Revolution

Recently something came to me...something that I believe with my whole heart was a very much-needed insight from the Lord.

According to what He showed me, I've decided to revolutionize my whole concept of blogging. No, I'm not dillusionally thinking that it's an original concept...far from it! But the Lord has been showing me SO much lately, and He's in the process of bringing me through what I believe has been the deepest, darkest, most emotional time of my entire life. At least, the deepest, darkest emotional time I've ever been in touch with.

When traumatic things happen in a person's life, it is so incredibly easy to just stuff it all down inside and not let yourself be in touch with the reality of what has been done to you. I lived that way for most of my life...and I'm ready to be done with it!
By God's grace, I'm making a total U-turn in every sense of the word -- and in every area.
I've been chugging down the road of denial and pretense...numbness, really...and only recently have I been making the choice to turn wholeheartedly from that way of living, and run breathlessly for Truth and Light.
I've made a lot of stupid mistakes in my life...I've made horrible choices. And so has everybody else.

The sad thing is, the ripple effect of everybody's horrible choices reaches farther than they'd ever know, -- believe me when I say this: I've been bowled over by some pretty big ripples myself.
I know I've sent out some damaging ripples, too. I'm terribly grieved by that...and while I know, inevitably, I will make more bad choices along the journey, now I'm turning to the Lord for help to overcome the enormous pressure all the bad choices puts on me every day. And He is holding me up with His strength.
The awesome part is this -- the more good choices that are made, the easier it becomes to choose the good! How's that for a deal?! :)  The Lord's ways are so incredible!

At any rate...back to my original point: I've decided to revolutionize my whole concept of blogging.

Truth and reality are the ONLY way to go in this life...in every relationship and every dealing...whether we're dealing with ourselves or with others. I've had to learn this lesson the hard way. But finally -- finally -- I'm beginning to learn it. Note that I said beginning..that's the truth! I am just beginning! I'm not very far along...I know for a fact that the Lord has lots of things yet to reveal to me about myself...all the subtle untruths/misleadings I have the tendency to give off without even knowing it. The human mind is SUCH a complicated thing, and it can play the dirtiest tricks on you. Like God says, in Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
That tells me that no matter how "far along" we think or believe we are on our spiritual journey -- when it really comes down to it, it doesn't matter a hill of beans. We have to be focused on the Lord, and we have to be completely and totally open to His voice speaking to our hearts and convicting us of sin in our lives...or we are never going to get anywhere.
And I'm absolutely not claiming to be, at this time, completely focused on the Lord, completely and totally open to His voice. He's still got a loooooooot of work to do on me, -- BUT my heart's deepest desire IS to be those things. I believe I've come far in a short period of time. But I know I still got a lot of stuff to see.

I'm really thankful for everything He's doing...even when it hurts. I'm really thankful.

Coz if we never go through the fires of affliction, we are never going to glorify God with our lives in any way. And that's what I want to do, from the depths of my heart. And on top of that, we're going to live some kind of zombie pseudo-life with no real depth of meaning or purpose. And what kind of life is that? None.

So all that to say this: I have a lot of heavy things on my heart, and I feel compelled by the Lord to share them. I'm not going to mince words anymore. I'm not going to pretend anything anymore, -- with as much understanding the Lord gives me in the face of each choice.

And no, I'm not going to be blogging only seriousness either. :)

As those that know me personally can testify: I'm big on silly light-heartedness, humor, entertainment, and just downright fun. But life's not all about that, and that's something I'm coming to realize more and more every day. We don't have that much time left...every day there are hundreds of souls pouring in through the gates of hell like sand through a crack.

And that is no laughing matter.

The Lord's principles say that we are responsible for what we see. Well, there are things that I'm seeing that I can't keep to myself any longer...I hear the Lord's call, and I'm ready to respond to it!

Lord, please be with me on this fresh, new journey I'm about to embark on...I need Your strength.
Coz I don't have any of my own.

To My Readers, However Few Or Many They May Be!

Dear Readers of my Blog,

I want to be more faithful with my blogging. I don't like the fact that I'm not, and I'm working on remedying that.

For those of you that saw my blog as it was a few weeks ago, yes, I have changed it again.
I've been going through a lot of...how shall I say it...ups and downs lately, and have been dealing with some really stressful issues -- which, in turn, has caused me to be quite unable to settle on a balanced approach at my blogging.
One thing about me is that I feel very strongly about everything I say. If I say it, I mean it. And so I tried an approach to my writing -- a dark, very serious approach, which is how I was feeling at the time. But as I looked at my blog through objective eyes, I realized it was still yet unbalanced. I do have serious things on my heart, but an "overdose" of dark seriousness could -- at best, defeat the purpose. At worst, it could give people who don't yet know the truth of God's Word a really wrong impression.
Our God is a jealous God, and He is full of truth and reality, and doesn't mince His words. But He is also full of Light and Life -- Love and Creativity. He is the epitome of each of His attributes. And I believe that's how He calls us to live our lives out as well.
So yes, life is dark, heavy and serious -- but not every aspect of it.
Light-heartedness is most certainly not a sin. :)
And I've never felt that way...but in thinking further about the appearance of my blog, I decided that it just might come across that way to some people. And so I changed it. Again.
And I may change it even more in times to come. :)  Ya'll will just have to bear with me...or do without me!

Life is real; life is earnest; and the grave is not its goal.

But truth is.

Love,
Noelle