The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant: Winning The Battle Against The Giant Of Comfort

Hi and welcome back to a new article and to the new series we are about to start: The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant. The first giant we will take about in this new series inspired by the book Goliath must fall by Louie Giglio is the giant and comfort. Why? Mainly because it is the most subtle giant, the one that is the most common across all generations. The most subtle one and yet the most deadly. 

I know what you must be thinking: “well comfort is not really a bad thing... Isn’t it?” And you are right. Comfort is not a bad thing and God’s desire for us is to not lack anything. However comfort has the potential to quickly become a double-edged sword that can slowly undo us and the people around us. In his book, Louie Giglio listed a few reasons why comfort can become harmful to us and below are the one that stuck the most with me:

1- We miss a great opportunity because we choose to go a safer, easier route.

The most striking stories in the bible happened because some people dared to take the difficult road. The one that was full of uncertainty and darkness at time. Anybody that God has called to a higher ground had to get out of the comfort zone. Let’s take the example of Abraham. His father was rich. He was living a comfortable life when God called him to leave the place where he was because God wanted him somewhere else. If you have ever had to relocate to a totally different country/ continent away from your family and everything you know for a certain reason in life then you know how difficult it must have been for Abraham. But he, unlike some of us, had absolutely no clue and no plan on how things would happen. He only had a promise, a word from God. Now Abraham was the father of a multitude made of Israel, the chosen people of God, as well as us Christians who have been saved by Grace through faith in Jesus. Abraham could have chosen the safe route. He would have missed out on God’s best and would have probably never been know. The same is true of Ruth the Moabite: she could have decided to go back to her people just like her fellow sister in law who had also lost her husband. Instead, she followed Naomi to Bethlehem, met Boaz and entered the lineage of Jesus. Now she would have definitely missed out on God's things if she had settled for the good thing (comfort and familiarity).

2- If comfort is sought ahead of everything else, including our desire to be available to God’s plans.

Suffer for the cause of God is one of the most difficult things to experience and yet the most noble for us as christian as we see how the souls and lives of the people we pray for are transformed. A very good example is talking to people about Christ. Very uncomfortable. Not only for those of us struggling with social anxiety but more so because of the fact that some of the reactions we get are not the ones we expect. Being in ministry is uncomfortable because the thoughts of God’s heart have to prevail on our own. Church leaders especially know how uncomfortable being called is: the fasting, the praying, the fact that sometimes the needs of your church and the work or for the kingdom of God will pass before your needs and desire. But the results show on those days where people give their lives to Jesus. The results show when the people we have been praying for, fasting for, preaching to and denying our own comfort for are submerged in the water of baptism and arisen as a new creation and a member of the family of God. To me it is a feeling that never gets old. But we can’t see and experience this unless we renounce to some extend to our comfort and make ourselves available to be used by God. 

3- If we grow accustomed to our sins and fail to confront and removed them from our lives. 

When it comes to sin, our walk with God will constantly require us to fight against what most people have justify as “natural instincts” or “human nature”. However, as christian, we are called to fight the good fight, to die to our old sinful nature (Colo 3:5). Being comfortable with sin in our lives leads us away from God. It is a giant that reduces our field of vision to the “now” as it yells louder and makes us forget all about the “later”, the eternal life God has offered us in Jesus which, unlike the “now”, lasts MUCH longer. Overcoming sin is an everyday work that will be sometimes marked by days where we fall short of God’s grace. It is perfectly normal. But the issue of comfort being a deadly giant comes when out of falling so much, we stay fallen and decide to dwell right there, to the dismay of a mighty God who has called us to higher grounds. 

Comfort has ruined lives and destinies, families and relationships but most importantly our relationship with God and the vocation He’s called us to. So how do we overcome the giant? How to we overthrow him from the throne of our lives that so rightfully belongs to God and has been hijacked by a taunting giant that is preventing us from experiencing God and the multitude of great things He has planned for us?

Louie Giglio gave us a road map to quit living life under the blanket of comfort and it is summarized in the following four bullet points.

