How Do You Measure Influence

How do you measure the influence of one life, one conversation, or event?

I'm very contemplative today with this question.  In the span of this week I have heard, "the chemo isn't working", heard the voice that I have listened to since in utero say, "If its my time then I'm ready for God to take me",  read the words from a friend,"my mom has passed", heard that one, who made a huge impact in Jim and I's lives, just left this earth to go to his heavenly home today, and the remembrance of a conversation of unwavering commitment spoken over lunch with a friend.  This life is truly like a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow.  What do we do with the in-between?  We invest.  We speak words of love, grace, and truth.  We share ourselves, time, and resources.   We recognize that we all walk around like containers needing to be filled.  Filled, of course with God and His word, and filled with other's investments that spur us on to want more of God and His word.  Is that my investment?  Will I seek to be that kind of influence to those around me and those that Father allows across my path?

My dad and stepmom's faith in the face of struggle and the unknown has invested in me a boldness to live each day to the fullest and receive all things from my Father's hand as gifts.

My mom's frankness with Father regarding her time on this earth invested in me an acceptance of Father's plans over my own.

My friend's willingness to walk out her mother's final days serving her invested in me a faithfulness that is an overflow of Jesus in her.

The home going of one who I consider a spiritual giant invested in me seeing missions in action, learning to study the bible, being introduced to what a life following Jesus really looked like, and one giving their life for the kingdom of God to be advanced.  What would our lives look like apart from this investment?

A conversation with friends who risk their lives to share the gospel saying, "God has made us brave" invested in me the clear understanding what life should be about and a bravery of my own that could only be birthed by the Father.

Things we may know or even learn but it is completely different as we get to observe them being lived out and then become the recipient. There is really no way to measure these investments.  Their deposits were made and I am the beneficiary of each.  God's plan for return is for each to produce in me more of Him and then overflow and be invested again in others.

I'm so grateful for the investment..... truly my cup overflows!

Always learning,
Kim 

The Cost of Abiding

The thermometer read 6 degrees this morning on the Oklahoma plains and the weatherman told me that it felt like 10 below zero with the windchill factored in.  That's cold!  I've spent the morning getting my home ready for those that will gather in it's warmth tomorrow, which will be a full day of the door opening with tea and coffee being poured, scripture opened, and prayers offered, a day that for this keeper of home is delicious and wanted.  Im checking things off my list so that I can spend the afternoon doing something that is like medicine to me.  As soon as the last chore is checked off I will sit with a cup of steaming sweet and spicy tea and all of my seed and plant catalogs to plan my flower and vegetable gardens.  There is something wonderful to me about doing it on a very cold and wintery day, the wonderful part is the dreaming of the faces of pink peonies, yellow sunflowers, and blue hydrangeas dancing in my yard come spring and summer.  And there is the thought of baskets filled with red tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs.  It all paints a picture in my mind that is quite delightful.  If it was only as simple as dreaming it up, planting a seed, and it would be exactly as I see it in my mind.  Any of you that have done gardening know it takes work.  Sometimes even growing a tomato in a pot in Oklahoma is difficult!

We moved to a different home a few weeks ago and even as we were remodeling my eye was on the garden area in the backyard.  It hadn't been tended in over five years and yet the sprinkler system had kept everything green and growing.  Everything, even the weeds were healthy!  So I started the process with some professional help of removing what needed to be removed and only keeping a few things that could stand the extreme pruning.  Extreme pruning....there's a mouthful.

The word ABIDE has been a word that Father has been tattooing on my heart for years.  You will always find the word somewhere in my home, not for anyone else but for me, to serve as a reminder of what my posture is to look like in the divine relationship.  Abiding is dwelling, living, making a home in Him and Him dwelling, living, and making a home in me.  John 15 is usually loose in it's binding in most of my bibles.  There is something that we often don't like to talk about but it comes along with abiding and that is pruning. Pruning is the cutting, scraping, and separating that happens in an effort to cause something to grow and to produce more.  It's costly.  It seems painful to me to go and chop off the top of something that has growth, but it has to be done for more growth.  I talk almost weekly with someone who is being asked for something or sensing Father is wanting them to step away or lay down someone or something. Maybe they can see the scars of past pruning on my life, for sure it's a part of my story, I pray they see the growth that He has brought about as well. It's real and it's painful and yet what it produces is more of Him and more abiding and that is beautiful.

What is it for you?  What is that thing or that person that has become an idol to you, that you hear the Father gently saying, "it's time to let me cut that off".  Maybe it's something that you are pursuing harder than God and he is prompting you that you need to let Him do some surgery before more growth will happen.  Its a new year, a time to hit the refresh button but in so doing it will require participation with the Master Gardner, for new growth to happen in this new year.

Below is a story that I always think of when contemplating what my abiding looks like and what the cost of pruning will result in my life.  I also attached a wonderful message from Pricilla Shirer that is on the message of separation which looks a lot like pruning!

Always learning.....
My cup overflows,
Kim

Once upon a time, there was and Old Grapevine Branch.  He had been growing in the vineyard for a very long time and his fruit was the biggest and sweetest fruit around! People came from far and wide to taste his fruit.  The Young Branch beside him looked up to him and said, " I want to be just like you when I grow up.  What can I do to have fruit as big and sweet as yours?"  "Tell me what I have to do and I promise to be committed!"  The Old Branch said, "Be Willing".  The Young Branch thought, "that's strange...be willing"?  The next day, the gate opened and the gardener walked in.  The gardener bent down and on one knee reached into his back pocket, pulled out what looked like sharp scissors, and moved toward the Young Branch's friend down the row.  The Young Branch watched as his little friend cried, "No, no, why are you doing this to me?  Haven't I been sweet?  Please, don't cut me!"  The Young Branch looked up at the Old Branch and asked, "What's happening....why did the Gardner do that? Is it because he didn't like her?" The Old Branch replied, "No! What you just saw proves that the gardener loves that little branch very much."  The Little Branch replied, "Oh, is it because my friend did something wrong and the gardener is punishing her?"  The Old Branch answered, "NO. Your friend is being pruned.  Not because she was trying to do things wrong, but because she was trying to do things right.  Not because her fruit was not sweet but because the gardener wants it to be even sweeter."  The Young Branch replied, "Well, you don't have to worry about being pruned.  You have the sweetest fruit in the garden!"  "Oh, I want to be pruned!"  the Old Branch said.  "You what? It must hurt, and you're going to look bad."  The Old Branch chuckled and replied, "Yes, it is quite uncomfortable.  But it is necessary.  You see, my young friend, I have a fungus growing on my underside and that no one can see.  Pruning will keep me healthy.  So when the gardener comes to prune me, I won't pull my leaves back.  I'll lift myself high in the air to make His job easier.  And always remember, the very fact that you're being pruned means you will bloom again."  Just then the gardener stopped by the Old Branch, and the Young Branch saw the old branch raise his leaves high up in the air.  He heard a snip, and the Old Branch lay on the ground...all except for the nub.  Then the gardener turned to the Young Branch.  His little leaves were shaking, and tears rolled down his side, but with every ounce of strength, he raised his leaves high in the air, looked up into the gardener's face and said, "Kind and gentle gardener, I'm willing."

This is a great message from Pricilla Shirer, Its an hour long so get you a cup of tea, your bible, and some pen and paper and soak.

                 Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer - A Place of Separation