Author: Jana

When Art Comes to Life

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There used to be a TV show when I was a kid, and the long awaited line every week was when the main character would say: “I love it when a plan comes together.”

(If you remember this show, shoot it back to me.)  Anyway, that is how I feel about the new website, www.womengettingreal.com

It took hours of thinking, stretching, aligning, coding, even arguing, but it is live and I hope you love it as much as we do. Take a look around and give us feedback suggestions. There are lots of things to see and digest.

Hats off to Michael Wender and Lyschel Burket for bringing this piece of art to life.  It felt a lot like labor at times, but my what a beautiful baby!! Thanks for all the hours and expertise.

It reminds me of the book, Linchpin, by Seth Godin. Work well done takes your breath away, because it becomes art for all to see.  Work as unto the Lord today. And let Him and us enjoy your art.

Culture Shock

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I went to a Zim trip team reunion today.  It is such a crazy God thing when He turns strangers into family.  I have such strong affection for each member of the team. Not just because we shared an intense life event, or that we have much in common. Because it is more than history, and has nothing to do with similarities. It is that God melded our hearts together. He forged our spirits together and we don’t quite know what to do with it.

But here is the clincher of the day. It kind of sums up the trip and our new found connection.  One of the young women who went is named Anna.  She is lovely in face and spirit with a genuine sincerity and rare innocence.

As we went around the room and talked about our God take-aways, she said that she had culture shock when she went to Zimbabwe and culture shock when she came home. But the Lord had showed her that He was God in America and God in Zimbabwe.

“God has no culture shock,” she said simply, with childlike wonder.

I don’t think she had any idea of the profound revelation she had just shared with us all.

Think about it. What we experience as obstacles and barriers, idioms and dialects, God just moves beyond as He fathers His children. The Holy Spirit doesn’t learn languages or customs. But instead lives, moves, creates, and blesses. No country borders or political drama in any way stops the work of God.

Which leads me to ask, How big is your God?  Whatever you think is too big for God, shows you just who you are actually trusting and believing.

Ephesians 3:20-21 declares: Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to His power that is at work….

Lord, thank You that Your ways are higher, Your plans are better and Your life is richer than anything I can think of. Amen

Weddings, Funerals, Life, Oh My!

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We spent last weekend remembering Chuck’s grandmother who died at 103. This weekend we are celebrating the marriage of Sarah and Todd.

In between, there was a broken computer (again!), various yammerings between my kids, several chewed up items by the dog, and good news about our website launching Monday. Now add to that, tense conversations between co-workers, problem solving with product delivery, and the tight rope walk of bills.

I love it when lives intersect. Even when it is awkward, messy and confusing.

In my head, I hear Master Ugwe from Kung Fu Panda say, “There are no accidents.”

In my spirit, though, is an even better answer.

I hear the Savior say
Thy strength indeed is small
Child of weakness
Watch and pray
Find in Me, thine all in all.

See how there is no striving in that stanza from “Jesus Paid it All.” Only the humble realization that I don’t have what it takes, but He does. The only response required of me is: watch and pray. Not passive but expectant. Not distant but  actively looking, seeking, finding. And then comes the hope and the comfort. Ahhh, yes. You are my all in all. You are all I need in all circumstances.

Lord, thank You for the hard moments of grief, the moments of great joy, and even the sticky, sinful moments. There are no accidents. In all of these moments You are there and it is Your strength that guides me. Your life is all I need and all I want.  Amen.

If Walls Could Talk

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Here’s the quote that was engraved in the wall of a 150-year-old church in St Louis.

“I think more of the place where I was baptized than of the cathedral where I was crowned.For the dignity of a child of God, which was bestowed on me at baptism, is greater than that of the rule of the kingdom.The latter I shall lose at death, the other will be my passport to everlasting glory.”

St. Louis IX, King of France

The Last Word

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Okay. Don’t creep out. I have a tough question. And your answer might be hard or easy based on how old you are, how psychosomatic or how morbid you are. Ready?

What do you want your obituary to say about you?

I have been to several funerals in the last couple of years. The deceased were in their 20s, 30s, 90s, and the last person was even 103. You can glean a lot of wisdom for the living when you sit in the ceremonies for the dead.

There is almost always a recurring theme. She was a lot of fun. She was a great mom. He was a hard worker. She loved music. And all those things are good and true.

But Chuck and I inevitably asked the same question:  Where was God in their lives? We would sit through these long rememberances of people and then at the end of the service, the pastor would ask God to receive this person into His arms.

Yet there was little to no evidence that this person ever received Jesus into his or her arms or life.

Want to clarify your life goals? Write your obituary. It might help you focus on what you and the Lord really want to accomplish while you are in this earthen vessel.

