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WW.004: No Fight Left | by JJ Heller
If you don’t listen to this song and instead judge it by the title alone, you may think it is pretty bleak and depressing. What I have to say about it and the truth of the message if you listen to it, in fact, is completely opposite. It is freeing and brings peace…to me anyway!
I am writing this today, on the day it is to be posted. I almost didn’t even try to get a blog post written today. I was talking myself out of caring or having any “fight left” because I am pretty sure no one actually reads these, much less is waiting to read the next one with bated breath. I tell myself it doesn’t matter if I keep writing. I make excuses for why I could stop right now, so easily. Last month I blogged consistently for the first time in my life. I made a plan and posted twice a week for roughly the last six weeks. I am proud of that so I can stop now right? If no one is reading them and it is just another thing for me to do, I have every right to stop and pivot to a new outlet don’t I?
No, I can’t give up that easily. What I need to do is give it up to God. I know that I can never maintain consistency in anything without His help. What’s more is, I never want to have to try! We can never get it right all the time or accomplish everything we are “supposed” to on our own. We get lazy or prideful and we mess it up. I don’t know if I will blog forever but that is not for me to decide. The reason I started blogging is to put my thoughts and inspirations out into the physical world for others to connect with and become part of the journey I believe God has called me to. I do not get to call it quits now, but it is also not me that is conveying anything through this, it is Him. I need to remember that and when I want to give up, instead I need to give it up to God. He will always come through and provide a way to accomplish the things I feel too burnt out to do. What I may convince myself is worthless and no one cares about, could very well be exactly what at least one person who stumbles on this site needs to hear. That is more than worth being obedient to the “little” things always!
If you listen to the song, I hope you feel the essence of what I’ve described here and latch on to the significance of it. I don’t want to always have to over analyse or dissect the connections from song to blog topic because I want you to be able to derive the message on your own. Understanding and applying worship songs like this to life is great training for reading and understanding the messages in the bible. Music is one of the first and remains one of the easiest ways for me to relate and engage with intimate ideas of others and thus learn to “human” haha! Song writing is therapy and some artists have such profound wisdom that can only be understood by listening to the way God inspired them to set that wisdom to music. So if you didn’t listen to the song, or even if you did, listen to it again and really try to connect with what is being said. Try not to just enjoy the melody but seek to relate with the author; of the song and where they are coming from but also of life and what He is trying to teach through that God-breathed piece of inspiration.
Blessings FAM!
What is the way you learn best? Do you connect with God and wisdom through music? I believe every creative thing we do is just our attempt at mimicking the greatest creator, the creator of the universe and everything in it. Like Father, like children! We are created to create and the things we create exist to continue teaching and inspiring creativity in others. So if not music, then what? What form of art do you resonate with and how does it inspire you to create and share your story?
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MM.004: Rhythms of Rest & Daily Sabbath
pause……
Take some time right now to just be. Put your phone away, turn off the TV and radio, Close your eyes, clear your mind and be still… Take a few slow and deep breaths to calm your spirit and then just listen…
Okay, be honest with yourself, when is the last time you made time for this kind of mental therapy? God commands us to practice sabbath in our lives like He did after He created the world. I think if even God is taking time to rest then it is pretty important that we do the same! More so, He invites us to make this a rhythm in our lives. Not just an every now and then occurrence but an actual steady rhythm, a habit, an integral part of our natural existence!
If you were a drummer for a band and you just sporadically hit the drums whenever you felt like it but didn’t actually keep time with a steady pace I think you would probably be kicked out of the band! A drummer that doesn’t keep time is useless, no offense to drummers. It can be hard to learn to keep steady rhythm, but with practice we can get better at it. In the same way we as Christians can be pretty useless examples for others when we only hit up God whenever we feel like we need it. It is not conducive to growing our character or proving our ability to be consistent or dependable. With practice we all can learn to be better at keeping a steady rhythm with God. We have to be intentional and put in effort to make it a habit in order to get in sync with Him and His will for our lives.
Most interpret sabbath as a command to engage with God once a week by setting aside one full day of rest and intentional focus. While this is good practice, and it is awesome if it is possible for you to do this each week, the reality is that sometimes it is not possible to block off an entire day every week and, if we are keeping with our drummer example, is it better to practice a little bit each day or only once a week? I don’t think God intended for us to only spend one day a week in His presence. The rule of sabbath being one day out of our week makes it seem like on the other six days we don’t need to take any rest or time to focus on God and that is simply not true! I need God every day and every hour of every day! I would be willing to bet you can say the same. It doesn’t make logical sense then that we would drudge through the whole week on our own and then only take time to rest and acknowledge Him one day out of seven!
