In Your Hand

In Your Hand

Moses is one of the greats of faith. Revered by Jews and Christians. Spoken of by unbelievers. Moses. Moses. Moses.

Moses talked back to God and basically said, “Find someone else for the job.” (Exodus 3) He gave all kinds of excuses to try to talk God out of sending him to Pharaoh. But God, being God, would not relent. He chose Moses, and Moses it was going to be.

When Moses finally got on board with God and said, “Okay! Okay! I’ll go” he asked God for a sign to prove to the Israelites, and to Pharaoh, that God had sent him. I don’t know what Moses was expecting, but God’s response was, “What’s in your hand?”

What was in Moses’ hand? His shepherd’s staff. God said He would use that. God took something ordinary Moses had used every day for years and made it extraordinary.

That staff eventually turned into a serpent before Pharaoh and his magicians. That staff, dipped into the Nile, turned the river to blood. That staff was lifted above the Red Sea and prompted it to part. Two million souls, with their animals and belongings, walked across the sea on dry ground.

What was in Moses’ hand? Nothing special. Just his old familiar tool. Just the thing he’d used for years. Just the thing he would never have expected God to use. But God did use it and delivered His people from 400 years of bondage. God used what was in Moses’ hand to accomplish His mighty purposes.

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Calling Confirmed

Let’s settle this right here and right now. You are called! There is no question about that. If you are saying, “Called? Me?” Yes! You!

Every person on the planet was created with a purpose. Every creature of God has a calling. That includes you!

No person’s calling is better or higher than another’s. Every calling is valuable.

The important thing is to discover what it is and fulfill it. That is your divine potential. Your divine destiny.

You want to say YES to God? Saying yes starts with hearing God, right?

YES is a response. We don’t say it without a reason! So, what are we saying YES to? A calling? You might say, “Isn’t that only for pastors and other spiritual leaders? God hasn’t really called me, has He? And if He has called me, then what am I supposed to do?”

Let me affirm something. God is calling you!

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Doing it Afraid (Book Excerpt)

Fear. Fear is probably the number-one obstacle each of us needs to overcome. You may think you aren’t afraid, but I guarantee there is some kind of fear whispering in your ear. Fear shows up in a variety of ways, and it isn’t always obvious. You may not even recognize fear.

You may talk yourself out of something because you don’t believe you can do it. That is fear of failure. You may think you are being practical and realistic. You may tell yourself that you are being honest. But the truth is very likely that you just don’t want to take the risk.

I know. This one is me. Fear of failure is the fear that most often stops me from trying something. I’ve come a long way. But it still whispers in my ear. “What if . . . ?”

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A Framework for God-Centered Goal Setting (Book Excerpt)

So now that we have removed some obstacles, let’s set some goals. Here’s our simple framework: Ask, Aim, Act, Achieve.

Ask

Reflection is a key to discovering your MORE. Look back over your answers to some of the questions in this book. Then, answer these:

·       What has God been revealing to you?

·       What do you know about yourself now that you didn’t know before?

·       What are some things you want to accomplish that line up with your personal purpose?

·       How do you want to grow forward?

Think back and consider. Make sure to evaluate every area of your life, personally and professionally. Goals are about growth, right? How do you want to grow? Don’t just go forward. Grow forward!

Your next step is to think ahead and let the Holy Spirit inspire what you envision for your life. Take out a sheet of paper and make a list of things you want to accomplish. Just let your dreams lead you. Don’t listen to any negative self-talk. Let purpose, passion, and the Holy Spirit guide you.

So, my dear friend, here is what I want you to do in the next few moments. Open a document or get a piece of paper and do a brain dump. Write out everything that comes to mind. Don’t edit now. Do that later. Just dump everything out of your brain and into your document. Write out the one thing you believe God has called you to do that has scared you to death but has called your name time after time. Like an echo in the dark, that thought has enveloped you for a long time. It’s a thought that won’t go away.

