Defying Gravity

Did you see Wicked?  I saw it!  I love musicals.  It runs in my family!

I’ve seen some fabulous shows.  I’ve been going since I was in 2^nd grade and saw Annie at the Fisher Theatre.  The big doors so hard to push.  I’ve loved a lot of shows, but I’ve never loved any of them like I loved Wicked. 

My favorite song was ‘defying gravity’.  There are some lyrics that really hit my heart like something I just can’t explain.

I have often wondered if anyone ever thought I’d be… anything.

I will admit, I’ve had some cards stacked against me.  Some by things that were out of my control, and some consequences to my own choices. 

I’d like to just give you my thoughts on some of them.

Why couldn't you have stayed calm, for once! Instead of flying off the handle -- !

I hope you're happy
I hope you're happy now
I hope you're happy how you've
Hurt your cause forever
I hope you think you're clever

Do you know how many times I’ve thought I’ve blown my own cause for Christ because I could not keep my own emotions under control. Anger.  Sadness.  Oh I can tell you that I’ve found myself at the foot of the cross begging, BEGGING for forgiveness for my big mouth.  It’s the thing I pray about the most.

Luke 6:45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Often my heart is full of hurt.

Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by
The rules of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes
And leap...

It's time to try defying gravity
I think I'll try defying gravity
And you can't pull me down

Do you remember when Christ found you?  Do you remember what a wretch you were? Oh I do.  Ugh.  U-G-L-Y. People don’t always know my mess because I don’t broadcast it. I think that if it is needed to be said, I would say it, but sometimes there is no need.  Knowing where I have been and where I am now makes me thankful.  And in that thankfulness I find myself more and more in love with Jesus.  Sometimes I don’t think about where I am going, I just let Him lead me.  It’s scary, and people tell me I’m crazy, just today someone called me insane.  But a lot of times I don’t stop to think about the things He has called me to, because I’d be scared, and He did not create me with a spirit of fear.  He created me to love and follow and serve Him.

1 Tim 1:7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline

I'm through accepting limits
Cuz someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try I'll never know
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love, I guess I've lost
Well if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost

I'd sooner buy defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye, I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down!

The funny part of my life is that I am not sure if I ever did what was expected of me, because I didn’t really know what people expected of me.  I think I thought they just thought I was trash, and didn’t know what to do with me.  At some point I figured out that I wasn’t. But I lived a life afraid to step out. 

Go to Africa?  Are you kidding me? Most are afraid for me to go to Juarez.  When those schedules are put together, I am not scared. Sometimes if the voices in my head get too loud, I start to become afraid and worry, but I know that if God is truly with me, and I believe He is, then what is there to be afraid of!

Romans 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Glinda, come with me. Think of what we could do -together!

I think of people who don’t know Jesus, who don’t know their gifts.  I think of the body of Christ, and how when we all work together, it is truly glorious.

1 Cor 12:12-14 ¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Tell them how I am defying gravity
I'm flying high, defying gravity
And soon I'll match them in renown
And nobody in all of Oz
No Wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!!

I know a lot of people think I’m crazy.  How can I do things like go to Africa? Run marathons?  What makes me think I can do it?  Jesus.  In Him, I can do anything. 

Phil 4:13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

That means that I no longer have to live afraid.  It means that chains that have bound me for so long, will no longer bind me.  If I fail, I don’t fail because I didn’t try.  I give my all to whatever I am called to.  Whatever the cause, I will strive until the end comes.  Living a life loving Jesus.

Phil 3:12-14 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.