Lockdown 296

Lockdown Day 295 - 15 January 2021

Water is the source and sustenance of life on earth. Water also has the power to destroy, one can only google floods and tsunamis to see how powerful water can be.

Water is also used throughout the Bible to signify blessing and anointing. In my life, water plays a huge role. Apart from the fact that I love being in it, I have seen both havoc and blessing from it. From many burst geysers and house flooding to awesome experiences in the sea. 

Last night we detected a leak coming from under the ground next to an emerging supply pipe in the gully just outside the back door. I had just finished yesterday's post and decided on the spot this is worth a breathing exercise.

I thought about having joy in a situation like this. So I said thank you for alerting us about this before bedtime so we could shut off the water supply for the night, and thank you for having water at all. 

But God alerted me this is also an opportunity to become still and listen for His voice. To put your foot out in faith and step out on the water even though your brain wants to back out. 

Walking on water has always been one of those spiritual aspirations many people feel they can't reach. 

But sometimes it is necessary just to throw out conventional ways and take a leap of faith. Like choosing joy when you feel like crying or choosing joy when you feel like using the earth as a punching bag. 

You'll never know how the water is if you don't try. And you'll never know what blessing you'll miss if you hesitate. Stop focusing on what can go wrong, so things can go God's right way!

#Ggt

Lockdown Day294

Lockdown Day 294 - 14 January 2021

Joy week. Thursday. 

Deciding this is joy week was easy. But nobody said it would be plain sailing. It's as if the whole universe was notified. And now I stand tested. Little niggly things creep up and try to throw me off course. And most of these things happen in my brain where my "thinker" or Corpus Callosum is situated. The link between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. In the front of this thinker is my Free Will, where the fastest of fast decisions are made millions of times throughout the day. 

Free Will is mostly dependent on choice. An example: You arrive at the pay point inside your favourite shop where you have shopped at your own pace and, for once, actually enjoyed ticking all the things off your list. But turning the corner at the pay point you realise why the shop seemed so quiet; the length of the queue instantly demoralising.

Your first instinct (while seeing how your planned me-time goes out the window) is to can(cel) it all and leave your semi-full trolley in the wake of your anger/irritation and go home to me-time. At this point I need to remind you that no-one around you has an idea of this inner conversation going on.

Question 1 is,"would it really be worth it?" It would mean you have to return to shop again. 

Question 2 is, "Are you going to let it steal your joy?" Will you stay and be disgruntled and off-balance?

But the actual question you need to ask is, "What am I supposed to do/learn while waiting in the queue?"

In the case scenario, your me-time is the issue. And if you decide to stay, you have to immediately decide to switch mode. To joy-mode. The joy you can't explain. Your thinker needs to be trained to always choose joy. By default. This choice will determine how these kinds of scenarios play out in your physical world. 

So, if you choose joy, the world around you will be as it is, unperturbed by your inner conflict, no crashes and burns to be seen. But, believe me, should you not choose joy, irrespective of the choice you make at that moment, your environment will change and it will respond. And you can expect mini crashes or large fires. Guaranteed.  

So tonight I am pleased that my thinker mostly chose correctly, albeit under strict supervision of my spirit, and guided by God's Spirit. I pray He will keep walking with me. Because it is never too late to change mode and choose joy! He has definitely got this.

Lockdown 293

Lockdown Day 293 - 13 January 2021

This morning I arranged the most beautiful bunch of flowers I received yesterday from my Bestie's friend. After fixing the water and flower food, I cleaned and cut each stem to the desired length for the pot I wanted to see them in. Then I chose them one by one and started to put the picture together. Gerberas, Statice, Chrysanthemums, a sunflower and roses, a green-blue hydrangea, some green foliage and a bright magenta furry flower I have never seen before. Each one totally unique and beautiful with vibrant colours. What a brilliant joy exercise for the day. 

Later, having coffee on the stoep, I watched a bumblebee darting between the purple flowers on the potato bush (also called the Paraguay Nightshade), I was struck by how nature just keeps going. Every morning the same routine starts as the light spills onto our garden. All the birds and insects go about their daily tasks as usual, completely oblivious of an abominable virus lurking around. Not under Lockdown and curfew regulations, they just do what God designed them to do. Suddenly I found myself envious of that oblivion. 

So tonight I vow to take this joy week a step further. To live as nature does (of course I'll follow the rules). I pray that oblivion in God's presence will cause me to choose joy in spite of Lockdown. Joy in spite of curfew. Joy in spite of worry and anxiety. Joy in spite of..... 

 

Psalm 29:2 "Be in awe before His majesty. Be in awe before such power and might! Come worship wonderful Yahweh, arrayed in all His splendor, bowing in worship as He appears in the beauty of holiness. Give Him the honor due His name. Worship Him wearing the glory-garments of your holy, priestly calling!"

https://youtu.be/VDiETOLBvxA

Dance 'till His Joy comes alive in you! Dance because He's got this. Dance with Joy in spite of......

#Ggt

Lockdown 292

Lockdown Day 292 - 12 January 2021

Joy week, Tuesday. 

I love airports because they make me feel like a world traveler, somehow connected to a cosmo-community of people whose minds are broadened. It holds a promise of horizons to be crossed and boudaries shifted. So when I went to pick up my Bestie, I wondered if I would still feel the same with all the new regulations. 

