HEROES - Fitz's Part 1

Okay, so it's no secret to anyone that I love Shaun, Lori & their kids.
They probably know it better than anyone, because I try to make sure these kinds of things don't go unsaid.

However, I figured I would share some of the reasons why they are my heroes.
(I was going to post them both in one, but that was becoming REALLY long, so this will be a 2 part post).


SHAUN:

Shaun was on staff at Master's Commission my first year; & has been a pastor, mentor & source of encouragement since day 1 of my life in Kansas City. (Actually, I didn't like him the first day I met him...so, maybe since day 2)

Shaun is compassionate. In fact, I would say he is the most compassionate person I know. He doesn't feel for you, he feels WITH you. He has kindness in his eyes & his heart bleeds when he speaks.
He is one of the most genuine people I know.

I have had a lot of amazing leaders in my life, but there is something very different about Shaun.
He is the first male leader I trusted to let be in my life (who wasn't already in it) since Junior High. I didn't ever tell him anything about what I had gone through, but he knew how to love me through all of it anyway.

There have been a lot of instances where Shaun has encouraged me, prayed with me, made me cry, & kicked my butt when I was being a punk.

There is one particular instance that literally changed the way I lived my life...

The night of my first year graduation some majorly hurtful things all came rushing to the surface.
You ever have one of those moments where something you thought you were "over" just hits you?
I had a moment. A big moment... Shaun "just happened" to be there in that moment.

I had just finished singing my last song, and honestly it was awful. I was starting to cry and everyone was pity affirming me (haha); not knowing my crying had nothing to do with the song. Shaun came over to me knowing there was something more, and put his arms around me. I spent a good solid 30 minutes just sobbing. I couldn't say anything at all, and all I could feel was pain. He didn't say anything for the longest time; he just cried with me.

Then he began praying for me, & I honestly don't remember most of the prayer. I do remember him saying negative things that had been spoken over me by other people and replacing them with truth.

Then he repeatedly asked God to show me how valuable I was. To this day I can hear him saying over and over again, "You're so valuable, Melissa".

That was a pivotal moment for me.
I wouldn't dare say that I wasn't loved or hadn't had that love expressed to me all my life, but I don't recall the specific word "valuable" being spoken over me. That word was extremely significant for a lot of reasons.
I always knew I was called by God, I knew I loved Him, I knew He loved me...but I didn't believe I was valued.
This was the first time I truly HEARD & BELIEVED it.

I had been believing the lies that the negative voices & circumstances had spoken for years without even realizing.
He didn't rush anything, he let God take His time with me in that moment, and that moment literally changed my life.
I didn't think, talk or act the same after. I have never again questioned my value to God. Never.

Heroes don't have to be bulletproof;
in fact, the best kind of heroes are the ones who bleed with you.

[...Just wait until I tell ya about Lori...]


...to be continued...

HEROES Part 1 -Megan Munro

I thought it was time for me to write a little bit more, but I don't feel like I have much to say about me. So, I wanted to change the focus of my blog to other people. I'm going to start with a series of my "Heroes", and we'll see what happens from there!!


So here goes part 1 of "HEROES"



Heroes don't have to wear capes, scale walls or fly faster than a speeding bullet.

They just set an example of someone you can aspire to be.

And sometimes, they catch you when you're falling.

I'm thankful for all the heroes in my life.



When it comes to Heroes, the first person who comes to mind is my sister Megan.

(Yes, gentlemen, she IS single. And if you feel like changing that status, you have to pass my extensive background check...you think I'm joking...)

Megan is my big sister by 16 months. We function like twins - talk the same, speak in code, similar mannerisms; but we are also TOTAL opposites...& I love it that way.

Here are just a few of the reasons why she is one of my heroes:

My sister can talk to anyone. She is fearless. In fact, there have been times I've wished she would stop talking to someone because I am, well...NOT fearless. No one is a stranger to her for long. She knows how to make people feel special, and can get anyone to open up to her. She doesn't disregard what someone is saying if it seems "off"...she finds the solution & brings correction in LOVE. She's not afraid to tell it like it is, (trust me I know that better than anyone).

She loves orphans.

I'm not just talking about the ones you see on the streets. She has a heart for anyone that has been used & abandoned; and she knows how to shower them with love. She fights for justice, and speaks for those who can't speak for themselves. She embodies James 1:27. TRUE RELIGION. (I'll leave it at that...;) ha)

She doesn't look like what she's been through. That's the reason most of all that I admire her. Someday, I'm sure she will be sharing her story with the world, and the world will be shocked and amazed. She has "LOOK WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE" written all over her. I'm so proud of everything she has allowed Him to do in her!

She is the coolest Aunt EVER.

London adores her, cries for her, requests to call her every day, stares at her pictures, won't let anyone sit on our guest bed because to him it's "Megan's bed", and says he is "Megan's boy". Sometimes he even calls me Megan.

She is my best friend for LIFE.

