Week 4 - Confident Heart - Chapters 7 & 8

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."   ~ Howard Thurman

Hello again!  And welcome to week four of Renee Swope's A Confident Heart!

As a nod toward Halloween, I want to do my blog a little differently this week.  Hang in there!

Zombies!  They are the latest craze of "scary".  They're in the movies & on TV; my son and husband recently ran a charity race where they had to avoid "zombies" on the course.  It was fun, even as a spectator, and for a good cause, so in this case being a zombie or running from the zombies was a positive experience.

But, do you ever feel like a zombie?  Like you're going through life, from one responsibility to another, but not really living life?  With so many things to do, people to please, and obligations vying for our attention, we can quickly feel overwhelmed and lost in our own lives.

I feel like a zombie when I've taken on too much!  For me, it happens in cycles.  Things are going smoothly, so I take on one more thing.  That's not too bad, so I think,  'sure I can do one more little thing, it's only once a month'.  Throw in a crisis or two along the way and the next thing I know I'm in Zombieland!  I'm running from one thing to the next, I have a list a mile long of things I need to prepare in order to do that one little extra thing, etc., etc!  I have a feeling you can relate.  I look around and wonder, "what the heck happened!?  Where am I?  Who am I?"

It's at this time that I realize I have been moving through life; doing, going, keeping up, but not really living my life as God wants.  When I'm busy with everything I have to do, there's no time for remembering who I am and whose I am; what it is He made me for and I realize it's been a while since we've had a conversation!  When I'm caught up in all of this stuff,  that's when I notice my fear of failure creeps into my thoughts: I don't want to fail at anything I've chosen to do or disappoint anyone I offered to help.  But why did I offer to help in the first place?  Out of prayerful consideration or was it because I wanted to feel important in a certain group of people?

All of this running, doing, fearing, and wanting to be special is draining!  Renee says, "...we have God-given emotional needs.  When those needs are left completely unmet, we become depleted and tend to operate primarily out of our weaknesses." (pg. 141).  WOW!  No wonder I sometimes feel like a Zombie - alive, yet not living.

When I feel my inner zombie creeping in, I've learned to stop.  I turn from saying "yes" to everything, to asking 'what does God want me to do?'.  I turn from wondering how I stack up compared to other moms, to seeing myself from God's perspective.  I turn my hurtful words against myself, to God's promises for me.

Zombies may have their place - in folklore, scary movies, and on a 5K charity race!  But God calls us, His children, to a full life of peace and hope and joy!  

God's promises are my weapons against my inner zombie!  It is with God that I can truly come alive!  You can, too!

Your Partner in Ministry,

Shelly

"Kind words are like honey - sweet to the soul and healthy for the body!"  Proverbs 16:24