#WriterRevelations: Our Awesome God

When I was a kid, my parents always had Christian music on so I naturally grew up worshipping God whenever music was playing. I can't say we never listened to secular music but I loved Christian music and didn't realize till I was in middle school how often I listened to it, until kids pointed it out to me.

One song I used to love to sing was on the WOW CD and it was called Awesome God by Rich Mullins.

Our God is an awesome God. He reigns from heaven above with wisdom, power, and love. Our God is an Awesome God.

Recently, I've been listening to a lot of worship music and studying why we worship and the atmosphere it creates, and during Bible study recently, I felt the urge to sing that out loud.

So I did.

It gave me great peace and a smile that could rival the sun it shown so bright.

Nowadays, people call God's name with little reverence. Some use it as a curse.

We who believe in and love him, use his name so casually we don't really ponder all the He is.

Any prayer you pray in that name is being prayed to the Almighty God who created and rules over all things.

Three areas of our life are impacted by how we see God.

First, it affects our prayers. As we come to know God better and better, we start to yield more to his thoughts and plans for us, and our petitions align more closely with his purposes. I like to call it seeing God as a wide open door (more specifically, wide open arms) instead of a small, little doggy door we have to squeeze through.

Second, our understanding of His righteousness and goodness influences our behavior. When you know God desires to be good to you always and his mercy is relentless and endures long (Newsflash: God doesn't have a short fuse. He doesn't understand why humans are quick to snap over material things and while driving). If we mess up, we will again pursue our Christ-provided righteousness and repent of any and all sin( Big or small). One way I deal with this is if I start to feel an ache within about something I said, did, or even how I reacted, I walk away from the situation, and get still and say, "God, I repent of that. That was ugly, and you make all things beautiful, and I receive your forgiveness now. In Jesus' Name."

Third, our faith is impacted. Grasping that Jesus is holy, good, and powerful grows our trust in Him.
They say when you KNOW, YOU KNOW.

Do you know the Almighty God as your personal heavenly Father? He invites whosoever will believe into an intimate relationship with Him. But as with any good friendship, time and intentionality are
necessary to understand him and learn His ways.

Until next time, remember:

#WriterWednesday: Who holds your confidence?

I don't know how but I started off 2016 with so much faith, passion, and confidence, and along the way, it just diminished until it was equivalent to a cell phone battery blinking and desperate for a recharge.


I think the first thing that diminished my confidence was when I attempted to lose weight through the lifestyle program affiliated with Shakeology, 21 Day Fix.

I really was stoked to spend about $75.00 on myself, or so my coach promised me. Yet, then my house air conditioner broke and my coach stopped sending me motivational texts and I said, why should I even bother with this? 

The unseen truth here was that instead of blaming my loss of weight on my coach's lack of encouragement, and my house's air conditioner crapping out, and just finished it like the boss chick that I claim to be. Yet, there was a power source issue here that instead of addressing, I let slip and just gave into my flesh when it came to over-indulging in sweets, alcohol, and fatty foods.

Following me quitting me Shakeology followed to me subconsciously overthinking the way I was being treated at work. I may have been really been targeted as far as abuse was concerned but either way, I overthought the whole situation and as a result, I called out one too many times and was immediately terminated.

Right after I was fired, I got a query response from an agent who ripped me apart for a previous blog post I shared on here where I responded to how an agent criticized my memoir in order to show other artists out there that you shouldn't change your art to bend to the trends of the marketplace but you should write, play music, draw or paint whatever your heart is screaming at you to share with the world. Art based on authentic passion always speaks volumes to the struggles of the world around us than the fickle trends of the marketplace when you query.

This query response would cause me to stop submitting to agencies for the time being. 

Plus, it made me stop writing creatively. I lost hope that my words even mattered at all. It turns out that the problem is my query letter itself and not my memoir. The query letter fails to sell the heart and soul struggle of my fight and how my story will breathe truth and change into people's minds if published.

A month after being terminated, I got hired with an undisclosed parcel company for seasonal employment. I applied to be a package handler but got hired as a golf cart delivery person in a residential neighborhood catered to the use of golf carts. They didn't call me to start until the end of the month and I grew impatient and easily frustrated. I went the first day and if I had thought they were unorganized before, after one day of work I certainly DID NOT want to work for them. Some issues that led me to feel this way: 

• My trainer was an hour late to meet me when my supervisor told me to be there at 1:30.
• I was fine when doing the job on my own but the trainer made me feel inadequate and judged, not to mention unwanted.
• We were responsible for too many packages for only two people assigned to the pod so we ended up working until 7:30 that night with a broken headlight and no light to help us find the addresses we had to deliver to as well as trouble reading the package labels. Plus, we were given no night reflectors to deliver in.

So the next day when they called me in for my second day of work I quit. I only took the golf cart position because I thought it would help build my driving skills and confidence so I could grab the horse by the reigns and drive a motor vehicle with the license I got in September. Yet, I stopped wanting to even drive for the sad reason of feeling like the only thing that would motivate me to drive would be having a car of my own. I mean my father was well-intentioned when he gave me his car but being that he still drives it the majority of the time, I don't really feel like it was given to me. It was just dangled in front of me much the same way you may dangle a half-eaten chicken wing in front of a dog if you were mean-spirited. 

Heading into 2017, I realized all these errors and decided I was going to clear my mind of all negative and wrong thoughts as the year closed out, and renew my mind to new thoughts for the new year. 