The Punch of Prayer

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I got this great response to  yesterday’s blog. She said, “I think I’m following you, but if you’re not familiar with the kind of warfare-pray-with-authority stuff that you do, it could sound to the average Jane like, ‘See! I told you. So now we’d better just love our enemies and pray.’ That’s NOT what you’re saying…”

She is so right. That is NOT what I am saying. That article is a living, color photo of abuse.  Just like the sex trade. Just like the raid and arrest on Papermill Drive.  Just like the women I talk to whose dads or brothers or mom’s boyfriends stole their innocence and childhood.

I go through a gamut of emotions initially when I see this myself. Shock, rage, revenge, despair. But then I have to remember that God has known about this problem all along. And He has decided that it is time I know about it. It’s time that you know about it. So what do we do?

We tend to do a couple of things: Get overwhelmed and do nothing. Or, get scared and do nothing. Or, start to engage, get pushed back and then quit. This is where the despair kicks in.

But when I look at the model of Jesus, and His instruction to us, He never lost sight of the enemy, the battle and who would win. He modeled for us “praying in the Spirit” and agreeing with God’s perspective. He is a God of Justice. The God of Vengeance. He doesn’t just get even, He overcomes the evil of the world. He makes wrong things right, either in our lives or in the life to come.

My bottom line is this, pray with the power-filled name of Jesus and pray against the evil of the day.

Lord,  You see and know more than I do, the lost, hurt, abused women and children of our day. Please show them that they are not forgotten. Please bring Your supernatural help to them.  Rescue them Lord, send people to them to rescue them from the evil they are facing. Give them hope. And Lord, I pray that You would raise up warriors who would intercede. I speak the name of Jesus into this world. Your name is poured forth like ointment. To Your name be the glory. Amen.

P. S. from Jana

For another way to intercede, read Psalm 140.  It’s is a comfort, but also a great thing to pray aloud.

P. P. S. from Laura

Be sure to keep an eye out for our new look!  The updated Women Getting Real website is coming soon…

Those who live by the sword…

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I know there is a flood of comments about the mutilated Afghan girl featured in Time magazine. My first response was: Now do you believe me when I talk about the heinous acts toward women worldwide? Now are we getting mad enough, or horrified enough, or outraged enough, so that we might pray and respond? But how?

Jesus said to Peter, one of his own disciples who mutilated a servant during His arrest,  “Those who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 36:52.)

Is that a threat? No, it is a promise. Because right after this statement Jesus asserts His own power and authority saying that He could call down legions of angel armies. Legions. Of angels. Angel armies. Let your mind soak in that. And what was His next action?

Jesus healed the ear. The ear of His enemy.

And so God calls us to this same place of grace. We seek healing for the perpetrators. We call down, with the same authority and confidence, angel armies to help us bring justice to this world.

Our enemy is not the Taliban. It is not even perverted, curse-bearing, female-abusing men. It is the devil who so hates the Image of God that we bear, that he will stop at nothing to distort and destroy it.

Oh Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we cry out to you to in the name of Jesus,
that you would bring set the oppressed free, and break every yoke,
that you would equip and enable us to bring justice in a depraved generation,
that you would bring beauty from ashes, and restoration from devastation.
You are our strength, our hope, our reward, and the only name by which we are saved.
In Your name Jesus, heal us.

Amen

Rivers of Living Water

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Many of you have asked about Beth’s return trip to Zimbabwe.  When is she leaving? Does she need help?  So I asked her give us some views from her heart and specific needs. Just as you prayed and invested before, please do so again as we witness God’s continued heart for His people. Blessings, Jana

“I started out in Zimbabwe trying to figure out what I was supposed to be getting out of the three weeks.  What I realized by the time we left was that it wasn’t about what would happen during those three weeks; it was about what would continue after.  The biggest thing God revealed to me there is that I still don’t see or know myself as He sees and knows me.  I’ve had a lot of growth in these areas especially in the last three years, but there is more.

In Zimbabwe I was looking at the huge dam that holds back the water, which is what made the gorgeous lake where we had spent the previous few days on a houseboat.  As I stood watching the water pour out I clearly heard the Lord speaking to me.

The water in the lake, while beautiful and containing lots of life, is just sitting there, unchanging aside from occasional fluctuations in level.  But when it is released from the dam it pours out with astounding power creating a moving river and becoming a life of its own.  I don’t know about you but I hate swimming in lakes because when water is still it gets murky and gross, growing all kinds of vegetation with who knows what hiding in it.  I will take a moving river over a stagnant lake any day.  This is what the Lord is calling me to in going back to Zimbabwe.  I’ve been poured into and experienced a lot of healing and freedom in the last three years sitting under Jana’s teaching, but there is a lot in me being held back.  Now God is inviting me out of my familiar environment where I’ve learned how and where to hide.  He’s taking me to a new place where He wants to begin releasing the water and revealing the true life that He has created in me which includes strengths and abilities I’m not aware of yet.  It is an adventure I am excited to take with Him.

