Tag: love

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Fear of the Unknown

These verses are packed with so much stuff, recently I heard Cathy Madavan speak about the fear of the unknown in relation to these set of verses. Several things she spoke of really resonated with how life can be for so many of us.

What are you like when you are in a physical waiting room, such as at the doctors surgery or hospital, or outside an interview room? We often find ourselves pacing, twiddling our thumbs, taking lots of deep breaths and other things to keep ourselves distracted whilst waiting for the answer, some news or the next step.

Moments in our life will seem like God has put us in a waiting room, but what are we doing in that waiting room?

Are you wishing for answers, thinking of what you could do, where you could go, what you could be? Does it get you anywhere? Why do you not progress forward?

Lauren and Helen waiting.

Cathy spoke about, how, when we are in those times of waiting, we can be fearful of what is to come, fearful of the outcome and how God may answer the situation. Fearful of the unknown. To work through this, we need to be able to live with God in the present season, and not wish for seasons to come. After a waiting season always comes a fruitful season.

Our ability to work through this fear lies in how our patience is and whether we need to grow in the spiritual discipline of patience.

My husband often tells me that I have good patience, which is true when it comes to the children, dealing with lots of people and events. But when it comes to waiting for an answer or a step forward from God, my patience for that isn’t quite as well tuned! I most definitely pace, get grumpy and question the decisions that I have taken so far.

The spiritual discipline of patience is about being active in your patience. YOU decide what to do with your feelings. You can make the choice to keep emotions such as anger away from you, it doesn’t need to come near you. God has the big picture, in our waiting to see that, we need to accept that there will be waiting, that God has given us enough to last through that waiting.

Persistence in the patience and waiting is really important in our desire to focus on living with God in the present season. Look at those that have done it well, Esther, Paul, Abraham, Daniel, David, Mary and Martha and many more.

Think about when you are in that waiting place. Do you worship God or do you worship your circumstances?

I hope this has provided some thoughts about how you can deal with those periods of waiting. We can so easily slip into the mindset of grumbling in our waiting. Lets switch up our mindset and seek to serve, worship and LIVE during those waiting times.

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What is the cornerstone of your faith?

What is the cornerstone of you faith? Do you have 5 smooth stones?

As a Christian it can be hard to remain on track, hard to remember our focus, the promises God has said, the words that our written in his heart about us. Over the past few years I have developed the 5 smooth stones concept, which has become the cornerstone of my faith, and keeps me going in those moments when life gets hard.

Let me explain about the stones first

Take a normal stone, they usually begin quite angular with sharp edges, a smooth stone is one that has been handled repeatedly, so much so, that the sharp and angular edges have worn down and what’s left is a smooth, but firm stone. Which is solid, and in most cases heavy! Imagine carrying 5 of them around, they would be quite weighty! However, they would serve as a reminder that there is something there. Something physical that you can cling to and lean on.

But how is that the cornerstone of my faith?

Each ‘stone’ is a scripture which has become important to me during my journey and they speak to me and remind of what God is saying and how he is there to support us. They help to maintain a strong foundation, that is always rooted in Christ

Here are my 5 smooth stones –

Phil 2.15 – So that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.

This is one of the key verses that I started UC Grace with, it speaks so much to me about how each of us is important and can shine a light, even in the darkest of places.

1 Corinthians 16:13 – Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous, be strong.

This is one of my most longstanding verses, it was given to me when I got baptised in 2004, and it remains framed in a poster on my stairs as a daily reminder to be firm in what I know and who I lean on.

Deuteronomy 33.27 – The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Such a comfort verse! And a great one to visualise that God is all around us, surrounding us at those times that we feel low.

Romans 8.39 – nothing will be able to separate us from the love God.

Nothing, however small will get in the way of Gods love for us. When I went away to university I was given this verse on a pillow, a daily prompt to know that God loves me. The verse (and the pillow!) has stayed with me since.

