2018--If I only had one year, I hope to spend it well.

I am pondering the year slipping from 2017 into 2018, and I keep thinking that there were people this time last year who had such great hopes and plans for this year but through tragic loss aren't here. And there are people who are living with the reality they may not be here for next New Year's Eve. And I keep asking myself one question:

 

If I only had this year, how would I spend it?

 

Praying for each of us that we spend it well,

not just for ourselves...

...but for those who love us and need us to spend it well for them and with them...

...for those who need us to spend it well because we will slip into and out of their lives in a moment or a day or a span...because of what we leave behind when we leave their presence...

...because of the ripples in time our lives leave even before they are ended...

...because eternity is built with seconds in the day, not years in a lifetime...

...because when it is over...the year and our lives...we want what is left to bring tears of joy because of what we have been and not tears of sadness because of what we haven't.

May 2018 be a year well spent.

Blessings,

Jerri L Kelley

www.jerrikelley.com

When Everything Else is Burned Away...I AM

You ever put your life on the altar and let God get rid of everything that isn't of Him? Most folks would never do that. They would never choose that kind of risk. They would never give up their control in order to give Him ultimate control. They would never choose something so scary. In fact, most folks don't, and frankly, that is why most folks are still living the same lives they have been living for the last decade (or several decades) wondering why nothing changes.

They sit in the same place every week for church, talk to the same folks they always do, quote the same scriptures, claim the same promises, and see the same results...and wonder why.

Let me answer that question:

Because if you want a different view, you have to take a different road.

Or as a coach I knew when I was teaching in public school said:

If you aren't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

You know what it takes to become the lead dog?

It takes being willing to push yourself beyond your comfort zone.
It takes thinking differently.
It takes conviction that you have a road God wants you to go down that someone else may not choose or understand.
It takes a willingness to hurt.
It takes prioritizing. 
It requires being broken down and built back up.
It takes leaving old mindsets behind...and sometimes the people who cannot think beyond them.
It takes a willingness to endure criticism...especially from people whose opinions can bless you...or hurt you...the most.
It takes crawling on the altar of the Whom you worship and letting Him burn away everything that isn't of Him...and praying for Him to hold you there when everything in you and your flesh screams for the easier road.

It's brutal.

And worth it.


Why am I telling you this? Because the craziest thing is that all that dying is really finding out what it means to live.  I always thought the point of being on the altar is to find myself. I thought when everything else was burned away I would find the core of me, the authentic part of me, the me I was created to be.

But you know what I found out is left when all the traditions, false identities, lies of others, fear, escapisms, safe roads, and protective garbage is burned to nothing?

I AM.

And in Him is the only place I was ever meant to be in the first place.

(excerpt from Warrior Undaunted, manuscript in process, copyright 2017 Jerri L. Kelley)