You know that fog you try and pull yourself out of when you take an afternoon nap?  You lay down for a few minutes and “BAM” you are out like a light and then you feel as if you have to kick your way through a door to become conscious again?  I hate that feeling.  Maybe it’s why I don’t take many afternoon naps anymore.  That drug-like state always makes me feel like I have to reconnect with the outside world against my will and although it only takes a few minutes to do it, I still just simply hate the feeling.

Recently I was in a conversation with a friend who was having a tough time getting through a situation.  She expressed that she knew God was requiring her to just lay her wound down and walk away, but it was easier to say it then do it.  I think we all can relate right? I don’t think anything that pushes us to become better at communication, freedom or awareness will ever be easy to obtain.  Period.  It’s so much easier to talk someone else off a ledge then ourselves!

I’ve been living in a VIOLENT season.  Matthew 11:12 states that “The Kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence and the forceful people lay hold of it.”  I think many of us are in a season of laying hold of things in our lives with a forceful and fervent nature.  Which means that it is not a season of wasting time on unnecessary engagements or thoughts or conversations.  It’s pulling us out of the slumber because quite frankly, nap-time is over!

I was in my office a couple months ago and the Lord spoke to me and told me to call my dermatologist about the spots on my face. So I did.  I booked an appointment only find out that I have several advance stages of pre-cancer areas from all the sun bathing with baby oil growing up on the California coastline!  One spot in particular was a concern for the doctor. They took a biopsy, and I went home and waited for results.  Results came in and confirmed what the doctor had suspected. The office nurse called to book a follow up appointment.   I missed the appointment and the next 3 I made after that!  Life is busy.  I’m a single mom.  I travel everywhere! I don’t have a million hours in the day to think about me. The doctor then called several times leaving messages.  Then when I never responded I received a letter in the mail kindly telling me that it would be in my best interest to get the spot dealt with!  Geez, you would think that with my health involved I would get in and get taken care of!

God used this scenario to talk to me about how much we, as a people of God, treat him like this.  How many times does he come around telling us to deal with the issues at hand that may not be life threatening today but left un-dealt with, could be tomorrow?  I don’t want this in my life physically, emotionally or spiritually anymore.  I have had to learn through some really tough areas how to lay down what I could not do anything about.  It took years to do that.  Why?  For me the struggle came because I didn’t want to give others the wrong impression.  Others?  Others?  Really?  So, all this time I have not followed through with some really tough choices because I was too afraid that in making those choices I would offend others? But what about doing what God told me too?  What a hang up huh?  I may not be fully there yet, but I am sooooo on my way!  I am becoming violent in my righteousness and in the way I am claiming my life again.

I have had to suffer some pretty intense stuff this past year.  A precious friend recently quoted Proverbs 27:6 to me,  “Better are the wounds of a friend, than the deceitful kisses of an enemy.” We all have friends and we all have enemies.  They can both cause distractions. I have reached a place where I don’t have much time for distractions anymore.  God is a wound healer and a deliverer of all my enemies. If needed, we have to be a people who let our freedom speak for it self.  Let our peace stand-alone.  Let justice flow like a river and float down it.  Make sense?

I am FINDING FAITH in following through.  Walking it out.  Being willing to believe and be okay with God in control.  It’s July 2010.  The year is half over.  I desire to get to December and see, feel and hear, the Lord having gone ahead of me. To hear the rustling in the trees above where the Victor I follow, is finding out where my enemy is camping and shouting out the instructions on how to go into battle against him, is key. I love the verses in scripture that detail the battle already having been won before it’s fought.  Gezzz Louise!  Why are we such a fearful, uptight people?  Sigh.  Well, if your reading this maybe you should get violent about taking your life out of the suffering and into the song?   Maybe you need to deal with what God is asking of you before something worse happens?  Maybe you need to like me, make the ‘stinking’ appointment with the dermatologist and get on with it!  Be encouraged.  Be strong.  Start taking it by FORCE!

Rita

A week has almost passed since the June 2010 D.I.V.E. School of Worship.  The 3rd one this year and it was amazing.  I am so undone by how the Lord moves upon these worship schools.  The way the ladies that come reach for Him and find such hope and inspiration in making their sounds of worship before him, always just blesses me beyond words.  If you are a women and you are out there needing rich encouragement and hope for the call of worship on your life, you should apply to a DIVE School.

