The heart of a warrior is what I'm after. And this week, I've learned that the heart of a warrior must be honest and it must choose to be humble, even when it feels humiliating.
In the past few days, I've had to look at myself in the mirror and say, "This is what actually happened, Heidi. This is the real reason; this is what has been going on all along. Plain and simple - you're scared."
While reading a book for my creative writing class entitled, "The War of Art," I ran across a small paragraph. It was as if this small paragraph was a mirror that the book held up in order to show me myself.
The paragraph said this:
"What are we trying to heal, anyway? The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt."
He has to play hurt.
It was a wake-up to reality for me.
It was a kick-in-the-rear to stop blaming, stop rationalizing to myself, stop making excuses, and stop waiting for my emotional hurts to be all healed and fixed in order to move forward in something that I still want to do.
Maybe outside factors actually were a part of making one of my biggest joys turn into one of my biggest fears.
But a warrior can't always, if ever, choose the conditions in which he fights his battles. He must simply fight with no excuses. The conditions around him, or perhaps, even the conditions inside his own heart, may make things more difficult, but he still must choose to fight.
It's time for me to step up and start facing one of my biggest fears and not waiting until all the wounds are healed because waiting for complete healing has simply become an excuse for procrastination.
It's time to play hurt.
What about YOU? Do you ever rationalize your fears?
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Finishing Strong
I'm currently sitting at the curved, bamboo counter of the busy Starbucks on Main Street in Huntington Beach.
An empty cup, which ten minutes ago was filled with my tall-soy-chai-latte-with-no-foam, sits to my left.
To my right sits another individual fixated upon his laptop. He was just talking on his cell phone with someone in either Florida or Haiti...I couldn't pick up on the definitive details to determine which location it actually was. (Not that it was any of my business....)
I am writing a blog post right now but I should be writing a first-grade lesson plan. I am in the middle of my LAST college class and this week I am supposed to create a lesson plan to teach to 1st graders for the daily math and daily language. I'm looking forward to teaching the lesson and working with those adorable 1st graders that I've had chance to spend time with the last few Thursdays but I don't want to sit for an hour and type up all the formal explanations of what I will be doing in that half-hour of teaching.
I can hear my mom saying, "Dreading is worse than doing...."
I can hear my dad saying, "Finish Strong, Heidi! Finish strong!"
"You're right, Mom."
"I will, Dad."
Come on, Heidi. Just half a class left! Four more weeks of assignments and textbook readings and tests. Four more weeks of writing and proof-reading paragraphs and hitting the "submit" button to turn in my papers.
Four weeks to being DONE.
And just three months to walking across that field in cap and gown and receiving that slip of paper that documents my six-year pursuit of a college degree.
Three more months until I offically have a Bachelor of Science in Education.
I cannot wait.
Ok, I'm gonna get to writing that lesson plan now.
It's time to Finish Strong!
An empty cup, which ten minutes ago was filled with my tall-soy-chai-latte-with-no-foam, sits to my left.
To my right sits another individual fixated upon his laptop. He was just talking on his cell phone with someone in either Florida or Haiti...I couldn't pick up on the definitive details to determine which location it actually was. (Not that it was any of my business....)
I am writing a blog post right now but I should be writing a first-grade lesson plan. I am in the middle of my LAST college class and this week I am supposed to create a lesson plan to teach to 1st graders for the daily math and daily language. I'm looking forward to teaching the lesson and working with those adorable 1st graders that I've had chance to spend time with the last few Thursdays but I don't want to sit for an hour and type up all the formal explanations of what I will be doing in that half-hour of teaching.
I can hear my mom saying, "Dreading is worse than doing...."
I can hear my dad saying, "Finish Strong, Heidi! Finish strong!"
"You're right, Mom."
"I will, Dad."
Come on, Heidi. Just half a class left! Four more weeks of assignments and textbook readings and tests. Four more weeks of writing and proof-reading paragraphs and hitting the "submit" button to turn in my papers.
Four weeks to being DONE.
And just three months to walking across that field in cap and gown and receiving that slip of paper that documents my six-year pursuit of a college degree.
Three more months until I offically have a Bachelor of Science in Education.
I cannot wait.
Ok, I'm gonna get to writing that lesson plan now.
It's time to Finish Strong!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Returning...
It has been too long since I have posted!
It feels good to once again hit the "New Post" button and start typing in a blank text box.
Tonight, as it is 10:30, (and my original goal was to be asleep earlier than my normal 10:00 hour and be in bed by 9:30), will not be yielding an in-depth post.
However, I just had to come back to this little spot on the Internet after nearly a month.
Many lovely, lovely things have occured in my life! So many lessons to glean, stories to tell, and experiences to share. Some difficult and stretching experiences have occured as well and the lessons I continue to learn from those experiences always produce the gold that the furnace of the Refiner's fire promises.
2011 has truly been shaping up to be a year of training for me - the training of a Warrior. This One Word has truly proven to not be a mere idea but a true foundation for the work that God is doing in my heart and mind and life.
I think about how that word relates to my identity on a daily basis.
I have a growing playlist on my iPhone with songs that have themes of being a Christian Warrior (and I could always use new song suggestions!)
When confronted with decisions that make me want to hide, ignore, or pretend ignorance of a situation, I cannot escape the question in my head "What would a Warrior do?"
It's truly been a season of growing in strength. It seems, at least to me, that most of that has all been internal work. I'm not sure how much it shows externally in my attitudes and actions but I'm confident of the work taking place because I can feel my King is guiding me through it.
How has the beginning month-and-a-half of 2011 been going for YOU? Did you pick a OneWord for this year? Or do you see any themes taking shape in your life lately?
It feels good to once again hit the "New Post" button and start typing in a blank text box.
Tonight, as it is 10:30, (and my original goal was to be asleep earlier than my normal 10:00 hour and be in bed by 9:30), will not be yielding an in-depth post.
However, I just had to come back to this little spot on the Internet after nearly a month.
Many lovely, lovely things have occured in my life! So many lessons to glean, stories to tell, and experiences to share. Some difficult and stretching experiences have occured as well and the lessons I continue to learn from those experiences always produce the gold that the furnace of the Refiner's fire promises.
2011 has truly been shaping up to be a year of training for me - the training of a Warrior. This One Word has truly proven to not be a mere idea but a true foundation for the work that God is doing in my heart and mind and life.
I think about how that word relates to my identity on a daily basis.
I have a growing playlist on my iPhone with songs that have themes of being a Christian Warrior (and I could always use new song suggestions!)
When confronted with decisions that make me want to hide, ignore, or pretend ignorance of a situation, I cannot escape the question in my head "What would a Warrior do?"
It's truly been a season of growing in strength. It seems, at least to me, that most of that has all been internal work. I'm not sure how much it shows externally in my attitudes and actions but I'm confident of the work taking place because I can feel my King is guiding me through it.
How has the beginning month-and-a-half of 2011 been going for YOU? Did you pick a OneWord for this year? Or do you see any themes taking shape in your life lately?
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