2019 : Fresh Or Fester

Welcome to 2019 my friends!

I always get this niggle right before a blog makes its complicated and tumultuous journey from my brain to the page.

A brewing if you will. 

It’s this amalgamation of what is being taught to my mind and what I’m experiencing in my heart. Mixed with ramblings from my wild and at some times unkept mind. 

Every day is a choice. 

New Years is interesting isn’t it? 

We all of a sudden have a clean out. 

We de clutter our homes and our minds. 

We anticipate change. 

A fresh start. 

Our “best year yet”. 

It’s like we sit and wait and hope with clenched hands over hearts that

“This will be the year” etc.

It’s noble at best, but empty if not met with the outworking that such a notion requires.

So what does the outworking look like?  Because without a change in behaviour, 2019 will slowly but surely be a continued pattern of 2018.

Life is a continuous set of choices. 

So in logistical reality, 2019 will become whatever you chose today. And tomorrow. And the next. 

I’ve just walked in the door from a Senior School Camp and at this camp, I seriously hit the pavement with impressive battle scars to show. 

It looks like I’ve done a huge jump on the mountain track and come off the bike head-first over the handle bars,  but in reality, I was getting my pillow out of the car and I slipped. I would have got away with my dignity in tact, if it weren’t for one witness- it’s my word against his 😉. 

But this wound needed a clean out! When it first happened it was damage control, get the blood to stop and the big rocks and sticks out. But over the course of a few days I noticed more care had to be taken. There were residual rocks and sticks stuck right in there that were unseen but causing festering, puss, infection. 

The large issues had been removed but it was the smaller, unseen, unheard little guys that were simmering under the surface and causing some serious yellow fluids to seep through.

It’s easy, if we aren’t careful, for our hearts to simmer and fester, even once the big things are removed. 

Gunk, just under the surface. 

Injustice will do that to you. 

So might grief.

Betrayal.

Unforgiveness. 

Jealousy. 

Trauma. 

Abandonment. 

Rejection. 

The list can be long and extensive. 

It’s like a contagious and addictive cycle that you are free from one minute and a slave to the next. 

You have moments of utter freedom and then tight bondage. 

Here’s what I’ve attempted to learn (and what a waste if you go through the stack and the blood and the pain and don’t choose to learn) : 

1. Injustice and/ or painful situations only have the power that you allow them. Life isn’t fair, not always. People aren’t who they say they are all of the time ( ourselves included). Humans hurt humans. We can’t stop the injustice but we can control it’s influence over us.

1. If you don’t dig deep to the core and do the hard yards to get out the little catalysts that are festering, they will actually destroy you. You can’t skim over something and cover it with a band aid and then be surprised when it begins to ooze out infection. It is your ( our) responsibility to have people in your life who can see the big and little rocks making a home in your knee cap ( heart, mind and soul) and challenge them. Walk the journey with you of having a good old look in that wound and seeing what’s left in there. Cleaning it out with you. Making sure nothing is left that can remain unseen and slowly infect you. ***Fun fact: It takes a village to keep Lisa McPhee in check. Haha. I’m not proud of it. But I’ve learned over time and situations that I need certain people in my corner(s). They can see things I can’t. It keeps a speed train of creativity and energy mixed with passion and at times recklessness, on a relatively straight course these days!! Amen and thank you Jesus! I didn’t know what I needed, but my God did. He’s a good and thorough God folks. He knows our needs even before we know ourselves. 

1. Life is and will become whatever your next choice is. A new year won’t create that for you. You control that. Romans 12 talks about the need for constant renewing of our minds, as to not conform to the patterns of the world we have around us. A constant dialogue with our Creator to stay in check, to stay on task, close in relationship with Him. A best friend. The ultimate friend. That verse has a physical outworking of refreshing and renewing our minds constantly, to inwardly reflect on the condition of our soul and sort through the dirt and grime.

That’s a game changer friends. At least it was and is for me. Not an occasional check up but a thorough, regular, full body/heart examination. 

Surround yourselves with people who help you with the upkeep. Who care about the condition of your soul, enough to have the hard and awkies convos. 

2019 is all yours folks. 

Really, we can do anything with it!!!

But it will come down to what you are choosing to take with you and what you are willing to leave behind. 

What you are going to put time into and what choices you are going to make each moment. 

God wastes nothing, amen?!

It’s one thing I know for certain. 

Have the best crack you can at 2019 , commit it to Jesus. Let His Spirit lead you in all the moments. It’s exciting what can and will take place when we boldly step out, maybe unhinged at times, but with full hearts on firm foundation in healthy soil. 

Oh we’ll fluff it up, we’ll make mistakes, do silly stuff, but we’ve got a God on our side who specialises in rooting for the under dog. 

No matter what has gone before, let’s get back up, shake it off, and smash this year - starting with right now. 

Tomorrow will be whatever your choices are.

Choose good. 

Lurve you guys ❤️

 My Tribe xx