growth – KARLA LEES

are your roots showing?

August 7, 2015August 7, 2015 Karla Lees

I recently has to get my hair done.
Because I have very curly hair, i can’t always tell when my roots begin to show, until they are pretty bad. Like over an inch or two.

Because I am transitioning back to my natural dark ash blonde, (which is actually a lighter brown but the boxes & color wheels say is dark ash blonde, so I guess technically I am still a blonde!) now that I had a lot of roots showing, I needed a new game plan. Where am I headed now? More highlights & lowlights to keep transitioning with each cut, or dye my whole head to match the roots, then add a few highlights for fun.

I went with option b. Because I am not ashamed of my roots. I like the color, and want to work with the body I’ve got.

How long are your roots?

Are they subtle and barely noticeable, or obvious to everyone who sees you?

Are they hidden because of how you carry yourself?

The roots to which I am now referring?

Your rootedness in God.

Do you spend more quality time with Him than anyone else you are in relationship with?

Can other people tell you are depending on Him in your day to day life?

Can you remain standing when the storm hits?

God is unshakeably dependable, our Rock of Ages. Nothing shocks Him, ever. Nothing can move Him out of His position as Lord over all.

There is living water & wisdom to feed the souls of those who dig deep and draw close to Him.

And the closer you get, the deeper you become His, and the more He steadies you.

So unlike your hair, these roots are the ones we want to be visible in our lives.

We want Him to look at us and see we are standing on His Word, trusting in His ways, and seeking Him in every moment.

We want roots so deep we are constantly strengthened by Him, grounded in His Promises, & in His Presence.

May we look beyond the superficial, find the courage to let our root grow, and not be afraid to let them show.

womb with a view

December 20, 2014December 20, 2014 Karla Lees

This title would not let me go:
Womb with a view.

What else would you call it?

Jesus, one third of the Trinity,
enfolded His divinity
with the help of Holy Spirit
and became flesh,
bone & blood
in a virgin’s womb.

Wow.

Just that action, a flash of a nanomoment in human time, sent shockwaves out across the universe & heaven in an act intended to rock all known existence.

God with us, on His way.

That is mind boggling enough, but here is where I am drawn today…. and maybe, just maybe you might be too.

Jesus, full of Holy Spirit and yet fully human, in the womb.

Could He chat with God from in there?

Could He hear His Father’s voice in the womb?

If so, the womb takes on a whole new significance with Jesus within.

Children in the womb take on the mix of their parents’ traits while developing.

Was Jesus growing with any of Joseph’s physical traits?

Because I suspect after all the shock Joseph has already gone through, and might be up ahead as the father of the Messiah, God would have made Jesus look like Joseph. Not 100%, as with any newborn, but enough that Joseph would wonder again at the miracle, and his heart would be melted towards His son. Maybe his nose, or build…

Because God chose Joseph to raise His son, I have to believe His compassion would be for Jesus to resemble His earthly father, enough for tongues not to wag too much about His parenthood.

I wonder how much of Mary was already visible in the baby in her womb? Did He already have her heart for worship? Her eyes?

We know Jesus was fully human & God from the second that creation spark started Him growing in the womb.

We just don’t know what that looked like, really, as He grew there.

I believe He would have had a sensitivity to learning about His earthly parents while inside. Prayed for them on the hard days, rejoiced with them in the moments of celebration.

I wonder if He tried not to kick Mary too hard as they traveled to Bethlehem.

I wonder if He prayed for a smooth delivery, for God to be with Him in the shock of entering the world, for angelic protection as He did.

All we know: Jesus was fully human, and fully God, all in one miraculous present.

And somehow, God would have worked out all those details of human appearance intertwining with Godly character in the arrival of Jesus.

Who is still in the womb on His way to Bethlehem.

While we may wonder at the view He had in the womb, how He was born of Mary and all God all rolled into one tiny baby is a fact!

#AdventuresinAdvent continue 😉

baby talk

October 24, 2014October 24, 2014 Karla Lees

There is no sound quite like hearing an infant gurgle, coo & spout gibberish. The joy they get simply from making noise, chattering away as only a baby can.

When we are young in the faith, everything can seem awesome, wonderful, amazing.

Bright eyed with fresh wonder, we can sound like babies with our repetitive ooooohing and ohhhhing.

But just as babies are meant to learn to talk, walk and grow up, so are we in the faith meant to move past worldly things and grow deeper in our spiritual lives.

Babies need to learn the world doesn’t revolve around them, that self is not the center of the universe – God is.

Babies were also designed to start off with simple nourishment, until they develop teeth and the need for more solid food to build their bodies as God designed them to.

So are we, those who are no longer new to the faith, meant to chew on the Word, to grow as we we are designed to in our walk with God.

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NIV

We aren’t meant to stay infants in the faith. Although it is tempting to stay immature, Holy Spirit is calling us to become holier, faithfully pursuing all He has for us…a full meal versus the easy diet the world offers.

I am tired of fast food.

I crave the banquet God has waiting for me, for you, for all who follow Him.

The Message version of the above verse takes a slightly different slant on this topic:

But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way?

The Christian walk isn’t meant for us to just enter through its door, and stay there… content with being just inside enough, yet still close enough to be swayed by the world we are meant to be in but not of any longer.

We are known by how we feed our inner selves. Is your diet full of worldly pleasures or heaven’s treasures?

There are always growing pains as we stretch, try new foods and begin to mature.

I would rather dislike the taste of the food God has for me, but keep eating it than to stick with what I have outgrown long ago, despite the comfort I may get from it.

I will close with a brief example.

I love the classics like Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott & L.M.Montgomery. Well written observations of the world around interesting characters who jump off the page and into my imagination. I have spent many an afternoon & evening with them over the years, and still do.

A voracious reader, I allowed my desire for something new to cloud my discernment, and downloaded a few popular books by current well known authors. Not ones who write faith based content.

And was not amused by the resulting language and R rated descriptions I uncovered.

By not checking reviews before I opened those covers, I was lured into what could have been a disaster for my reading habits.

I countered by asking God’s forgiveness, and making a conscious decision to not just read the Word every day, but to interact with it. Ponder it over, write down what it stirred inside me, pray about the areas it revealed I need help with, and worship Him for who He is revealed in the Word. Say no to the light weight reading, and say yes to wrestling with what really matters.

That was a mature response.

An immature one could have been keeping on playing with temptation, justifying the reading as research as I am a writer, and avoid learning from my mistake.

We don’t grow unless we try something new.

Add more to your diet than just the milk of immaturity.

Ask Him where you need to mature to deepen, and allow Holy Spirit to take root and grow in your life.

You may still crave milk from time to time, but I suspect the banquet He has for you will set your taste buds on fire.

And instead of baby talk, we will be modeling wisdom, maturity and Holy Spirit to those around us. We will have a deeper foundation to help us stand in the storms yet to come.

What the world needs more of isn’t people who are content to just be…but those who can’t stop being all He had for us to be, with His help.