1- There is no greatness without faith and there is no faith without discomfort

The most epic stories in the Bible were born from a step that was taken in the direction of faith (the battle of Jericho, the splitting of the red sea, peter walking on water, etc…) and those steps in the direction of faith required a discomfort from the people those stories were about. Our salvation happened as a result of the discomfort of one man who left his glory all behind to live as a man. Have you done life on this earth? Do you know how difficult it is? Have you ever had a lot of money and privileges and then all of the sudden you go broke? Add on top of this being crucified knowing you’re innocent for people who have done (and will do) some of the most horrible things. But that step of that one man in the direction of Faith and in the accomplishment of God’s plan for us has been the tipping point that has turned the history of humanity around. It was the birth of the most beautiful love story ever crafted and written. And for us to identify with him in our faith requires for us to go to the most uncomfortable places of our core being and existence, believing in a higher purpose that calls for our ability to leave our comfort in order to meet God in the higher places where he’s called us to be

2- God’s glory shines brightest at our weakest

Stepping out of the comfort zone and crossing that line into the unknown is where we get to truly see and experience God. Crossing that line is this tipping point where the story of our life becomes less about ourselves and more about God. And so when it comes to choosing between God’s great and comfort-good or God’s-thing instead of good-thing, remembering who we want to give the glory to should be what we need to keep in mind. God gets no glory from the things that are under our control: He gets glory from the things and situations we have no control over (2 Co 12: 9). Choosing to step out of our comfort zone (according to God’s plan for us) is taking back the glory the giant of comfort stole from God and giving it back to the rightful owner of it: God himself. Why? Because that’s when God steps in and work things that make no sense to the human mind but shows how powerful and mighty our God is.

3- Align with God 

Comfort happens when we lose track of what God expect from us. When following a worldly view or opinion takes over our ability to follow God’s plan for us because it is just easier. aligning ourselves with God is the surest way to get where we are meant to be and living a purposeful, full and meaning life requires us to align with God in order to know the steps to take, which direction to go and what decision to make in order to maximize out time on this earth. Aligning with him doesn’t guarantee that things will be easy, however, it does guarantee that we will make it to where we are meant to be according to God’s plan for us.

4- Keep in mind that you don’t have that much time

The biggest danger of being comfortable can be summarized in one word: later. The thing is later can easily become never, especially if we account for the uncertainty of life. Even though it might seem scary to think we might not live as long as we think we will, we should aim to turn that uncertainty into fuel to live a purposeful and meaningful life, one that goes beyond the safety line of comfort. 

Overcoming the giant of comfort is an everyday fight, an ongoing battle to pick God and step on his word when we are presented with the option of pulling the comfort blanket over our head and play it safe. We are not guaranteed that what we will meet on the other side will be pleasant, but we are guaranteed that once we move on God's word and align with him, when we are willing to be available for Him to work with us and through us, when we accept to be a little less comfortable so that He can have the spotlight, he meets us where we stand and adds the "extra" into the ordinary.

Thank you for taking your time to read through the first article of this new series and I will see you soon for another article of The Mighty God & The Taunting Giant series.

Until then,

The Happiness Fairy 👸

Goliath Must Fall

Welcome back to the blog for a new article and if you are new here: welcome. Lately it's been a little bit of a struggle to keep up with my post schedule as well as my commitment to this blog and my audience. As you know ( and I have said times and times), my writing is nothing but the reflection of [sometimes] my inner dialogues and the unfiltered emotions that hit my soul. And lately my soul has been going through things: peaks and valleys, ups and downs, twists and turns, rising mountains and drops in the abysses. And if you are anything like me, feeling like living this life can be equivalent to walking on the edge of a precipice, then you know how exhausting this can be. I felt (and still feel at time) like I was put through a wringer and sucked dry of any resources that I could possibly depend on to keep walking. In the midst of what seemed like a drought, a moment where I couldn't even find the courage to step on here and speak of matters that summon our ability to hope against all hope, to fight and walk banking on God, I wrote In The Midst Of The Heartbreak. And then I went to God and to my person, the one who, along with God, was there when that whole blogging journey began, the president of the board of director of my Godly counsel: my sister. I went to her and to God with my worries and my fear of never getting past one of the biggest writer's block I have ever had in the six years that I have been blogging and she said something like this: "sometimes the things you write when your soul is going through all kind of battles don't always make sense. But still, you ought to write because out of the dryness of your soul, will come something that someone reading your words needs". It is the light version but it actually sounded deeper and more poetic than that.

Anyway, I went back to God and thought about something I could bring to you. Something that stood true to my writing voice and my commitment to bring authenticity and transparency (to some extend) in every post in such a way that people could relate to and identify with the things I was talking about. And as I brainstormed and prayed and sought directions, it so happen that I had finished up reading Goliath Must Fall by Louie Giglio and was thinking of an angle I could exploit to do a review of this book that would do it justice. In a split second, it all clicked and the next series - inspired by this book- I would write about was born.

