Fully Awake: Last Highlights from Wide Awake

I am still feeling motivated and encouraged by the words of Erwin McManus in his book Wide Awake, so I am here one last time with excerpts that affected me. I hope you will also be inspired.

To imagine costs you nothing. Not to imagine could cost you everything. To live a life that moves dreams into reality – that’s where the real risk comes in. Imagination is adventure without risk. Your imagination is a playground that is for more than child’s play. It is the art house where we begin to create the lives we will live. 

Do you need to rethink who you are and who you will become? Maybe you need a fresh vision or a new voice in your life telling you who you really are – the gifts and talents, intelligence, and passions, the potential, the undiscovered uniqueness waiting formant within you. The only One who knows this fully is the One who created you. The One who created you is the One who longs to awaken you.

This is what God is saying: The reason you need to be in conversation with me is that I created your imagination to be a playground where you and I can get together and I can blow your mind away. I’m going to stretch the boundaries of your dreams. Just ask me, and I will begin to share with you the dreams I have for your life and for all of humanity. You can talk to me about the small stuff, or you can listen to me, and I will let you in on what I am thinking. It’s going to be big!

Isn’t it possible that the life that your soul longs for is beyond even your imagination? Is it possible that no matter how big your dreams are, how expansive your imagination, how ambitious your goals, they pale in comparison to what you would begin to see for your life if you would invite God into your life conversation?

Wake up! Strengthen what remains. Reclaim your life. Strengthen what remains and is about to die. You can feel when your soul is dying and you are drowning in the mundane. You can barely make it through the day. You never really live – you just exist.

One More Thing...

Is it time to rethink some things? It is for me.

Take care, and I'm always here to pray for you or simply to connect with.

Lois Lynn

Still Waking Up: More From Wide Awake

I was truly inspired by so many things in this book, that I must share more with you. I hope you find some encouragement in these quotes from the book "Wide Awake" by Erwin McManus, and maybe some friendly kicking in the pants to motivate us all.  

Are you settling for a life that puts you to sleep? Wouldn’t it be better to dream with your eyes open?  Is the only reason you keep your job because it’s the one you’ve got?

 

To achieve great things, we must be willing to make great sacrifices.

 

It’s easy to surrender not to evil but to average and to ordinary and to give up your dreams, not realizing that God is calling you to more.

You essentially self-medicate with apathy to keep yourself under control. You took care of all those out-of-control, un-realistic dreams and passions, and now you’re just like everyone else. Instead of harnessing your energy, you decided to conserve it. When a person’s light shines too brightly, everyone else will complain about its intensity.

Focus allows you to live a life of full intensity with all your passion fueling your momentum in a singular direction.

You have to decide to focus and lock in on the direction God has called you to live your life.

Without a sense of destiny, you will diffuse your energy. When you are focused, you are your most powerful. A destiny is not something waiting for you but something waiting within you.

The Creator, as the ultimate act of creativity, has created you to be creative. This is both your birthright and your destiny. To create is in your essence and is essential for living the life God created you to live.

If you’re going to create the life of your dreams, eventually you have to stop thinking about it, dreaming about it, imagining it, hoping, scheming, planning, or even praying, and you have to actually do something. You have to act. You have to execute. You have to step into the real world and bring the change that you can only see through the eyes of faith.

If you choose to dream with your eyes open, you will eventually have to start creating.

Go and enjoy yourself. Do whatever you have to do, but find time to laugh and appreciate your life. This isn’t supplemental to living an awakened life – it’s lifeblood. You can only give to others what you have. You have to be alive to resuscitate the unconscious, much less raise the dead.

We have to make a personal commitment that our goals, ambitions, and dreams will never overtake our value for people.

One More Thing...

I'd love to hear your comments as to which one you resonated with the most.

Take care, and I'm always here to pray for you or simply to connect with.

Lois Lynn

Distractions

I have the day off.  I dream of being a writer - I want the fantasy writer life I imagine waiting for me so I pack up the laptop and go to hang out at a restaurant to "be a writer".  I have an agenda, I have topics in mind, it's beautifully sunny outside and I'm sitting in front of a bank of floor to ceiling windows. 

Did I mention that I have been living obsessed with the desire to be doing this while being at the beach?

I'm settled, I've ordered, I'm good.  I'm waiting for the computer to boot up and then two men are seated at the table behind me. 

For those of you guessing ahead of me...no, THEY were not the cause of my distraction.  At least, not in the manner that you may be thinking.  I don't even know what they look like, but they are talking about cruising to Mexico.  You know - sunshine, surf, beach, great Mexican food, time off, etc.

Oh sure, and I was supposed to write.  I immediately shoot off an e-mail to my writer friends and brilliantly, they all quickly sent back the same reply, "write about it."  So, you can blame today's topic on my friends.  Unless, of course, you are enjoying this.

So today, my distraction is my longing for the coast, a specific type of coast.  Yesterday, I was distracted by wanting to organize a new art studio section in my basement.

