About three years ago I heard a sermon that was taught about the subject of healing. The pastor was using an example of swinging on a trapeze and needing to let go and grab on to Jesus with both hands. At that point in my life, I desperately wanted to. I didn’t know how. For added measure, because what is a good heartfelt Sunday morning post without quoting a little Taylor Swift….I was trying to fly but I couldn’t find wings.

I have been a Christian for 33 years and I can’t tell you how many times I have heard statements like run to the arms of Jesus and let go and let God and other things that suggest that Jesus is in a physical sense standing right with us. I realize I could be slightly dipping into a touchy world of theology here, but I am sure I am not the only one who has noticed that Jesus, in fact, is not physically standing right here and I can not physically run into His arms. So, I am left wondering if those types of statements confuse people. How do we  ACTUALLY do that?

Shortly after this time, my husband and I made some major changes in our life, primarily in our schedules and my involvement level outside of the home. Our activity level was not supporting our priorities. Things needed a change.

At the time, my plan was redirection, not no direction. My plan involved trying something new. His plan involved sitting still. God in His infinite wisdom always knows best. I am so glad I listened. With my limited involvement in much of anything outside the home lately, I have found myself with so much time on my hands I have been BORED. BORED! Can you imagine? I have four kids, let me remind you.

It is here that God speaks.

I think I was running so fast and spinning so crazy that despite my best intention to grow close to Him, I created so much of my own noise that I inadvertently drowned out the One that I needed to hear from the most. So, I cried HELP and said enough and found myself still. Oh, how I hate still. Still is uncomfortable. The silence can become louder than the loudest noises that I know.

It is here that God speaks.

…and more importantly, it is here, that I can listen.

So, almost three years later, as I reflect on that morning of hearing the example of the trapeze, I find myself with yet another answered prayer. An answer to a prayer that was a whisper on my lips and desperation in my heart. How do I let go and how do I jump? The answer came in step by step obedience. Obedience to the immediate situations without knowing the ending.

My jump became not a jump at all, but rather a sit down and wait. Don’t move, just breathe. It became a time of  rediscovery of who I am and who God is and how very much He loves me. A period of uncomfortable silence, as the through the silence God slowly reveals what I had been running so fast to try and keep hidden.

I have learned to value the silence in my life. It is something that now takes its rightful place in discussions of our scheduling of our time and resources. Nothing is always on the agenda somewhere. Nothing allows space. Space for my heart to stay in constant contact with my children, my husband, and my Savior. In the space I find my silence. In my silence, I find His voice.

The finish line is the celebration, but the celebration could not happen without the hours upon hours of training leading up to it. The collection of moments where nothing but sheer determination and willpower propelled a runner to leave the couch and bon bons behind to brave the cold, wind, and rain in order to continue with the predetermined plan. It is those moments added together that determined the victory was eminent.

I tend to look far ahead. Heck, one of my favorite verses is I lift mine eyes to the hills. Psalm 121:1 This is not a bad place to look by any means, but it certainly can not negate the need for looking right in front of you. Right around you. Even downward. There you will find the simple, the mundane, and more times then not the key to success.

On a rough day a couple years ago, I enlightened the world of Facebook with the knowledge that I was putting one foot in front of the other, because that is all I had to give that day. One of my Facebook friends replied, “Many great things were accomplished that way.” Those seven words, quite frankly, have changed my life for the better.

I’m looking far ahead in anticipation of the big moments. I love the big parties, the celebration moments, the big drops on roller coasters, the big vacations, the big hugs, the big successes, the big endings. All of the icing on top, sprinkles on your cupcake moments that make this world a better place. The times that fill you with warm fuzzies and become a permanent habitat in your memory bank. Yep, that’s me. They drive me.

I was missing something so entirely fantastic that I learned on Facebook that day. You see those moments are made in the trenches and no where else. I had forgotten that.

One of my most favorite things to do in all the world is to plan events. I have been very blessed over the years to have the ability to do so in various capacities. I love every step of the process. It begins with laying on the floor with my laptop, blank pad of paper, and pen. Furiously scribbling the beginnings to something I pray ends up magically. Watching the creative process unfold as each step of completion in the process generates new ideas and details that will contribute to the end result. Spending way too many hours laboring over each last detail down to the color choice of a piece of confetti…because every single decision really does matter. Pouring in blood, sweat, tears, and heart while shoulder to shoulder with your team of helpers. Staying one step ahead so that pre event crunch time, which is inevitably crazy, can be somehow as stress free as possible. Making sure you are on your A game, so that when crisis comes, because it WILL come, you can deal with it quickly and efficiently so as to not let anyone on to your behind the scenes wily ways. At the end of all of this hard work and preparation something glorious happens. During each event that I have planned I have learned to take a moment to sit back and look at what the hard work as produced. Smiling happy faces of people who are experiencing a moment in time that will forever bond them and hopefully forever imprint something positive on the very fabric of their being. You have created a memory and an experience. Given them something positive. Given joy. None of it would have been possible without the hours leading up to that one defining moment.

Dramatic much? Yeah, I have secret dreams of being David Tutera or Tori Spelling in my next lifetime…I apologize.

The bottom line is…

You don’t get in shape by talking about it.

You don’t get your house clean by thinking about it.

You don’t make good friends by hoping for them and…

You don’t raise happy healthy children by crossing your fingers or wiggling your nose.

You get in shape by consistently putting down the cookie and picking up your running shoes. You get your house clean by pushing up your sleeves, getting on your hands and knees and scrubbing (sometimes gagging) relentlessly. You make good friends by investing in others time and time again. You raise happy healthy children because of the middle of the night snuggles, the dropping your seemingly important tasks to sit down and hear about what their baby doll did during nap time, and collecting hours on your knees when no ones looking. It takes millions of moments of invested hearts and souls.

I am learning that it’s not the finish line, it’s the journey. It’s not the trophy, it’s the training. It’s not the smiles as much as the tears. It takes a whole lot of the first to create the last. The littlest things create the big. They absolutely go hand in hand.

In the trenches is where the magic happens. Do not let the toilet grime get you down. It is where the moments are made. When you focus on taking every task at hand with the intensity of a training Olympian, all of a sudden you wake up and realized you have accomplished something very big. All the steps that one foot in front of the other create are to be remembered, celebrated, and given their rightful place in our lives. There, and there only, is how we reach our goals.

Let’s live a good life.

 I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. Phillipians 3:12-14

Have a blessed Sunday.

xo.