Nothing else I have ever done has ever felt so rewarding.  There is a coming sound and I stand in belief that God is about to do something so powerful within the arts upon the earth!  We had 4 nations represented in the June school.  It was a powerful time of seeing lives and hearts knit together in unity and watch as they all threw courage on each other.  The heart behind DIVE is to not just train the gift but to breathe life upon the heart behind the gift.  To blow hope and life within the worshiper/artist and watch as they take flight.  I truly believe the Kingdom is about pulling each other along with encouraging shouts of hope and life.  If we all rely on our gifts to get us noticed we start to clang around a bit.  The Word says that God looks at the heart of a man.  This past week was such a an explosion of talent and tenacity!  I am so proud of the sweet 16 that came and found a sound to make in greater ways then they had before.

Vicky Beeching came (Vickybeeching.com)  and poured herself out in song and life.  She was such an amazing addition to what DIVE is all about.  We will have Jennie Riddle as our guest speaker in the August 20-27th school here again in Charlotte, NC.  If you are a woman and feel called to the arts in any way and need hope, encouragement and training, apply for our August school at Diveworship.com.

I have attached a video of the song the June group wrote for me as well as a couple pictures. Thank Vic for your heart!  What a week!  Now, if the heat wave in Charlotte would stop!

Blessings,

Rita

It’s June!  Where did the spring go?  I don’t remember a year going so fast like this one feels it’s going.  I feel a bit grateful for it though.  It’s been busy and hectic at moments, but so refreshing.  I love spring but I am looking forward to the summer months.  Justice starts ‘big school’ in August and I’m freaking out about that a little.  Time flew with those years too.  I’m going to have to pack lunches now for the next 15 years!  I wonder how many turkey sandwiches that looks like?

I’m sitting in Mystic, CT today thinking about this remaining year and what the Lord will do with it.  I am grateful for how the Lord has cleared the counters of my life of so many things that didn’t need to be there any longer.  I tend to take on responsibilities I just was never supposed to.  The gracious hand of God, trying to teach me to let go of what is not mine to worry about has been really freeing.  I love the statement in scripture, “It is for freedoms sake that Christ has set us free.” (Gal 5) I’ve been pondering the part of “for freedoms sake”.  How often do we muck up the atmosphere of our lives by hanging on to responsibilities we feel tied to or guilty keeping?   It’s really quite a revelation to let go of something you don’t know is binding you until you finally let it go and freedom rushes over your senses!  I have had to take a long hard look at my “to do” list and my “keep this going” list and start really crossing off the things that I don’t need “to do” anymore and I don’t need to “Keep this going” any longer.  It’s been as simple as telling myself, the dishes left in the sink will be okay left there to clean in the morning…..to…..laying down friendships that are one sided and not worth all the emotion put into them. It’s fighting sleep thinking: about the piles of office work on my desk….and….spending all day holding a sick child and getting none of it done!

Life is a boatload of responsibilities and the way I am learning how to walk out shouldering them is to not let the effect of them weigh me down.  Instead, I am learning to carry only the responsibilities that I can find positive outcomes in.  The past 6 months have been such a heart opening experience!  Watching the faithfulness of God come without even answering the natural prayer.  How is that?  Well, it can happen.  It does not mean that you don’t still feel overwhelmed and under-appreciated at times.   It simply means you cast your cares on the Lord and he sustains the righteous.  Sustains……sustains. Keeps me going .  Keeps me feeling supported, held, able to bear it. (dictionary meanings)  For Freedoms Sake.  For the sake of the way I feel with the weight off me even while still having to walk out all the responsibilities is liberating.  Literally, liberating.

So, these are my thoughts today.  The thoughts on a June day in Mystic.  I’m looking forward to the Freedom Sake that the remaining parts of 2010 has to offer.  Bring it on.

RS

A whirlwind!  That’s what the past 2 months have been like.  Between traveling and the D.I.V.E. schools , being a single mother, weeding and planting in the yard, laundry, and remembering to take out the garbage AND pay the lawn guy, life has been just one big whirlwind!  I have made a vow to declare daily that 2010 is good!  I love the way the Lord strengthens and encourages even on the days when there is no way I think I can do anymore or carry another load!

