Have You Ever Seen a Mullet Dance?

The water reflects the Spanish moss, magnolias and palm trees and it is smooth as glass. The surface breaks and a fish comes flying straight up and completes a leap of about ten feet in length. Another one jumps a smaller height and length and immediately reenters the water to jump again and again like a stone being skipped across the surface.

South Carolina is Adventureland for those who love nature. Steve and I are in Hilton Head this week and we're sitting on the balcony of our condo. In the space of less than ten minutes, we saw mullet jumping, turtles and an eight-foot alligator cruising from one end of the lagoon to the other. He was actually moving pretty quickly, gliding on top so that we could see his eyes above the water and the full length of his body. He moved quickly enough that, as he approached the end of the pond where the golf course was, several startled golfers stood watching him with raised clubs. Honest.

We also saw a long-necked cormorant coming toward us across the water. For a crazy minute we thought he was a snake halfway out of the water with a fish in his mouth. We saw only a long, black neck with a fish. His body was completely under the water.

All of this was going on to the accompaniment of the flapping sound of mullet hitting the water. The next flapping sound was of me hitting the internet to try to find out why they jump. There was the entertaining (and wrong) answer that they see where they are going by jumping. Some said that they are plant eaters but they jump to flee predators and they have the strength to jump as many times as they need to in order to escape. There were other explanations about their being able to absorb oxygen and such, but I was getting bored and went back out to watch the show. Wondering why I haven't posted a picture? Because they're so fast, you basically have to set your camera on an area of water and wait. Frankly, I didn't want the picture that badly.

We have seen great blue herons and a rookery where over fifty white egrets come to roost every night with much squawking. The rookery is at the edge of a lagoon with, you guessed it, more mullet. So there is much flapping and squawking and jumping and splashing. Adventureland. Come on down!

Beware of Branding

I am me, no more, no less. No reason to apologize; no excuse for arrogance. Of myself, I am nobody. But I belong to the King of Kings and that changes everything.

Branding is defined as a kind, grade or make of thing. It is generally recognized by a slogan, trademark or logo.

You think you know where this one is going. Let’s go somewhere else. We could talk about Christian branding - slogans, symbols, whatever. I want to talk about who I think I am.

In the past I have been wife, mother, daughter, accountant, financial analyst, writer, speaker and leader. I still am some of those things. But this is the point: there was a time when I identified myself as each of those things. The title became who I was. My life revolved around nourishing that image and protecting that name for myself.

Several years ago I decided that I deeply desired to follow God’s will and nothing else. And He chose some things for me that took me out of the comfortable confines of my life. I was willing and so He blessed me with gifts and the Holy Spirit to help me to do everything He asked of me.

But as I so often do, I took up the title and began to believe my own press. I became what I was doing for God. And when that happened, my pride got involved. I found myself doing what I still believe He wanted me to do, but balancing that between service and pride.

I have moved on to a new place in my life, both physically and mentally. I spent wonderful getaway time with some Christian sisters this weekend and, with their support and guidance and a lot of prayer, I came to a powerful conclusion. I believe God is no longer asking me to step out of my comfort zone. I think He has given me this beautiful place to write and study and just be me.

So what is my brand for now? I am a servant. That will take the form of writer sometimes, prayer at others, encourager, studier, reader, even “be still” thinker. I will try not to assume that what I am doing is who I am. I am, pure and simple, someone who is available to serve and to do whatever it is that God is calling me to do.

I Peter 4:10
"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to help others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”

God Knows My Name

I was driving home from a visit to Northern Virginia where I had led a workshop and attended the wedding of a dear friend. I was awash in that sense of one foot in one state and the other somewhere farther south – both places still partially home, neither completely.

Facing the possibility of a sappy and overemotional drive home, I knew I had a long way to go. While I do love a Starbucks buzz, it will take you only so far. So I had turned on the radio and was switching channels between the “Radar Love” that was urging me to drive too fast and the contemporary Christian music that I usually listen to.

I hit the preset button one more time and heard the familiar lyrics: “Who am I that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt?” And I came undone.

Because I have gone, and am still continuing to go through that process that all new people go through – that uncomfortable time when everyone knows your name and you are still trying to place faces. I have a new church and a new community and I am struggling with names.

And I am nobody.

Logic tells me that I should be doing better and that the “Lord of all the earth”, the Creator of the entire universe, should not only not know my name, but that He shouldn’t care anything at all about what’s going on in my life.

Yet here I sit, in this bubble of His complete care and love. Not only does He know my name, but He knew me before He “knit me together in my mother’s womb.” He chose my parents, my place of birth, my time of birth, and – amazing love – He has created good works in advance for me to do! He cares to keep my sun and moon and earth on their daily journeys. But He also cares that my personal needs - physical, emotional and spiritual - are met. He sent His only Son to die for my sins and to ensure that I will spend eternity in His presence.

I believe I will concentrate a little harder on this process of getting to know my new neighbors and friends at church.