"I doesn't have to be alcoholism or anorexia or depression. Giants come in all sizes, some subtle and others stark. The good news is that it's not God's plan for you to live with anything standing in the middle of your life, demoralizing you day by day by day. These giants harm you and rob God of his glory in your life. God wants you to live free. God wants your giant to fall. [...] But first need to realize that it's not a simple wish that your giant will fall some day, some time. No. it's a mandate. Goliath must fall. [...] If God has it his way, we live free and He gets glory for being the giant-killer"

Louie Giglio, Your giant is going down, Goliath Must Fall.

But first let's talk about the book. I came across it a few months ago after a listening to a Goliath must fall podcast series from Agincourt Pentecostal Church and I found it so interesting that I needed to get my hands on this book it was inspired from. After finishing it, I tried siting and working on a review but there was something particular about that book. It wasn't a book you could just get three or four lessons from, all  summarized in bullet points, and then keep moving with your life: it was a deeply life altering and transformative narration of a story we've all read before (and which, ironically, I had happen to write about) : The story of David and Goliath [with a twist to it].

Although we have been hyped to see us through David in our attempts to fight and slain our giants, Louie Giglio is inviting us to look at this story from the battlefield as the soldiers who couldn't gather the courage to face Goliath, and look at David as Jesus, the mighty savior who seemingly wasn't much but defeated at once all of our taunting giants by triumphing of them on the cross of Calvary.

Not only is this book interesting because of this twist when it comes to covering the main storyline, but also because of all the background stories and subtle yet taunting giants hiding in it too.  

It is a book that addresses the most obvious giants that show up into our lives as Goliath such as anger, fear and addiction and the subtle yet taunting ones such as rejection and comfort (probably the sneakiest of all as we don't think of it as being a giant but it very much is). This is a book that goes beyond the surface and calls the readers (myself included) to take an honest look at the state of our lives, souls and hearts, acknowledging (and accepting) our need for a savior to deliver us from our taunting giants which we've successfully failed at defeating. It is a book beautifully crafted and stitched together with words that break down our walls and bring us to a place of safety in God where surrendering and being vulnerable while calling upon, crying to him and pleading, leads us to the victory, deliverance, healing, restauration and most importantly the presence of God; things we all long for whether we dare to acknowledge it or not. It is a powerful paradigm shift that moves us from relying on things and people (just like Saul relied on his weapons and army) and overcoming deception, to relying on God and His powerful grace to finally see the ending that brings Glory to Him in our life and leaves us fulfilled, satisfied and not wanting for more except for His presence. 

It is a beautifully and inspiring book that I cannot wait to share with you in the upcoming series called The Taunting giant & The Mighty God, hoping it can do to you as much good as is did to my soul. Until then, you can get this book from Barnes and Nobles (where I got mine from), online and/or in any other store where it is sold. I truly think it is a staple that any christian needs, one of those books that should be found in the vicinity of where you read/study your Bible. It is a definite five stars for me and I am sure that as I write this series and long after, it will be one of those books I will reach for.

It's all for today's edition of Underneath The Cover!

See you soon and may God keep you safe, grant you strength to get through what you are going through and turn what you think are defeats into victories and testimonies.

Until then,

The Happiness Fairy

👸

In The Midst Of The Heartbreak

A broken heart can be disheartening (no pun intended) but not as much as ministering with a broken heart. Life has been challenging lately and the reason why this article is coming up late is because I couldn’t find words to write, words to say in order to bring hope, light and minister the way I have always done and the way I started doing it this year particularly (if you have been following me for a while you will know what I am talking about). So I sat down, trying to process my emotions but truly my own heartbreaks, trying to write something, anything. But nothing felt “good enough” to be shared here. But most importantly, nothing sounded real. All the words that I penned down felt like a lie and if I could not identify with it, then certainly people that come here for solace or really just to find something to carry on, would definitely not identify/ relate to it. So I stopped. I prayed and I waited for my heart to settle and for a solid word of encouragement to step on and start building from and here we are today. So if you made it to this article welcome [back] and thank you for your patience. 

