Breathe.

So I hopped on a plane and flew to Colorado, and I don't think Jesus has ever made it so clear to me what "Breathe" really meant until now.

If you didn't know the air in colorado is way different then good ole McDonough so it makes it harder to breathe. After walking who even knows how far to eat lunch and to Walmart yesterday after we landed, pretty sure I was about to pass out because I was so out of breath, not just because I am out of shape, but because of just trying to adjust. Denver really is exactly one mile high. In fact, there is a step on the State Capitol Building that is exactly 5,280 feet above sea level - one mile high. It wasn't until we got back to the hotel and completely stopped everything I was doing that I was able to really breathe. 

That is our life.

We won't ever be able to truly breathe until we completely stop everything. We can try to adjust where we are at in life, but key word is try. We so often get out of breath with life. One thing after another getting the kids to school, trying to get the laundry done, finishing that paper, and just simply dealing with life day to day and we try to catch our breath but we aren't willing to completely stop long to do it. We sit down at night but we find ourselves scrolling through Instagram or responding to text messages and when the next day comes we wonder why we are still out of breath. Until we stop everything, disregard everything else, silence all voices and tune in to what Jesus has to say, we won't ever catch our breath. We won't truly breathe. 

Take a deep breath and hold it. Now exhale. What just happened? You took some air into your lungs. Your lungs removed the oxygen from the air for your body to use. You then exhaled what your body doesn’t need—carbon dioxide. What you took in sustains your life. What you breathed out is of no use to you. In fact if you kept it in your lungs too long it would actually be harmful. When we are in a place where we can truly breathe we inhale His love, forgiveness, and mercy and we exhale our confession of our sins, our sorrows, and our fears.   

Job 27:3 

"As long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils..."

As long as we breathe, the spirit of God will continue to empower us. And when we allow Jesus to empower us, we can always catch out breathe again.

Today, Jesus teach us to truly breathe. 

Victory.

You might lose the battle, but God always wins the war.

Battle: 

-An encounter between opposing forces.

-Armed fighting; combat: wounded in battle. 

-A match between two combatants: trial by battle. 

War:

-A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties. 

-The period of such conflict. 

[A battle is just a part of the war]

If you are like me there are days when you lay your heard down on your pillow at night and ultimate defeat strikes you. Your youngest child pitching fits all day, your oldest falling into the ways of the world, the mirror telling you that you aren't good enough, your parents not loving you, the list goes on and on. These are all battles, encounters with Satan. Yeah, you might lose the battle today, or you might have lost the battle yesterday and felt like Satan won, and honestly that is okay, or I feel like it is at least. If we believe that it's not, that is telling ourselves that its not okay to not be okay, and if we were all okay we wouldn't even need Jesus, and I think I can get an amen to the fact we need Jesus. 

But the beautiful thing is; the battle is just part of the war. Battles make up the war. Even in legitimate wars a nation could lose battles, multiples ones, but still win the war. That's my hope today. So what if I go to sleep at the end of the day and feel defeat. So what if today pain wins over, and all I have is tears. I lost the battle, but Jesus ALWAYS wins the war, and because He is victorious we are victorious. So today you are victorious in Him and with Him. 

Deuteronomy 20:1-4 (message)

"When you go to war against your enemy and see horses and chariots and soldiers far outnumbering you, do not recoil in fear of them; God, your God, who brought you up out of Egypt is with you. When the battle is about to begin, let the priest come forward and speak to the troops. He’ll say, “Attention, Israel. In a few minutes you’re going to do battle with your enemies. Don’t waver in resolve. Don’t fear. Don’t hesitate. Don’t panic. God, your God, is right there with you, fighting with you against your enemies, fighting to win.”

Fighting against your enemies.

Fighting to win.

I don't claim to know what you are fighting against today, and I sure don't claim to say that it is easy. But whatever your enemy is, I know that Jesus is fighting against it, and I know He is fighting to win. But more than that, I know He does win. 

"The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved."

-Samuel Smiles 

To win without struggle is to win without honor. To win without struggle means to win without anything achieved. 

Yesterday I watched my cousin get baptized, and I can honestly say she lost multiple battles. She would tell you that herself. She fights addiction everyday and in the past she lost over and over. But yesterday she stood in front of others and as she wiped the water off her face as she come up from being baptized; Jesus won the war. 200 days sober on the day she got baptized. Jesus won the war. Fired from her job because of addiction, but now has a better job than she did before. Jesus won the war. Lost and broken and searching for an escape from pain and now one of the most joyful people I know, and finds her escape in worship. Jesus won the war. 

