by Donya Dunlap | Sep 30, 2012 | Guest Posts
Do you struggle with being afraid?
I am guest posting today at JosephIregbu.com. I hope that you will drop by his site to read the post “Do It Afraid” but also stay awhile to be encouraged by Joseph’s writings and his story of hope. (Which is pretty incredible, I might add.) Sign up to receive his posts via e-mail and you will also get his free e-book, Lines of Impact. You might also want to check out his 90-day devotional called Selah: A 90-Day Journey of Grace and Peace. It’s a great encouragement and available on Amazon. Joseph has been a personal encouragement to me and his writings have blessed my heart. I plan to have him guest post here soon, but for now, please get to know him on his home turf.
Click Here to Read “Do It Afraid”
Photo Credit: Vorakorn on freedigitalphotos.net
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by Donya Dunlap | Sep 29, 2012 | The Spiritual Life
I said goodbye to a friend today. She is on her way to New York City with the hope of someday becoming a successful actress on Broadway. Some may scoff at such a dream. Dozens, if not hundreds, of people do the very same thing each year and fail. Why would she be any different? She may not be. That’s the key. There is no guarantee that she will meet the right people or get her headshot into the hands of the right directors. And yet, she feels strongly that God has given her talent and a passion for acting and she believes she can be a light for Him in a very dark place. So as I type, she drives north toward her future. I couldn’t be more excited for her or more proud of her.
Photo Credit: dcubillas
Some would call her actions a “leap of faith.”
But God doesn’t talk about leaps of faith in Scripture. He does, however, talk a lot about steps. Peter had to step out onto the waves. The priests in the Old Testament had to step into the rushing river. Proverbs tells us that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. The thing about faith that is so scary is that we don’t know where those steps are going to take us.
God doesn’t give us a manual for life that we can follow point by point. He gives us just enough for the next step and asks us to trust Him for the one after that and the one after that. This sounds simple enough. We know that God is a good God and He desires the best for us. So why then is it so hard to trust Him? I think it is because He doesn’t have our whole hearts.
As you are getting to know a new person, you are continually evaluating whether or not you can trust them. You share a personal detail here and there and see if they keep it to themselves. You have a secret dream and you share a little to see how they handle that precious information. We do the same thing with God. Instead of believing that He is trustworthy and interpreting our circumstances through the lens of that truth, we have it backwards. We pray for something and see if He comes through like we want Him to. We ask Him to fulfill our dreams without considering what He might have for us and then get disappointed when it doesn’t happen.
While it is important to ensure that sinful people are careful with our trust, we don’t need to worry about how God is going to handle our hearts. He has promised that if we give everything to Him, He will give to us His desires, fulfill those desires, and grant us peace and contentment that we can’t even imagine.
The key is in the letting go.
As Bilbo Baggins says,
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” (J.R.R Tolkien Quotes)
There’s no telling where my friend might end up someday or where you and I will be a year from now. Just as Frodo didn’t realize the danger and struggle he faced as he stepped out on his grand adventure. But we have an advantage that Frodo didn’t have. We have the God that has orchestrated all things from before the beginning of time lighting our paths. Won’t you trust Him?
Do you have a grand adventure you feel God is calling you to, but you’ve been too afraid to take the next step? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
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by Donya Dunlap | Sep 28, 2012 | Guest Posts, Making a Difference
I have the privilege of sharing with you today a brief, but invaluable five question interview with author, blogger and speaker Jeff Goins. If you have been following my posts recently, you know that Jeff has written a book called Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life. The book was an Amazon bestseller for two weeks and went into a second printing the day after it was released in August. If you have yet to get a copy, I hope that this glimpse into Jeff’s heart and the core of Wrecked will encourage you to get it soon.
Jeff, thank you for taking the time to share with us today!
Jeff Goins, Writer
Wrecked talks a lot about finding your passion. What is your passion in a nutshell?
My passion is words. To communicate messages worth spreading. I’ve done that my whole life — with music, theater, art, and now writing — and I love helping others do the same.
For the longest time, I minimized this passion, because it felt too small. I had friends who were traveling the world, and here I was, writing about it. But recently, I’ve had a change of mind: I’ve come to grips with the power of words.
