that he or she is so loved by God, and so loves God in return, that obedience is the only reasonable response to anything God wishes."

It is one thing to say that you love God and want what He wants in your life when obedience is easy. But when following His plan proves costly to you or to others, it is necessary that you are living out of an obedience that is not driven by fear, or habit or even proper upbringing. When obedience is costly, it must be pure, unabashed love for God that motivates, for it is that and that alone which will carry you through the fallout of following Him.

This question haunts me and I long to be able to say that every day of my life I will not just follow obediently, but that I will dance down His path for me with a heart so full of fascinated love that I see no other way but His.

How would you answer this question?

Why do you obey God?

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Social Media: How Much Is Too Much?

Our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in "muchness" and "manyness," he will rest satisfied. --Richard Foster

We live in an era earmarked by the most astounding technological advancements of all time. The winds of change in this arena over the past three decades have been nothing short of a whirlwind. What is most remarkable about all of this change and development is the sense of connection to others it has brought us. And while our ability to click a button and connect with one another across the globe through various social media most certainly has its merits, there are pitfalls that should and must be considered.

As wondrous as Facebook, Twitter and iPhones are, it is imperative that we do not allow the "noise" of these portals of community to drown out the quiet voice of our own souls and the solitude that the soul craves. Richard Foster wrote about the importance of solitude in his book "Celebration of Discipline", and it is a practice that we are in danger of losing in our hyper-connected world. We used to have quiet moments to think, reflect and still ourselves throughout the day; waiting for our dining companion in a restaurant, in the carpool line at your child's school, in the library, at the dentist office, in traffic, sitting in a coffee shop, or even while using the bathroom! But now we can Twitter, Facebook, read blogs, check e-mail or talk on the phone anytime, anywhere. Does everyone really need to know what you are doing all day every day? Could it be that we miss out on some "living" when we spend so much time "reporting" on our lives?

Please do not read into this that I am against any of these things. I do, however, think we must be very careful to control the place that these "connections" have in our lives. Silence, solitude and quiet thought is essential to our well-being, to our growth and health as Christians and as human beings.

So, ask yourself-
Are you more "connected" than you should be? When was the last time you connected with....you?


"I love people. I love my family, my children . . . but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up." -Pearl S. Buck

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Come Aside...

I read recently that the Chinese pictograph for "busy" is two different characters: heart and killing.

This is reason enough to take a look at your life and evaluate how you are living it.

Are you doing as Jesus instructed?

And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." -Mark 6:31

Sabbath, or rest, is the womb where His words to us come alive and we are transformed.

And where our hearts come alive.

Is your heart dead or is it alive?

Are you "coming aside" to rest or are you pushing rest aside that you might get more accomplished?

There will be those in your life who choose not to rest and call it a "good work ethic." Do not let their dead, busy lives overshadow your own. Work hard and then come aside.

Come aside for rest and for a heart that lives.

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The Skin of Knowing

"Many believe that it is love that grows, but it is the knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. Love is just the skin of knowing." -from The Shack by William P. Young


Last night, as I drew a tepid bath for my fevered little boy, I was swept away to some moment in the winter of 1970 when I was just a baby and my mother was my hero. I don't actually remember that long ago night, I only know the story of it so well that it feels like I can remember what happened. I was very, very sick with a fever of over 105 degrees and my father, then a Secret Service Agent with the federal government, was out of town, leaving my mother alone with my older brother and sick little me. Mama told me how she called the doctor and they told her to strip me down to my diaper and walk me around outside in the snowy night until my fever came down. And so she did. She walked me about in the snow, holding on to my burning-hot, diaper-clad little body as I chattered and hallucinated and she cried and prayed.