I remember September 11th, 2001 like it was yesterday. I was sleeping on my couch/bed/horribly uncomfortable futon when the phone rang. I didn't move. My mom left a message on the answering machine: "Meg, Miss...it's mom...wake up...turn on the t.v. right now"...

...

April 7th, 2001, I was on a bus with 60 or so other students heading for a field trip to the World Trade Center & the United Nations. I remember that trip so vividly...the towers were so big that I almost fell over just trying to look up at them. Overall my life felt as full of endless possibilities as those towers. Little did I know that day would end with a blow I never saw coming…

Ross & Elaine Munro were separating. This news didn’t make national headlines, but if you knew my family, you knew it was nothing short of devastating. It shook the very core of my being until my life felt like it was seconds away from collapsing. Everything I knew of life was ripped out from under me. Everything was going to be different, and no matter what I did I was never going to change what happened that day. The next several months of my life were nothing short of chaos.

...

...I fumbled around in search of my remote that sunny, not a cloud in the sky, East Coast September morning. I was irritated to be awake, and numb to feeling alive. I turned on the news to feel that sinking feeling everyone in the nation felt - nothing was going to be the same. I sat in shock and horror as the north tower burned, I gasped as the south tower was struck and we realized this was no accident. My sister and I periodically looked out the window when planes sounded low (we lived 18 miles from the Philadelphia Airport, so that was a lot). We watched both towers collapse. I felt like the whole world was collapsing with those towers. They had served as a painful reminder to me of a day I was never going to get back; now they became the same to an entire nation.

That day marked a spiritual awakening in my life. I wanted to live for more than my pain…I wanted to fight even though I felt like I had nothing left to give. I gave the broken pieces of my life to God that day, the ones I had been trying to fix on my own. I was ready for Him to rebuild me.

On September 11th, 2004, I found myself boarding a plane I questioned getting on. I was scared out of my mind; so much so that I nearly called my mom 50 times to come pick me up. I wasn't afraid of any man or machine, I was making the biggest decision of my life and I was about to bail. I made at least 5 trips to the bathroom to get sick, during the last one finding myself making a plea to God for a sign that I was doing the right thing. (He gave it to me, but that is a whole other story). It was around 8:30am in the morning that my flight took off for Kansas City. The sky was reminiscent of that early morning 3 years ago; so blue, clear & full of sunshine.

I felt like my life was just beginning on that anniversary of such horrible endings. The past 3 years had been a whirlwind of gutting out the broken pieces of my life. Those pieces were gone, but never forgotten.

I stepped off the plane into a world I had never experienced before. I had never felt so much peace about anything in my life, & I never once questioned if it was the right move. I felt full of the same feeling I had when I visited the towers 3 1/2 years earlier - overwhelming possibility. It was a new beginning.

God has spent these last 10 years rebuilding my life in too many ways to articulate. He has used so many people to impact my life along the way and believe in me in ways I never thought possible. Those people have become the every day heroes in my story. They have helped pull me from the wreckage, and walked me through to new life. I will never be the same.

Out of death God has rebuilt my life into something completely new. I will never forget 9/11. Never, ever, ever.

Tonight I am having an evening at home alone.

While most in my shoes would welcome this occasion, I am really not too fond of the idea. I enjoyed my time of being single and childless, but I don't miss those days one bit. I look forward all week to spending Friday night with Mike, so I threw a bit of a pity-party when I realized I would be spending it with Hunter (that dog who got me a ticket) instead.

After I ate my can of worms (still don't understand that expression), I started to look to the positives of spending this night just me and my dog. I try to look for the best in every hangout situation I have, seeing what I can learn from the person I am with. What character traits do they have that I am lacking in? What would my life look like if I was more like them in (fill in the blank) area?

Call me crazy, but I think I just learned more from my dog than I ever expected.

If I could be more like Hunter:

I would love people even if they didn't love me back.

I would accept people for who they are, and not judge them for what they appear to be.

I would enjoy creation more.

I would be able to fall asleep in 20 seconds or less.

I would try something that scares me, even if everyone told me not to.

I would face my giants, even if they are rottweilers and I'm just a runt.

I would forgive people in 10 seconds.

I would like the taste of tap water.

I would fight for the safety of others, even if I had to die trying.

I would be happy to live anywhere, as long as my family is with me.

I would not be a picky eater.

I would run like there's no stopping me.

I would probably do something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMDlZHdKMqk


Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy your night no matter what situation you find yourself in. Don't do anything my dog wouldn't do!

-Mel

you know that person in a group of people that always gets drowned out by everyone else talking?

you know, the soft spoken one that no one stops to listen to answer a question or share their thoughts.

it's the one you can only hear if you sit really close to them and move your ear really close so they can talk right to you...

the one you sometimes get frustrated with because you have to tune everyone else out in order to listen to them.