Four months ago I bought the DVD to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for my 5 year old son.  I am pretty sure that is where his obsession with tornados started.  That huge spaghetti tornado caught his attention and every moment since all he thinks about is Tornados.  He has gone through an entire ream of paper in my office drawing them, painting them, cutting them out.  The poor babysitters that watch him have had to draw so many tornados and talk tornado shop most the time they are with him.  I took Justice with me to Seattle a few weeks ago to sing at an event and see our family.  My 6 year old nephew Phillip came bursting through the door one afternoon after the 4th straight day of Justice’s tornado adventure and declared to my sister, “Mom, I’m gonna need a vacation!  If I have to hear about one more tornado story, I’ll go crazy!”   I must admit, I feel the same way.  I never thought I would ever have to know so much about Tornados.  What causes them, how they get stronger and weaker, what States chase them the most.  The Wonder Pets, The Backyardigans, even Wow-Wow-Wubzy has had to take a backseat to the Weather Channel these days.

Not too long ago we had a storm here in Charlotte.  I flipped on the local News and behold tornados were touching down all around our town.  I was so excited for Justice to see and hear that one was actually so close!  I thought he was going to go crazy with tornado fever!  Nope.  He shook, cried and hid under the covers of my bed calling out for Jesus to move the wind away!   I finally told Justice that I was done talking about them. The “T” word was not to be mentioned after 4PM daily.  Yeah, that didn’t work.  That seemed to create a game for him to use ways to have me say the word by accident so that he had an excuse to talk about them again.  I think it’s when my hatred of Youtube.com grew.  There is every Tornado video footage that has ever touched down in the world on there.  The 5 million hits on many of them are yes, my son!  Now, Thanks to Iceland, we have moved along to Volcano’s.  How they are hot and why they explode!  Where are they and when are they going to erupt!

Like most good mothers I take notice of whats important to Justice from his perspective.  As May began, (while in a fed up moment of sheer ‘TorVolcano’ frustration) I heard the Lord speak to me about them.  He began to talk to me about life.  My life.  Maybe you don’t know this but May is the worst month in Tornado Alley for tornado’s.  There were about 38 that ripped through Ohio just last week!  (Weather Chanel girl here) As God began to talk I actually felt incredibly ministered too.  Life is like these forces of nature.  Circumstances touch down unexpected and erupt all over the scene of our lives. My life is a series of surviving physical, emotional and spiritual Tornados and Volcanos.  It’s the plowing through and pulling myself out of all the wreckage the enemy creates in these attacks that the heart of God is seen for me to grip a bit tighter to.   I am undone by the goodness of the Lord.  The beauty of forgiveness and the freedom of moving on.  The former thing has nothing on the new thing coming.  I was on the phone today with a precious young musician who has just suffered a devastating loss of his marriage and family.  My heart broke for the way a life tornado blew through his home to leave his heart a wreck and his way unsure.  But his hope is in the Controller of the winds and the rain.

I am not so sure that Justice isn’t on to something.  I should take more notes then I do. But as he draws and paints and speaks about the power behind them I feel God.  God will not give me or you anything we cannot endure.  There is not a friend that can betray you more then he’s been betrayed.  There is no sickness that can take your hope that he cannot heal you of.  There is not a financial loss that you have encountered that he can’t return a profit to you in.  There is not a pain, delayed promise, or lack of belief and faith that He isn’t able to restore truth in.  I am finding that about him more and more.  Worship is such an amazing way to let go and let God stitch belief back in us.  When God gets to free you from worry and fear he does what I call, BEAUTIFUL DAMAGE.  He wounds us, to heal us.

So, tornados and volcanos come and go.  Hopefully we learn from them and proceed.  Make sense?  It does to me.  I asked Justice where he would hide if a Tornado really did come our way.  He simply replied, “With Jesus, in his storm cellar, silly.”   I think I’ll follow Justice there.

