Becoming {{NOW}}

We are always BECOMING.
Becoming stronger.
Becoming wiser.
Becoming ready.
Becoming seasoned.
Becoming steady.
Becoming scared.
Becoming okay.
Becoming tenderhearted.
Becoming savvy.
Becoming more aware.
Becoming established.
Becoming sharpened.
Becoming surrendered.
Becoming broken.
Becoming whole.

Whether intentionally or not, we are indeed BECOMING something. Spiritually, I am not so sure we take the time to recognize what we are allowing ourselves to become. We gain too much momentum reacting to life, to culture, to reality to genuinely step back and survey the spiritual life we are building. It isn't simply whittled down to what we are building either, its also important to take note of the way in which our "becoming" is dropping to fruition.

Within the last year I took a bold step of surrender to do just that - survey the spiritual life I was building and the way in which it was coming to fruition. It was hard year of pruning. Of course we know pruning is grounding in the concepts for progression. Pruning is meant to show us great love and develop a produce through our lives we otherwise would be too entangled in weeds to grow. But it doesn't change the fact that pruning is tough as all get out and it takes bold courage to remain inside the trimming long enough to see the growing.I hope you will grant me inordinate grace for this post being simplistic at worst and honest at best. I don't have much time to spend scrutinizing over the of grammar or sentence structure today because if I do circle the drain of those things with too critical an eye I will whisk myself away from the courage to simple "record the vision" and write. {Plus it will be time to pick up my kids and if too many days go by I'll blink and never write the things and share the heart and build the dreams....so I'll jot this down for you to read and pray you read with grace to hear my heart and decide to stick with me for the long haul. We have many memories yet to build and loads of dreams to see God fulfill in the days ahead.}

A year ago God lovingly began pruning my heart and ambitions. In order to hear him clearly and grow effectively He asked me to "turn the shop lights off" in ministry and career. To sabbatical completely. After many days of yielding all areas of ministry, ambitions and the way in which I was BECOMING I am hearing Him say to "turn the shop lights back on". It is indeed according to the permission of the Lord I step back into the arena of teaching, speaking and writing where I hear Him ushering me not into specific programs or strategies or accomplishments, but into the deep for intimacy, friendship and understanding as Becoming Ministry finds rebirth.

I don't want to sound too etherial or use bloated Christian words making me out to be something I am not, but I do want to communicate this particular post with more of a tender spiritual tone. I am real as the day is long and NOTHING in my spiritual life has come without a great cost. Passion is derived from combat. And realness without Christian pleasantries is the only way to know the difference between fake and authentic. But I also have garnered great affection for the depth of a spiritual soul. The wherewithal to maintain a tenderness towards surrender and spirituality and to communicate some aspects of life, the human experience and the depth of a soul at it's core without the banter of jokes is something I value to a very deep place. This is one of those postings for me.

For the last year I have been on a sabbatical from all ministry and content development. You can go back and read a few heartfelt posts here at I Surrender, or here at Flip The Furniture or here at Let It Roll. It has been one of the most difficult seasons of "dream surrender" of my life and in the exact same breath it has been the most precious brokenness I have ever experienced before the Lord. There is a steadiness to my heart I genuinely knew existed but largely preached by faith having not experienced it prior to the year I've been given in solitude and surrender.In the last year : I have written for no one but myself. Not to be selfish, but to be reminded fresh our spiritual lives BECOME deeper and wider inwardly FIRST and then flow continuously outside of that SECOND. I have experienced the goodness of mission for the sheer delight of being the hands and feet of Jesus and watching that delight translate to others. I have done more, created more and been exposed to greater works and deeper relationships than I have dared expose on social media. I've made a point to create my private life with my people to be a million times more thrilling than the public life share with others. To BECOME means to merge your private life to the same space as your public persona. I've BECOME extremely passionate about being the same person online as anyone would meet in person. The last year has been an overhaul of change for my entire tribe and we are all the better for it. Instead of living with our palms down clinging to sifting sand and personal control, we have had our spiritual hand muscles trained to turn our palms up in wild surrender to a most faithful God. I have walked through a year where my personal BECOMING meant all things new which will mess with your earth bound familiarity and set your face like flint on the wilds of Heaven bound assignments.We are all in a place of BECOMING, my friends. No one is immune from becoming something. It is when we make recognition of the activity of BECOMING where we finally reach a spiritual homecoming knowing there is no arrival only the deepening of what it says in Psalms 118:14 "The Lord is my strength and my song. He has BECOME my salvation." It is what I believe to be the root of spiritual wisdom and revelation. --> Have you settled to a place where the Lord has BECOME your very salvation?Where He is more than a Sunday song. More than a recited reading. More than a great women's group. More than a slough of blogs. More than a social club. More than a blessing. More than an experience. More even than a mission or a ministry - Has He alone truly BECOME your salvation? Ebbing and flowing out of everything you are and everything you hope to be? Today is my first day "back in the office" more or less, but nothing is normal about my heart or what the space of creation looks like for me. It is forever marked with the identity of BECOMING with the Lord. He used the last year to solidify I am His and He is mine and my role is to simply carry out the enterprises before me by way of His Spirit. To allow Him to set the pace. To write the script. To play the scene.So what's the next thing you ask? Well, it is not going to be the next thing, it is going to be the NOW thing. Something essential is happening within the framework of this ministry and I am so excited.New Becoming App devotional content? YES!New Becoming Equipping Bible Study material like ebooks, webinars and small group tools? YES!New Becoming Prayers and Liturgies? YES!New Becoming ideas we haven't even thought of yet? YES!All of the above line items are a YES because they are apart of a NOW Becoming. We won't be waiting for someday to BECOME, we want to allow the Holy Spirit's activity in our life to do a work NOW and I want us to recognize the BECOMING and be an active participant in it's creation. Smack dab in the middle of the happenings of our current life God wants to develop appropriate community, creativity and change so we see our hearts BECOME His heart.

Today's challenge is to recognize what area or areas of your life does God want to BECOME your very salvation? Where is He asking you to turn your palms up and trust His process to unlock a deeper BECOMING than you knew possible?

"Our Lord makes a disciple His own possession; He BECOMES responsible for him. 'Ye shall be witnesses unto me.' The Spirit that comes in is not that of doing anything for Jesus, but of being a perfect delight to Him. The Secret of the missionary is - I am His, and He is carrying out His enterprises through me." {Oswald Chambers}