God is Kicking My Butt

Last Tuesday, during our staff meeting, we were asked to talk about something that is encouraging us, and something that is also challenging us. I answered both questions with the same answer: God is kicking my butt.  

Last weekend we had a prayer retreat of sorts at church.  It was a great time of learning and listening, and it was through the course of the weekend that I had a strong sense of God saying to me 'Corinne, I am going to be asking more and bigger things of you, and these will be things that won't be comfortable for you.'  Great.  

So I explained on Tuesday morning, that this is an encouragement, because while I'm freaking out, God has way more faith in me, and what I can do with him, than I have in myself.  That is truly encouraging, if not terrifying.

And the challenge side of this is that God is once more asking me to be willing to move outside of my comfort zone, do things I'm not crazy about doing, and go on another adventure with him.  My immediate response is to run and hide, pretend I didn't hear anything, ignore that nudging voice in my head.  But my name's not Jonah, and I don't want to end up where he did...

So I'm trying to be okay with this.  I'm trying to be open, and just accept what God's got for me, even though I have no clue what it is yet.

Oh, and that change and challenge that I said I was looking forward to when I wrote last time?  Yeah, well, be careful what you wish for.  Nothing I can share yet, but stay tuned.

Insert Stereotypical New Year's Post Title Here

Aaah, my poor neglected blog.  It's been over a year.  And what a (over a year) it's been!  I am totally okay with leaving 2012 behind, although it was a great year.

So much unexpected change and challenge
So much joy and yet sadness
So much learning, and
So much fun.

2012 in my books can pretty much be summed up this way:  I preached a sermon on New Year's day, asking the questions 

        Can you give up this year to God, and give God the opportunity to show you the things in your life that he is wanting to transform? 
        Can you offer up your life, and all that you have as a gift, and ask God what it is he is asking of you?

Well, as 2012 unfolded, these questions all took on different meaning, and gained a lot of significance.

I closed the year by preaching on Dec. 23 about peace, and how we can experience peace in the midst of the non-peace of our lives - the busyness, messiness, unpredictability and stress.  This year I have learned what that looks like, and how it is possible for that to happen.  I'm not saying I've got it down to a science, or that I live a peaceful existence at all times, but 2012 was a year of learning about experiencing peace outside of peaceful circumstances.

 

I'm not one for making new years resolutions, and I'm definitely less of one to keep them, but here are some things I'm looking forward to in 2013:

Reading more (this is so very desperately needed)
More change and challenge (this is fun because I have no control over it!)
more learning (starting with taking my first class towards being licensed as a Pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church)
And more fun.  Lots and lots more fun.

With any luck, you'll actually hear about it this year ; )