-May 2010

Two years ago I bought a fish for my son Justice.  We named him Pete.  Pete the Beta fish.  He was a really nice blue/green color, small but round and healthy looking.  By day 3 in his new home with us  Justice could care less about him.  I thought it would be fun for J, but he wanted the fish for all of 5 minutes like most kids. Pete didn’t play drums, dance, sing or scratch. I had caved in at the pet store and bought the whole tank, food, shrubs, rocks.  By day 5 Pete and I got close.  My early morning Journal and coffee time were spent with God, and Pete.  When Pete saw me coming he swam to the edge of the tank ready for food and a quick “hey Pete-cha.”  I must admit, I got attached to Pete.  I worried about him on trips and left notes for the cleaning lady and the neighbor kid to feed Pete.  A few times I forgot and thought for sure Pete would be a floater when we arrived home.  Nope.  Pete survived it all.  The last couple years have been really tough.  As silly as it sounds though  I found myself thinking that if Pete could survive living on the kitchen counter relying on me to remember him, I needed to trust God for the same.  If Pete was dependent on me giving him a few dots of food a day, then why was it so hard for me to trust in God to meet all my needs?  I would feed Pete and think, “God, you see me feeding Pete, you remember us right?”

About a month ago, I came home from a shorter trip to find Pete a shade or two darker, bloated in the bottom of the tank.  He was a goner.  Justice laughed when I flushed Pete’s stiff carcus down the toilet.  ”You never cared about poor Pete,” I said to Justice.  Justice laughed again and said, “Nemo found his dad down the toilet, maybe Pete can find his dad.”  Point taken.  I miss Pete.  I find it soothing that God made that Beta fish to teach me a thing or two about trusting in his hand to be there and not forget me when it seemed he was far away.  Maybe Pete died because I didn’t feed him.  Maybe he had a tumor.  Maybe his time was just up.  Whatever the case, I find myself  In a place without Pete, but with more trust in the Lord.  Thanks Pete.  I needed that.  I hope you found your dad!

Then came Ruby. My neighbor’s new massive something-Bernard puppy.  When you see Ruby coming you can’t help but want to stand in her way and let her barell into you.  She has all this personality and charactor.  She gets into trouble every 3 minutes but you simply don’t care based on the stupid happy look on her face.  The neighborhood is her wrecking ball and the mulch in my yard her digging ground.  Her fuzzy face has you the minute you see her and she looks like a happy world chasing her own tail.  Ruby is not my dog and so I enjoy every moment I get to see her.  Something about her makes me want to be reckless and abandon to any youth I have left.  Ruby is no Pete and Pete is no Ruby.  But God has used them both to show me trust, hope, expectation and joy!  Maybe you have a hamster?  A snake? A pet chinchilla?  I guess life is speaking all around us.  Thanks Ruby.  Now, can you get out of my flower beds!

Blessings,

Rita

A critic.  We all have them.  They make sure to always tell us where we go wrong and what we can do to better a situation.  They are ever present when we fail at something and can sometimes make us feel like failure is our only outcome.  The statement that “You are your own worst critic”  is so true.  The way we judge ourselves and evaluate under a microscope, every move, word, or motive can be such a crutch.  Musicians, artists, creative sorts, we seem to always have to live within a constant state of critiquing.  I am an avid watcher of American Idol.  Yes, it’s because I’m a musician but also because I love a process of something in the making. The show is the worlds perspective on how to find a great new young singer.  There is nothing wrong with that really except it is also a platform of already insecure individuals who voluntarily get thrown to the wolves of  critics when they are obviously not quite ready for it.   You know that saying, “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger?”  Well, that’s so true for some of us, but for others it creates such a cloud of confusion and years of weak self belief.

I should not be as surprised as I am at how we as “believers” can quite possibly be the most judgemental people on the planet!  Now, I cannot be pointing a finger unless I have three pointing back at me but as I get older I realize that throwing the fire of courage on others is enlightening and amazing. That funky spirit of being critical only comes because one is getting what one wants in the moment.   Jesus was criticised by religious leaders for doing nothing wrong in Gods eyes, but everything in mans.  Think about that for a minute.  The broken had no problem being healed.  The needy had no problem with the hope he brought, but men of God (or so they called themselves) had every critical thing to say about hope, love, healing, and power.   I think this is why I find myself in this beautiful place of being so incredibly needy of God’s opinion that it  is smashing all of mine.  I think the safer more spacious yard to stay in is the yard of encouragement. You know, thinking the best of people. Everyone was made with being capable of making good choices.  The truth is that judgement and criticism turn into one big offensive tumor left to fester.  Human flesh-nasty nature is always going to raise it’s ugly head to declare what cannot be a possibility.  Spirit, true Godly nature leads to encouraging words that can be filled with wonderful critique and lasting effects!