Like in music, when the rhythm is more upbeat, we tend to get a bigger thrill out of it! Maybe there are some extra fills here and there that really excite our senses but even the base beat is frequent and exhilarating, it takes you someplace! I think sabbath in our lives should do the same thing. Make time for it as often as possible! I like to try and work in some sabbath hours or at least one sabbath hour each day. I am no where near perfect at it but the more I practice mindfulness and plan for it in my day, the better I get, and the better I get at it the more my relationship with God grows. I then feel inclined to make even more time for it, filling in the dull moments and keeping an increasingly frequent beat which exhilarates my life with His presence. He wants to take you somewhere! Meet Him in the intentional stillness of sabbath every chance you get and let Him guide your journey!
Blessings FAM!
How often do you pause and spend time with God, not just in standard prayer but in an extended intentional way like we do for sabbath? Maybe it is hard for you to block out an entire day from your week to focus solely on God. If that is the case, try each day this week to at least spend an hour in sabbath. Silently and with no distractions, just listen. That, I think, is what separates this from prayer. Both are important but sabbath rest, to me, means not gripping about life which, lets be honest, a lot of our prayers are like that. No, I think sabbath is more so a time to clear all distractions, be still, and just listen. The Holy Spirit will guide you in that time. Start by trying for an hour each day this week, morning works great but whenever it fits best for you, and then just let the beat grow from there!
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ThTh.002: Truth or Lies
It is all about perception. The devil likes to keep us from doing the will of God by making us feel unqualified or less than good enough to be used by Him. He tells us we are lazy, poor, powerless, lacking in the required skills or knowledge to succeed in the things we feel called to do. The thing is…he is not wrong! God knows our weaknesses and pretty much agrees with what the devil tells us about ourselves. The better news is that God uses us anyway! You see, it is in the darkest places where His light shines the brightest, it is in our weakness where His power is most evident, and it is in our brokenness where He heals us and makes us stronger than before!
God knows our damage, shortcomings, and deep sin issues but He also sent His Son to redeem us from the consequences of them. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross, and by defeating death in our place, we can come before God and man alike, walking fully in the shameless, forgiven, new nature He afforded us by raising from that grave. God knows what we have done but he chooses not to see it anymore. The old man has gone away and we have been made new. Yes, we will still struggle and yes, other people will love to remember every failure or misdeed we have done. Often they do not let us forget them. By embracing our past in light of our new self, we can effectively reflect the redeeming power of God that much brighter!
Here is a cool thought. Do you know how mirrors work? Most mirrors today have been painted with a metallic coating to give a brighter representation of what it is reflecting. However, you can create the simplest of mirrors by putting a piece of clear glass against a solid dark black surface. This will allow you to see your surroundings and yourself staring back at you and it works best when light is shown against the front of the glass. We must be vulnerable and transparent like that piece of glass, then turn the light of our new salvation on and let people stand in that light and look through us to the darkest parts of what is behind us, the black surface. Then they will be able to see themselves in our story (mirror) and hopefully begin to realize how they can move past similar mistakes and begin to let God redeem them as well.
People want to know that they are not a lost cause. That God still cares for them and that they have a purpose. By seeing honest testimonies of redemption, they can begin to wrap their hearts around the fact that God DOES love them no matter what evil they have committed and that, even though they are not enough, HE IS ENOUGH! That is all that matters.
So the devil may tell the truth after all! If only we could humble ourselves and accept the parts of us he tries to use against us. Instead of letting those things stunt our growth and shame us into an inability to walk towards God’s purpose for us, my hope is that we could focus on shining God’s light to those areas in our life and begin to grow what is dead and buried there. Eventually being able to display the beautiful fruit of God’s redemption for us in those areas as a powerful testimony for others.
Blessings FAM!
What truth about yourself has the devil tried to use against you? Pray now and ask God to help you own that part of you and learn how the testimony of your repentance from that thing can be used to encourage others. Your biggest hurt or struggle could be the key to your biggest purpose in this life. Others earlier on in their journey need to hear how God brought you out of those dark places in order to find hope for their own redemption story. Be a mirror and reflect your testimony for the benefit of others.