When people think of ministering, the first thought that comes to their mind is church: preaching, being a pastor and/or hitting those high notes on the choir rehearsal. But ministering really goes beyond the pulpit or the church as a building or a community. Ministering is about God AND the use of the gifts that you have received. And one of my gift is writing. If you have ever been to that space where everything just feels like a constant struggle, where you barely get away with making it day by day when it come to the things life throws your way and if you are as passionate and creative about what you do, then you know how disheartening it can be to not be able to tap into your God-given gifts to inspire/ bring light to people around you. Ministering with a broken heart is hard: when you can’t deliver, when you feel stuck and can’t move, when the taunting voice of Goliath drowns the echo of your faith and the word of God in your heart and you feel defeated, unsure of whether or not you will make it. It is hard. But God is bigger and He is the one who delivers us with a mighty hand. 

So how do you minister with a broken heart? 

First you go to God and you give it all to Him. Jesus has called us in Matthew 11:28 to come to Him and He will give us rest. So you really, you just go to God: for all the things that just seem to be too much, too painful, too big and too heavy to carry; and you exchange all those heavy burdens for His peace and His rest. He is the only one that can lift up our burdens and lighten our daily load. And Peter in 1 Peter 5:7 is as inviting as is Jesus to go God because He is a a good father than can care for us in ways nobody else would. As you go to God to cast all your cares on Him, you ask Him to give you strength and carry you through whatever it is that you are going through. God can allow some things to come your way but He will ALWAYS - and trust me when I say ALWAYS- show up when you need him and deliver you (Ps 34:19). And God will give you strength to carry on if you rely on Him and Him alone (Ps 55:22). And there is a reason for it: God’s riches supply is unlimited (Eph 3:16) while as human you grow tired and weary. God is the only one who can renew our strengths and keep us going when, to any human being, it seems impossible to overcome some of the difficulties that we may encounter in life. Our ability to overcome will directly depend on our ability to tap into God’s unlimited resources by going to Him. All we have to do is to ask 

The next thing to do is arm yourself with patience. A heartbreak doesn’t heal overnight and sometimes it can take a while for God to work through our situations and/or mess. You have to be patient as God perfects His work in your heart and your life. I have come to understand in the various situations and circumstances that have happen during my walk with God that He is the master of time and timing. He is not moved by time or our feelings of being out of time: He moves on his own timing and yet, is never out of time. So if He is never out of time and if perfection – which is defined here by the work of God in our lives- takes time, then there is no need to rush. The end will always be the same: God always wins. 

Last but not least, as we constantly go to God exchanging our burdens for his light load our strengths being renewed every day and patiently wait on Him, it is necessary for us to keep our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. We have to keep our eyes on him because if we don’t, we go back to square one. Why? When we are not looking at him, we are looking at all the things going wrong, and then we get into our feelings and the healing time starts to feel longer and before we know we are looking for something else (or someone else) to heal things, deal with things or mend the things that can only be healed by, dealt with and mended by God. And I know because I have been there. The end sight is not pretty and the consequences and delays are never worth it. Now will all of this be easy? Absolutely not! There will be things and people and situations that will test at least one (if not all) of those things mentioned above. There will be taunting giants trying to discourage you and there will be your flesh and your feelings and your thoughts standing in the way of your healing, restoration and breakthrough. But the good news is they need not win. And if you truly dwell in the Lord and keep your eyes on Him for all and everything, He will get you through it. 

Hoping this blessed someone and if you are going through some difficult times, know that things get better and they will because God always wins. Always.

So You Think You Can Write?

New week, new day, new challenges to conquer and of course: a new post. If you are new here welcome and if you are one of the tribe, faithfully creeping on the blog every over week to read the new post that goes up: welcome back. The past few weeks have been very interesting and eventful hence, the lateness with which is post is going online. Taking a break from the emotionally and spiritually heavy stuff to talk about a passion of mine, the very one that led me to creating this blog in the first place: writing. Today, I want to share with you my experience and the tips that helped me when I wrote my first book this past November. Saying those words, reading them, thinking them still sounds/feels as weird as it did when I first finished writing that book and I am still getting used to it. 

Let me start by saying that I have always had a love for letters, ever since I was a kid. I had a passion for books and words which kind of explain why on so many occasions I was told that I talked too much (many years ago. This statement doesn’t apply anymore as I have learned to use my words sparingly and only when needed). I used to read a lot as a kid and actually started writing when I was thirteen. Nothing really serious: occasional stuff here and there, mostly poetry. And then I transitioned to writing fiction stories. Again, light stuff to keep creativity going and entertain my classmates during breaks and empty hours in middle school. Then life happened, shit hit the fan and I went from writing fiction to writing my heart and feelings away in a similar fashion than I do on this blog. Fast forward a few years later: I created this blog with the encouragements of my person (my sister💖) and a few of my close friends.