Fast forward thirty-nine years and here I am with my own little boy, fighting his high fever and understanding what my own mama felt all those years ago. And as I look at his flushed face that is so like my own used to be, I am moved by this small reflection of me and my husband. You don't just love your child because he is yours. You love your child because you know him so very well and his delicious uniqueness is divinely irresistible. And I remind myself that this same mystery exists between God and me and He invites me to truly know Him that my love for Him might expand. He knows and loves completely, a reality that I do not pretend to understand, but that I do find irresistible.

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Beautiful Desolation

John 20:29 "...blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

I became a Christian in 1983 at the age of fifteen. I am a strong personality with very definite opinions that I have to bite my tongue at times not to share. I saw God change my life in such an amazing way that it NEVER crossed my mind to doubt Him. Ever. Until recently.

I have struggled with my beliefs in the past six months in a way I have never before known. And it has rocked me to my very foundation. I have made poor choices in the past and then had the unpleasant experience of living with the consequences of those choices, but I can deal with that. It is an expected life equation. In recent months, however, I have realized that God has brought me, by His own Hand, down a road that is unexpectedly desolate and I have been left questioning the very bedrock of my previously unyielding faith. My forty years of life have never been a cakewalk...there has been much disappointment and heartache and I have learned to befriend failure rather than resist it. There is much to be learned at that great destination called "the end of yourself". But this...well, this is different.

The odd thing about all of this is that He has guided me to, and then through, great pools of difficulty in the past, but this time is different because I am also at a place in my own soul of great burnout. Having soldiered through four remarkably painful tornadoes in recent years, I failed to take note of the effect of those cyclones on my heart and soul and then take appropriate measures to see myself through the necessary healing and restoration. And so now I am in a helicopter of His design, being given a birds eye view of the damages. No one enjoys pictures of the landscape after the storm rips through because it leaves you feeling, well, helpless. Exactly.

The other ugly truth is that I have been more loyal to my notions of Him than I have been to who He really is. I have been serving the American God who takes care of my every practical need and fills me with such great joy and who keeps me from all the pain and anguish that others around the globe live in daily. But that is rather like looking at a the Grand Canyon through a pinhole and thinking you have beheld it's beauty and immensity.

It is times like these that I wish like anything that I were an opaque work of art on His pottery wheel rather than the transparent window that I am by His design. I want to run away and hide so others cannot see what I am seeing inside of myself because to my eyes it is offensive and humiliating. In truth it is a thing of beauty that has not yet taken shape and He loves for others to look on as He works His miracles. So I thought I would let you have a look at what He is creating out of my own desolation.

And thank you for taking the time to stop by.

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Hungry for Him

So, here we are at the beginning of Lent. Ash Wednesday was yesterday and I am sure many of you are fasting or have given up something for the next fortyish days or so. I have read a few things here and there about what people are giving up for Lent or if they see any merit at all in this practice and I have totally enjoyed hearing so many points of view on the subject. And because I am me, I, too, have an opinion and I thought I would share it.

I fast at different times throughout the year as a discipline because Jesus didn't say in his teachings, "IF you fast", but rather, "WHEN you fast". (Matt 6:16) I am not trying to sound all holy here...I hate fasting food and I have to make myself do it. But when I do, it brings a lot of junk to the surface of my life and then He can deal with me about those things. I think of it more like choosing to sit on the front row in a classroom. I am positioning myself to better hear His voice. So then when I crave food (pretty much all the time), I can immediately shift my focus to Him rather than fulfilling a fleshly urge. It is my understanding that the original intent for fasting food for Lent was because food preparation back then was very time-consuming so the idea was to devote that time to feeding your soul rather than your flesh. Again, positioning yourself to hear His voice. I don't believe it can ever be viewed as sacrifice, for what "sacrifice" could we ever give that compares with His great sacrifice. And He tells us in scripture that He does not want our sacrifices...He wants US. (Hos 6:6) No, it is about nearness to Him. It should always come back to nearness to Him.

My friends, if you are fasting for Lent or not, I hope and pray that you will consider making the discipline of fasting a part of your love life with God that happens more than once a year. Put yourself on the front row as often as possible and drink it in.