I love these D.I.V.E. (Deep Innovative Vertical Expression) worship schools I have been doing.  The art of mentoring is powerful!  The art of encouraging even better!  Yes, there is critique on technique.  My desire though is that every student leaves feeling they can do something or be better then they came.  What is tough to see is that many come so bruised by spoken criticism that came from some leader, father, mother, or friend, who beat down their courage because they didn’t house what someone else thought they should.  Uhhhhhh!  Those things go under “stuff  I hate about the flesh“!  Sigh, gosh Church, can we believe in love again?  Can we find healing for our own stuff  before we throw pain on someone else?  Can we rise up and be the best at finding the good in a situation or a conflict?  Can we forgive enough to find our chains gone and our hearts exposed, positioned to be filled by more of God?  If you must hold on to all that judgement can you stay away from what God loves?  If we want freedom, lets run to find the One that will encourage us to believe again!

These are my thoughts on a Thursday afternoon….. Be encouraged!

Rita

“What’s your legacy?” That’s what the Lord asked several months ago in a moment of prayer with him. I had a million things going through my head as to all the good things I would love for my legacy to be. I soon realized that everything I tried to answer him with was what I figured a legacy meant or should be. I actually looked it up in the dictionary. It has a kind of technical and functional meaning but this is the one I most identified with; “Creating positive roads through, past, and over the negative actions of many then pass it on to those around, close, or listening to me … Peace.” I love that one. After some great thought I realized that although passing on my gifts, talents and writings to my son would be a great legacy to leave, there was more to it.

I have this old box someone gave me years ago that looks like a treasure chest. It even has Winnie the Pooh on it. (Go figure) I used it to put encouraging letters I started getting years ago through the mail. This was back when no one knew what email was and people put stamps on envelopes! Over the years the box got too full and I put it away in the attic. I felt like the Lord told me not to throw those letters away but to re-read them when the enemy’s voice was telling me I had nothing to offer anyone. So, I did. The stories inside that box and the precious content of what God has done to the lives of others through the sounds of my worship, undoes me every time.

Those letters and stories, they are my legacy. I could write a thousand more songs that gain a thousand more affirming nods from people. I can travel another 10 years to event after event and do the artist thing. All of that is great, but it is not a legacy. The hearts in those letters and the fact that my reach for Christ birthed a worship experience in them is breathtaking! One day Justice will open up that box. It won’t have royalty checks in it or property deeds. What it will have are the lives and journeys of people that connected with the walk and love of God his mother had that will tell a story for years to come.

This is a weird time to be in the church. A great time of awakening but a strange time of watching while a younger generation figures out how to grab ahold of truth and an older generation figures out how to pass it to them. It’s like watching an awkward dance of strangers figure out how to be friends. These talented creative artistic young trees are bursting with promise and passion, but still cannot find any real mothers and fathers to parent them and throw courage upon their movements. The older group doesn’t want to lay the baton down until they dictate how it should be handled. Sigh. I have come to my own conclusions. I’ll trust the Lord with whom he puts his spirit on and put a hope in a calling that is God inspired.

If your 30 years old and under, I apologize for us older peeps who love your passion but haven’t blessed it yet. I charge you though to learn the way of honor and respect. There are those of us that love you and believe that you carry a sound and a power. Wisdom knocks, be sure you open the door.

For those 30 and older, God is not done with us yet. He wants to use us and encourage us to leave our legacy’s in a place where the ones coming behind us can see it and believe for greater things. If it’s your time to pass the baton, do it with belief and blessing and sit in the balcony’s of those you pass it too with a huge smile on your face cheering them on in their season. I’m not trying to be harsh, really I’m not. But I do want to sound direct. God has so much for us to all be doing. We have too much teaching and releasing to all be apart of still.

Anyway, I was just thinking about legacy’s. Do you have one? Are you going to leave it somewhere where the new comers can find it and find Him? Will it be a testimony to the journey and the climb you had to make to be trusted by the Lord? My hope today is that we all leave a legacy that traces back to the Palace. If you don’t have one yet, love God, honor him, make him famous and I’m pretty sure you’ll find your legacy.

Blessings,
Rita