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everyday memoirs.

~ the beauty of stopping to smell the roses

everyday memoirs.

Tag Archives: fear

courageous spontaneity. [#its5oclocksomewhere]

15 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by r_strick in #its5oclocksomewhere, inspire.me

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

5, brave, bravery, coffee, courage, courageous, fear, five, friends, laughter, life, oclock, patio, present, randi, right now, somewhere, spontaneious, spontaneity, spring, starbucks, stories, story, strickland, summer, sun, unexpected, unexplored, unknown

Sunday. April 15th. 5pm
…………………………………………………
I have no idea how it is that I came to be sitting here, at this table, with these people. The afternoon sure hasn’t transpired according to plan. The last thing I knew, I was headed to meet some friends for a quick lunch rendezvous and then I’d be off to run some errands, take a nap, and hopefully start my new book. But that was 3 hours ago, and, here I sit. With a smaller group of the same friends from lunch. After having all quickly ran into a furniture store downtown, emblazoned with multi-colored paint splashed across their windows and larger-than-life words that read “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS FOREVER,” “EVERYTHING MUST GO,” “BIGGEST SALE YET!” and other equally dramatic slogans. And now happily hanging out on the sun-soaked patio of a Starbucks, sipping on… you guessed it… a black coffee, and telling each other stories of fist fights, stolen laptops and vehicles broken into, picking up hitchhikers and saving damsels in distress. And mysterious men pulling our out-of-gas cars from the snow banks where they were lodged. You know, everyday kind of stuff ;)

And you know what, as I swallow another swig of my coffee and lean back in my chair the way my mother always told me not to, I am so glad that this afternoon didn’t transpire according to plan. Looking around the table at the faces of these friends of mine, hearing stories that tell pieces of their lives I’ve not known before, and sharing laughter together, I think about the doors of experience and the unexpected memories that are created by the courage to be spontaneous. I reflect on other times in my life when things simply didn’t go “according to plan,” and wonder to myself what other types of opportunities and experiences spontaneity was offering to me but I had failed to recognize because they weren’t as simple and safe as furniture store sales and Starbucks patios. How many other friendly faces, what unknown pieces of people’s lives, will I miss in my pursuit of the perfectly executed plan?

And I make a decision. Right here, at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon that has pleasantly surprised my socks off, I resolve once again to be courageous enough to be present in every moment of my life. Planned or not. To be brave enough to stop manipulating my own life out of fear of the unexpected and the unknown.

Because life is what is happening right now.
And right now, I’m sitting on a patio and surrounded by friends and I couldn’t be happier about it.

—
Not sure what “#its5oclocksomewhere” is all about? Click here for the quick background story on this creative project of mine and get caught up!
—

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You and your big, beautiful heart.

15 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by r_strick in inspire.me, musings [theology, ideaology and other ologies]

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

adventure, beautiful, christ, church, desire, desires, dream, dreams, fear, god, good, gospel, heart, jesus, journey, life, ministry, news, redemption, salvation, trust, world

It’s another beautiful day on this wild ride called Life! What a joy it is to be alive. 

I have Good News for you today, friend. You are the proud owner of a big, beautiful, brand new heart! The promise of the coming Messiah was that He would remove the old heart of stone, and give us a new, undivided heart of flesh. A heart that is soft and bendable and constantly pulling us in the direction of our good God and in the direction of a unique, creative expression of Him! (Ezekiel 11:19 & 36:26)

And the really Good News? The Messiah has come! He came! And He is still present among us!
We are no longer waiting for the manifestation of a distant promise.
We are living in the eternal celebration of the finished work that Jesus has done!
 
Do you know that means? That means your heart is not a scary place!
It’s not something to run from, distrust, or fear!
You’ve been given a brand new heart. That loves God, loves what is good, and is pulling you
in the direction of your original design.

Trust it! Listen to it! Celebrate it!
 
The desires and the dreams in your heart are signposts along the journey of your individual expression – follow them!
Do not let the lie of distance or separation from God, or from what is good, cause you to fear
what God has called new and improved (2 Cor. 5:17).
Don’t allow the temptation of religion cause you to call unclean what God has called clean (Acts 10:15).
 
Celebrate the wonder of what Christ has done – He has separated you forever from the old, sinful nature (Col. 2:9-12) that perverted the blueprint of who you really are, and has brought you into unbroken fellowship with Himself (Rom. 6:11 AMP)!
 
Romans 12:1 says, “He desires to find visible individual expression in your person.”
Point to yourself and say, “God is desiring, right this moment, to find expression in me!
The invisible God desires to make Himself visible, and He has chosen me, His body, to do it!”
 
Oh friends, the news is simply too good to be true! That’s what makes it the best news on the planet!
Tip back your head, open wide your big beautiful heart, and
believe the same truth that God is believing about you today!

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fear is overthrown.

31 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by r_strick in spoken word [poetry]

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

beauty, death, fear, life, love, smell the roses, spiritual

an impostor, Fear prances around like King.
and with his lies, he’s self-pronounced dominion over everything.

but there is One.
bright shining as the sun,
he has come
to dawn on the horizon of your life.
the true King, he sings, the song of love.
mercy and truth set the foundation for his throne,
and all the good he’s planned for you could never be fully known.
he’s overthrown the impostor,
righted what was wrong, brought peace where death has sown disaster.
his is the Kingdom of love,
and all that fear has sown has been undone.
he has won!

with grace, he seeks the one, knocking on the door of death.
and with his kiss of love, he offers every man his breath, of life.

……………………………….

[written: 1.17.11]

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hey, I'm Randi!

Today is an unspoiled gift, given to you to be enjoyed, used up, completely spent, and sucked dry of all it’s worth. Don’t sell Today short – get the most out of it. Press it, pull it, squeeze it, shake it – until all of the goodness and joy and beauty that could possibly come from it has been dispensed. And then fall asleep at it’s end, completely satisfied in your content confidence, and absolutely persuaded that when you wake, you’ll get the beautiful opportunity to do it all again.

Be intentional about today.
Perceive it;
Grab a hold of it;
Suck it dry of all it has to offer;
And then give thanks for it.
For tomorrow will surely come.

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