Shame. It is a terrible feeling. For those of us who have sinned grievously – and, haven’t we all? – we know the extenuating pain of shame: Not only must you live with your deep remorse; but, worse yet is the constant reminder from those around you.

Just when you dare to feel human again, someone unexpectedly sneers at you, shaming and humiliating you, reminding you of the wrong you’ve committed… Stares. Whispers. Some real, some perceived. Most of us wouldn’t risk leaving our homes.

Imagine being a public figure, recognized and mocked by all – actually hated and rejected by the very people you sacrificed everything for. Not only are you innocent, but the very people
hurling insults at you are the actual perpetrators.

Though you have been wrongfully convicted, you take on their punishment for them – the worst beating and punishment ever inflicted. Why? Why would someone even contemplate doing this, let alone actually do it? Because of love. Because you love these people, you take their punishment, without a word.

Jesus. “He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down… He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word” (Isaiah 53:3-7).

I’ll admit, I have experienced a heavy dose of self-pity, while blamed for something I didn’t do, with an inability to clear my name. Yet, who am I to have self-pity when I have sinned plenty along the way… every single, day, having been cleared and saved exponentially more than I deserve. In fact, I am one of the people who put Jesus on the cross.

But here, from the book of Isaiah in the Bible, from true history, we see Jesus who truly did nothing but love, give and heal, having never sinned at all, and He was murdered like a murderer. It’s almost more than I can bare. He did this because of love. While He lost His life, I have only lost money and popularity. I wish I did more because of love and less because of fear, obligation or appearances.

If you are despised or rejected, you are not alone. Jesus knows. He came to earth to feel our pain, to know our pain and to take our pain. Lean into Him. Rest in the shadow of the Lord’s wing. He understands rejection. He bottles your tears. He loves you.
He vindicates you. He removes shame. He replaces beauty for ashes.

Though He was despised and rejected, the pain and punishment He took was for you – for us – to no longer live in loathing, self-pity or pain. He did it so you could rise up, out of the shadow, out of the shame, to experience freedom and victory.

Though you have experienced rejection, you are accepted by and loved by God.

If you are poor, without, sick or hurting… this is not a sign that God loves you less.
If you are poor, without, sick or hurting… this is not a sign that you have sinned.
If you are poor, without, sick or hurting… this is not a sign that your faith is too weak.

When asked whose fault it was that a man was blind – the man or his parents, Jesus replied, “‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in Him.'”

If you are poor, without, sick or hurting, don’t look to you – neither for the blame or to heal the situation.

If your friend is poor, without, sick or hurting, don’t make assumptions. Don’t look at them – not to blame or for all the answers.

Look to Jesus. The miracle comes only from Him, not from you. As He said, “This happened so that the works of God might be displayed.”

And, He will get all the praise and glory when you are no longer poor, without, sick or hurting.

“God’s Word is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword. It cuts all the way into us, where the soul and the spirit are joined, to the center of our joints and bones. And it judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts” (Hebrews 4:12).

Emotions were given to us by God. Yet, the enemy attempts to use our feelings and emotions against us as a weapon. The enemy is the author of confusion. If he can confuse us by twisting our emotions, he can take our peace, hurt our relationships, isolate us and distract us.

If you have a general feeling like something is wrong, and you can’t remember what it was until you find something to worry about or feel offended or victimized by, that is not the Lord! That is the enemy working to create confusion and rob your/our peace.

Jesus came to set us free from being captive to the enemy. He didn’t just talk about it. He gave His life up for payment. Jesus wants us free!

If you’re feeling confused, tormented, or ruled by your feelings and emotions, instead of led by the love and peace of the Holy Spirit, you aren’t the only one. But we cannot stay in our feelings and be free.

God gave us the Word – the Bible – which is the tangible representation of Jesus. It’s there to hold and devour. When we read it, it clarifies. It moves us out of confusion. It “cuts all the way into us, where the soul and the spirit are joined, to the center of our joints and bones, and it judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts”.

We can’t allow ourselves to be enchanted by or addicted to melancholy thinking for the sake of “beautiful work.” I’m not okay with the enemy using my feelings against me. You have to make that determination for yourself.

God doesn’t need us to be melancholy and sad to do beautiful work. He wants us to be quiet and still before Him. How? When we are in His Word, it will do the work. The Lord will do the work through the Word.

If you want freedom and truth – seeing things clearly, let’s pick up the Word to reveal truth and help us climb out from the jungle of entrapping feelings.

“An enemy might defeat one person, but two people together can defend themselves; a rope that is woven of three strings is hard to break” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).