While I really don’t have a clue what He has in store for me there, the plan for now is that I will leave August 19 to stay for six months with Alistair and Shelley Croudace who own Lasting Impressions youth camp near Kadoma.  I will be working at the camp as well as helping Shelley home school their three kids and teaching some in her women’s group.

I still have to trust the Lord to come through in a lot of areas.  Here are some things you could be praying for with me.

  • Loneliness since staying connected to people here will be difficult
  • Willingness and courage to step out into the unfamiliar as the Lord leads
  • Health and safety both traveling and while there
  • Finances (Beth needs to pray in $2000 either before she leaves, or on a monthly committed basis)
  • Visa renewals.  I can only get 30 days at a time and will have to apply for a renewal every 30 days.
  • Smooth travel as I will be by myself this time.”

Lord, we thank You for doing far more than we can ask or imagine. We thank You that we are seeing with our own eyes,  “there’s a bigger picture (we) can’t see.” We say yes and amen to these prayer requests and thank You for Your grace and provision. May You continue to bring glory to Your name through Beth and Your work in Zimbabwe.  In the power of Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Long View of God

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Have you ever been somewhere where you can see a long way? Picture in your mind the view from a mountain top. You can see a lot of landscape. Rivers, roads, tree lines, meadows. There are a lot of details and specific markers that help you identify where you are and where you have been.

If you are like me, when you look from the mountain view of your life, you can rattle off many markers that may have shaped your life. School, abuse, addiction, car wreck, divorce, bankruptcy, abortion, buying a house, getting new jobs, losing jobs, getting married, having children, death of loved ones, moving to new cities. These markers act as points on a map tracing our journey. But. There is more.

Here is one of those Holy Buts. If you look at your life and you only see those woundings or events, only see the hurt and scars, you might need to look again.

Many of us have long memories of past hurts and use them as stumbling blocks and excuses to stop us from moving forward. With great precision, we can articulate how this person did this and now we…. Or we say, “I chose this and now I can’t….”

When we do this, we need to look again because we fail to see God’s presence in the exact same life. Do we have a long memory of God’s faithfulness and help? With the same precision, can we articulate, this happened…but God…?  He is, in a word picture, the mountain that we move over and around and through. He is our rock.

God was there. God is there. God will be there.

Was working, is working, will be working for our good.

In the book, The Shack, they pose a question to Mack about why he looks to the future and makes up things that will happen, but he never sees God in the future with him. Our regret about the past, our fear of the day, our anxiety about the future might be radically altered if we zoom out and see God is here.

It is, after all, His world. And we are His people.

Take a moment to pray this prayer out loud over yourself and your loved ones. Take a long view at God. Learn how to recount His presence in  your life. It may help you see better.

O LORD, You have searched me
       and You know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;  
       You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; 
       You are familiar with all my ways.
 Before a word is on my tongue 
       You know it completely, O LORD.
 You hem me in—behind and before; 
       You have laid Your hand upon me.
 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain.
 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from Your presence?
Psalm 139 1-7

There’s a Bigger Picture You Can’t See

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I was praying in the early morning during that half awake, half asleep time. Praying for people and issues, questions and concerns, needs and desires. I ended my time with, “Lord I really need to hear from You. I need to know what  You have to say about all these things.”

I rolled over in the bed and heard this line from a song:

“There’s a bigger picture you can’t see
You don’t have to change the world
Just trust in me…”

I was fully awake, instantly.

Here I was mulling and turning over my plans. Could I — should I —how will I? And God was talking about His plan followed by one instruction: Just trust in Me.

I thought I was. I would have told you I was. But hearing that one phrase in light of all my murmurings made me question myself. Am I really trusting Him? Are you?

When I got out of bed, I went and found the song that had “magically” popped into my head. Then I listened to this song over and over for several days. It retells the old, old story of people just like me and you. People to whom God said, “Me and you are gonna do big things.” And the people responded just like us — with excuses and but-but-but. Here is my favorite part of the song. Each person laid out their objections of why God’s plan won’t work and questioned Him on how He was going to use them with all their limitations.

“It’s not your problem, God replied. And the rest is history.”

If you go back through the Bible, go back through history, you see His mighty hand doing things that don’t make sense to us. Achieving and completing great works that don’t add up to us. That part is not your problem. His ask of them was the same as His ask of us, “Just trust in Me.” That is your problem. Work on the ‘trust in Me’ part.

You can’t trust your plan until it is His plan. You can’t trust Him until you see, understand and relent the notion that somehow you can do it. Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing.” Funny how we spend so much time trying to disprove that comment.

Go listen to “I AM” by Ginny Owens. You will love the beauty of His big picture.  Our trust in Him does change the world.

“There’s a bigger picture you can’t see
You don’t have to change the world
Just trust in me…
I am your Creator
I am working out My plan
Through you, I will show them
I AM.”