Real Answer #1:

There is a head side of this question and heart side. Here is the head side.

In Psalm 16, God uses the word pleasure. He says that we would find eternal pleasures. Not just the passing fancies, or “Wow’s” of life. But eternal, lasting forever pleasures. The ones that do not fade or spoil.

Psalm 16:11

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Isn’t that an odd choice of words, unless, unless. . . . Unless we are made in his image, so the whole notion or idea of pleasure comes from Him anyway.

So in a heart way, try to remember what you said you would do at age 10, age 15, age 20.  Somewhere in there are desires and thoughts and dreams you had before the world started knocking you around and down. Write them down and pray over them and let God sort, reveal and refine.

Still stuck? Try doing a vision board, a collage of pictures torn from magazines, that express aches, wants, “wish I could” ideas. And let the Lord surprise you over time with more revelation of who you are and what he had in mind for you.

Does anybody else get tired of pat, worldly answers that never hit the deep spots? Even the answers that are wearing Christian clothes but just don’t fit? What about a “Dear Jesus” column? What if Jesus Himself spoke into the real needs of our lives?

In my first WGR class, I asked the women there, “What would you like to hear a Bible study on? What are your questions?”

The answers flew like popcorn:

Sex!
Broken relationships.
What about boredom?
How do you dream?

We try to tackle those questions in class. I’m also going to try to tackle them here. Each Wednesday, I’ll post one of the questions that I get every week from the class, from your emails, and from the women I meet with.  I don’t have all the answers.  But Jesus does. Together, we’ll try to see what Jesus says as we journey together.

In and Through Him,

Jana

Getting ready to walk into a very sticky meeting, one I will talk about tonight at WGR, I shot up an arrow prayer:

God, you here?

The restaurant had a Thomas Kinkade print with this verse under it: Isaiah 55:12.

Isaiah 55:12 (New International Version)

12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.

In the WGR class, I taught that we (yes, you and I) are the pearl of great price (Matthew 13-44). Needless to say, there were ricochets of emotions as we discussed our own Disbelief that we hold that kind of value to God. Is it really possible that we are items of luxury, purity, and extravagance – all that pearls represent?

Here, the morning after, I find even more brilliance in God’s analogy. I gave every woman a real pearl last night. But what they did not know is I went to the store, looked at strands of beautiful pearls, ran them through my fingers. There were bowls of individual pearls and I dug my fingers through them, touching them, examining them. All of them beautiful. All of them made from the same arduous effort of strain, pressure and time. Then I chose out of the many the ones that would become my own.

So a woman speaks up and says, “If there are 7 billion people in the world, how can one, namely me, have any value? If there is a whole bowl of pearls, how would one pearl gain any notice?” Perhaps here is an answer.

In the store, for a brief moment, I sensed God’s tender perspective about you and me. Just because there were many pearls, didn’t mean I couldn’t see them. I touched them, observed them, noticed their size, shape and color. Even when they were separated into like groups, I still loving touched them individually. I appreciated the value of each one. Each one had complete worth to me. They were still pearls. I still respected the quality of what they were made of, what they Were. Pearls.

Our God is big. He does not live in same dimension that we do. He readily sees us all. Yet he has the desire and effort to lovingly see, appreciate, and enjoy (!), what he has made individually.

You are an expression of luxury, purity, extravagance. And he has chosen you as his own.