I used to read the Bible, on relationships and prayer, and think, “Wow! What a cool idea!” The older I get, the more I realize: There is danger, and it is my ego, to do it any other way. How would I suppose my ideas or way of doing things, if different than the Word, could be successful? We need prayer and others to survive!

There is no “self-made” man or woman, because any truly successful person has had God and others to do anything of consequence. I can’t even pray on my own without the Holy Spirit’s help or have a healthy relationship without the Lord in it.

God, I confess that I can’t do anything on my own, apart from you. I ask you to help me understand and to live out your Word in my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Sabbath. A familiar yet foreign word all at once. God mentions it over and over in His Word. He must want me to know it, to understand it, to participate in it.

“Don’t take a load out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work on that day. But keep the Sabbath as a holy day… and not do any work on that day. If you obey this command… the city of Jerusalem will have people living in it forever” (Jeremiah 17:22-25).

But, what is “Sabbath.” I want to keep it holy; but, even as a lifelong Christian it’s hard for me to digest.

Sabbath (def.) A day of religious observance and abstinence from work, kept by Jews from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and by most Christians on Sunday.

Well, I’m not sure I fall in with “most Christians” on this one; but I am maturing, and it’s time to sober up, digest and do.

“Sabbath” has always been a difficult concept for me. I was raised a worker. Work ethic is one of the chief values instilled in me by my parents. They’ve always done whatever it takes to get the job done, to provide for their family, to complete what they committed to do. So, the term “Sabbath” has always felt somewhat optional, I’ll admit, even as I’ve grown up going to church every Sunday… so, I know this to be a Holy day.

In my mind, Sabbath is a concept that means rest, reset, a break. As an entrepreneur with ADHD tendencies, resting takes a surprising amount of work, of self-restraint. But, I’ve seen what it looks like when Sabbath is flipped on its head: Running and running, without rest, without reflection, without focus, without enough time connecting with God.

What I feel God saying to us through the Sabbath is, He values rest. After all, God rested on the seventh day after creation. He paused. He reflected. He enjoyed. And, while I tend to simply check things off my list and run to the next project or effort without due pause, God values our obedience. He wants me to obey. He wants me to rest.

He also knows how we are wired. He made us. He knows what we need to operate in a healthy manner. God uses rest to save us from ourselves.

Without rest, we lack patience. (Sure, I might be projecting; so feel free to swap out we with “You, Sarah,” with “we,” if you like.) We lack patience. We get paranoid. We lose vision. We make decisions from fear. We accumulate blind spots. We get resentful. We doubt our calling. We serve without joy. We tune in more to our own, selfish, basic needs and survival than to others. We may even forfeit our calling, without rest.

Without Sabbath, we just keep pushing. We continue to crank through the motions, forfeiting our health. Most importantly, we put our spiritual health at risk.

I feel God saying, “Time out! This is our day, Sarah. I want to connect with you. I want to revive you. I want to talk with you about the week, and show you what I have ahead for you for next week.”

I feel Him saying, “I want to give you clarity. I want to give you revelation. I want to provide answers to your questions and respond to your prayers. But you need to pause. You need to rest. You need to Sabbath. I want to connect with you.”

Not only do we need sweet Sabbath to connect with God, to hear from Him and to rest; but, we need it to protect ourselves and others around us from decisions made in exhaustion that impact ours and others’ lives moving forward.

The older I get, the more mistakes I learn from. And I recognize my own pride and laziness. I have learned, the Bible Is Not Optional! It is the way to LIFE and HEALTH – the pathway to effectively fulfill our callings, the reason we’re here. The Word – the Bible – helps us run towards the prize, our goal, with endurance – not desperation – to the end of it!

As I reflect on the Sabbath, I know I need God’s help to get it and, especially, to do it.

God, Help me. Save me from my own energy, my own drive, from stubbornness, success and performance-orientation. Help me to be governed only by you, your words, and your calling for my life. Rule my nervous system, my ever-active brain and imagination, and direct it to be in alignment with your will for my life, for your purposes to come to pass in my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Wizard of Oz Though time marches on, this movie remains iconic. Most Americans have seen, or at least their grandparents have referenced, this classic. Allow me to share the gyst to arrive at the purpose of this blog:

Dorothy is from Kansas. A tornado sweeps her up, and she finds herself in a strange, but magical land where some are good and some are very bad. Yet, Dorothy is too naive to anticipate the every surprise she will find and too vulnerable to fend for herself. All she desperately wants is to go back home, but she doesn’t know the rules or the map to find her way back. After all, she doesn’t know how she got to Oz in the first place.

