April 7 2023

When Lent Calls You to Give up Your “Cape” Rather than Chocolate and Caffeine.

crocuses
crocuses

This Lent I have eaten far too much chocolate, drank way too much caffeine, and scrolled aimlessly and endlessly through social media while trying to stay awake at this hospital bedside or at home in the night when no one sleeps

I have not fasted with intention (although I have eaten far less than I should have), I have not prayed long and deep prayers (although I have cried out in simple words or with no words to the One I know hears me at all times), I have not worked my way through several books of the Bible or a “special” devotional (although I have several verses written out on cue cards that are worn and wrinkled from my tight grip and dotted and blurred with my tears)

This Lent, I have given up my “cape”.

You know, that one that screams “superwoman” every time you put it on

It hasn’t happened all at once, I have had to work into it – Just like the little nibble you sneak late at night of the chocolate, you said you wouldn’t have for the 40 days of Lent or the two sips of coffee that morning you really needed it, although you gave up caffeine as well.

I have slipped, picked up my cape and wrapped it around my shoulders to get through a particularly difficult moment – or night or an entire day – but then I slipped it back off.

That cape signifies the need for perfection – Jesus doesn’t call us to that – to that perfection – there is no more reward to the one who eats not a bit of chocolate or a sip of caffeine than to the one who works at it and slips and falls and gets up and tries again.

Jesus calls us to relationship and love and obedience- to pick up our cross and follow Him – even if that means – especially if that means- setting it down from time to time and then choosing to pick it up again

I have given up saying I am ok when I am not

I have given up saying “This too shall pass” or “It will all come out in the wash” – because although that is the hope that I hold on to day after day- the words diminish the reality of what I am experiencing in this moment

I have given up saying no to offers of help

I have asked family to send food

I have cried alone, with friends and in the aisle of the supermarket

I have given up tip-toeing around with my words to keep the peace – a peace that doesn’t actually exist when you need to advocate

I have given up suppressing the truth to soften the blow, while carrying the brunt of it all on my own

I have been still in my pj’s when the Nurse or home care came to the house to help with my husband or my friends dropped by

I have left dishes in the sink and skipped the sweeping even though the dust bunnies (or cat hair bunnies) were planning a mutiny

I have eaten chocolate for breakfast and had coffee at midnight

I have ordered food to be delivered when there has been food in the fridge I could have prepared

I have slept on the couch in the middle of the afternoon, rather than doing work that needed to be done

I have told the guys in the booth at the hospital parking lot how wonderful their consistent greetings and smiles have been and told the screeners at the hospital entrance I appreciate them – I have asked the staff how they are doing and told complete strangers in the elevator I like the colour of their hair or their cool shoes.

I have been

Real

Truthful

Vulnerable

Hurt

Exhausted

Unheard

And heard

One year at graduation my students gifted me with a handmade “cape” – my “superwoman cape”.  On the back were two things I used to say to them all the time – “it’s in you” and “you’ve got this”.  It was an inside joke.  When I forgot something during class or didn’t “serve” them to my usual standard and they questioned it, I would laugh and say, “I left my cape at home today.”  On that graduation day they acknowledged my efforts to teach and mentor in excellence and offered back to me the words of encouragement that I had offered to them.

But this year, I set down my “cape”, not this physical one that hangs in a place of honour in my home, but rather the “cape” mindsets and expectations that no longer serve me.

Jesus did not call me to be a superhero.  Self-sufficient and saving the world.  He called me to love the world the way He loves the world so they can see Him in me – the One that does the saving.

Today is Good Friday.  The Disciples went through the darkness of Good Friday and Saturday not knowing the ending.  But we know that no matter how dark this day looks, it may be Friday, but Sunday is coming!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 
Matthew 28:5-6
June 5 2020

One Mind, One Body, One Spirit – Why Separated Does Not Have To Mean Divided

ONE on blue background

One Mind, One Body, One Spirit - Why Separated Does Not Have To Mean Divided

Hello my dear friend!  How are you doing?  Really doing?  I know I keep asking, but I only ask because I genuinely care about each and every one of you.  These are difficult times at many different levels and in many different ways for each of us.  It is important for us, not only to check up on one another, but to genuinely mean it.  This is me, checking up on you!  

I just want to say that I see what it going on in the world around us and my heart hurts at every level for the injustice I see.  I am not unaware, or unconcerned.  However, I do not want to be just another voice, adding noise or divisiveness to the conversation, just to check of the “to do” list of having “made a comment”. I choose, at this point in time, to invite everyone to the table, sit back and listen to what is being said. So, when I ask, how are you doing? Really doing?  I mean it.  You can reach out to me directly, in a variety of ways including by email at laurie@lauriehopkins.ca or you can feel free to comment in the comment section at the end of the blog.  So, let’s get started! If you are new here, grab your favourite cup with your favourite hot drink and grab a seat at the kitchen table.  There is room for everyone!  This week we are going to chat about One Mind, One Body, One Spirit – Why Separated Does Not Have To Mean Divided.

Kingdom Mindset, Kingdom Builder

If we were to summarize all our chats since the beginning of the year, I would have to call that collection, “Kingdom Mindset, Kingdom Builder –Practical Christianity for 2020.”  We have talked about ways of thinking that need to shift and we have talked about how to put it all together in a practical everyday manner. I would love to hear some of your thoughts about the last 5 months of blogs?  What has it meant to you? What really spoke to you? What have you taken away from our chats at the table so far this year?

Building Community

Much of what we talked about around the table, over the last little while, has related to building community. Not just any community, but authentic, loving community. A really great way to build community is to invite others to the table to chat. So, in the spirit of putting into action, my own words of wisdom, I’ve invited a dear friend of mine, a new friend to many of you, to the table to share with us. I’ve asked her to speak with us about what the Church, the Body of Christ, needs to be doing practically in this hour.