I find this particularly ironic because earlier this week I was reading about the need to focus.  Ha!  Glad I only borrowed that book instead of buying it.  (Actually, I would like to buy it, it was great.)

One More Thing...

What is your current distraction? What is hindering you from doing what you want to be doing?

Note: I did not ask you about what you NEED to be doing, but what you WANT to be doing.

Take care, and I'm always here to pray for you or simply to connect with.

Lois Lynn

Four Little Words

This morning as I casually began my day, minding my own business, I was sideswiped.  No, not by another vehicle, but by my e-mail!  I am signed up for Groupon so I wake daily to a list of messages with the day's special deals.  But today, today is a day I will not quickly forget.

Today I was greeted by four little words - Weight Loss Hot Pants - and there was a picture accompanying the ad.

I was stunned, I was shocked, I was briefly intrigued, I was cracking up!  All day long I kept having visions of various people and body types trying this item.  I wanted to take all of my friends and have them try them on, but I knew we'd never stop laughing.  I was also afraid we'd have to buy them because we wouldn't be able to get them off.

I could picture Ellen Degeneres doing a stand-up bit on these shorts!  For some reason, this cracked me up all day.

Now, if you own a pair of these - all power and courage to you.  I applaud you; I am not laughing at you.  I am laughing at the thought of me wearing them.

To begin with, the model wearing them doesn't need them - that didn't surprise me.  I kept thinking, probably anybody that COULD wear them, wouldn't need them.

Those that need them, would probably never be able to get them on.  Then I debated with myself - what would make them contribute to weight loss?  If an overweight person did indeed get into them - would they work? 
Was it the infrared technology that makes them work?  Maybe.  Personally, I believe it would take a week or two of not eating before you could take them off.  So, OF COURSE, THEY WOULD WORK...EVENTUALLY.


There is one thing that has me concerned...do you only lose weight where they are compressing your body?  That would make for some very interesting body shapes!

So, the question is...would you try them?  If you've tried them, do they work?  Do you fear they would get stuck on you also?  

One More Thing...

Just for fun this time...what's the wildest thing you've done to try to lose or gain weight?

Take care, and I'm always here to pray for you or simply to connect with.

Lois Lynn

Wide Awake...or Not

I am currently reading a fantastic and challenging book: Wide Awake, by Erwin McManus.  The problem is that it is a library book so I cannot highlight all of the inspiring, challenging or thought-provoking sections.  So instead, I choose to share them with you here.  It is a fabulous book and although I am only halfway through it, I'd encourage you to read it for yourselves.

I did find it a bit ironic that the first few nights of reading a book called Awake, I could barely keep my eyes open but that wasn't because of the book.

I hope you'll enjoy the randomness of excerpts that impacted me, and I pray that you will be motivated by Erwin's writings.

"To create a different world is both a courageous act and a creative act. Life is a work of art. The canvas you paint first is your life. Then your life becomes the brush from which you paint that part of the world you touch while you are here on this planet. You are an artist. What work of art will you leave behind?"

"Whatever else we need to do to live the life of our dreams, I know this: we can't just lie there."

"Your dreams are the product of your longings, a portrait of your potential, and a promise of your future."

"Your dreams are God's way of whispering into your soul, There's more to you than you know. There's more available to you than you can imagine. There's an extraordinary life awaiting you if you would trust me."

"If your career path doesn't seem to match your heart's longing, it may be you have a skill that doesn't match your passion."

"You know there is so much more you have to offer, though you don't say it out loud."

"Life is not a color in the lines project; life is a work of art...you must be willing to get paint all over you."

I hope you feel a bit encouraged to dream and to stretch yourself.  Have a fun and colorful week!

One More Thing...

I'd love to hear from you if one of these quotes resonated with you.

Take care, and I'm always here to pray for you or simply to connect with.

Lois Lynn

Black and White - The Power of Written Words

There it was again - words written in black and white that I knew to be another lie. I started to write "untruth" there, but when somebody makes a choice to use untruthful words, or to use truthful words with deliberate gaps to paint the illusion of a different meaning...let's call it what it is - a lie.

I am a strong fan of both the electronic world and the written word, but I strive to maintain a balance between the technological world I enjoy and the face to face encounters that round out my community and are a necessity for communication.

There are many benefits of the written word, but my focus tonight is on a cautionary aspect. Very few people can successfully communicate the emotions and personality behind the words. Often, the reader will have a reaction or question but may not ask any follow-up questions - the result being confusion, miscommunication, and the potential for hurt feelings.

Have you ever been hurt by something you read, only to have a conversation later and understand that there was a miscommunication?

One More Thing...

Have you ever written something that was misunderstood?

At least once this week, call someone instead of sending them an e-mail or Facebook post and enjoy those few moments of "real life".

Take care, and I'm always here to pray for you or simply to connect with.

Lois Lynn