Sundi Jo Graham's Blog, page 39

Jesus at the Gay Pride Parade

Gay pride parades. They’ve been around for years – since 1970 actually, when the first parade hit the streets of New York City.

Photo Credit: -Marlith- via Compfight cc

I’ve never been to a gay pride parade before, but I want to go. Why? Not because I’m eager to see drag queens (I’ve seen the shows plenty of times back in the day), or rainbow flags parading the street. I want to see people. True, genuine people who are fighting for something they believe in, whether it’s right or wrong.

I imagine there will be plenty of “Christian” activists on the streets as well, chanting their fair share of lingo as the LGBT community yell out their slogans as well.

I picture this in my mind, and maybe I’m over analyzing. If I were to go to the Gay Pride parade, where would I stand? In the streets with the gogo dancers or on the other side of the street with the Christians.

I would have to choose neither. I don’t want to stand up for a cause that doesn’t line up with God’s Word, but I also don’t want to stand up with a religious cause that doesn’t stand up to God’s Word, like staring at Bill and Bob holding hands with contempt in my heart because of their lifestyle choice, while my own life is in shambles because my sin is different and not as present.

I don’t want to stand with a big chunk of wood in my eye and preach Bible verses to real people because that’s what we’re “supposed to do.”

But aren’t we supposed to something?

Yes we are. We are to love as Jesus loved, just like he said in John 13:34. We are to love with grace and truth the way Jesus did.

If Jesus were at the gay pride parade, would he hold a sign and chant? (tweet that)

So, what can we do as Christians? Randy Thomas, Executive Vice President of Exodus International, couldn’t have said it any better.

Leave the little tracts and testimonies on brightly colored paper at home. Don’t make any signs quoting the Old Testament and look to do acts of service instead of bullhorn evangelism.

Guess what? Jesus can be at the gay pride parade. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then He is in you. And according to Ephesians 2:10, we were created in Christ Jesus to do good works. So, lets do it.

Pass out water to thirsty people standing for a cause. Smile. Trust the Lord to provide His light to the world through you.

Randy wrote an amazing blog the other today that gives some great ideas on how to put labels on your water, invite the LGBT community to church, and more. Check it out here.

Let’s stop pretending and actually love like Jesus loved. Who’s with me? Leave a comment below…

Green Vegetable Soup [Recipe]

I’ve been enjoying making new recipes lately.

Since I’ve stopped taking my prescribed medication, I’m realizing that food is a huge factor in my physical healing. In order to continue healing, I have to be aware of what I’m eating. Another post about this to come later.

When I came across this green vegetable soup recipe from Joe Cross, I knew I had to try it out. I’m so glad I did and I can’t wait to make it again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

photo credit: joe cross

So.. I kinda forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I stole/borrowed this picture fro Joe Cross’s website. Don’t let the looks deceive you. The soup was delicious!

    Print This!    

Green Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Devo Roasted Garlic Olive Oil
2 Leeks, white and light green parts, thinly sliced
3 cloves Garlic, minced
1 head Broccoli, trimmed to small florets
2 medium Zucchini, cut into half moons
1 head Spinach, roughly chopped
4 leaves Basil
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground Pepper
6 cups water
3 tbsp fresh Basil, chopped

Directions:

In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.
Add the leeks and garlic and saute for 3 minutes.
Add the broccoli, zucchini, spinach, basil, salt and pepper.
Stir and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped basil.

What other soups do you enjoy? Comment below… 

Using Prayer to See Potential

I think about my life today and the life I was living 10 years ago, even 5 years ago. Oh how things change.

Photo Credit: © 2006-2013 Pink Sherbet Photography via Compfight cc

 

This morning as I read my devotional, I realized just how much prayer influenced these changes.

Prayer isn’t just the way we cultivate our own potential; prayer is the way we recognize potential in others.

Those words are from Mark Batterson’s new devotional, Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge. 

I realize the prayers of others are shaping my life. Let me explain.