Words can bring life or death, and my hope is to live a life in which my words bring hope and wholeness to people. Some say talk is cheap; I no longer believe it.
When did God first start stirring your heart in this area?
About two years ago, a friend asked me what my dream was. When I hesitantly told him it was to be a writer, he looked at me funny. Then he said, “Jeff, you don’t have to WANT to be a writer… You ARE a writer; you just need to write.” So I did. And that changed everything.
Was there a catalyst to this stirring? (ie: personal prayer, fasting, sermon, song, event, trip, etc.)
I had been working with a ministry, helping other people find their passions and pursue their dreams, and I was wondering, “Do I have a dream?” It had been so long since I’d asked that question, I was afraid of the answer.
After attending several conferences, I had to come to grips with the scary realization that I did, in fact, have a dream.
Was this always a dream for you or did you have a different desire at one point that God redirected?
I think it always was, but I didn’t know it. My experience with dreams is we get them often before we need them. So we have to go through a season in which the dream dies, which is exactly what happened for me. For five years, I served somebody else’s dream. So when the dream came back, it felt selfish and like betrayal. But at that point, my motives were more pure and I was ready.
The dream was now bigger than me.
Did you respond immediately to God’s tug on your heart? If so, how? If not, why?
You know, it took me a long time to see the spiritual implications of dreams and passions. It all just felt kind of selfish to me. When I was in college, I had some pretty dramatic experiences that led me to believe my life was going to be about more than me. I was called to serve others.
And so when I had the chance to write a book and pursue a platform that attracted an audience, it felt a little weird. I was scared of that much influence. So I avoided it for awhile, but eventually I came to see it as an opportunity to serve others (as I had been called) with the gifts God had given me. I’m continually surprised by how much impact a few simple words can have on people. So I guess I’m still getting used to it.
As I share in the book, our callings often come to us as surprises, and that’s exactly what happened for me. Discomfort is what causes us to grow; this is a lesson I keep learning throughout life.
When I was 23, the most uncomfortable thing I could do was go downtown and hang out with homeless people, so I did. When I was 28, the most uncomfortable thing for me to do was sit down and write. So I did — albeit, begrudgingly.
The abundant life, it seems, is about making choices we’d rather not make, but understanding that there’s more at stake than our own comforts.
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by Donya Dunlap | Sep 25, 2012 | How Great is Our God, The Single Life, The Spiritual Life
There are times when words fall short. We have a longing, an ache of heart and soul that cannot be expressed with common language. And yet the poet William Butler Yeats seems able to structure simple words and phrases to mimic an unspoken cry better than most.
The Carina Nebula – Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team – hubblesite.org
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
– William Butler Yeats, “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” courtesy of allpoetry.com
Z. Randall Stroope set this wonderful text to music and I have the wonderful privilege of singing it along with several dozen other talented musicians in an upcoming concert. (Listen to a recording of the piece here) We’ve been rehearsing it now for several weeks. The text, the melody, the harmonies and the emotion of the piece struck me deeply the first time I heard it. Since then it has been simmering in my heart waiting for me to gather the courage to try to put my thoughts on paper.
The poem is titled “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.” Yeats used the man Aedh as a character is several writings. While there are varied explanations of what was behind the words of the young man as he poured out his soul at the feet of the woman he loved, I couldn’t help but immediately think of Ruth chapter 3:7-9.
And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn: and she came softly, and uncovered his feet, and laid her down. And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.
One of my great burdens is that we modern Christians miss so much truth buried in the ancient and foreign cultures written of in the Bible. We are so busy and scattered that we read without understanding or imagination. The love story of Ruth and Boaz is one so wrought with emotion and meaning, but we so often rush through the reading of the four short chapters, mark it off of our to-do lists and completely miss the point of the text. I’m not going to delve into the meaning of the entire book at this time, but I want you to pause for a moment with me. Will you do that? Will you take a deep breath and put yourself into this narrative?
Ruth is a widow. She has loved deeply and lost much, including her family and homeland which she exchanged in order to remain with and care for her aging mother-in-law. She is in a strange town surrounded by strange people. If that was you, how would you feel?
Frightened? Vulnerable? Exposed? Lonely?
