When You’re Not the Favorite

March 30, 2017 By: Angela Parlin

They were the sparkly people.

This was my secret definition for the beautiful people who surrounded me growing up. My sisters, my best friends, the cheerleaders I wanted to grow up and be like. People with big personalities, who turned eyes without trying.

People watched them.

People listened to them.

People laughed at whatever they said.

People wanted to be with them.

They didn’t fear being seen, because they knew it was true—everybody wanted to hear whatever they had to say. They were the beautiful people through and through.

And I wasn’t one of them, at least in my perception.

So I was reading through Genesis again a few years ago, and I came to the story of Joseph. The part where his father loved him more than his other sons. I knew all about people like Joseph. I’d spent decades observing them. The sparkly people. The beautiful ones. People with big dreams, and all the pieces coming together into a perfect picture…

Read the rest of this post at Purposeful Faith!

When You’re Waiting for the Next Great Thing

February 23, 2017 By: Angela Parlin

I couldn’t wait for my life to begin.

I crossed off another day on the calendar. Soon I would load up my Chevy Cavalier and move into my first, tiny, post-college apartment. I’d purchase my own food each day. I’d wear Business Casual Monday through Friday, and pull an IBM lanyard around my neck each morning. I’d sit poolside on weekends, reading all the fabulous novels I never had time for while in school.

There were so many things to look forward to when we were young. We took a step, turned a year older, completed a milestone, and then we looked ahead to the next great thing.

Double digits.

Being a teenager.

Earning a driver’s license.

Living on our own.

Childhood dreams were made of these things.

It was the same through college, where we checked off one step at a time, eyes always fixed on the next great season.

Before I knew it, I was learning the ropes of the corporate world and counting down the days until my wedding. After that, we looked forward to this trip or that and hoped for a baby and added to our family and survived multiple toddlers at once, and we continued to build.

My whole life I’ve been climbing, building, and looking ahead to the next great thing.

Sometimes now, I find myself looking back. I long for the good old days…

Continue reading at PurposefulFaith.com.

What Are You Chasing?

November 29, 2016 By: Angela Parlin

I call myself a runner, but I always feel the need to qualify the statement.

I’m not built like a runner. I’m not a fast runner. My mileage wouldn’t impress you.

But I get out there, onto the trail several times a week. And other than the last few months of four pregnancies plus a couple injuries which sidelined me for a time, I’ve been a runner as long as I can remember.

When I run, I’m usually smiling. It’s a strange habit, but I smile in part because running is my alone time. I walk out the front door, ready to move, and it’s like a big, deep breath. Plus a lot of panting, but still.

I smile because the finish line is always on the horizon, and I’m a hoper and a dreamer. I smile, because I need the opportunity to think my own thoughts for a bit. Thoughts about something other than school and the next meal and a million little tasks to do around the house.

Give me some fresh, quiet air under a big blue sky and the opportunity to think my own thoughts–and it feels like being home. Not so much like being in my home, but at home with myself. 🙂

Last week, out on the trail, one of my thoughts morphed into a pressing question:

What are you running after anyway?

I sensed it wasn’t meant physically, and it wasn’t actually coming from my own thoughts.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 1 Corinthians 9:24

I’d read this verse recently. Run in such a way that you may obtain the prize. To be honest, this is a little uncomfortable for me. I’m not one to go after the prize. It seems like everyone I know is competitive, and I’m certain it reveals something broken inside me, but it’s still the truth.

Yet this instruction tells us to run for it. GO AFTER IT. Run like you’re trying to win the prize.

Paul isn’t talking about running though. He’s speaking about our lives. We’re all in the race. We’re all runners, and we don’t need to apologize for whatever level we haven’t arrived at yet.

The course we run is the Christian life. But we’re not running to win the prize of salvation, since salvation comes by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by our own works. What, then, is the prize we’re running to win?

What are we running after anyway?

Jesus.

We’re running after Jesus, friends.

