#Empowered

This post is for the Made to Crave Blog Hop. I'm exploring #Empowered and what this word means to me.

I used to think that being empowered was feeling strong and powerful and able to take on the challenges of life. Knowing that I had full agency and responsibility for myself. Knowing that I could definitely handle what would come my way because I was strong and competent.

Now that I have returned to being a Christian, I have an entirely different view of empowerment. To me being empowered is feeling strong and powerful not in my own strength but "powered by the Holy Spirit". And even in my weakness--especially in my weakness--I can still be strong because Jesus is being strong through me. He enables me. Every single minute. Through each of the challenges of life. This was true before of course, but I just didn't know it! And He doesn't let a challenge come to me unless it is truly for me--something He has designed or allowed to come my way. So I am always safe and secure if I rely on Him. Paradoxically, this makes me vastly stronger than I was before, because I have a different fuel source.

These beliefs are unusual or strange or even disempowering to many people, I know, because they were so to me before. I would rather just be empowered in my own strength and not mess with Jesus, or let Him do what He wanted but not get too close or involved. That has changed...

Now I know with certainty that I can handle what comes my way because in Him I am strong and competent. This does not disempower me in any way. It does not limit me. It does not weaken me by making me use patriarchal beliefs as a crutch or as a weird safety thing because I cannot handle life. It is the opposite, but you really have to try it to know that.

It is one of those things that sounds kooky when you read it but when you get it by trying it--you wonder why you wasted so much time doing other things. It empowers me to be fully who I am and who I was created to be. It also feels very good. Scary-good. But good. It is a better way of life than what I had before. I always like to follow the way of life that empowers me to live the most abundant, empowered, and peaceful life possible. A close, intimate, intense relationship with Jesus is absolutely it. This is empowerment.

~Photo by the amazing photographer LoveHubbie (this is a blogging nickname I've had for my husband ever since I started blogging)

What Does It Mean to Shine?

I truly know very little about this. It does mean something different for me since I am a Christian now. In this quote CS Lewis touches on this mystery.

It is important to me to be able to Shine for Him. This would be in a way that would be truer and more real and more authentic and more intimate than just shining on my own. Since SHINE is my word for the year, I am excited to move forward in discovering just what this means.

So.. what does shining mean to you?

Coming Out & Made To Crave

I have been so gone, gone, gone from my Facebook life coaching page. I keep announcing that I'm on my way back and really I am...I just never...quite...make it.

So, spurred on by my amazing life coach Gail McMeekin and fellow members of a group of hers I've been in since last year, I've decided to take "imperfect action" and jump back just as I am--not ready, not organized, imperfect--but here.

I am taking an online Bible study with over 33,000 women that starts in a few days. It's called "Made to Crave" and it's about emotional eating and allowing your relationship with Jesus to evolve so that you turn to Him instead of to food to have your needs of the moment met. It is free; you just need to purchase a book. I am choosing to return to blogging now to be part of their blog hop.

I'd announced last year on my personal Facebook page that I'd become a Christian--or more accurately that I've returned to my Christian faith after many years of having an eclectic spirituality made up of pretty much anything I liked or that inspired me. This really did work well for me at that time. I am also grateful for this time, as I do believe that we each have our unique path to follow in life.

I returned to Jesus in April of 2013. It's an interesting story that I'll tell you later. . Inspired by my friend Heather Plett back in August I "came out" as a Christian on my personal Facebook page, writing this:

I wanted to share my FB friend Heather Plett's post. She is bravely "coming out" spiritually. I too have been growing and changing on my long spiritual journey and definitely identify as a Christian now. Strongly. This is a huge change for me. Huge. Huge. Huge. World-view leans, shifts. Everything, everything changes.
It is truly miraculous as well. I feel some hesitation in sharing this because some of the most hateful people I know are Christians. This has always stopped me cold. And I am way, way too old to become a hater.

In my experience, "Christian=hater" had been the rule and my loving Christian relationships the notable exceptions. I was in and out of churches but couldn't embrace the faith fully, didn't understand what was REALLY meant by a "personal relationship with Jesus". I saw Christianity as a place for people whose personalities and lives are shaped by twisting good things and embracing bad things so that they can hate. I don't want to be judged as being like them. So it's scary to share this here.

I think that Christianity can be a fantastic place to hide if you want to be a hater, maybe easier than other faiths or where one has no faith, definitely easier than the exquisite place most of my friends share--a place of a generous, loving, positive spirituality. But despite all of this, Christianity also can be a place to encounter Jesus in a profound way, and to rip away what our culture says about Him and learn to love from Him. And ways to live from Him. That's where I am. Farther on my long journey, in a good way.

So now I'm out, too.

Thank you, Heather!

So today I wanted to share this with you! I know that some of you will be disappointed that Inner Sanctuary Life Coaching has changed in this direction; others of you will be enthusiastic. No matter, I invite you to stay and find out more.

Back in October of 2012 I started a 100 pound weight loss journey. I am currently 34 pounds or a third of the way there. No matter what your personal beliefs are, I wish you would stay and cheer me on. You are welcome, and I value your input. If you want to follow me on my journey, subscribe to my blog or Like my Facebook Inner Sanctuary Life Coaching page. The posts on my Facebook page will be brief and hopefully inspirational.

In fact, I value your companionship so much that I would not want to make this journey without you. I think that part of the problem that has caused me to struggle in being here is not wanting to be vulnerable and drifting back into old patterns of only wanting to share from the place of "expert".

As you can see if you've read this far, I am no expert when it comes to learning about myself as I lose my extra weight. I am on an adventure and I promise and I fail and I struggle. I invite you to be here with me.

Love,

me

PS. I am signing this in this manner in honor of a special friend I have whom I've written for years. We've fallen out of touch recently, and I miss the privilege of sharing my ups and downs and struggles with this special person. So, in ending this way, I am inviting you all to visit here, to come back, to share also.