Can you feel that? It’s the excitement in the air. There’s a new movement. The movement is about getting back to basics. I’m not talking minimalism here, but it could be an outcome of this journey. The journey to creating the life God intended for you. The life you are meant to live.
Living the authentic life.
Yes, it’s time to make a declaration. Time for making changes. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s resiliency. Making the most of what God has gifted us. Not only has 2020 shifted my priorities, but it’s also provided a bold new direction for this blog. The blog’s gone from Not Prefect, but Present to Living the Authentic Life. I’m thrilled you are taking this journey with me. I’ve been writing around this topic for years but calling it by different names. Instead of writing circles around it, I’m declaring it. God wants us living with authenticity.
My goal is to teach and equip women how to live their most authentic lives for God. If this resonates with you, welcome to the Living the Authentic Life tribe. I’m gently be calling us out to live the authentic life. To stop hiding behind the figurative mask. We’re all wearing a literal mask in public these days. I’m taking this journey right alongside you.
Trust me when I say that I do not have living the authentic life all figured out. I still fall into old, comfortable patterns that don’t serve my goals or intentions. Some days I take the easy way out. I’m working on getting into the habit of asking myself, how is this activity or action leading me closer to my goals?
The Netflix marathon of NCIS I held yesterday did nothing on my walk to growing closer to who I believe God wants me to be. Instead, I checked out, and I’m embarrassed to say, I fell asleep during one episode, and during the rest of the episodes, I was playing a matching game on my phone. Not exactly a recipe for expanding my horizons.
I admit. It was an easy route. As humans, we gravitate towards what’s comfortable. Part of living the authentic life is working through troubles. God doesn’t call us to a comfortable life. I used to bristle at this statement. I felt I was already working as hard as possible; why wasn’t God making my life easier? Nope. He said it would be harder.
James 1:2-4 (NLT) states, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
The verse doesn’t even say if you have trouble. It’s when you have problems. God doesn’t want to give us a more comfortable life. My selfishness and provide reared its ugly head when I thought that life is already hard enough, there’s no relief in sight, and now you’re telling me to consider it a great joy?
Really, God?
Why does God tell us there is an opportunity for great joy in our troubles? I’ve found in my life there is a difference between joy and happiness. Joy comes from God; happiness comes from my attitude. Which one has a never-ending supply, and which one relies on me? Joyfulness comes from God. Happiness, well, comes and goes based on our circumstances.
Continually connecting with God makes feeling joyful an easier process. I’ve been locked in a battle with my ex-husband over custody issues, child support, and child-related expenses. I fully expected a positive outcome and for God to show up, proving how slighted I’d been over the years. The slighted part is from my perspective. Not God’s.
That positive outcome? The opposite happened.
My ex-husband was given more custody, child support was a simple mathematical calculation, and the reimbursement I was expecting didn’t happen. It was the opposite of what I declared in victory during my quiet time. It was the opposite of what I’d been praying for throughout this year-long ordeal with the courts. I was angry at God. I was mad at the outcome. Once again, it proved that God didn’t care about what I’d been praying for throughout the process.
It was all a lie from the enemy.
I wept when things said about me weren’t true. I could prove it wasn’t true. In writing.
Guess what?
The court mediator is there to make a deal. They don’t care who is right and wrong or what is said about the other person. While I was angry at God during this process, He was beside me. Weeping. He saw my pain, but I believed the lie that He didn’t care. The lie that he wasn’t orchestrating this process. Nothing comes at me unless it has allowed by God. I forgot that amid my troubles.
When trouble comes our way, it reveals our real character. It puts on full display where our foundation is placed. The decisions around my ex-husband only recently were finalized, and it remains to be seen how God is working this together for my good.
What this experience showed me is that my relationship and reliance on Jesus is not as strong as it should be. I didn’t step back and say the situation is in God’s hands. I stepped in and told God what should have happened. Essentially, I took God’s place. Nothing good comes out of stepping into God’s shoes.
I wasn’t living the authentic life He called me to because I thought I knew better than the One who created me.