I know you are telling yourself “well this is all great and fluffy and cute but how did you actually come up with the idea of writing a book?” Well it didn't actually "just happen". I had been curating that project for years however, I couldn’t seem to find the time, motivation or even words to get started. But then something really magical happened last year: I found out about a movement called NANOWRIMO which stands for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. Every year in November hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world take on the challenge to write a novel of at least fifty thousand words in thirty days. Sounds crazy? Well that’s because it is. The idea behind it is not to win or meet the fifty thousand words: the idea is for you to get started on that book you have always wanted to write and have a support group of struggling randos to do it with so that you don’t feel that desperate, lost and clueless. Sounds weird? It is. But take it from a participant: it is a fun as it is weird. Misery loves company. Writing a fifty thousand words novel is the only time were this say will not make you feel bad at all.
I jumped on the NANOWRIMO wagon last November and ended up writing my fifty thousand words the day before the challenge was supposed to end. I guess that qualify as being a winner but it’s beside the point (still worth mentioning though). So today I am sharing the tips that I found helpful in writing a fifty thousand words novel in thirty days. So without further due let’s get into in.

Tips #1: Have a plan 

Don’t just jump into nanowrimo thinking you’re going to wing it. You won’t. Unless you are some kind of writing guru/god/goddess or your creativity just flows non-stop in a way that can make a novel make sense. If yes, good for you! If you are not any of these just plan ahead. The week before the nanowrimo challenge is actually dedicated to brainstorming ideas and lining up your plot, your characters and the overall make up of your novel. Don’t squander that week: use it or you might end up regretting it later. 

Note: It is okay to have something lined up before the challenge starts and actually change your mind. It happens. It happened with me: I started off with a fiction novel with a solid plot, characters and a story already lined up. But my heart wanted something else: my heart wanted the book I was longing for for so many years. So two weeks into the nanowrimo challenge, I ditched my fiction novel and went for a memoir and I absolutely do not regret it. It is okay to change your mind and start over but if you do, just make sure which way you are heading. Everything doesn’t have to be planned down to the “t” but have a general sense of what you want your final product to look like and work from there. 

Tip #2: Do not panic 😱

I will finish you mere mortal *insert evil laugh*

Panic has a weird way of messing up with your creativity. I have been there: I know what it feels like when your brain start turning into mush because you think “fifty thousand words, thirty days… What on God green's earth was I thinking?!” If this is your first time, you will come to that realization a few days before of after the challenge and it will hit you like a brick on the head and, if you’re anything like me, you might have a panic attack and start hyperventilating and then everything you had planned will just go down the drain. Just breathe and know that you will be okay. It sounds overwhelming but it can be done with a little organization and a lot of motivation from your part. Leading me to my next tip. 

Tip #3: Plan for a set amount of time to write in the day ⌚

If you want to do this you need to have some kind of organizational skills going on here. Do not try winging this otherwise it will get ugly really fast. Have a set amount of time during which you plan on writing. Every day. It doesn’t have to be long but it has to exist. That is how you get it done and make sure that you write something during that time. A word. A phrase. A sentence. A paragraph. A page. Just write something. A little bit goes a long way. I have had times where I didn’t feel like writing a word and next thing I knew, I was down on my third page with two more pages to go and I had to just shut everything off and go to bed because I had to be up the next morning going to work. Now I know it sounds difficult sometimes to do that. I know it very well because when I was writing that memoir, I was involved in the organization of a wedding, it was busy season at work and on top of that my work hours require me to be up at 4 am in order to be on time because my commute is two hours long each way. So really the last thing you want to do it is write when you are exhausted and all you want to do is sleep. But I did find a way to squeeze into my day a quiet time to put in my daily words. 

Note: Life happens. Things don’t always go according to plan. Be flexible. If you missed a day it’s okay: just jump back on the wagon and pick up where you left at. Make up for that time that you missed and perhaps, pick up the pace to meet your missed day goal as well as the goal for the day you get back on track 

Tip #4: Write everywhere, whenever you can 🌏

On top of the set writing time that I had, I was writing everywhere, whenever I had a chance. If you are a fan of having a physical notebook, invest in a good one and whenever you get an idea write it down. If you don’t have your notebook or if you find that notebooks are not practical, you can do what I did: write notes on your phones and at the end of the day (or when you are ready to write) send them to yourself by email. That is how I did it. I wrote everywhere: on the train, during lunch break, on the bus, in an Uber ,etc… As soon as I had a moment + an idea I got into the zone and wrote it so that I did not forget them. 