Dorothy is told, if she can make her way to the Emerald City to see the great and powerful Oz, this all-powerful wizard will send her away from this magical land and back to her beloved home. So she sets out on a journey to the Emerald City to find this all-powerful wizard as he holds the keys to finding herself again.

The lead-up to this wizard is grandiose. There are gold streets and sparkly objects along the way. There are seedy characters going to all extremes to keep Dorothy from getting there, including evil trees and flying monkeys that work for a witch, attempting to thwart her at every turn.

There are also wonderful characters whom she gathers along the way, such as the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tinman. Yet, this group seems to be at a disadvantage – all are vulnerable and in need of the wizard’s help. After all, one does not have a brain, the other is lacking courage and one needs a heart. Needless to say, they all have issues and are searching for “home.” This raggedy group of misfits have risked it all to get to this great and powerful Oz.

They finally arrive. They are groomed, prepared, and about to stand before this frightening magestrar to plead their case. Stepping into the batter’s box, they are prepared to ask for it all: a heart, a brain, courage and the state of Kansas. Yet, as Dorothy’s dog Toto rummages around, as curious dogs do, he finds an interesting curtain. The curtain gets pulled back only to reveal the most disheartening truth they can imagine…

The great, “all-powerful” Wizard of Oz, is not a monstrous, beautiful magistrate, enjoying the beauty of his palace. He is a short, nervous little man, hiding away in a huge building, standing on a box, amplifying his voice with a ribbon mic to create a prestige. Everything they have believed, everything that has fueled them to risk it all, turns out to be a hoax… [For the sake of the analogy, we will leave the story right here.]

We live in a society created of the prestige – of fanfare, parades, demonstrations, glitz, glamour, noise and billboards. Our generation strives to become famous, willing to risk it all for 15 minutes of fame. After all, if you are famous, successful, seen and known, you are loved, respected and part of something great… right?

We all just want our lives to matter, to count. Since history began, people have desired to leave a legacy. We have seen this through admirable ways, from fighting for freedom to creating beautiful children to become a heritage. Yet, to this MTV and Social Media generation, fame has poised itself as the “how-to” on creating a legacy. We have been taught that achieving fame and success will put you on the map and prove that you have lived. Yet, the allure is a hook, bait, and hoax.

I have seen it played out from the wide-eyed wonder in the lead up, the 15 minutes itself and the pain and grief that comes with seeing the prestige realized. It is much like pulling back the curtain to the Wizard of Oz… We have risked it all to get to the Emerald City – be it Hollywood, Broadway, on the TV or movie waves; but, behind the curtain are just men and women, standing on a little box, hiding away with big megaphones – their thoughts and decisions running the show of life.

So, I am here to acknowledge the problem, to pull back the curtain, and to share what it looks like to step away from the persona and the brand(s) we use to mask ourselves so we can live an authentic, simple life that leads to inner freedom. You are so much more than a brand. You are so much more than the money you can make for someone. You are so much more valuable than the metrics the world places on your success.

Let’s start looking beyond the brand, and answering questions like:
What happens next, when the curtain is pulled back,
and the world and people disappoint me?
What do I do with the emotions that come when I have disappointed myself?
How do I replace negative experiences with positive learning lessons that move me forward?
Is there another way to see this than the way my mind has processed it?
What does life look like now?
Where do I turn?

I am no counselor. I am just a person who, too many times, has relied on my own strength for my own purposes instead of leaning into God and using my gifts for His glory. I have fallen on my butt by trusting the world and trusting myself. There is no soapbox here. Nearly all of my examples have come from learning things the hard way.

Having been swept up, and almost swallowed whole, by the prestige, I am committed to moving our thinking beyond brands and personas, to learn who we actually are… to point to what is honest and true.

Through these entries, I strive to be honest, in an edifying way, that only brings honor to the Lord. After all, this is not about dissing branding or marketing; I am a marketer! It is not about stripping away life as you know it, dissing your success, or putting anyone down. (As a marketer and producer of 20 years, I see the impact excellence in branding can make by distributing a great message and ministry! We need to cast out the net broadly to share the message of Jesus Christ. This is my goal here!)

I am just here to remind us all that we are more than a brand name, a title, a company name, a sales goal, a size, the clothes we wear, and what the media tells us. We have a God who LOVES us, who will never desert us, who created us with purpose! My prayer is that, by reading this blog, God will speak something into your life to – even slightly – help direct or redirect your path so you see His purposes come to pass for your life!

Read my story here.