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Audacious Intimacy

I have been thinking again of brokenness and how vitally important it is in the life of a leader. It is important for anyone, but to be in a place of leadership, unbroken, is to be a walking time bomb, capable of wounding the vast audience of innocent onlookers in your life. In a past post I wrote about breaking a horse, but recently I have been thinking of a breaking of another kind.

My favorite passage of Scripture to teach is the story of Mary of Bethany (Mark 14, Luke 11). Now there is the greatest of unlikely Biblical heroes. I love this story of a broken vessel. There was the vessel of costly perfume, a years wages it cost, that she broke over her Master's feet and then wiped them with her own hair. But there is the picture of another broken vessel...Mary herself. Only her brokenness would have enabled her to even approach Him, much less touch Him, for what we so often overlook in this story is the fact that men, and especially rabbis in that period in time did not even look at a woman, let alone stoop to speak with her or teach her. But this Man was different. This man looked at her, talked to her, listened to her, touched her. He understood her. And she understood Him unlike any of the men in His company of followers. They called it waste, but she understood His worth. She knew that the broken vessel represented His broken body. And the oil, the preparation for His burial. She understood and knew what was coming. Her acceptance of His impending death was her great sacrifice, not the jar of oil. She had paid attention to every syllable of His teaching. And the truth of it not only moved her, it owned her.
And He was, I believe, moved by her companions. Who were these companions? Need. Poverty of spirit. Divine longing. And brokenness. And as a result, she knew an audacious intimacy with Jesus that no man there thought she deserved. And the truth is she did not deserve it, but the great disqualifier was not her obvious femininity but rather her sinful humanity. The inconceivable reality is that we can all know this audacious intimacy and the pathway is brokenness.

Who are your companions? Who are mine? Pride? Independence? Self-satisfaction? Ego? Our closest companions as leaders must be those that surrounded Mary; need, poverty of spirit, divine longing and brokenness. They will usher us into an intimacy with God that only a broken vessel can know. As leaders, that should be our greatest goal.

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Have You Ever Wondered?

Have you ever wondered, if all of your roles were stripped away, who you would be? Much of our sense of identity becomes wrapped up in web-like fashion in the different shoes that we fill, the hats that we wear and when those become so numerous that we can no longer wear any of them well, then we are even less sure of who we really are. The work that we do and the people we love can be some of the greatest pleasures we can know in this life, but if we were to take all of that away, what remains is a truer picture of who we are.

It all goes back to why we are here to begin with. God wasn't lonely, He simply chose to create a "someone" who could choose to love Him and be loved in return. Hosea 6:6 says, "I don't want your sacrifices; I want your love. I don't want your offerings; I want you to know Me." (Living Bible...I know, don't stone me) At the end of the day, when the hats and shoes come off, we are stripped down to what remains in our depths. Most are not in tune with that place within and so it is easy to miss, or we shut if off because the pains and cares of this world drown out the still, small Voice that beckons us inward. In that inward oasis we can simply be His son or His daughter and know Him and love Him, thus fulfilling the sum total of why we exist. To know and be known, to love and be loved by the only One who can ever know us, love us, fill us. And it is only when we are Divinely known...loved...filled that we are able to wear the hats and shoes of this life is such a way that we leave a grand legacy of His design long after we are gone.

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A Little Known Fact...

Did you know......that you can rip off the top part of your Razor flip phone and it will still receive incoming calls?  You will not know who is calling nor will you hear the caller, but you can shout word fragments into the phone as if the caller were deaf and they will be able to hear you and perhaps even laugh at you.  Just ask my friend, Sharon.  It is freakish and strange, sort of like when you cut the head off of a snake and it still slithers through the grass as if nothing has happened.