Nothing can separate you from the Love of God. Romans 8.39

Hebrews 13.6 – So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

Where ever we walk, God walks with us and he is ready to help us. Sometimes we just need to know that God will always root for us and help us regardless of circumstances.

So you see, some of these verses have a long standing history that have been with me a while, others have been added to over the years. You don’t have to have 5, why not just start with a few. As long as they are engrained and you know them, they can support you through your day.

I’d love to know whether you have any smooth stones, why they are important to you and how you let them support you throughout your day.

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Living Colour Morning January 2019

It’s been an awesome start to our events this year, with our first Living Colour morning of 2019. Such a privilege to meet with all the dancers and spend time catching up.

Our focus during the workshop session was exploring Proverbs 3.1-8, by looking at 3 main sections, Gods teaching and foundation, his faithfulness and understanding when we are struggling and having help come around us.

There was a great conversation about verse 1, and the different interpretations in different Bible versions. One version talked about ‘storing’ commands not keeping them, which is an image of treasuring the things that God gives you.

In verses 3 and 4 we chatted about how we can forget the small things that God is faithful in, and that it’s important to remember them daily. Participants worked in pairs to pick 3 or 4 areas that they felt God was faithful in. They wrote these down on separate pieces of paper and placed them at staggered points across the space. Working with their partner they put those faithful things into a journey, what they realised as they danced and shared with others, was the importance of fellowship and being with someone as you share in your faithful journey.

Below is short film of Servina and Jane’s, and Caroline and Helen’s Faithful Journey.

Our next Living Colour is planned for Saturday 22nd June, you can check out the info here. But why not join us before that at one of our dance days.

Teaching Children | Dance and movement – 13th April.

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Dancing at Candlemas

Last night I had the privilege of being invited to be part of the Candlemas service at St Micahel’s, Aldershot, it was such a lovely evening, I left buzzing and I want to share some of what God spoke to me during the service.

I had been asked if I could find some dancers who could respond as the felt led to a piece of live piano music based on Psalm 121: I Life my eyes up, to the Mountain. The lovely Helen Warren joined me as a second dancer, and our prayer before we danced was that we would reflect some of Jesus’ heart, that people would be drawn in with a desire to explore God more through our movement.

Recently I recognised that I spend a lot of time teaching and delivering, and not so much time dancing for myself. Last night gave me the opportunity to come before God and thank him that I have the ability to move, but also reinforced that for UC Grace to grow, and share Gods heart, I need to make sure I am giving God mine, and that in turn requires time set aside for me to dance, and be lost in his love through movement.

As the service progressed, Alwyn, the Vicar asked if we would dance again later in the service. By this point me and Helen felt we had ‘warmed up’, laid the foundations of showing Jesus through movement. So, as Jesus Christ, I think upon your sacrifice played, our hearts were stirred more by the spirit and we loved sharing more of that through dance and movement.

Much of the journey I have been on over the past week has encompassed the desire to draw back to the centre of what and why I do what I do with UC Grace. There were several things that God drew my attention to last night, it made me chuckle as the theme seemed to be everywhere I went at the moment.

In my previous post I mentioned about the interaction between creativity and the heart, and that my desire when I started had always been that it was about the hearts impacted not the numbers. You can read more about it here. It is this theme of people’s hearts and prayer that keep cropping up.

This prayer below reminded me that God places me where I need to be and with who I need to be, and I need to be willing to serve Him in what ever way that looks like.

It’s really hard in reality isn’t it to keep that sense of doing what God wants and following his will. This chorus of ‘I the Lord of sea and sky’ (brilliant song, you can listen to here), sums it up very well.

I will hold your people in my heart. The people that God puts in front of me at events, in conversations and through dancing. Each one is important.

We did manage to video some of what we did last night. Not everything is in full view. But it will give you a flavour from our first dance.

What special services have you danced in? Let me know.

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