In a Single Bound

I feel like I took a flying leap off the side of a mountain, and if it were not for trusting God so much, I think I would throw up.


Actually, jumping off mountains solo isn't such a big deal anymore. I've become pretty accustomed to that. It's jumping tandem that leaves me reeling, especially when the one tethered to me is my daughter...especially when she is standing on the precipice ready to go over the edge and God says, "I made her to fly. Let her go."


She looks at me questioning. I nod.


Off she goes.


I am right with her, as though a mother's heart could be anywhere else.


And now we are flying in what feels like a free fall, out of control.


Out of my control.


My last illusion of control went flying over the edge with us, and right now, I'm not enjoying the flight. Right now, I hate this. Right now, one thought goes through my mind: "God, what have I done?"


I know the answer. What I have done is release my daughter from my safety zone to God's infinite possibilities. What I have done is declare that I believe His thoughts are higher than my thoughts and His ways are above my ways...and He can do amazing things...through my adolescent daughter...HIS daughter.


I keep tripping over that.


HIS daughter. His creation. His solution to a world in need. His answer to girls caught in a life of slavery and hopelessness. His chosen one.


Right now, though, my mother's heart is struggling. Right now it is concerned about my life, my comfort zone, my life status quo, my family...my own personal Rockwellian view of family life.


But Norman Rockwell was an illusionist. He had a gift for making life's tough spots look poetic, but life isn't poetry, not the kind with perfect metre and comforting rhymes. Life is messy. Healing is done with tears, not smiles. Families in perfect clothes at the perfect table for the perfect holiday spill things...drinks, soups, and souls.


It's in the mess and the spills that the connections occur. A touch of the hand when wiping up the tea. Arms wrapped round to dry the tears. Hearts laid bare as souls are tended.


It is into this mess that my daughter chooses to walk, into the world of young girls captured into a hellish nightmare of human slavery, children sold to grown men to fulfill a wife's place. She, too, is captured...by the hope of freedom for every child who feels hopeless. She is determined to be their hope. She is determined to be the light in their darkness and to find them in their prisons and set them free.


She can do it. Maybe not alone, but people have good hearts. They just need someone to tell them about these children and give them the chance to help. And she will.


What exactly that means for my personalized Rockwell picture, I don't know, but while my mother's heart is screaming, "What have I done?", my faith answers, "I've given her the freedom she wants to give these children...the freedom to be an answer, to be a blessing, to live big, to serve God in whatever way He leads. I've given her the freedom to fly."




To find out more about how you can help set children free from the nightmare of human trafficking and sex slave trade, please visit AMPED Red Light Rescue, Sowers of the Seed Inernational, or contact me personally. Thank you.

Chosen First

I hated picking teams. I was never the fastest, most agile, or most popular. I was, however, almost always the one picked last, or so close to last that it fell under "doesn't really matter because we know you aren't useful anyway."

Some of y'all know what I mean.

It is a painful thing to be picked last. We often focus on the "last" part, but really, it is about our desire to be picked first. In our hearts, we want to be first at something, to be seen as acceptable and good. We don't want to simnply be allowed to play. We want to be wanted. We want to be the Chosen One.

One of the most commonly stolen truths is that we are the Chosen One.

John 15:16 says:

You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed you [I have planted you], that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit may be lasting [that it may remain, abide], so that whatever you ask the Father in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], He may give it to you. (Amplified version).

Let's talk about what this really means. It doesn't mean, "I am Jesus, and I died for the sins of the world, so you slipped in because I have to take you." That is the lie the enemy fed me for a LONG time. That isn't the meaning of the word "chosen".

"Chosen" is the Greek word eklegomai. It is a combination of words. Ek means "out of". Legos means "to call". Just from that, we can gather that we didn't call Jesus out of Heaven to us. Instead, He called us out of whatever mess, prison (mental, emotional, and spiritual), or brokenness we were in so we would go to Him. He picked us. This is what my Greek/Hebrew Study Bible says about the word: "The word denotes rather simply the act of selecting something, the naming of something as the object desired and hence expressing favor to the object chosen."

Take that in for a moment.

You were not stuck on Jesus' team because you had to go somewhere. He actively chose you because you are the one He desired, and the result is His favor toward you. He's going to do everything He can to make you look good because He's proud He chose you. You are the prize He wants to show off.

Now, let's talk about how He does that.

"I appointed you to go and bear fruit."

The word "appointed" actually means "to set, put, place, or lay down." Now, get this. You were not randomly stuck in a box or just any frame. Jesus picked you, and then He said, "I'm going to put you where you shine the best." He intentionally found the perfect place for you so that you can be successful, show His glory, and be a light in the darkness.

You are not the one demons see and smile about because they know you are an easy out. On the contrary, you have been put in the perfect place so that when you shine all of hell shudders because they know you are going to do great things.

You are not the one doled out because you have to go somewhere. You were chosen, by an omnipotent Lord who has picked the perfect place to show you off.

Do you choose to be bold enough to let Him?

Copyright 2009 Jerri Phillips