So far, 2017 is off to a fabulous start! I've started writing 30 minutes a day. I have weekly freelance writing work, and have now partnered with Amazon via The Smart Cookie Philes. My Christmas was even blessed despite having little income for extravagant gifts, since I placed my confidence in Christ, I ended up getting everything I wanted for Christmas:

A tablet (so I can read The Smart Cookie review queue quicker and more conveniently, plus not have to print a billion pages worth of books so I save trees).

Some new clothes from H&M. (OMG, did you guys know they have shaping denim so me and my big booty can still look cute in a pair of skinny jeans without having to metaphorically cut off my air circulation. Plus, I actually got pajamas to wear for when I do writing of all types).

Beats Headphones (My desk and bedroom are in the middle of my living room. I love my family for being the stone cold pack of weirdos they are but being from up north hereditarily, we are a loud group inside our habitat) They are perfect for writing.

So I ask you in 2017: 

Until next time remember, 

Before I go, please make sure to check out Kickflip My Heart to your right since I added a new chapter for the new year!

May your 2017 be full of love, joy, and unshakable confidence in a God who's grace abounds and much more abounds for those who diligently seek him.

In Christ-Like Love and Confidence, 

Chelsea 

~Just Keep Swimming~

DONATE TO LITERATURE AND THE MUSIC IN YOUR HEAD and ALL THINGS EXPRESSION. Donate to The Smart Cookie Philes Now.

#WriterWednesday I'm all but dying to tell you the truth about death

Complain and remain

Praise and be raised

-Joyce Meyer

Three years ago, we got a new neighbor. At first, my family was very sad to see our old neighbor leave after it felt as though we had really developed a solid friendship with said person. Yet, once we met Kathryn and her boyfriend Ken, it was easy to see this neighborhood friendship was off to a very friendly start. Most likely because my parents are from New Jersey and Kathryn and Ken are from Boston. Northerners tend to bond on some unspoken level. Mostly because the way we perceive the world is similar, and we build a bond based off that. 

Anyway, Kathryn went from being just our neighbor across the street from us to someone we held garage sales with, and then someone who gave us her extra fridge when our ten year old one crapped out, and my parents didn't have the financial means to get a brand new one from anywhere. Then, Kathryn started volunteering at a local church, and while there, she made friends with a man who worked for a grocery store and collected their leftover bread to donate to the churches food bank. Last summer, we didn't eat much cake but we had our own personal bread man. That was short-lived because Kathryn was volunteering a month or two ago and she ended up saying "crap" and "suck" too much for the taste of the high brow religious do-gooders of said church, telling her if she kept talking like that she wouldn't be welcome here. And the bread man blatantly told her that he wouldn't be giving her and her friends bread any longer. At the beginning of 2016, my family once again was in dire straights when our dryer crapped out, and Kathryn offered my parents her personal credit card so we could get a brand new one (she even said we should get the newest high-tech Samsung one). Kathryn was an active fixer of things she bought at garage sales, refurbishing old furniture and making it new again and she made the front of her house go from ghetto-looking to two green thumbs up. She even provided my sister a dresser when her old dresser purchased at Big Lots became a big pain in the ass with drawers that fell apart and all her clothes were exposed to anyone who walked inside the bedroom. 

Then, shortly after the incident at the church, Kathryn found our one of her tumors was malignant and she would need to start chemotherapy right away because the cancer was progressing.

Yes, you read that right. Sweet, give the shirt off her back, active older lady with the Boston accent Kathryn, who became like another family member to me and my family had stage four cancer.

Then, like the butt of a really bad joke, Kathryn passed away on April 1, leaving us all a fool for the legacy she left behind. 

Last Monday, I found myself in her empty house with free pass to take any movie in her collection that met my fancy, I ended up with a box of movies. Some of which I had wanted for my massive movie collection for years like childhood classic, Save The Last Dance.

Yet, it made me sad to find that some of her movies were still shrink-wrapped, some of her movies were opened but looked as though she had only watched them once or twice, and it made me realize the weightiness of death for those that stay living here on Earth. 

My mom was given so much baking goods and ingredients that it struck a heavy minor chord on my heartstrings to see that she was planning to make her own personal chocolate molds, and even chocolate covered pretzels. 

    Kathryn was a kind and compassionate soul and as she neared death, my family not only prayed for her but my parents visited her multiple times weekly, my mom made her plate after plate from different dinners she made like St. Patrick's Day and Easter, and we even asked healing ministers to come lay hands on her before she left us. Yet, they were one day too late. 

I share this story with all of you because as someone who experienced being at the brink of death herself, not knowing Christ as your personal savior and Lord, seems like such a quick and easy way to take the death out of dying. 

Plus, knowing Jesus is there with you, and his spirit lives in you, can mean a world of difference when life seems to knock you down, and no one whether they are of faith or not is subject to a free pass on the trial front. Everyone faces tough times and seasons in life. Yet, having Jesus means I have someone who goes to work on my behalf and who has already overcome the power the world has to harm me (John 16:33). Today while doing a study on the Holy Spirit I found some verses that spoke to me, breathed new breath in my lungs, ridded me of feeling winded by the worries of life:

But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!

12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life -Romans 8:9-15, The MSG.

God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way. -1 Corinthians 2:12-13, The MSG

Until next time remember, though my story was a bit somber, I find glimmers of hope in the message it shares. Death is something we all face in this life but we don't have to allow the world's labels to define us but instead create a legacy that affects people and inspires those we leave behind to also make their life count, not by this world's standards but by God's.

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