Friday, April 15, 2011

Faith Spotlight: Jhen.Stark



It is my great pleasure to introduce my friend Jhen Stark for the second faith spotlight. She is the heart behind the words of From Here To Eternity. I have already been blessed and challenged by what she has to share, and I know you will be too.

When given this chance by Jennifer to share something to be posted as a Faith Spotlight, I ran through the many lists of things God has humbled me on as well as brought me through. And I tried to sift through it all to find something unique to share... but they all seemed so... repetitive. I've been honest in sharing my struggles with post partum, my mistake in abandoning children, and my deep heartache in a miscarriage, but I've shared that before, I wanted something BIG to share...

So I had to dig deeper, and in digging deeper, I discovered that God was teaching me something NOW.

My story isn't famous. My life isn't any more special than yours. And honestly, that is a little hard for me to swallow. Why? Because I wanted to be someone great. I wanted a life where my name was known and my face was admired. Of course, if I sugar coated it with the right words, I wouldn't come out arrogant or selfish, I could always just say, "for God's Glory." But quite frankly I was lying about it.


With so many "self help" and "self glorifying" Christians out there, I found myself desiring what I wanted. I started manipulating my gifts and my passions to make a name for myself. Whether it be through my blog or my facebook page, I was an "inspirational person" and every place I could find an applaud I would get it.




But God, who desires so much more from me than what I was giving, reminded me, that the significance I was chasing wasn't the Glory He came to give and get. He reminded me that I needed to lay my life down (1 John 3:16). That meant stripping the me from my blog, my photography, and my life, and laying it down at the cross so that through me HIS GLORY WILL BE KNOWN.




And in that I found HIS ABUNDANCE of LOVE and I've tasted HIS GLORY.


This life is short. I'm not promised fame disguised as blessings. I'm promised blessings through taking up my cross and following JESUS. I want only a "well done, good and faithful servant" and so I lay down my life, my goals, my dreams, and give wrapped in my most precious wrapping, and put at the cross and say:




And when I let it all go and prayed that prayer, I found FREEDOM in His Grace, and the POWER to go to the Nations with HIS LOVE.


12 comments:

Unknown said...

beautiful! thank you so much for sharing.

xoxo

Emily said...

That was wonderful. I loved it! A great reminder of how to truly live for God and not ourselves.

Emily said...

SO refreshing. I loved this. Thank you, thank you thank you thank you.

God bless you ladies!

♥ CheChe said...

i am so glad I found both of your heartfelt blogs. Jhen really speaks her truth beautifully and it is really easy to relate to this one. I wanted to be an actress in Christian films. I wanted a platform to get GODS word out there. But I have a platform as a human being. As His creation. It isn't about being in the SPOTLIGHT so my voice can be heard for GOD it is about submitting and being content with His will for my life so that He may be seen.

thank you.!

♥cheche

Jenna Griffin | Gold & Bloom said...

wow, this is so true! such a powerful post. thanks for sharing, love!

Courtney K. said...

Beautiful words....loved it!

Terésa Marie said...

My blog is new and I've been trying to improve and increase it recently. Thank you for this reminder to make sure I'm doing it to glorify Him and not for betterment of myself or compliments and praise.

Timely advice.

Janette said...

Baruch Hashem! It's a beautiful thing to see into the heart of a God fearing woman... Great post and great guest!

design elements said...

wonderful post! love you have the Difference Project on the right side of your blog...Happy weekend!

Monique said...

Lovely advice! Thankyou for posting on this topic!

Monique xx

misszuman.blogspot.com

Mark Zellner said...

Wow, Jhen. That's a great story of struggling with your desires for fame. Thanks for being so honest. A lot of bloggers are writers, and all bloggers have something to share, so it's natural that we crave some amount of recognition. It's nice to be validated. Yet your words are true that these things are distractions. They can be mere distractions.

Have you ever read The Great Divorce by C.S.L.? He makes some insightful comments on our longing for fame.

JMay said...

I love these verses! Your blog is so uplifting and sweet, now following :-)

http://jennymayandswede.blogspot.com/

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