Saying Good-bye

Blogging has been a wonderful experience for me. I've met new friends, communed with my Lord, and learned more about myself than I ever wanted to know.

But in all that blogging beauty, I must say good-bye and yet issue you an invitation. In 2009, I plan to take my blogging energies and pour them more fully into my two monthly newsletters: Live Life Fully and Career Success Tips!

If you have enjoyed this blog, I hope you will follow the link below and join a newsletter list.

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Either way, thank you for walking this part of life's journey with me. I pray all of God's greatest blessings through Christ Jesus into your life. Please drop me a note sometime and let me know how you are doing.

May your life be Christ-saturated and irresistably attractive always!

Kim

The Joys of Journaling

Journaling

I am addicted. I’ve tried quitting but to no avail. Walk with me past any stationary store, listen carefully, and you will hear the blank journals begin to call my name. “Kim, touch me, smell me, open me, write in me and I will change your life.” Eventually, I succumb to their siren call and indeed, they do change my life.

I love journaling. I love the soft leather cover, the parchment pages blank with potential, and the sound of my pen scratching out thoughts I never knew I had. I can cry in my journal, laugh, plan, promise, and confess – I can bleed from the inside out in shades of hot pink and in the end, it feels good.

Journaling changes me. I begin confused and end advised, start sad and finish glad, feel weak and emerge strong. God meets me in-between each ruled line and through journaling, true transformation occurs.

Blogging

My private journaling ended many months ago so that blogging could begin. I like blogging – it’s fast, it’s colorful, and it invites accountability. But, I realized this week, I may like blogging but I love journaling. Journaling reaches places in me where only God dare go.

So, it is with great sadness that I am taking a personal blogging break from the Christ-Saturated Life – perhaps permanently, to return to joyous journaling. I will continue my professional blog, geared to encourage Christian women in their walk with Jesus and I hope you will visit me at: http://christiancoachingforlife.blogspot.com/

I Will Miss You

In the meantime, thank you for so faithfully exploring the Christ-saturated life with me this past year. You are in my prayers.

An Open Letter to Jesus

Precious Christ of God,

You are the love of my life. You have captured my heart, captivated my mind, and consumed my affections. My deepest longing is to love You more.

Jesus, You amaze me – my Sovereign Savior, Redeeming Deliverer, Christ of God. How is it that You, the Eternal One entered time:

• Creator becoming creation,
• Spirit clothing Himself in human skin,
• Breath of life – breathing,
• Immutability taking shape,
• Love crucified.

The unimaginable has occurred. You chose the path of death so that I could have eternal life. Why did the Almighty God, who is everything and needs nothing, die to make Kim His friend? There is no greater love than this.

I am…

• filled with Your presence,
• bathed in Your love,
• and sit in high places.

You will…

• guard me,
• protect me,
• counsel me,
• and fix Your eye upon me.

You have…

• called me,
• named me,
• forgiven me,
• and stamped Your image in my heart.

You continually…

• desire me,
• yearn for me,
• reveal Yourself to me,
• and delight in me.

You take my breath away!

A simple thank you is but a trite expression coming from a wandering heart, yet today I bow my heart and life in worship before you - my God and my friend.

Your grateful child,

Kim

A Spiritual High

Junior Meteorologist

As the hurricane season continues its assault on the Gulf States, I’ve become an avid watcher of the weather channel. Jim Cantore’s live reports fill my home and severe weather expert, Dr. Steve Lyons, is my new best friend.

As a meteorologist wanna-be, I’ve become quite the student of the hourly weather map. Words like low pressure system, cold front, and wind shear fall from my lips and awe my family as we linger over our morning coffee. But there is one weather word that I’ve embraced more than all the others – ‘high.’

This past month as storms threaten, I sigh with relief each time the weather man reports that ‘the high’ remains over peninsular Florida. I’ve yet to truly comprehend what ‘the high’ is, but this I know, it acts as an invisible force field pushing away each storm as it threatens to come near. For weeks, ‘the high’ has been faithfully guarding Florida’s homes, protecting our lives, and ensuring our safety. High is good.

Spiritual Climate Control

Longingly, I’ve been yearning for that same ‘high’ in my spiritual life. What if as the wind and the waves of life began crashing on my shore there was an invisible spiritual high that pushed their devastation away? What if I were so filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit that discouragement, despair, envy, jealousy, and cynicism had no choice but to pass me by? A spiritual high would be very good.

This week I plan to practice a bit of climate control. By God’s grace, every morning I will wring out self from the sponge of my heart. Still and empty before the Lord, through worship, listening prayer, and meditation on Scripture, I will be filled with Him. Thus with God’s help, I will create my own an invincible ‘spiritual high.’

Hurricanes

Literal Hurricanes

It’s hurricane season here in sunny Florida and I don’t like it. Gustav has emptied New Orleans, Hannah is pouring in the Carolina’s, and Ike is barreling down on my beloved state.

I can’t control hurricanes. I can worry, sweat, complain, and whine, but nothing Kim Avery can do changes the course of a storm. I really don’t like that.

During hurricane season there is only one thing I can do. Stay tuned. I can listen to radio updates, follow the hurricane tracker, and lock in the weather channel on my remote control. And it helps to be informed. I know what to buy, where to shop, when to run, and when to hide. I can’t stop a storm but with helpful information, I can ride it out safely.

Emotional Hurricanes

Emotional hurricanes often blow into my life as well. Trials sap my joy, strained relationships pour sorrow into my heart, and economic downturns cause us all to batten down the hatches.

I can’t control emotional hurricanes either. I can worry, sweat, complain, and whine, but nothing Kim Avery can do changes the course of a storm. Need I mention - I don’t like that?

But when hurricanes blow into my life there is much I can do. I can tune into my Maker and listen to Him. He will tell me what to say, where to go, and how to prepare. Most of all, He will reassure me of His love and fill me with His peace.

I can’t stop the storms of life but with my God, I have all I need.