Do you ever find yourself getting frustrated when you can't hear God?

you know, the One that always gets drowned out by everyone else talking?

you know, the still small voice you don't stop to listen to answer your questions because you're too busy sharing your thoughts?

the One you can only hear if you sit at His feet and turn your heart to Him so He can talk right to you...

the One you sometimes get frustrated with because you have to tune everyone else out in order to listen to Him.

Take time to listen for the voice that speaks in the silence!

Best Friends

This is what best friends look like.

London is absolutely obsessed with his Dad. All day long he talks about him and looks for him in the house. He's the first person he asks for when he wakes up, and the only person he wants to put him to bed. He screams in delight when he comes in the door, and cries the saddest tears when he has to leave.

He is 100% a daddy's boy, and I think that's just how it should be. I love it!

"practice" makes perfectly dangerous

Yoga. A term that splits people down the middle. They love it, they hate it...they hate to love it, they love to hate it...

I started doing yoga shortly after I had London. It was a way I could exercise without exerting too much energy (since we all know how hard that is to do after having a baby). I had never really known much about yoga, and the workouts I had been doing didn't focus on the spiritual aspects of the "practice"...they were more cardio based "weight loss programs". I'd like to say I am a pretty smart person, but I was really naive to everything that is tied along with yoga.

Until this summer.

One day right around youth conference I noticed my foot was hurting in a strange way. I could not pinpoint how I had hurt it...I hadn't done any kind of intense cardio recently or felt my ankle roll or anything. It didn't feel like I pulled a muscle and yet it didn't feel broken, it just hurt REALLY bad. The only thing I had done recently was yoga, but had never hurt myself before while doing it.

The second morning of youth conference it hurt so bad I could barely stand. I asked my sister to pray for me, and after she finished she said, "You might want to think about the whole yoga thing".

And that's where my Holy Spirit awakening began towards the spiritual ties of yoga.

I began to think about it, and noticed the more I had done yoga, the more I liked yoga. Not a bad concept when it comes to exercise, but the nature of my liking felt strange. Sometimes I would find myself feeling guilty for feeling so good after I finished. I suppose I had played it off as having something to do with my warring church programmed mindset of "anything that feels good has to be bad".

I noticed the real problem became when I battled whether or not I needed to give it up. Nothing in our lives should be too big a sacrifice compared to the cross, and something that seemed so "small" in my mind was holding a little more power than I had realized.

Then I began to research the connection between "yoga and spirituality", and found the results to be frightening. I am going to share some of them with you and point out that these are NOT written by Christian authors.

Below is an except from pathstopower.net entitled "Yoga & Spirituality":

"I had an urge to write this article seeing how yoga is being degraded to simple flexibility training and how yoga’s popularity is being used to sell practically anything...
Yoga and Spirituality are inseparable. Yoga is an ancient teaching that helps the persistent practitioner to achieve the spiritual enlightment. By no means it consists of a set of exercise routine only.
Yoga is comprehensive system, a way of thinking, a way of living our everyday lives...
Yoga played an important role in my life providing insights and answering the numerous questions that I had hard time to find answers to.
The Eastern occultism entered my life when I was 20 years old. I was lucky enough to find the book of Mabel Collins “Light on the path and through the gates of gold” in the country where the books on spirituality and religion were not published..."

Here is another, more unsettling except from a teaching by Sri Chimnoy (http://www.writespirit.net/spirituality/meditation/yoga_and_spirituality) . It is more frightening because it refers to the connection between yoga and "God". Linked in the article is on the webpage is his definition of "God". I have taken the liberty to take the capital out of his "G" below, since I know he is NOT referring to my God - the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, and I refuse to let HIM be watered down to a "mindset".):

"I have come here to be of service to the seekers of the highest truth. There are many seekers here. Some are beginners, others have started walking, others are a little advanced and running along the spiritual path. Spirituality is a vast field. You can regard spirituality as a body. Inside the body is the heart. Yoga is the heart of the spiritual body.
Yoga is a Sanskrit word. It means union with god. This union is a conscious union. We are all united with god but we are not aware of it. When we practice Yoga, we become conscious of our union with god.
Why practice Yoga? ...We want to practice Yoga in order to be satisfied. If we are sincere to ourselves, we know that we have everything except satisfaction. Some seekers feel that everything in life has meaning only when god comes first. They feel that god is the root. When they become one with the root, the source, then everything has meaning and everything is satisfaction. The practice of Yoga can lead us to this goal...
... Real Yoga will never ask us to renounce the world. We have to accept, transform and divinise the world and bring perfect Perfection onto this earth."

The word of God tells us the exact opposite in Romans 12:2 -Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.


I found that in my struggle with giving up yoga it has become an "idol". That in and of itself is dangerous enough, but add in all the spiritual elements, and I simply cannot allow this "practice" to be in my life.

Hebrews 12:1 -Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

You still may look at this and think it's "no big deal", but I am choosing to "strip off that weight" and not allow it to slow me down.

...So goodbye downward dog, cobra, awkward airplane, and warrior 1,2 &3. I'm over you. You don't belong in my life, and your names are pretty stupid anyway. :)