Tip #5: Just write ✍

The fifty thousand words novel that you write during the nanowrimo challenge is meant to be your rough draft. Not the final one. It will be the foundation you will build on to get that polished, glorious book of yours that you will parade around. So of course it will be just that: rough. Don’t be too concerned or obsessed with the fact that you have way too many typos or that your story doesn’t make sense. You will have an opportunity to refine your work during the “What now?” months (January and February I think) but during the nanowrimo your only goal should be to write as much as you can. Resist the urge to go back and edit. I know I had to fight that urge every single minute. And I did not work on my chapters in a particular order. And to be honest, to this day (five months later), the order of my chapters is still changing. I have added some things and taken some things away because I am that much of a perfectionist and some little things bug me that much. Point is: just put those words in and you will worry about everything else later. 

Tip #6: Writer’s block happens: Push through it.

I have been blogging for six years and writing for fourteen so I am very familiar with writer's blocks. It doesn’t freak me out as much as it used to (still does though… a little bit). It won’t always be nice and easy to write and inspiration won’t always flow easily. Sometimes you will feel stuck and frustrated but when you do, you don’t get stuck there: you have to push through it. Remember tip #5? That’s when you’ll need it the most. Write something. The more you will dig and write those words, the higher your chances at finding gold will be. And perhaps the words/ ideas you will get from pushing through your writer’s block will be better than the ones you thought were great. It has happened before so don’t let a writer’s block stop you and keep you from greatness: believe in yourself and believe that you can get past it. And you will. 

Tip #7: Take a break 👯: Eat a kitkat (or not) 

You do not have to eat a kit-kat but you will definitely need a break and snacks. Now... Your amount of sleep might be limited if like me you are caught in ten thousands different things. But you absolutely need a break when writing. A break is to your brain what rebooting is to your computer: you need a break to refresh your mind, give your eyes a break and avoid that hand cramp (if you actually like writing with a pen on paper or a typing machine. I'd love me one of those...). It might seem like a waste of time but it will actually make you more efficient and motivated (sometimes). Take a break. Do something else. Get your mind totally off that novel for a few minutes (or hours) and come back with new ideas and a new perspective. Just DON"T PROCRASTINATE and you'll end up on the dark playground. You don't want to be there. It's not worth it. I know because I play there EVERY SINGLE DAY to my dismay. It's fun for a minute then it turns dark: just like the name indicates. Don't do it. 

Tip #8: Write with people (if you can) 

Get together with other struggling writers and watch your confidence level go sky high. Sounds bad but it's comforting. And I am very sorry if anybody is reading this thinking "what a jerk". I am truly sorry but desperate situations call for desperate measures. Not only will your confidence level go up but you will be able to motivate each other and actually putting your brains together might bring about new ideas for your book. When I was doing the NANOWRIMO challenge, I attended write-ins with other people. We were provided with free snacks (wait… whet? 👀) and on top of that you get to meet great people and hear all about what they are writing about (some stories were really interesting) So I highly recommend that you attend a write-in if you can. If you can’t NANOWRIMO has forums gathering the people writing the same genre you are writing. So it is also definitely a place to go if you need a pick me up. 

Tip #9: Don’t be intimidated 

This is your journey. You are the only one who gets to set the pace. Some people are natural at writing, for some others it’s a struggle. Some people are neat and organized and some others are a total mess but there’s a method to the madness. Whichever category you find yourself in, do not be intimidated. Do your own thing and stay in your line. And last but not the least...

Tip# 10: Have fun 😎

Oh em gee! Just have fun with it. When you get all wrapped up and caught up in the idea that you need to win, that’s the time where you need to back up, take a breather and remind yourself that there is nothing here to "win" (except a certificate) Well technically you get a chance to get your book published later on (if you want) but that’s not the point of it. The point is to write and get your creativity on and have fun doing it. My memoir wasn’t always fun to write because it was emotionally supercharged and some days it fell like I was reopening old wounds to pour out some wisdom and share my life experience. But nonetheless I had fun with the whole process. It was madness from day one to the end but it was so much fun and if you don’t even meet the fifty thousand words mark and get to “win”, you should at least be able to look back with fondness and say : “I had so much fun and I would do it again” 

A little bit of a lengthy article but this is in a nutshell my experience and my tips for anybody willing to participate into a NANOWRIMO event or even write a book. Some people I know have mentioned that they would love to read the book but I am still in the editing stages. I poured so much of myself, my story , my heart and my emotions into it that reading and editing that book feels like reliving some of the things I talked about. So I am taking my time to not be too overwhelmed but also to pull back when I need to in order to override my brain and remind it that I do not dwell in those emotional places anymore because some days, those emotions feel very real. I am anticipating doing another NANOWRIMO this year and I am hoping it will be easier this year but you never know. The same things can sometimes come with different levels of challenges. So we will see. If it is something you would be interest in doing leave a comment or reach out by email and I would be happy to connect with you. 

