Rotten tomatoes, hand puppets, Fear and Dreams
Don’t forget to check out Holley Gerth’s blog also to see some fabulous links from some other God-sized dreamers.. and Also our cheerleader Holley has an incredible new book coming out in March on your God-sized dreams. It’s 50% off today. Check out her blog for more info!
ok.. so our assignment. post about fear and our God sized dreams and how we overcome fear with the TRUTH!
So my first thought.. i’m not really a fearful person. I love adventure. I love traveling life without a road map (haha.. maybe that’s why i am always lost.. someone please love me enough to buy me a GPS)
I love going to the unknown.
Doing the unknown.
I think i admitted to you in a post before getting lost in the mundane of the known scares me more.
I am afraid of rollarcoasters and amusement park rides.
You should have seen me on the teacups at disneyworld. A sniveling mess!
But when I thought about fear I thought what is it I am most afraid of.
And I will illustrate it with a dream I had that involved rotten tomatoes last night (are you on the edge of your seat yet)
See before bed last night I was frantically working on trying to get an eventwebpage out for our next Bloom conference (which I will be telling you more about as soon as I get it finished .. but mark your calendar for March 15 and 16th and come join us) I was having a terrible time getting it to work and I went to bed with it unfinished (we NEED a coming alive ministries marketing person. Any takers? We can’t pay you but we will love you! haha)
well I had a dream that seemed so real. In it I had done all the work for the Bloom conference. We had a beautiful setting, I had all my speaking prepared (probably notes written on napkins is the way I fly) I was ready.
And no one showed up.
Well a few finally did.
And as I spoke they literally all grabbed rotten tomatoes and threw them at me and yelled.. you are terrible.. get off the stage!
I sobbed in the dream.
I woke up wanting to cry to.
See that’s something I fear. What will people think of me. What if I fail.
But the truth is: It’s NOT about me. It’s not about what I say. It’s not about my event or how well I plan. It’s all about the King.. the King of Glory.. He is my audience of one.
And He will NEVER throw rotten tomatoes at me.
So I keep after my calling, my dream of speaking because throw all the rotten tomatoes you want.. I cannot imagine being stuck in the mundane of fear of rejection and miss the joy filled honor of walking in all that God has planned for ME!
Now if you come to one of my conferences and you don’t like it.. could you just please kindly whisper it to me instead of throwing tomatoes. that could get messy and awkward!
Now onto another thing I think we all fear if we are honest. Someone else can do it someway, some how better then us.
You know what that is probably true. There are soo many awesome speakers who are way better then me. And I can try and try to be them, to be there style, to operate like them, to speak like them, to write like them.
But them I am missing the uniqueness of ME.. that God created me.
Don’t miss the uniqueness of YOU. That God created you.
Sunday I had a hilarious experience. I love love sitting with my 4 year old nephew in church. I giggle watching Him try to sit still through a sermon.
This week in particular (no offense to my pastor) was extra long. Alex was extra struggling.
So I did what any good aunt would do.
I drew a puppet on both of His hands… with bright blue marker
He of course drew on my hand .. and we both tried not to giggle. The four year old and the not four year old supposed to be a grown up trying not to giggle together.
Then it was even harder when my sister slid back in the pew. She had to run feed baby hope in the nursery. She slid back in and saw Alex’s hand, my hand.. she gave me the I can’t leave you alone for one second aunt nenn look.
After church she looked Alex in the eye and she said.. Just because aunt nenn drew on you doesn’t mean you can draw on yourself or others.. she had a giggle and a twinkle in her eye as she said it
and i thought i should probably be put in time out hahah.
But The Holy spirit whispered His truth to me when she said that. Just because someone else is doing that doesn’t mean that’s the way I have planned for you.
Just because someone else may not look the same as you– don’t try to be them.. be You
Don’t fear what I am doing in and through others Jenn… fear me.. God.. the God of the universe.. the one who is to be worshiped. The one who will tell you what to say and how to say it. The one who will open doors that you can’t shut and shut doors you can’t open.
Trust my hand Jenn
Trust His hand friend.
After all it is imprinted with your name, and your nail prints… those hung Him to the cross
This right here really got me. "But The Holy spirit whispered His truth to me when she said that. Just because someone else is doing that doesn't mean that's the way I have planned for you.
Just because someone else may not look the same as you– don't try to be them.. be You"
I am always looking around to see how everyone else is doing something before I will even start because I am sure they know the best way. Thanks for reminding me that I am to follow God's ways not other peoples'
Loved this, Jenn…you had me at "will blog for coffee." HA! That is so me, too. (I think that's why we already get along so well! 🙂
I love what you shared about embracing uniqueness. I feel like I so often get caught up in trying to be like someone else or as good as so-and-so…and forget that He has made all of us wonderfully unique. And I want to embrace those quirks as much as possible. 🙂
Thank you for the encouragement today, my friend…and just so you know, I will never throw rotten tomatoes at you. 🙂 But I totally jot down notes on napkins…funny! Hugs!
LOL…"Will blog for coffee" Oh, Jenn you're my kind of girl!! And my purse is full of marked up napkins, dotted with ink 🙂 Don't ever change, I like you just the way you are! You inspire me so much! Thank you for the great reminder–that God made all of us unique and we were meant to embrace that. I so needed this!
Jenn: I just love your zest for life–it shines through! And, I so wish I could borrow some of your fear of the mundane, because you are an adventurer, girl, and I am more of your garden-variety coward who tends toward the comfortable! Blessings today, friend.
Ha…I love you aunt nenn even when you get my son in trouble:)