"Defying Gravity" 🎜🎝

Neither snow nor hail nor rain nor absolutely brutally glacial, Siberian, circumpolar, numbing (as in toes, feet, nose & any other part of the exposed body) subzero, piercing COLD weather can STOP!, the celebration of any celebrations! What care I if my valentine is frozen stiff? (Feed those birds!, dump that trash! change that litter box! Life must go on!) That arctic explosion lasted for a week, but it was also Birthday week for my husband, so he 'fared' (as in cuisined 😋)pretty well because  part of his Birthday present(s) was a week of his favorite meals. 

Birthday Pie❅ !❅ !❅ !❅!

Add to that a week of Birthday Boy's favorite movies, which are always old, war movies, unless our son is here & then it's interspersed with 1950's 'horror' movies. At the end of the week I have become a 'white-haired gnome,(compliments of Patrick McManus)/ zombie'.   & how many wives would happily concede to watch "Bridge Over the River Kwai" ("What have I done?") on Valentines Day??

HOWEVER....

there were compensations.

So, I was one happy valentine too.

George Washington got his traditional Birthday Pie also this month. 

Man!! Thank you Mr. Washington!
🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒🍒

After all of that baking & cooking & movies, my daughter of remote-land (as in far, far away), invited me to her home for a brief respite to help bring me back from 'white haired gnome/zombie land'. Her woodstove fireplace is so therapeutic & restful. We were listening to some music that she wanted me to hear & when I heard the one which is the title to this post, (sung by Idina Menzel ) it immediately stirred my imagination to the land of 'what if'. Here are some of the lyrics.

"Something has changed inside me, something is not the same. I'm through playing by the rules of somebody else's game.

It's time to try defying gravity, I think I'll try defying gravity.

I'm through accepting limits, 'cause someone says they're so           Some things I might not change, but until I try, I'll never know.    Too long I've been afraid..."

Let's stop here. This really grabbed me. I began to think of how often,  Jesus would love for us to go beyond the boundaries that we have set for ourselves or let others set for us. How high could we fly, how far could we go as His children in His identity, if we would let Him untie the laces of our concrete shoes of doubt, unbelief, fear of the endless 'what ifs' that keep us in bondage? I'm talking to followers of Jesus, even seasoned ones who listen to the lies of "I'm too old'", "I'm too young", "that's too scary", "I've never done it before", "What if I crash, burn, die?" "I CAN'T!!!" 

BUT!!!!!

Jesus says, we can...

"I CAN do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens me."

Let's try this 'what if'.

What if we, as His children defied the gravitational pull of complacency, monotony, never going beyond our safe zone of putting the one talent in the ground. Just doing our human required duties of so-called Christianity?

What if we defied the gravitational pull of safe yet completely unfilled, boring, status quo, half asleep lives?

"Are we living the life one foot in one foot out,

 a form of religion but denying the power...."

                  What if we denied the gravitational pull of the world, the flesh & the devil? or even fellow believers?

           What if we began to defy gravity & soar to the heights of life as it was meant to be lived in, for & with Jesus, in reckless abandon, in becoming doers of His word & not hearers only; to stand at the shore, ready to go in, on the ground, ready to go up, ready to go out, just ready to go where He says, no questions asked. But, no need to because He is with us. It might seem reckless, foolhardy or even crazy to 'well meaning' onlookers. but when we look into His mirth filled eyes, daring us to trust Him, to defy gravity with Him...

"Unlimited, together we're unlimited, together, we'll be the greatest team that's ever been.

Dreams, the way we planned them,  as we work in tandem,          there's no fight we cannot win..."

nothing we cannot do. & it will be for His kingdom come, His will be done, for His glory, for His purposes, His beautiful self. & by our response to defying gravity, here is a promise.

"He (or she💕) who the Son sets free, is free indeed." Only those who have been in bondage know what it's like to be set free. I would like to say that that is an ongoing revelation. We are only set free as we defy the gravity of false identities which are not Him, & let Jesus take us higher & higher into His truth which always sets us free. Sometimes it seems like the gentle floating upward like a loosed helium balloon. Other times it's like being rocket launched into the atmosphere of the unhindered, piercing breath of God that strips & heals almost simultaneously. & we are not the same.  But there is a price for defying gravity.

We will know Him, which causes us to love Him more which causes us to follow Him more nearly (& that calls for defying gravity all of the time!) which means, we will accept the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death." & as Shakespeare wrote, "Ah, there's the rub."

But not to the gravity defiers! Once you taste THAT freedom, there is no going back, just the reckless higher & higher.

(some of this is  my words)

"So if you care to find me, look to the eastern sky, as Someone once told me, "I want everyone to fly."  & if I'm flying with Him, oh yes, I'm flying free. & to those who would try & ground me, take a message back from me, 

I'm flying high, flying free

 denying, defying, gravity!" 

Raintree Perk of the Day:

"For the eyes of the Lord run to & fro to show Himself strong to one whose heart is perfect toward Him."
(2 Chronicles 16:9)

That's a heart that defies gravity.

(My words)

"& if you get it, you'll never regret it,  with Jesus, defying... gravity!"