Living Your Values

Posted on October 21, 2011 by My Berean Life

Anyone who knows me well knows I have an affinity for Rocky (yes, the movie — all but the last one) and Ella Fitzgerald. For this month’s meeting on the Path, I make the risky move to tie these two together as we look at LIVING OUR VALUES.

Last month we examined governing values–what they are, how we form them, and their role in our lives regardless of our awareness of them. We looked at how belief translates into behavior based on the values we allow to lead us. Governing values are not faith confessions. They are a statement of what moves us at our core, right now. Like, “I am generous.” Or, “I am a learner.” As we grow and mature so may our values according to what we hold dear.

This month we discuss application under this premise: When we determine to live by the values we set in agreement with God’s Word (or even some other source), we enter a kind of training toward active purpose. Consider that this training though broad in scope and experience occurs in two kinds–clear skies and the elements.

Enter Ella. I prefer her performance of “Blue Skies” to any other. Read the lyrics.

Blue skies smiling at me / Nothing but blue skies do I see

Bluebirds singing a song / Nothing but bluebirds all day long

Never saw the sun shining so bright / Never saw things going so right

Noticing the days hurrying by / When you’re in love, my how they fly

Blue days all of them gone / Nothing but blue skies from now on

This song is YOU AND ME, when we train in clear skies. There may be a little resistance here or there, or things may not be ideal, but the sun is shining over your head. Your faith is strong, you “feel like” walking in love, you have persistent hope and momentum! You are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (well, you are that anyway, but in clear skies you “feel” like it.). You want to belong to God. You want to share your LIGHT. You want to pray, and so on.

Enter Rocky…Then, in what seems like a sudden shift because you and I were on cloud 9 for so long, here come the elements–earth, wind, water and fire. Greetings like “how are you doing” are not met with as much zeal and fervor because the elements can make you catch your breath. The elements can take a bit of wind out of your sails. BUT, it is still training. Look closely at this picture of Rocky. Hear the theme music. Get energized. Get inspired. Let the wind within you propel you through this could-be-grueling part of the process. Like Esther’s brillo pad and Abigail’s Nabal, now it gets physical. Training in the elements forces you to decide for purpose or laziness, accomplishment through Christ’s fulness or dead dreams through lack of denying the flesh.

Who knew a little governing value like “I am loving” or “I am generous” or “I am accountable” could shoot you and me into phases of continued refining? This is The Queen Life…..a Path to Reigning. Thank God we are not alone on the Path! God bless you, Kingdom Queens.

Selah.