Growing up there were a lot of words thrown my way: fat, stupid, ugly, worthless, retarded. Guess what I believed? All of the above. No wonder I was 25 years old, weighed 330 lbs., and hated my very existence. You can read more about that in my new book, if you’re interested.

But things started to change. 

I remember specifically writing in my journal for God to send me a mentor – someone to walk alongside me in my life. I don’t remember how long it took for the prayer to be answered, but He answered indeed, above anything I could have asked or imagined.

He sent me a prayer warrior named Jennifer White, and for the last five years, this woman has prayed over me and for me more times than I can count. I know there were days she would have rather strangled me than pray, but she didn’t.

She used prayer to recognize the potential in me. 

She realized I had been writing my future based on the things I believed about myself. Instead of allowing it to continue, she stepped in the gap and used prayer to write my future. She has remained consistent in those prayers and God has done some amazing things in my life over the last five years.

Prayer… is the difference between letting things happen and making things happen.

Using prayer to see my potential, Jennifer taught me how to use prayer to see my own potential. Life isn’t filled with words of death for me anymore. I actually see and believe the potential in me, God’s potential in me.

Not only do I see the potential, I strive daily to live it out. Why? Because I don’t want to waste anything God has given me to use for His glory. I’ve still God a lot of work to do, but I know I’m on the right path.

I’m working on how I see other people. I’m asking myself,

Am I using prayer to see the potential in others? 

I’m trying. Our prayers are important. Does God need them? No, but He certainly loves them.

I challenge you today to think of one person you can stand in the gap for.

How can you use prayer to see her potential? How are you using prayer to help write his future? 

I’d love to read the answer to these questions below. Feel free to leave a comment.

How to Find Your Purpose

What is my purpose in my life? I’ve asked myself that question a million times throughout my 29 years.

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Will I ever be somebody? Will I do what I’m supposed to do? Why am I even here? I used to ask myself those questions consistently and I’m assuming I’m not alone.

The definition of purpose according to my friends Merriam and Webster defines it as something set up as an object or end to be attained :intention. 

As I read that, this question comes to mind:

Why is there an end to be attained in life? 

Yes, we should live a life planning for our future, but what about living in the present, too?

Why does purpose have to be a final destination? 

Jon Acuff writes in Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work That Matters,

One of the worst things you can do is trying to find your purpose in life. Nothing cripples you like trying to “find your purpose,” or “figure out your dream,” or “name your passion.”

That makes a lot of sense. Speaking for myself, I can get so consumed in naming my passion, that I miss out on the very things in front of me. I put too much pressure on myself, thus setting myself up for failure.

I’m realizing I can have more than one passion and honestly, that feels relieving.

I have more than one purpose in my life. So do you. (Tweet that)

We still need to live with purpose. We need to enjoy all the passions we have, and in the words of Acuff, we need to

Continually walk the road to awesome.

What are a few of your passions? Share them with me in the comments below…

Go. Set. Ready.

Have you ever experienced that moment where you know God is calling you to something bigger than you think you’re ready for?

Ya, me too.

Photo Credit: Sean Rogers1 via Compfight cc

You may be used to these words displayed as Ready. Set. Go. That’s the way it’s always been, right? What if we changed that?

According to Mark Batterson in Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge, 

I think it’s backward. You’ll never be ready. You’ll never be set. Sometimes you just need to go for it. The sequence of faith is this: Go. Set. Ready.

Well said, Mr. Batterson.

God is calling me to something BIG right now. Something bigger than I know I can do on my own. I find myself wanting to put together the perfect plan. But I hear my heart saying, Go. Set. Ready.

I find myself trying to calculate the costs out of fear. I find excuses not to put a plan in place.

In operating in fear, am I missing divine appointments?

Faith is not faith until it is acted on.

I’m trying. One day at at ime.

Go. Set. Ready.

What is God calling you to do? What fear is keeping you from stepping out in faith? Leave a comment below…

Standing in the Middle of the Street

This is a guest post by Alene Snodgrass. Alene loves to tell the story, whether it is from behind a camera lens, writing at a computer screen, or speaking into the lives of others. With a heart for this generation, Alene serves in the inner city. Her new book, Graffiti: scribbles from different sides of the street is co-authored with a homeless man. Connect with Alene through twitter @alenesnodgrass, facebook, or her blog Positively Alene.