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Discover Your True Identity (Book Excerpt)

Discovering your God-given identity is important for setting good, God-centered goals. Discovering your God-given identity starts with unlearning the past. It’s like a dance. You tentatively begin to attempt the steps. It takes some time to find the beat and the rhythm. There may be some missteps at first. But once you find it, your movement becomes fluid and graceful. It’s fun for you and beautiful for others to see. Discovering your true identity is worth the effort of unlearning past patterns and finding your natural rhythm.

You learned a lot through your past experiences. Things that were said to you by important adults in your childhood adhered to your identity like stray scraps of tape. They may not be immediately visible, but they are still stuck where they don’t belong. Discovering your true identity involves discovering the lies and unsticking them. What someone once said has become how you think about yourself.

It takes some prayerful searching to discover where they are stuck. Removing them may be more difficult than it seems, but it is worth your effort. And remember, you aren’t alone in this process. God Himself walks through it with you by His Holy Spirit. He will reveal the lies and help you to replace them with His truth.

You might also want to bring a trusted friend into this process. Let them know the lies that you are unlearning and the truths that you want to absorb into who you are. Just knowing that there is someone else you can talk to makes a world of difference.

Chosen Child, Not the Consolation Prize

You and I have been chosen by God. That is the fact of the matter. How you feel about it is not really that important. Our current culture relies more on feelings than on fact. Feelings overshadow so many decisions. They shape perspectives. They inform how new stories are presented and how ads are crafted. Feelings are changeable. Facts are not.

John Adams, one of our founding fathers, is quoted as saying, “Facts are stubborn things.” Facts do not change with feelings. Facts are what they are and that is all. They can’t be prodded and poked and made to adjust. Facts are reality. Feelings are shadow.

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Starting Where You Are (Book Excerpt)

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:16 NIV)

Before beginning any major journey, it’s important to understand where you are starting from. If I book a flight to Madrid from New York City, I need to know which airport I am flying out of. JFK? LaGuardia? Newark? If I show up at Newark, and my flight leaves from JFK, I won’t be getting to Madrid that day.

To get accurate GPS directions, the GPS on my phone must access my current location. Have you ever been lost and opened your GPS to let it tell you where you are? Been there, done that. Once you accurately understand where you are, you can begin to calculate what route to take to get you where you want to go. So, my friend, where are you?

Where You Are

The truth is that most of us are not completely accurate and honest with ourselves. Come on, you know it’s true! I will admit that it’s much easier to notice someone else fudging the truth about themselves than to recognize when I do it, but I know that I do it. You and I will tend to make allowances for ourselves and present the best version of ourselves. Even the person who struggles with self-esteem and puts themselves down all the time does not have an accurate picture of where they are on their journey.

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Discovering God’s Purpose for You (Book Excerpt)

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14 NIV

The YES Adventure is a journey of discovery—self-discovery. But it’s more than just discovering yourself. It’s about discovering the plans that God has for you. It’s about exploring who you are and how you are made. Your personal makeup—personality, gifts and talents, the deep desires that seem to be a part of the fabric of who you are—are all clues in the discovery process.

So, let’s take some time now to explore those deep-seated desires. Like silver threads woven into a blanket, those desires add sparkle, depth, and dimension to your life. Let’s explore what you really want. Clues to God’s purpose for you are woven into your desires.

Whose Dream

If you could do anything, what would it be? Perhaps you have never really articulated that before. Yet, there is something deep inside that calls your name. From the back of the dark cave called the future, the voice whispers loudly to you. “This is what you want. This is where you want to go.”

As I look back on my life, writing has always been there. For school projects, I would often choose writing rather than other forms of expression.

In the seventh grade, we studied the American Revolution. One of the projects to choose was to create a diary of a soldier at Valley Forge. That was my project. Even at that young age, the thought of writing rather than building something was much more appealing. I still have that project in a scrapbook. I spent the time researching conditions at Valley Forge and got a sense of what life was like. I wrote out the entries and creatively organized the information. I found old, yellowed paper with no lines on it. Perfect! I sewed it with thread for binding.

All the effort to create an environment through the words and the presentation was just a vehicle for carrying the information I had studied into words on a page. I enjoyed getting inside the character’s head and writing his words on the yellowed pages.

