Fueled by Faith Friday

This past week was filled with ups and downs and also went by soooo fast with packing, writing, packing, revising, packing, and writing!

During a writing break just now, I watched this brief 4.5 minute clip.  I was fortunate enough to chat with Lisa Duffy at the NCSC conference back in September and was inspired by her story and wise words.  So when I saw this video in an email message, I eagerly listened to it.  Gosh, her words around the 2 min. 30 sec. mark and beyond really rang true for me. 

For those of you who face the questions she poses, may you have the strength and courage to step outside your comfort zone and secure space in spite of the challenges and lonely times that will come with the loss or changing nature of those friendships.  As an aside, to those of you who attended the NCSC, this reminded me a little bit of the pruning of the wine branches talk....!

I also 100%, no 100,000%, agree with her point at the 3 min. 43 secs. mark.  In this day and age when people can quickly write you out of their lives for having differing beliefs or opinions from them by deleting you from their friend lists or by giving you the cold shoulder both virtually and in person, it can be hard to remain true to your beliefs particularly if you're not the type to engage in debates and whatnot.  From personal experience, I have no magic answer or happy-go-lucky type of response but I can share that it will hurt.  You might possibly regret your actions and have doubts down the road when things get tough and you wish for things to go back to how they were and to have that closeness in the friendships again but please also know your true friends will still stick by you and love you even if you find you're on different sides of the fence when it comes to certain issues. 

As my new friend, Lisa (a different one from the video above-ha!), shared with me this morning, God brings you to various events and people to help you fulfill your purpose; often if something happens that you would never have dreamt of doing, it is often God's hand at work in our lives.  I can also say that one of the biggest (unforeseen) blessings to walk into my life thus far happened as a direct result of engaging in what Lisa speaks of in the above video and for that I'm thankful.  Pax!