Recently, I piled into a car with a few friends to travel a few miles down the city strip to give sandwiches and cool water to the homeless congregated downtown under the shade trees. The streets were quiet. There wasn’t a soul stirring.

Finding a spot to park, we unloaded a cooler full of water and set up a little folding table to put the bagged lunches on.  A few men walked by and we’d wave them over “Are you hungry?” An “Oh, yes,” seemed to be the usual response. We visited, prayed, and asked if they needed anything. There was a sweet aroma of love in the air.

I found myself feeling at home on this side of the street.

The heart stories amazed me continually. As I handed out lunch, I found myself in conversation with a dear woman, and as our conversation ended, she turned to leave. I was captivated by her heart and quickly called after her, “Ma’am – can I pray with you?”

With the most precious toothless grin, her blue eyes looked into mine and she said,

“Yes, but I want to pray. Is it alright, because I only know one prayer?”

I nodded. We bowed our heads and she began “Our Father  . . . “

Tears flowed freely down my cheeks as my heart connected with hers. It was as if the graffiti of our souls was becoming blurred and smudged. All of a sudden, the bold outlines of the art of our lives didn’t matter. Even the street where we stood was common ground.

. . . “who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are Yours now and for ever. Amen.”

Maybe there is something to standing in the middle of the street.

It’s them that you realize that there’s more common ground there than on the sides of the street. This is the beautiful graffiti of the heart, of which life is made, if we can only open our eyes and see.  To see not the bold outlines and colors that make us different, but to see the heart graffiti that makes us the same.

I’m so appreciate to my homeless friend, who lives down the street and under a mesquite tree, for his beautiful scribbles of graffiti! He taught me to be brave and step across the street, to see that although our streets are different our hearts are the same, and he taught me to be bold and write God’s graffiti out for all to see.

Writing Graffiti along side a homeless man had it’s challenges. But I tell you, I wouldn’t trade that journey for anything. I learned to step over fear and love a messy world.

As Graffiti released I got many comments and questions asking for “how to’s” and steps others could take to experience heart graffiti. So, beginning June 3rd we will begin Graffiti Summer: study and do.

You can find out more information here and you can hear more about and order Graffiti the Book here.

Will you step over fear and join us for Graffiti Summer?

His Plan For You and Your Chance to Win My New Book

I’m announcing how you could win a copy of Dear Dad below..

Photo Credit: Ella’s Dad via Compfight cc

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.  Jeremiah 29:11

Need I explain my fear of marriage? I’ve never seen what a real marriage is supposed to look like. My grandparents’ is a mess. My parents’ marriage certainly can’t be normal. We know how it turned out with you and Mom. Are my friends doing it right? I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like.

I think it will be a fear I battle until the day I actually step up to the altar. I go back and forth between the fear of marriage and the fear of never getting married. But God’s Word comforts me.

I’m excited to be guest posting for Maria Morgan today. Click here to read the rest of the post. 

Six Lessons Restaurant Impossible Can Teach Us About Leadership

photo credit: foodnetwork.com

Depending on who you ask, Robert Irvine is either a good guy or a bad guy. He’s been described as harsh, cold, overbearing, and rude. Those are the nice descriptions.

However, there is more to the man behind “Restaurant Impossible” than you may think.

I’m a big fan of the show. Recently a friend asked me why I liked it so much. Besides the fact that I have an entrepreneurial spirit and love to see businesses saved, Robert teaches me about leadership. I don’t know whether or not he is a Christian. I hope so. Whether or not he is or isn’t, there is a lot to learn from the man behind one of the Food Network’s top rated shows.

The truth is hard.

After evaluating the staff, the food, the customer service, etc., Robert stands in front of the owners and firmly speaks his mind. He tells them why they’re failing, how they can fix it, and he doesn’t make his words sound pretty.