Jesus is greater than anything you walk into, walk through, or face today or any other day. Because He is greater, we will always overcome. 

Today Jesus, we admit that we know we might feel defeat but we hold tight to the fact you will always win. We hold tight to the fact you are greater.

Details.

I have a story. I knew after all this happened that I would blog about this. But Jesus made it clear to me after I received a text message from my sweet friend that it was her story to tell. So I am going to let her tell it.

The text message:

Adria. I'm in my car. And I'm sitting in a Starbucks parking lot. And I start thinking about everything. And Satan tries to come in and steal it and the most refreshing thought and truth comes over me--- not only did Jesus make me. But he prepared all these little things for him. This is not a mistake. I met you and was so amazed by your story. And from that day I asked Jesus for a story Adria. Cause I felt like I didn't have one. But I do. And the this new chapter of it, is blowing my mind. I met a friend with a passion for Jesus that blew my mind. And I wanted that. And I felt like I couldn't have it because I didn't know where my place was. That friend was you Adria.

First off let me begin by saying, Emily gives me way to much credit. The girl has a huge gift for making people feel valuable. She is the most encouraging person I know. After I read this I knew that Jesus had wired all of this together for her so specifically. Every single little detail.  -If I hadn't decided to take time off from school then I wouldn't have the freedom to take a random trip. -If we hadn't decided to take a trip, Emily wouldn't have brought me a check to the house I was babysitting at that night. -If Emily hadn't brought me a check, she wouldn't be able to tell you the story you are about to read. The list could literally go on and on.  Don't you love how Jesus does that. Every single little detail. I will say it again, every single little detail. He pieces them together and then we stand in amazement.  I write all the time. It could be blogging, it could be tweeting, or it could be journaling. But I write, because when I write I have a way to go back re-read what Jesus has done and how faithful He has been time after time. So no, I am not gonna tell you this story. Because it is Emily's story, and I wanted her to have a way to always remember when Satan comes in and tries to tell her otherwise that she most certainly has a story. Like she said in her text message to me, "I asked Jesus for a story." He answered.

Emily Griffin:

   Growing up everyone asks the famous question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?” For me, that answer was never certain. I have always had a huge desire to be a mom and wife but there’s not a course for that.  Trust me, I researched it.  When I would tell advisors they would look at me and just said, “Awe, honey, that’s so sweet.”
   Before I knew it, I was a senior in high school. To me, everyone knew what they wanted to do, but me. Of course I wasn’t the only one but Satan loves to share that lie with us. The truth was, Jesus had already gone way before and He was directing each step.

   I decided to go to Anderson University in South Carolina. I was so excited because my older sister was there and my best friend was going with me as well.  When we first began school, I really enjoyed it. As time went on, I was really struggling. My best friend would come back from class and would share stories about her exciting day. I wanted a story so badly. I majored in Early Childhood Education. I felt like it would be perfect for me because of my love for kids. I soon realized, it just wasn’t for me. I was so unhappy. I tried hard to make it look like I was happy. I could only keep this act up for so long. After my freshman year, I transferred back home. I didn’t have a clue where or what I was going to do. I just asked the lord to lead me, and I knew that Anderson was not where he had me. So, I packed up and headed back home. You would think I would be happy because I was headed to something better, but actually I was a complete mess. 

   I had left my sister and best friend and “ my plan” for my life was ruined. I felt like a failure. Summer came at the perfect time. I was able to just be at home with my family and also have some time with the lord to think about what was next. 

      I have always enjoyed babysitting so during this time I was able to get back into that. I got a lot of jobs and I was really excited. It brought me so much joy to step into these families and serve them. 

I attend Passion City Church, and have the privilege of working with the 2^nd and 6^th grade girls! (and what a privilege that is!) During this time I was able to meet Adria. Her heart immediately challenged me. We both loved kids so much and were able to share babysitting jobs with each other. At first, our conversations were centered on babysitting but as time went on we really opened up with one another. I’m blessed to say that to this day we are very close and I consider her a best friend. 