As I considered this, I had an epiphany.   When my screen goes blank and I cannot hear the voice of God, when it seems that He has changed His digits without sharing them with me...He still hears me.  He still hears me.  It is so very comforting to know that He still hears me.  And He still hears you.  It doesn't matter how things appear or what is missing or even if damage has been done.  He still hears us.   For all of time, He has been waiting to just hear each of us call His name.  And His "to-do list" for us is so simple.  Hosea 6:6 "I don't want your sacrifices; I want your love.  I don't want your offerings; I want you to know Me."  To know Him and to be known...that is life's greatest ambition and, oddly enough, a little known fact.

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Where Is God?

It is difficult to live in the moment, staying steadily focused on today only. Entertaining our fears of what tomorrow holds never brings us closer to the heart of our Father. I believe the reason this is so is because He is nowhere to be found in tomorrow. Our thoughts and regrets of yesterday are also void of Him. His name is I Am (Ex 3:14), not "I Was" or "I Will Be". His touch, His grace for this journey, His deep abiding peace...all of this can only be found in today where He dwells. Why do we find it so hard to dwell with Him here and now? Psalm 73:28 says, "But as for me, the nearness of God is my good..." And that nearness can only be experienced today, now. I pray that today you will curl up in this moment, this blip in time, and find Him, knowing His nearness and His unending goodness.

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What Matters Most

I spent yesterday afternoon with Miss Susan, one of my very favorite people, who has been a mother to me over the course of the past nine and a half years. When I have lost my way, stuggling to find God's perspective, she has been there to hold my hand and tell me what I need to hear even when it is hard. She is what Ann of Green Gables called "a kindred spirit and a bosom friend". Had we been born in the same era rather than 45 years apart, she would have been my very best friend. I spend time with her most every week, but this time we weren't just talking...we were dancing together through her memories. We went through all of her books and she told me where this one came from and who gave her that one and what was happening when she read them. She let me have whatever I wanted and while I was thankful to have some really great books to add to my own library, I was more moved by the fact that they are hers. She has held them and read them and written in them and they smell like her and her house. And it was so consoling to just be in the silence of her now empty house, side by side, perusing shelf after shelf of books, she being lost in her memories and I in the wonder of a life lived to please God and God alone.
I have watched her as her own life has taken some painful turns and she always smiles and says, "Darlin', God knows just what He is doing and I know this is all for my good." How many times have I left her home, after being sufficiently hugged and kissed, and wondered when I would ever have the wisdom and grace of this woman? She has taught me that what matters most is not all that we see and do and plan and think. And certainly not the things we accumulate, even wonderful books. What matters most is drawing close to our Father, curling up in His lap and listening, allowing Him to have His way in us. Nothing more. And I want to be just like her when I grow up.

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The Way He Has Chosen

I love the quiet comfort of my house early in the morning before everyone else wakes up. The luxury of having unhurried and uninterrupted moments with God is like a gift box in your lap wrapped in really expensive paper that is way outside your budget with the kind of bow that you could never have tied yourself and so you just want to sit and hold it a while and not rush through the process of getting to what is inside.

In recent weeks I felt the Lord pulling me back to the classic book, Hinds' Feet on High Places, which I have read at least eight times over the past eighteen years but which never fails to speak something of great value to my heart. I have been working through it slowly during my devotional time, savoring it like an expensive meal in a fine restaurant. The other day I read this passage: "Will you bear this too, Much-Afraid? Will you suffer yourself to lose or to be deprived of all you have gained on this journey to the High Places? Will you go down this path into the Valley of Loss, just because it is the way I have chosen for you? Will you still trust and still love Me?"

What is my answer to that question? There are turns in the path with Him where He brings you to a place that overlooks the Valley of Loss and you must consider if you really are willing to follow Him into something that appears crazy and that places all that you have gained so far onto the altar of sacrifice. Many in the audience of your life might even judge you and ridicule you for taking such a direction and, as for applause...well, there will be none of that. Will I allow Him to break the reverie of my daily living to pose such a question to me? Will you?

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