The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

    Yesterday was such beautiful day; 70 degrees,  flowers blooming, lawn mowers running, children playing and the birds singing. A beautiful perfect spring day that can stop anyone in their tracks by its magnificent beauty. Although fall is my favorite season, spring comes in a close second. Spring to me represents new life in so many ways. After a long, silent, barren, cold, empty winter the world outside begins to come alive again. Suddenly the birds fly back home and the first sounds of spring wake you each day. The trees begin to bud with color again, the flowers pop up and the grass sways beautifully in the soft air. How about this for new life, after a long transformation from ugly caterpillar, butterflies begin to break free from their chrysalis to embrace their new life.
    What a beautiful transformation we are able to witness each spring to remind us of our new life. As human beings we make many physical transformations but none so magnificent to change all of our physical being into something new. Although we can't transform into a beautiful, colorful, new creature our spiritual lives are able to be drastically changed, just like the butterfly.
    A butterfly's life span is anywhere from 21-25 days and goes through three stages to adulthood of life in those short days. As Christians there is no set "stages" of our walk with Christ, but I challenge you with the idea that the Christian Church is trapped inside something like a caterpillars chrysalis. Christians are held back from completing the transformation needed to become that completely new being.
    Each of us were obviously born into situations out of our control. In the life of the caterpillar each one hatches up without a parent in sight. Some of us were born into a loving Christian home, some with both parents never knowing Jesus, some with one parent who knew of Jesus but chose worldly satisfaction instead, and some like the caterpillar without parents, questioning their worth. There are so many unique situations people grow up in that can basically make or break you.  Some people like me and my sisters were baptised as babies out of tradition in the Church we attended at the time. We knew nothing of the life we were about to begin, we were so young we didn't understand the choice our parents had made for us. Although baptised as a baby I believe as people mature they desire to make the choice to follow God on their own. Regardless of how and when you were baptised there comes a time in our lives where we finally make a conscious decision to follow our Savior and just like the caterpillar going into the chrysalis, we trade our ugly sinful lives for God's loving transformation.
    For about a week the caterpillar stays inside its safe chrysalis transforming each day. This seems to be the longest process in both the life of the butterfly and our lives. We stay safe in Gods arms but through the transformation we are held back from achieving our new bodies. Things that might hold the individual back is obviously sin like lust, drunkenness, impurity, jealousy, idolatry and deceitful lies. But what about the things that hold the Christian Church back as a whole? What if all the time we spent fighting about gay marriage, whether or not a man or women can lead a church, what members can or cannot do, or what people dress like for church, and started to love out loud, stop judging people, and reach out in love to change the world? Why do we spend our time condemning people rather than reaching out to show them love? It could not be more clear in 1 John 4:19 that because God loved us first, we are called to love others. It doesn't say because God loved us first only love the straight, the men, the pure, the law abiding citizen. So how could the church fully transform into its new being by loving only the people they believe are worthy of being loved? We turn away some of the people who need Christ the most, that can't be what Christ came to earth to do. He filled His days on earth with people who were the social outcasts. He took Levi or better known as Matthew the tax collector and asked him to follow him. He saved the women caught in adultery from being stoned. When he did that He destroyed legalism that said because of her sin she was to be killed. He loved her regardless of the sin she was trapped in, He loved her enough to make obvious enemies of the pharisees who would later spit in his face. We all sin, we have no place to judge because guess what? Sin is sin.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.- Matthew 7:1-5

    It isn't over though. A caterpillar doesn't just give up on the transformation no matter how hard it may be, no matter what holds it back whether personal or legalistic. We can all be hopeful although we are trapped in our chrysalis because there is a way to break free. It may be hard, and take a lot of time and effort. It may exhaust you, but it is the measure we must take to be free. Become new. Love. Thats it. Such a simple word. Like a parent loves their child. Like a man loves his wife. Like God adores all of us, our call is to go out and love others. In 1 Peter 4:8, Peter tells the reader that above anything else we are to love each other. He continues to say something profound, "because love covers over a multitude of sins." So with love we are able to break free from all those things that once held us back. Its a matter of not only making the decision to follow but to take action. Love out loud. Reach out to the broken hearted. Help lead the lost back to their Fathers extended arms. Step out of your comfort zone in the name of love. Build those relationships. Share those beautiful God moments. Let God transform you without any resistance for He wants to make a new beautiful life out of the ugly old one. Take the step with love in your heart and compassion in each action you take. In the words of our amazing Daddy, "Look I am making ALL things new..."

Finding Healing in Caffeinated Conversations

    Being new to coffee, tonight I found healing at the bottom of my caramel macchiato while enjoying caffeinated conversations.
    As I glanced out the window looking out on the pink and orange sky I turned and asked, " So how's your walk with Jesus?" A simple question with a simple answer from both of us: better. 
    Last time I got to hang out one on one with my caffeine intoxicated friend was about 4 months ago over Christmas break. Our schedules both got busy with musical and speech and family. We seemed to stop making time for each other to not only to hang out but even to talk or text. We both let our friendship slip off to the side as we continued on with life. I began to notice changes in the friendship but let it roll off my back at first thinking that maybe I was reading into something. During this time I spent once a week working on healing, and finding who I am in Christ in counseling. I was forcing myself to look in His word to find the truth to murder the deadly lies that fill my head. The first time my friend and I talked she pulled me to the side and gave me her version of what was supposed to be a "motivational" talk about lies that were running my life. I instantly wanted to cry, and if we wouldn't have been at track I would have. It was hard to hear her words when I felt she had no clue what was going on and that she didn't care. All I heard was a lecture that made me upset. This was in March. We were still able to be friendly and make small talk together but I felt very shut down to the fact that something had changed in or friendship. A friendship we have always fought for even when obstacles like guys, bad influences and sin got in the way. It now felt like a struggle just to be around each other and I don't think it was one sided. For about two months we spend an hour or so at track having a friendly smile that never lasted past when we pulled out of the driveway.
    Little did I know during this time Christ was doing something so amazing. He was breaking both my friend and I and putting the pieces back together piece by piece. I kept thinking a huge piece was missing though and tonight I can tell you I was right. While my friend worked on herself and her walk with Christ I had recently been working on how to confront someone in a healthy way with my counselor, and it came in handy very soon after. Almost two weeks after dedicating myself to quit being so passive I was put through a test. A test that would bring the friendship full circle. Sometime this week I asked my friend for a ride home because my parents would be busy. The response I got hurt more than I was expecting it to. I at first needed to give myself time to process my emotions and thoughts. I ran hard far away from her during track and finally had the confrontation 20 minutes later. I started by saying that everything I said was out of love and finally told her how I felt. I felt our friendship had become an inconvenience to us both. I fought to keep myself composed. We finished the conversation on good terms but both fearing of how far our friendship had truly fallen to the side.
    Tonight as we talked about our walks, I found healing, forgiveness and hope. It was profound when I finally looked back at all the work both of us have been doing on ourselves in the past 4 months. We needed that time to focus on fixing our hearts on what is right and true. I believe Christ broke us down to help us rebuild our relationship on His steady rock. Its amazing to truly look at how our friendship was and how tonight was so much different. Rooted in our love for our amazing savior. Filled with laughter and love. Its truly amazing to see the change I am making in my heart. I am able to find the healing I have needed in the simplest of things. I have become a lover rather than a fighter. Laughter fills my days rather than darkness and tears. God has truly been working and I believe Mollie and my relationship can only go up from here with Christ at the center. Its amazing what beauty can come from ashes. I hopeful and excited what God has in store for our friendship as we move into senior year.
Heres to healing in caffeinated conversations.