by Nan Jones @NanJonesAuthor
Guest Blogger: Lori Roeleveld @lorisroeleveld
I have the joy of introducing fellow Lighthouse of the Carolinas author, Lori Roeleveld. I love how she thinks and I love how, through her writing, she wiggles in and out of our comfortable places and challenges us to think. In fact, this is her byline: a disturber of hobbits who enjoys making
comfortable Christians late for dinner. Don't you love it? If only we could all step out of our comfort zones and embrace all of God's magnificence. Lori and I are praying that the words of her heart will touch you deeply and draw you closer to the One who loves you.
Welcome Lori!
Cinderella knew the truth. She was
intended for greater things than sweeping ashes from the hearth.
Are
you sometimes haunted by the notion that you were meant for more? You should
examine that idea. It may be from God.
My
daughter got me interested in a Sunday night television show called Once Upon a
Time. It’s the story of a town inhabited by storybook characters trying to find
their way back into the world in which they really belong.
But
really, it’s the gospel.
That’s
probably not what the writers intended, but Jesus, in an effort to reach His
people, will even inject Himself into the primetime lineup of network
television.
In
the first season, Once Upon a Time was all about the characters awakening and
remembering that they were once part of a glorious land. It features one child
who still believes in their story and is willing to take drastic measures to
remind everyone else of their former glory. Because of him, they are awake.
Now, they remember they’re not just librarians or shopkeepers or waitresses,
but they have “once upon a time” bloodlines with ancient stories full of magic
and adventure.
Even
though they’re awake, they are not yet back home in The Enchanted Forest. They
remain trapped in a foreign place hostile to their former way of life. Dark
forces oppose them. An enemy works against their return, trying to keep them in
bondage to their everyday, ordinary, lesser selves—to rob them of their
redemption.
It’s
the gospel, don’t you see? Can you acknowledge the playfulness of our amazing
Creator as He inserts His homecoming beacon into our modern culture and cries
out for us to remember who we were designed to be?
Doesn’t
your heart cry out after a long Monday, or in the face of another Tuesday, to
be part of a greater story? Isn’t there within you a longing for a home you
don’t remember ever knowing? Don’t you sometimes feel trapped in a minor role
when all your dreams and passions create a force that threatens to destroy you
if you don’t find the role you were born to play?
Jesus
created everything. His story is in His Word, yes, but He roams, unconfined,
across genres. He appears in the music we write, the movies we make, the art we
create, and the stories we tell.
He
is calling to us—calling to us from every medium—to remember who we are.
For
you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or
of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake
and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are
drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on
the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. (1
Thessalonians 5:5-8)
Feel
stuck inside a lesser role than you were intended to play? Wake up. Like
Sleeping Beauty, you need the kiss of true love. There is a High King and He
will free you if you come to Him. There is a rider on a White Horse coming. Can
you hear His hoofbeats?
Wake
up, loved ones! You have a part in the greater story. Everything your heart
whispers to you in the night is true. There is more, and you were meant to be
part of it.
Once
upon a time, there was a King who shed His blood to ransom His people back from
the grave. It is the greatest and truest story ever told.
And
it is the place where you belong.
A Tweetable to Encourage Others
Where is God when I want my life to mean more? Guest @lorisroeleveld offers a glimpse. (click to tweet)
*****************************************************************
Meet Lori:
Lori Stanley Roeleveld is a disturber of hobbits who enjoys making
comfortable Christians late for dinner. She’s authored an unsettling blog since
2009; a pursuit that eventually resulted in her first book, Running from a
Crazy Man (and other adventures traveling with Jesus). Though she has
degrees in Psychology and Biblical Studies, Lori learned the most important
things from studying her Bible in life’s trenches. You’ll find her at her
website www.loriroeleveld.com.
If not, know she’s off somewhere slaying dragons. Not available for children’s
parties.
Running from a Crazy Man
(and other adventures traveling with Jesus)
My title, Running from a Crazy Man
(and other adventures traveling with Jesus), comes from the story of King
David. David knew God had anointed him king and had every reason to believe his
path would lead straight to the throne. It must have created incredible confusion
for David to find himself spending part of his life running from King Saul but
we know God was present and active in David’s life even then.
In the seventies, the message
communicated about Jesus was that He would make our lives better. That’s true
but it doesn’t always look or feel the way we expect. Many of us begin our life
with Christ with expectant hope, but not all of those hopes are realistic. When
our lives detour down roads called disaster, disease, depression, or personal
devastation, we’re tempted to pull off to the side of the narrow road and
wonder what happened. I wrote Running from a Crazy Man for those moments in
every believer’s life when following Jesus doesn’t make sense, to encourage us
all to remain in the adventure.
Running from a Crazy Man is available for purchase on Amazon.
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