   As summer came to an end, I had decided to go back to school to finish core classes.  I still wasn’t sure what it was Jesus wanted me to do. I’m a very organized person and I absolutely love to always have a plan.  In this situation not having a plan made me crazy. I had different possibilities of what I thought I could do but I never was absolutely positive. I didn’t want to waste any time though. I didn’t want to just go to class . I talked with my parents and and many leaders that I look up to. Everyone always pointed me the fact that Jesus was leading me. I knew he was always leading me but its one thing to know and another to believe. I had to really pray and ask the lord to show me how to believe. I remember different friends were coming to me with similar situations. Without any hesitation, I always told them that God was leading them. I went on to say that he was near to them. 

   Have you ever needed your own advice? In this case, I needed to listen to myself. If Jesus was leading my friends in their situations—wasn’t he leading me too?  Of course, He was. I love what it says in Joshua 1:9. It says, “ Have I not commanded you? Be Strong and courageous, do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

   I held this verse very close and chose to believe it for me. It was an amazing feeling to know that Jesus, my best friend, and my king, was near to me. I am able to walk hand in hand with him through all the adventures of my life. 

   I’m literally sitting here typing this and I couldn’t be more excited to share with you how faithful Jesus is......

 
   My friend Adria and myself decided to go on a trip to Colorado to visit our friend. We planned this trip pretty fast, when I say fast I mean she texted me about it Sunday and we bought the tickets Sunday. I couldn’t believe we were actually going to go. The next day I planned to meet Adria to give her a check for the trip. Before I met her I was at home with my mom. I began to get really stressed about my future. I started researching and thinking about what to do. My mom told me to think about Dental Assistant training school. This was something that I had gone back and forth with for a while. I didn’t say anything back to my mom. I just continued to research and watch all the videos I could on Dental Assistants. I just asked the lord in that moment to please lead me. If this is what He wanted, I was going to need Him to show me. I put my computer down and went to get ready.  Before meeting Adria I was going to meet with my mentor from church. When I met with my mentor, all I could think about was my future. She began to talk with me and I was able to share with her about being a dental assistant. She was very excited for me and was able to really share some things with me that really ministered to my heart. I told her it wasn’t so much that I passionate about teeth. I like teeth but that wasn’t the point. The point was I wanted to do something where I was serving someone. I wanted to be someone’s right hand man.  It just made sense to me. I continued to pray and I just felt in that moment so much peace. 

   Adria was babysitting when I went to meet her. As I entered the house something hit me immediately. It was the most powerful thing I have felt in a while. I looked at Adria and I said what is that? She smiled back at me and was like…yep. I said, that’s Jesus isn’t it? She looked at me with the biggest smile on her face and was like, "yes."  This was just in the first 2 seconds of entering the house.  I was trying to meet the kids that Adria was babysitting but it was so hard for me. I had to just be silent. The power of the Holy Spirit was so heavy. Adria decided to show me around the house. I knew one of the kids she was watching because she happens to be one of the 2^nd grade girls that we both lead at church.    The more we walked around, the more heavy it got.  Time went by and we were just catching up with each other and the little girl came running down the steps.  She told us that her tooth was about to come out, and funny part is she goes, "Adria I know you hate teeth." But I went running over there to help her. The little girl mentioned that her mom was dentist and she always helped her with her teeth. I stood back and asked what she had said. Adria said, "yeah, she was a dentist assistant". I couldn’t believe it. I asked her to say that again as well, to make sure I was hearing correctly. I looked at Adria and I told her I had been praying about this for so long. Right in that moment, it all hit me. For the first time, it all made sense. All the little details were coming together. Jesus knew each of those little details. They were his little details. 

   I was completely undone. I couldn’t stop crying because it was all so powerful, it was so Jesus!  As I write this now I am officially signed up for Dental Assistant school! What???? Yes, its true! Im just a tad excited!  

  Now, I not only know God is leading me but I believe. I see that He is a promise maker and a promise keeper. And Im proud to say that all along I really did have a story and this was just a small and exciting chapter! 

I challenge you to let the Holy Spirit lead you.  Lean in, trust, and know He has you!

“Spirit lead me where my trust is without boarders. Let me walk upon the waters. Wherever you would call me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander And my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior.” ( Oceans- Hillsong United)  

-Emily Griffin 

I love that it wasn't some huge moment in the middle of a concert, or a conference with 60,000 other people, or something a pastor said.. It was a little girl with a loose tooth that put all the pieces together for Emily.

Jesus, this is your story.