Are you Ready to Win?

Winning has a connotation for every one….for many it means a first prize or blue ribbon and the knowledge that they were indeed the best at whatever it is the race was about…popularity, speed, control, earnings….The kind of things we really take for granted are more often the things often overlooked that matter for the real wins….the courage to be who you are created to be…to stand up for what is right, the transparency to own your mistakes, the integrity to live in peace with others and with yourself.

Stephen Covey says the 5 emotional cancers are: criticizing, complaining, comparing, competing, and a spirit of contention present in your daily life. I so agree.  We all seem to have drank the kool-aid that more is more…and as Allyson Lewis so eloquently put it in her book, The 7 Minute Solution, she came to a place where she wanted MORE, not more…MORE meaning MORE service, MORE family MORE joy, MORE of a life she actually wanted to live.

Amen.

As I have traveled on the road the last few weeks with clients on book tours, conferences, and launches, it has been an unusual time of busy reflection.  I speak to strangers, to folks I work with, and to anyone who remotely captures my heart and/or interest all.the.time.  I love people.  What has captured my attention is the overwhelming repeating story that no matter where I am, what role I am being that moment, people are seeking peace and acceptance. People want peace in their lives again, purpose, and a sense that their lives have value past their daily existence.  Individuals are looking for a better life. That life isn’t defined in wealth, but in meaningful experiences and the peace and joy that has left their buildings, neighborhoods, and hearts.

One of the joys of my journeys lately has been to witness the power of human interaction with divine empowerment.  God showing up in the perfect moments looking alot like ordinary humans being obedient.  Mothers praying for their children, folks with illness ministering to those who have no physical illness, but emotionally are much weaker than the physically ill one in front of them. In a prayer room in Dallas yesterday I heard a wise woman tell the person who had sought prayer that she needed to rest in God and allow laughter back in her life.  Seemingly simply…yet oh so powerful…God doesn’t tell us to work all of the time, focus on toil and troubles, nor that we are not enough…no..God tells us to rest in Him, to let Him carry our burdens of anger, resentment, pain, and shame…to allow Him to be responsible for our worries, to release them to Him …for He will meet our needs, not us…if we simply trust Him and are obedient to the life he has for us….

God says in Him everything is possible…

My marriage and family is proof of God’s restoration. In a family who hadn’t experienced ANYONE’s marriage crumbling in the close relatives there I was twice divorced, unhappy, and I did not even get into the motherhood business until I was thirty….yet God restored my broken heart. In the most unusual way of showing up, Les Berry was and is the answer to many nights lament that God would heal my broken heart and allow a do over… happy marriage…and four children and step teens and adults call me Mom..and over twenty more have known me as Mom for a season of their lives…God is good….and he is truthful in what He will do when we choose to trust His word…

For those who know me you can say an “amen” (now let’s not shout too loudly)  but somethings you have to experience to understand.  I.am.a.high.energy.hot.mess.  I love creating, and supporting creative projects that empower people.  The joy of working on projects that reach, teach, and touch people’s lives have created a vertical learning curve for many years for me….whether it was publishing, filming, social media, or strategy….I simply love to learn skills that support living your personal and professional purpose in life..  It has been one of the surprizes of my life that God had a plan for that too….well after all, He is God…but can he really handle a hot mess like me? (perhaps proof again, that He IS God)  Winning to me means running my own race, to live a life of obedience to whatever it is that God brings into my life. To work through the training of mind, body, and spirit until His will is done in my life….

a tough race to be sure….but the joy of this journey is peace….not ease…peace that means even on the hardest emotionally punched day, that God is present.  That when flesh rips and emotions rage because of something fleshy, God is there…if I will allow Him to be.  Winning the race daily means coming to God first…then laying HIS plans straight, not your own…such an easy concept, such a hard course for most of us to lay down our control….

What are you ready to win? Fame? Fortune? Finesse? Or are you seeking to win the favor of God in all that you do? Win the abundance of God in every moment of your life? Win the power and strength of God in your every day existence?  It’s real…and its promised to us if we simply do the seemingly impossible….surrender the race to Him….and let Him redesign the course you are running until like Eric Liddell, you feel God’s pleasure when you run…..

God has set my race….and I can tell you…I don’t know the course, I’m not sure of the distance, I feel inadequate to even line up….but his race I am running….and though I may stumble ….the race is God’s….for I am ready to win peace, joy, abundance, provision, purpose, and the wealth of a life spent using God’s gifts for others…working through the “stuff” that I so need to shed, allowing His love to complete the work He began in me….tough stuff…real stuff…but worthwhile because in the long run, running God’s race for my life is all that truly matters…His approval the only one that counts…

and I’m finally ready to give up whatever it takes….and the list so far has been long, hard, and my fingers are tired from trying to hold on to silly things in my life I was never intended to hold….but God is God and I am not….and so the race begins…..two by four thwack lessons included for my hard head….for it seems I don’t learn by simple reminders….it takes a thwack regularly to get my attention…and it turns out that I’m not very into those 2×4 thwacks…so I will listen more intently, accept more readily, and learn more completely that which God has set before me to do….

Anyone ready to join me for THAT race?