I parked in a pick up bay for about 10 minutes before driving to the exit to pick them up. As I sat there watching the people come and go, I got the same vibes. I saw friends greeting each other with happy smiles and others waving goodbye. I decided never to do the pick up routine again but to go an hour earlier, park in the parkade and find a quiet spot for a cuppa. 

And forget about the abominable virus and just enjoy the moment. The airport is nothing more than a mall where the risk for contracting the virus is no less than in any other shopping centre. In fact, at least 60% of the people all have a negative test in their posession. All of them are more vigilant and careful due to the airport regulations and security detail making sure you're safe. 

With my Bestie back in town, we decided to have dinner on the stoep with a fire, mustard chicken sosaties and slow roasted sweet potato. When they left just before curfew, I silently thanked God for the joy of friends and family and the opportunity to spend time together and the making of sweet memories to carry into the future. 

#Ggt

Lockdown 291

Lockdown Day 291 - 11 January 2021

(Post script on yesterday's post: God's power should never be underestimated.... I wrote overestimated but did make the correction-apologies!) 

Today is Day 291. Week 42. 

Waking up this 42nd Monday after 80mm of rain was good, making today's joy exercise easy. The cool and cloudy morning stirred up that James-1-power in my being. I instantly wondered if I would've felt the same had there been no rain and the temperature hot and humid. 🤔 

With the unavoidable news of Mr Prez addressing the nation again in less than two weeks, I go about my morning tasks as usual, thanking God for the smile on my face I could not explain. I encountered post-torrential rain traffic in Pretoria while trying to get to my early appointment, and it didn't phase me in the least.  In fact, the smile of my spirit grew even wider. 

I started praising God for every u-turn I had to make to find a 'dry' road. I was fashionably late but completely forgiven, with my appointment waiting with a fabulous fresh flat white. As I took that first sip (aaahhh) and felt completely content and not hot and bothered, it hit me that the "nothing missing and nothing lacking" part of that scripture was also true in that moment. And suddenly it didn't matter what Mr Prez is about to say or do.

You see, when you speak Scripture, it takes effect and causes joy to bubble up from your inmost parts even though there is no apparent reason. The world teaches us joy needs to the result of something. But the joy of Jesus is actually that something. Joy is a catalyst, a live and active emotion that works like the yeast in pizza dough. Having that dough under my fingers after it had doubled in size, made me realize without the yeast (catalyst) I wouldn't have succeeded. 

So it is with inexplicable joy. You wake up and choose it actively by speaking the Scripture into your spirit. And then you watch how it grows throughout your day. And how seemingly difficult tasks suddenly become a joyous thing to do.

#Ggt

Lockdown 290

Lockdown Day 290 - 10 January 2021

Praying for our country today and for God to release the world from this globally controlled grip we find ourselves in, I have once again reached a saturation point as far as news and info goes. 

If it isnt bickering politicians, and governments promising squat, it's hundreds of opinions uploaded by the minute in various media categories. And I find myself shrugging off everything. 

Just as Amir Tsarfati said in his latest Middle Eastern update, the Word of God should be our standard. Our benchmark and validity tool. One thing is certain, Jesus warned us in Matthew 24 about many of these things we see today.

Going to the Word is our answer. And the word for going into a new week is joy. To find joy in the presence of God and to follow the little joys of life. The Word of God is the trigger. 

So I share the words of James 1:2-4, "My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can! 

For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things. 

And then as your endurance grows even stronger it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking."

The power of God's Word should never be underestimated. Just opening it up and reading its words can change your world forever.  

#Ggt

Lockdown 289

Lockdown Day 289 - 9 January 2021

With handymen in my house to complete the last compliance tasks of the house, I opted to do my biweekly shopping today. I encountered many interesting aspects of humankind on my route. After the first shop, I had to wait for the second stop to open for business. 

I sat outside Seattle, watching the people arriving for their daily fix. The first person to arrive was a runner, donned in Nike from head to toe, buff included. Then an all female couple arrived, holding hands. It struck me how much one wanted to look male, from the hair to the walk and the mannerisms. Not judging, just saying. 

After they left an elderly man came for two cups, dressed to the nines, wearing an old fashioned golf cap and bow tie, obviously on his way to visit (and impress) someone special. Just before I left a group of 3 young girls and 2 boys  arrived, giggling and full of beans, donned in sneakers and a variety of self made cloth masks, ready to hit the mall for a Saturday morning spree. 

Such is life, everyone has their thing they do on a Saturday morning out. And no one really cares who's watching. Lockdown has taught us this much: to be real is the right thing. Dress codes and expectations out the window, I saw no fakes this morning. Just honest people being who they are. 

I realised in these abnormal circumstances people are refreshingly honest and void of pretense and artificiality. And somehow, against all odds, we actually exhibit more of ourselves while wearing masks. We have already found a way to adapt and to "read" each other's eyes and sharpening our hearing.

So tonight I thank God for awareness. It truly is a gift we need to accept and develop in a time such as this. Being aware starts by acknowledging the presence of the Most High God. Allow Him to walk with you and His Spirit to inhabit yours. Be fearless in His presence and be who He created you to be. He's definitely got you. And He's definitely got this.