If you have made it to the end: congratulations and thank you for taking your precious time to read through this article. Whoever you are reading this, you motivate me to want to write and get better at my craft. So thank you. 

Until next time, 

The Happiness Fairy 👸

P.S: Want to know more about the NANOWRIMO movement? Click here. Happy browsing 😊

When Church Hurts: [Personal] Tips To Reverse It And Overcome The Spirit Of Offense

Another week, another article: welcome back to the blog and if you are new, welcome. For today’s article, I thought about bouncing back from Less is More, using a few more stories from the Bible that I like but at the last minute, I just switched. I switched because although less is more speaks directly to some of the situations I am going through right now and to the posture of my heart for 2018, the topic that I want to discuss today has been one that I am still learning to apply into my life. Today we will talk a little bit about church hurt and some of the key things you have to understand in order to hopefully recover from it and if not, at least be on your way to recovery.

Walking the walk of Christianity is one of the most difficult thing you will ever do in life. It will be difficult because of the nature of the walk, the efforts and the sacrifices it requires, but more so because it has two components: a personal walk with your Lord and Savior Jesus as well as a walk as part of the body of Christ. So not only are we talking about the Church body of Christ but also the church as a community. So to open this article, let’s first dive into a story that I like a lot and that was not long ago brought up from another angle by Pastor Charles Metcalf from Transformation Church. Let’s look at the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10: 29-37

“ Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’”

Although I mentioned the whole story, here I am only interested in verses 33-34. When pastor Metcalf preached on this beautiful story, he revealed a truth that I had never perceived before in this story. He revealed the truth of the church being the Inn the Jewish man was left at. When we come from the world to Jesus (the good Samaritan), we come with all kinds of hurt and not necessarily Church appropriate behaviors/personalities that He started soothing, bandaged but that have not healed yet. And sometimes, when we do not carefully manage ourselves or if someone does something inadvertently, the wounds can reopen and start bleeding again. Let’s consider that we are all in that Jewish man's condition: we carry all kind of “hurts” and “sicknesses” that are being taken care of and some of the inappropriate behaviors that are being displayed in church can be categorized as such. The first step in overcoming or attempting a recovery from church hurt is understanding that we are all “sick” as we are all being checked-in at the Inn. Being sick and/or hurt might not be physical: it could be an emotional and/or psychological trauma that has altered our vision and perception of ourselves and others,  leading us to display inappropriate behaviors and say inappropriate things that hurt people. Jesus said in Mark 2: 17

“Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

So being all gathered at the Inn, we are waiting to be visited by the doctor. When you go to the doctor or the emergency room, even if another patient in the waiting room misbehaves and upsets you, knowing the person is in pain just like you should diminish the intensity of your response. It will not excuse it or justify it but at some point you might catch yourself saying : “well… maybe if I was in that much pain or in that position, I would react that way”. Sometimes people say "but they do it for no apparent reason" or , "they’re just jealous", "they’re just envious, evil, liars…" remember those are all heart and/or mental conditions and both qualify as sicknesses. Another thing worth mentioning is that just because you can’t see someone else’s disease doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Sometimes there is a disease but it takes time to figure out what it is so give it time and be understanding and above all do not judge them. So when you know you condition and other people's condition at the Inn (aka the Church as the Body of Christ AND the community), you really can’t be mad at someone who is acting out of their illness. So the first step to overcome/ recover/ attempt a recovery from church hurt can be summed up in this : we all have some kind of illness (emotional, behavioral, psychological) and we all at the Inn, with our respective conditions to be taken care of and some people (more than others) are most likely to act out of their illnesses. Don't take it personally.