In high school, I discovered creative writing. We had the opportunity to choose different classes and the Creative Writing elective literally changed my life. The curriculum required keeping a journal of observations and thoughts. I had never thought of keeping a journal before. The journal became my lifeline. The journal became the place where I could express the feelings that couldn’t be talked about with others. I didn’t have anyone to listen to me. My journal became a place to process my fears, doubts, hurts, and questions.

Later, when Jesus became the center of my life, my journal became a place of prayer and study. I still keep a journal. It may not be the lifeline it once was, but it is a place to capture important thoughts, feelings, heartfelt prayers, and the whispers of God. Do you keep a journal?

I discovered that God made me to write words through that creative writing course. Writing words that carry emotions and ideas has been a part of my life since then. Recognizing the place of writing in my past has been part of discovering how I am made and uncovering His design for my future. That discovery led to the book you are reading now. This is part of my MORE. There is more for you, too, my friend.

Writing was not consciously my dream early on. Writing was just there. An undercurrent. A silver thread. Recognizing the sparkle of that thread helped me to discover God’s dream for me. I know without a doubt that writing is not just my dream. It is God’s dream for me. He designed me with words woven into my being. He made me to create. Words on a page, words in a message. Words are woven into me.

What is woven into you, my friend? Have you taken the time to discover the silver threads in your makeup? When you look back over your life, what are the dreams, gifts, and talents that recur? Those are your clues. The things that you have always enjoyed doing. The projects that seem to repeat in your life. The desires that never go away. Those are part of God’s dream for you.

 Excerpt from The YES Adventure: Transform Your Life with One Word by Cathleen Zahradnik. Check it out here.

The MORE You Were Meant For (Book Excerpt)

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future“ (Jeremiah 29:11).

My YES adventure began with my first YES to God. At sixteen years old, I sat on my bed reading a small pamphlet a friend had given me. The final paragraph asked if I would like a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. A personal relationship with Jesus? I’d never heard of such a thing! Everything in me said, “YES, that’s exactly what I want!” I prayed the prayer, signed the tract in the space provided, and put it in my wallet because that is where I put things I didn’t want to lose. I didn’t realize that YES had begun to change my life.

It wasn’t until a few years later that my YES became complete. I was a junior in college, walking home to my rented room at 16 Oak Street in Geneseo, New York. The cold January night echoed the darkness that had clouded around me for the previous months. I had never felt so lost and confused. In reality, the situation that had triggered the darkness was minor. But it had become the major impetus for all my emotions. Friends had encouraged me to speak with a school counselor, but I maintained, “I should be able to handle my own problems.”

That night, a random, startling thought shook me to the reality that I was not able. I stood at a crosswalk on Main Street as a car approached.

“What would happen if I threw myself out in front of that car?”

Shock and fear gripped me as the car sped by. What if I had acted on that thought? Where had it come from? What did I need to do to escape that kind of darkness? I hurried home, unlocked the door, ran upstairs to my room, and knelt by my bed. “God, I can’t do it by myself anymore. I need you to help me!”

I don’t remember all I prayed, but the next day, I made an appointment with the school counselor. Even though I didn’t realize it at the time, that night, I fully surrendered to God. He had my big YES. That was the day my adventure truly started and transformation began. That was the day I began to discover the more I was meant for.

What makes your heart soar? I mean really soar. That thing that makes you want to shout at the top of your lungs and burst with joy. Maybe you haven’t quite discovered what that is yet, but it is in there. God put it inside you even before you were born, and He wants to help you discover what that is. Maybe that is part of what you will get out of this book. I hope so. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were created with a purpose that will fill your heart with an exhilarating song that lifts you to hang-gliding heights. Really!

God has made each of us with an “adventure quotient.” What do I mean by that? Your adventure quotient is what makes your heart beat faster and feel like you are doing the most exciting and fulfilling thing in the world. That adventure quotient is different for each of us, but each of us has it. The key for you and me is to find it. You were made for adventure. You were! But don’t expect your adventure to look like someone else’s. Your adventure is uniquely your own.

 

Excerpt from The YES Adventure: Transform Your Life with One Word by Cathleen Zahradnik. Check it out here.