I’m sure there were times when Ruth felt all of these things. I imagine she cried herself to sleep on more than one occasion.
Several months pass and while times are difficult and finances are tight, Ruth and Naomi are able to live off of the grain gathered in Boaz’ fields. There is an obvious attraction between Ruth and Boaz, and yet neither acts in a way to bring their relationship to a personal level.
One night Naomi determines that something must be done. She instructs Ruth to bathe and dress herself then secretly go to the place where Boaz is working over the grain from the harvest. Ruth complies with the request of her guardian and spreads her garments over the uncovered feet of the one who had power to protect her or crush her should he so choose.
After a time he is startled awake by the realization that there is a woman at his feet. Ruth explains her presence and essentially asks Boaz to marry her. Please, let the scene work in your heart and mind for just a brief time. This young woman, so damaged by her past, so fragile, so desperate, lays all of her hopes and dreams for security, a future and a family at the feet of one she barely knew and asks him to please, tread softly.
The story of Ruth and Boaz is a picture of our story with Christ. We are poor and needy and have nothing to offer Him, and yet, when we ask Him, He takes our fragile, broken hearts so gently in His hands and He heals them. He gives to us His love, His protection and all the treasures of Heaven. And yet, so often we turn away from His love and trample over His gifts. But to the glory of His name, every single time that we return to His feet seeking forgiveness, He reaches down and lifts us to His heart again.
The very One who owns the heavens’ embroidered cloths of gold and silver light is madly in love with you tonight. Tread softly. He dreams of an intimate union with you as you journey through life and into eternity. Tread softly. Draw near to Him.
Tread softly.
by Donya Dunlap | Sep 22, 2012 | How Great is Our God, The Spiritual Life
It was a beautiful, fall day. There were only a few puffy, white clouds breaking up the expanse of bright blue in the sky. Energy among the student body was high until the chapel service was brought to a close by an announcement that shocked us all. A plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers in New York City. Before the reality of what was being said could begin to sink in, another announcement was made. A second plane. A terrorist attack. They think the Pentagon and the White House could be next.
September 11th of any year will never again be just another day. It will be a day that we as Americans reflect on loss, evil, heroism, patriotism, justice and freedom. And rightfully so. But as deeply as the memories of the horror touch me today, there is something else that strikes me even more powerfully. Grace.
Unimaginable, unfathomable, unalterable, unending grace.
It’s so easy for me to stand and sing “Grace, grace, God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all our sin.” I’ve been singing that song since I was a little girl without so much of a second thought. But the truth of that statement should stop us all mid-note. Grace that is greater than ALL our sin.
Grace doesn’t often seem like that big of a deal to us because we tend to have a light view of sin. “My sin isn’t as bad as that person’s sin.” “I’m a good person.” “Yeah, I might do this or that, but I’m not a murderer for goodness sake.” We look at something so purely evil as hijacking a plane and flying it into a building, killing thousands of innocent lives and we can’t imagine grace big enough to cover something so horrible. In comparison, getting angry and saying something we shouldn’t doesn’t seem to even measure on the same scale. What we fail to realize is that both of those acts are sin. While humanly speaking, those two things could never compare, from God’s point of view, both of them sent His Son to the cross. I am just as worthy of hell as a murdering terrorist apart from God’s grace.
The incomprehensible grace of God.
At some point in Sarah’s journey with God, she chose to take matters into her own hands. She chose to doubt the truth of God’s Word, and she chose to believe the lies of the liar. She convinced herself that she was just doing what was necessary to bring about God’s plan, but she failed to ask God what He thought about her idea.
The results of Sarah’s decision can still be felt around the world today. The hatred between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael has brought forth all manner of wickedness and death. Acts of violence are committed every day in the name of God, just as Sarah’s sin was committed in the name of God thousands of years ago. It may seem that the atrocities committed on September 11, 2001, or those that continue to be committed in the Middle East today cannot possibly compare to the sinful schemes of your innermost thoughts, but please realize that both are manifestations of the lust of a sinful heart. ‘Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.’ (James 1:15) The sin of the terrorist and the sin of the teenager both sent Christ to the cross. – Forgetting the Fairy Tale