Let me introduce you to my dear friend, Prophetess (Mama) Que Payne

Prophetess Que, affectionately called Ms. Que, Prophetess Que, or Momma Que by those she mentors around the country and the world is a wife and mother of two sons.

Prophetess Que Payne has been teaching and instructing as well as developing dance and banner bearer teams around the greater Chicago land area and abroad for over 25 years. She has ministered in dance for over 40 years.

She is the Lead Servant of For His Glory Ministry and Glory Fire Carriers Alliance. Prophetess Que Payne has developed a curriculum designed to shift worshipers as well as to develop the Levitical gifts both in the church and the marketplace. She is an accomplished songwriter with releases on Shekinah Glory Live CD and she published her 1st book entitled, “Preparation for His Presence” in 2011.

Prophetess Que has organized and instructed many praise and worship conferences as well as praise dance workshops, throughout the country and worldwide for community service organizations, as well as the body of Christ. She has led many mission trips and outreach services locally and abroad for many years. She has taught dance and prophetic sessions all around the country and is a member of the International Dance Council CID/UNESCO a world renown and recognized organization.

Best of all, she has become my dear friend and mentor, a mighty woman of God for whom I have great love and respect!

“Distance as one”

Prophetess Que Payne

I want to put this message together from a place of sobriety while at the same time dealing with the many different shifts and changes our world is in. But I want to deal with it from the perspective of ONE mind ONE body ONE spirit. As believers, we must maintain who we are as a foundation of people that serve a God that emphasized that through it all we should stand as ONE.

In the beginning from Genesis, The Father showed us the need to be united because divided we always fall. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter about our cultural differences, backgrounds other ethnicities it’s not even important or relevant to make note of our diversity of colour or faith. We all believe in something greater than ourselves and that is the message I want to leave today; the greatness I need is in you the greatness you seek He hid in me. The unity of faith bond according to Ephesians 4 in its entirety is the formula for our success as a human race. We are dealing with some things in our world that forced us to be separated it doesn’t mean we have to be divided.

There are several scriptures that deal with the power of unity that releases the purpose of being ONE mind ONE body ONE spirit. So I wanted to take that and break that down.

To be ONE mind it’s impossible to be divided- it makes us unstable. It was so powerful even in God’s eye that He said in Genesis chapter 11 how great they were as a people because they were in one accord; it was one language it was one purpose and there was one goal. The father did not separate them because of what they were doing, He scattered them into the earth because of the power they displayed. He did not want them to think more highly of themselves than they ought to.

God loves the power of unity. He even showed us his love for the power of unity by giving himself to us as the FATHER, as the SON, and HOLY SPIRIT.

The times and seasons that we are in now we must be as the children of Issachar, they knew the times and seasons. The Bible tells they were able to understand what was going on around them and took heed to what they needed to do collectively to overcome the thing that had presented itself as a threat to the greater good of the people. They did not have this anointing or position to boast of themselves, nor did they try to be or act superior. They realized or recognized the power of service. The anointing or ability the children of Issachar had was the ability to see and discern the times. And we must see in this season the times that we are in and that we are better together than apart. Why you may ask. Because the whole body can only be fit if we are joined together, one supplying to the other what is needed. Therefore we must be ONE body with ONE mind serving the ONE God because He is spirit and He is in each of us and we must endeavour to find the power/light of that piece to be united to really have the power.

The outer core of man is but the shell of the greater gifts hidden in it. The gift of life in the present is to learn to appreciate that no matter what colour what culture or where we live that’s not the priority, the priority is in finding “IT.”  What is that “IT”?  It is the Spirit of God alive in every living thing. We are weakened without that knowing and receiving.

The truth of our strength is unity, love and the bond of peace. We cannot allow the dark spirits of discord, division and ideological separations to enter into the process of life. With all that is going on in our very fragile world, the strength of that world is the people that live and have dominion. This is the time to Arise, shine and stand as ONE; not to build a tower, walls or barriers.

It’s NOT time to cause separation of land divides, cultural differences or even different levels of belief, we must endeavour to stand as ONE to believe as ONE to grow as ONE and to conquer the issues of our world as ONE no matter where we may land in the earth. Remember the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein.

Unity is a power the purpose of God gave us. Dominion in the earth is our strength, what we do with it is now up to us. We have been given a gift of time and reset to recalibrate and work together as ONE. United we stand against the wiles of the devil and the evils released in this world, divided we are conquered and overtaken.

WE CAN AND WILL SURVIVE, REBUILD AND RESTORE as ONE!

Prophetess Que Payne

What I Know

Ephesians 4: 14-16 tells us “That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

I love this phrase, “joined and knit together.” What a beautiful picture of what the Body of Christ needs to look like in this season!  “Joined and knit together”…..”every part does its share”……unity in action…..One Mind, One Body, One spirit!

What I know, for sure, is that true unity will be achieved when we learn to love like Jesus.

1 Corinthains 13 really brings that home.

 

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Until Next Time

Well, my friend, our time at the table is coming to an end.  My tea cup is empty and it is time to go out into the world and put our conversation into action.  A big thank you to our dear friend Prophetess (Mama) Que Payne for joining us at the table!  Her words have been truthful and impactful – now let’s put them to work in our lives!

Your Turn To Comment

As always, there are many ways to stay in touch.  I would love to hear from you!  Let me know how our chats around the kitchen table are going and drop a note about what things you would like to chat about.

Email  laurie@lauriehopkins.ca

Professional Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/LaurieHopkinsthisisabundantlife/

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Comment section at the end of each blog

Until next time,

From my heart to yours!

 

Laurie