Leaders need to speak the truth, even when it hurts. Perhaps he could wind himself down a little bit, but Irvine gets the point across. He doesn’t allow excuses, and he expects everyone to take responsibility.

If you let people stay where they are, you’re hurting them, not helping them.

Be willing to get dirty.

Leaders don’t stand on the sidelines and simply give orders. They have to be willing to do the hard things.

Robert has cleaned the grime off dirty ovens that aren’t in his kitchen. He’s prepped food to serve to customers that aren’t his. He’s painted, torn down walls, swept floors, and stacked dishes.

He works. He sweats. He bosses. He leads. When the job needs done, he’s not afraid to get on his hands and knees and make it happen.

Leading others isn’t about sitting behind a desk and giving orders. It’s about being on the frontlines with those you are leading. It involves making sacrifices, walking in humility, and getting down and dirty when it’s necessary.

Passion is necessary.

Robert Irvine doesn’t travel across the country saving failing restaurants simply because he gets paid a nice chunk of change from The Food Network, though that’s certainly a plus. He does it because he cares. He’s passionate about helping others rebuild their businesses, as well as their relationships.

If you haven’t watched an episode yet, give it a shot. Many partners are failing simply because they don’t communicate. He doesn’t just talk about the business issues, he gets to the root of why the business if failing, and that usually has something to do with personal issues.

If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it will eventually catch up with you. What passions should you be pursuing right now?

There is no room for fear.

He walks into a restaurant with broken people, broken floors, outdated wallpaper, and rotten food hidden behind grills that haven’t been cleaned. He’s given two days and $10,000 to make it successful. Oh, and he has to do that while the world watches it on television.

There’s something scary about that, isn’t there? People are watching. Failure lurks around every corner. Time decides whether failure happens or not. But he does it afraid.

When in doubt, do it afraid. Don’t let the fear of failure keep you from following something you’re passionate about.

Confidence is key.

While you’re doing it afraid, do it confidently. Believe in your ability to do something and do it with all you’ve got.

Robert doesn’t walk into a restaurant and say, “I think I can make this happen in two days.” Instead, he lets them know he came to help that he isn’t there to fail and if they follow his direction and guidance, their business will be successful.

He doesn’t do this in a conceited way. He’s confident because he’s worked hard, learned from his failures, continues to grow, and strives to do what he says he will do. He’s confident because he knows he can do it.

Are you confident? Confident that you can tackle that new, scary career change? Convinced that you can write that new book? Secure in the fact that you can lose those 50 lbs. you need to lose?

Don’t be afraid to hear the truth, or give it to others. Find your passion and chase it. Do it afraid. Believe you have the ability to do it.

This is it – your one chance at life to make things happen.

What step can you take today to make things happen? Leave a comment below…

Trusting Ourselves vs. Trusting God

You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.’ – Isaiah 47:10

Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via Compfight cc

I woke up this morning to this verse. I find myself wondering why I counted on myself and not God. I got scared and stopped trusting him.

After I cried out to you and still had the dreams, I didn’t know what to do.

I’m sorry that I left you. I don’t want to handle things on my own anymore. Too many times I have trusted in my own wickedness. Too many times I have gotten caught up in my own desires and my own sin that I thought I was the only one who could see me. Forgive me.

I’m excited to be guest posting over at Single Roots today. Click here to read the rest of the post. 

Asking for Help

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him u p - James 5:14-15

From Dear Dad…

I wanted this to all be over. I sat at my desk twirling a pencil around, trying to figure out how to make sense of everything. No one else was in the office yet. I was extremely grateful. I was going to talk to my friend Jammie.

Photo Credit: larskflem via Compfight cc

Maybe she would help me make sense of everything. Then I saw her e-mail:

“I was reading this morning and came across these scriptures and wanted to share it with you:

“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up “ - James 5:14-15

“I love you and hope that you can meditate on these, and maybe they will help you want to seek help from our church family.”

Seek help from our church family? I had no idea what she was talking about. They had dragged her into all of this, too.

  I’m honored to be guest posting for Larry Hehn. Click here to read the rest of the post.