The second tip that I have found helpful in overcoming the hurt and the spirit of offense is keeping your eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of your faith (Heb 12:2). Another story I really like and enjoy reading in the Bible and that really speaks volume about the importance of keeping your eyes on Jesus is found in Matthew 14:22-31. It is the story about Peter walking on water. As long as Peter had his eyes on Jesus he was fine. The minute he started looking at everything happening around him, his faith started to fade and fear kicked in: he started sinking. The walk with Christ is a personal one which value is accrued by being around other Christians. But being in community will bring a lot of frictions and tension sometimes because we are all coming from different cultures, traditions or background and [again] we each one have our own conditions. If like Peter, you start (and keep) looking at those things and you let your gaze go left to right, noticing every single wrong doing happening and looking at every single detail of inappropriate behaviors around you, your walk toward Jesus will be hindered. The result will be that you will start sinking. Getting caught up in the mundane behaviors and things that happen in church will only pull you down if you meet people at the level a which they come to you to hurt you, frustrate you, humiliate or break you. Overcoming hurt and the spirit of offense calls for your ability to keep your eyes on Jesus so that you can rise and stay afloat. When you keep your eyes on Jesus you don’t have time for distractions. You don’t have time to look into people’s behaviors. And if you don’t have time for this, your faith and commitment to Christ or the Church (the Body of Christ) cannot be crushed or threatened because you are there for Jesus only and it’s all that matters. But how to you keep and sustain your gaze solely on Jesus? You pray and ask God to help you keep your eyes and focus on Him because if you rely on your own strength you will fail and go from church to church or abandon faith/ your walk with Christ altogether. After asking God for strength, you surrender your heart, mind and emotions to Him and as you do the two above you stay rooted into the Word of God. The more you exercise yourself to these things, the more your spirit will grow and the less you will feel tempted to throw a brick at those coming to you with stick and stone. The more you will practice those things, the more you will allow for the love of God and his Spirit to fill you. When the love of God fills your heart, you have no space for anything else, for no other feelings that is not attached or rooted in love. Being a lover of God and His Word is where it all starts.

The third tip (which is more like tip 2b) is this one : stay in your lane. Recently, I took some time to meditate on the Gospels and study them a little bit and I came upon that verse in John 21:20 which was in a sense a clap back from Jesus *😱*. Jesus had appeared to a few of his disciples for the third time and after eating they were casually talking. And Jesus of course was talking of things to come regarding some of the disciples He was with. And then Peter looked at “the disciple Jesus loved the most” and asked Jesus:

“What about him, Lord?” Jesus replied, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? As for you, follow me.”

In the Black Living Translation the equivalent would be : MIND YO’ BUSINESS and STAY IN YOUR LANE. Major clap back from Jesus HIMSELF?! When you are busy doing what the Lord has called you to do, invested heart, mind soul and spirit, you will not have time to clap back at people because you are too busy with God stuff. You got your eyes on the author and finisher of your faith and you know where God has called you to be. So no matter what people do, if you go to God saying “but what about them? What about what they did?” God’s answer will still be the same “ Stay in your lane. Do what I have called you to do” and you better trust and believe that when you will be busy serving God, doing what He has called you to do, STAYING IN YOUR LANE despite the hurt, humiliation brought onto you, God will clap back for you! He hasn’t called you to clap back. He has called you to do his work and be who he wants you to be. People’s actions say a lot about them so you clapping back and doing them the way they do you says nothing about them but more about the kind of person that you are. So are you like the people who hurt you?  Or are you becoming the person God wants you to be? And if you are, are you going to trash all that in order to let anger and pettiness win? It will not turn out well.

When you know God. When you know He is the one to right every wrong. When you know that He is the one who said :

“ I will take revenge; I will pay them back. In due time their feet will slip. Their day of disaster will arrive, and their destiny will overtake them” (Deut 32:35),

no matter how long it takes, you KNOW that YOUR GOD will clap back for you and vindicate you. So you ain’t worried about seeking revenge because God will do that for you. Instead what you do is pray to release the hurt and frustration by surrendering it unto God and you keep moving forward leaning on God for the strength to carry on.

Church hurt is very real but so is God and so is His love and healing and his ability to clap back in His own time. So if you are going through, have been through that, just know that God is there. We aren’t perfect and friction happens but if you are truly doing God’s work with all your heart, giving your all, know that one day no matter how long it takes God will reward you for your good deed and also reward those who did you wrong for their deeds (if they are bringing sorrows your way purposefully). To you God is saying “As for you, follow me”. So keep your eyes on Jesus and follow Him and let nothing come between you and Him because at the end of the day, each one of us will stand for him/herself before God, and the only actions/deeds we will be accountable for are our own. So don’t let someone else’s “illness” or behavior make you stumble.

Hope this helped and encouraged someone.
Until next time,
The Happiness Fairy 👸

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