Intentional Purpose

Fall has begun. The warmth of the sun still kissing my brow as the sky tucks it in behind the full foliage mountainside. The smell of chili blankets the house in sweet spicy comfort. Peace stills my soul yet a since of urgency fills my heart. White Hot deep Passion within stirs my soul.

Tears rolling and falling as a waterfall trickling down a mountainside into a lagoon. My overwhelmed with the brokenness through out the land. The numbers rolling through my mind…. 200,000 plus children soldiers in Africa, little girls given away/ sold into prostitution, human trafficking across the world… and for what? Power? Sick desires? Greed? if it breaks my heart I can only imagine the pain it causes the One who created us in his own image.

Free Will…. a very interesting thing. The freedom to choose … and this is what we as a society choose? We can’t possibly be so desensitized that we don’t feel the cries and pulse of broken souls. I know that I cannot repair the brokenness but I do feel that I can fall to my knees at the cross of hope and promise. “In this world you WILL have trouble, but take heart for I have over come the world.”- Jesus Christ (John 16:33) This is not “boo hoo, my privileged life is so hard. Well I’ll just perk up because it’s all good in the end” … NO… this is “In this world you WILL HAVE (not might or maybe) KNOCK DOWN DRAG OUT MMA FIGHT kind of trouble. But I have someone who has SUFFERED EXTREME TORTURE, HEARS AND FEELS ALL THE CRIES AND PAIN, and humiliation then hung on a cross and cried out IT IS FINISHED...at the end of this life ALL THE SUFFERING WILL BE GONE and HE HEARS and SEES it ALL right now and is providing… SO COME TO HIM.”

We need to be active where we can with Intentional Purpose and RISK … Pray with authenticity and CONVICTION. BRING LIGHT TO THE DARKNESS and don’t let the moments pass! Though I may no longer be an idealizing child or passionate teen … I still believe that ONE person can make a difference. STOP letting the whispers of false contentment fleece the truth... this world is broken and hurting… and so is the person next to you, even the person that hurts you.

SO now what? I guess that is the question we should start asking… where do I risk? Am I compassionate? Am I listening?? Am I loving??

A moment on Faith....

I've been thinking considerably about "faith" today.

I'm in constant wonder about how to explain what I cannot see but know to the core of me to be true. The only word we have is "faith" to describe it yet that word alone is thrown around so often that I'm not certain we really have a complete understanding of the vitality and depth of this word. ( Faith: belief without proof....other words delegated to faith are: loyalty, fidelity, trust)

People ask me how do I get through different paths of my journey or how my mom survived her childhood and became the vivacious woman with such love she is today and I often say it was the our faith... knowing that there is a God greater than our circumstances and who sees the bigger picture. The fact that we believe without seeing and have no doubt that He is there. Though our "natural" tools to solve such matter fail us we know it will all work itself out.

Currently, this chapter of my life has such trials and tribulations but such amazing joy too. There are victories amidst the striking blows and joys in the tears. Such course of drama in any book would lead you to a natural course of ending. However, my chapter has just begun and I know the writer, so I expect the unexpected simply due to my faith.

My faith is much like the wind... faith is often described as such as well... you cannot see it but you see it's affects and you feel it. That is the beauty because over the written pages of my life I have seen the "wind" disperse grand floods of "rain" which is my description of the rejuvenating and restoring grace that has blanketed my life.

As faith is belief without proof , maybe it would be good to also understand proof. Proof leads to evidence and evidence is the result of having something tangible (from my understanding and perspective.) I have proof of my Faith in God as far as there is result of a creation however in circumstances the results show themselves much later. During the process it is walking in blind faith at times and resting in what I know to be true.

I think everyday we all live by faith and we don't really think about it. We have faith that when we go to sleep we will awaken. We have faith that when we sit the chair will hold our weight. We have faith our appendages will work when we send the signal from our brain without a nano second thought. But what happens when they don't .... most lose hope or trust. So the essence of living in all out Faith is still having it when the the house of cards fall.

I never said faith was easy. But I can't imagine living without it. I think without it I may survive but I would never truly live. Every step would be a question rather than a stride with hope there is something underneath my confident step. Confidence... that is the blessing of faith. No more cause to question with fear or insecurity just encouragement to keep moving forward. To be encouraged is "to cause; to be in" courage. Interesting don't you think that such a simple word as faith leads to much bigger things than the depleting degrade of stepping into fear and uncertainty.

Faith... much deeper and stronger everyday I wake. Today... I thought considerably about faith and turns out.. I'm very blessed that I have such encouragement.

May you be blessed today and encouraged. :) Just think how you don't question the littlest of things because of a little bit of faith. :)

(just a note... pictures that I have not given credit to such as this one are taken by me. :) )

Dark Chocolate & Almonds day (a real national holiday for Novemeber 7th)

A Case for Dark Chocolate-Almonds

All I can say is...
((with hand raised))
Hello. My name is Jeanette, and I am a Chocoholic.

My love affair with chocolate and nuts began at an early age. The first time I snuck a piece of yummy goodness out of my mom's purse and ingested its sweet ecstasy, I knew I would be hooked for life. Yes...I said I snuck it from my mom.

I come from a long line of Chocoholics. Secretly we hide, our overwhelming fixation on this semi-sweet goodness, in the "seedy" spaces of overnighters and romantic movie nights. While lurking around in cushy-cozy slippers, comfy sweats, and oversize sweatshirts, we wrap up our hair in frumpy (but bomb dig, sassy sexy) pony tails, illuminating the night with candlelight and hide in massive chairs and plum blankets while we generously ingest crunchy nuts and warm smooth delicious intoxication covering red ripe strawberries. In some cases, we are caught enabling others in their intense obsession, accompanied by liquid forms of both almonds and chocolate (I shall leave the rest to your own suitable imagination).

My own enslavement has embraced me, in the heightened sensitivity and euphoria of the nutritive affects, during the relaxing comfort of aromatic bubble baths. While I understand that I am bent on such a luxury in simple forms, I do not find a need to rid my self of such treasured joys.

Hello...my name is Jeanette, and I am Chocoholic especially accompanied by Almonds!

Thank you for listening to my irrational musings of such seductive sweetness! :)

Here are some fantastic facts that should push this partnership to the top of the food chain.

Almonds:

• provide essential fats and proteins
• used as alternative medicine
• aromatherapy
• practically no carbohydrates...great for flour
• safe for diabetics
• gluten free
• 1 cup of almond flour contains only 20 grams of carbs. and 10 of those grams is dietary fiber
• helps with movement of food through the colon
• helps complexion
• helps fight cancer
• reduces bad cholesterol
• nutritive for the brain and nervous system said to induce high intellectual levels and longevity
• anti-inflammatory, immunity boosting, and anti-hepatotoxicity effects
• almond oil extracted via cold press is considered an aphrodisiac when used in massage oils and also internally consumed
  
  

Dark Chocolate:

• provide Antioxidants reducing formation of free radicals
• links to serotonin levels in the brain
• theobromine...a stimulant
• amino acids
• caffeine
• circulatory benefits...can lower bloodpressure when eaten in moderation
• alkaloids...psychological effects in humans...toxic for cats and dogs
• aphrodisiac...resulting in heightened sensitivity and euphoria

(photo provided by daveleb on flickr...thank you! I posted this on zany life + crazy faith as well. Go take a look at some other fantastically ridiculous actual national holidays and thoughts from others. :) )