And I know it’s easy to say He’s the One we’re running after, but sometimes we’re pursuing so many other things.

Sometimes we’re running after everything else, hoping something will fill our souls and fix our lives and make us feel better. Those things do make us feel better at times, but it’s temporary. It’s all just a Band-Aid, and it wears off.

In the middle of raising kids to know Jesus and writing words I hope will point people to Him, I sometimes find myself in a distant place, disconnected even. And since I find myself there, I wonder if you do too.

So what are YOU running after today, my friend?

Is Jesus the prize you’re seeking?

Are you pursuing His nearness?

Do you desire to simply know Him more? Is this enough for you?

He really is the Life we so desperately long for. Let’s run to win more of Jesus!

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

*******

Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. John 17:3

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We Can Make Our Plans

November 17, 2016 By: Angela Parlin

I had a plan for the weekend.

I stuffed an entire suitcase. I packed outfits and shoes for each day. I gathered journals & pens & vitamins & snacks. I confirmed a hotel room. I cleaned the car, inside and out.

I looked forward to enjoying the company of some long-distance friends. I was all ready—to run out the door, to drive down the road with a friend, and to soak up all kinds of help I needed at this weekend retreat.

I’ll be honest, it had been a long week at home. First, some of the kids were home from school a few days with coughs, and then my oldest struggled through a high fever for days.

And then something worse happened. I–the Mama taking care of everyone else–started to feel sick.

At first I tried to deny it and told myself I was okay. Mind over matter, right? I tried to stick to the plan. To not be sick.

But hours later, I knew. I was not heading out the door for anything, especially a fun weekend retreat.

Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps. Jeremiah 10:23

I may have had a plan, but my plan was not going to happen…

Find the rest of this post at PurposefulFaith.com, where I’m sharing today.

31 Days of Poetry & Writing Prompts {Postscript}

October 31, 2016 By: Angela Parlin

Welcome to 31 Days of Poetry & Writing Prompts–Day 31.

It may be a Monday, but I’m celebrating today. I did it! All 31 of the #write31days challenges! Finishing feels so good, and I’m tempted to challenge myself to something new next month–probably something different from blogging 31 days straight. 🙂

Today’s poem is about a place or a sight which catches you off guard with it’s beauty. It’s a fitting way to wrap up this series. Enjoy this one!

Postscript

by Seamus Heaney

And some time make the time to drive out west

Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,

In September or October, when the wind

And the light are working off each other

So that the ocean on one side is wild

With foam and glitter, and inland among stones

The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit

By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,

Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,

Their fully-grown headstrong-looking heads

Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.

Useless to think you’ll park or capture it more thoroughly.

You are neither here nor there,

A hurry through which known and strange things pass

As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways

And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.

///////////

You have to make the time, to find these moments.

Especially these days. Especially this season of life.

Sometimes they do just happen. Just this past weekend, I lived this blow-your-heart-open moment around the side of the house.

I was looking for my littlest, who had wandered off as he does so well. I found him chasing a leaf, which was blowing in the wind. He had collected a pile of leaves, and this one ran away. He didn’t see me coming, didn’t hear me calling, but the look on his face ushered in that feeling.

You know when you almost need a railing to lean on because it all slows down and you see beyond the surface of an ordinary moment?

It was something like that. There were instant tears spilling down my face, and I stood there, taking it in, wanting to swallow it whole, to capture it somehow with everything in me. I don’t know how long I stood there, watching, how long until he captured the leaf and added it to his pile.

I just remember the twinkle in his eyes, the determination, the enjoyment he found in chasing his runaway.

I remember his sweet little voice, excited I was out there with him and inviting me to play with him and the falling leaves.

I remember the way it caught my heart and blew it wide open.

Writing Prompt:

Describe a moment or a place in time when your own heart was blown wide open.

Click here to read the rest of my 31 Days of Poetry posts.

And THANK YOU for joining me throughout this series. It’s been a lot of fun and wouldn’t have been the same without you!

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