Unleaded fuel only!!!

We all are familiar with the knowledge that the gas gauge tells us how much fuel is in our gas tanks, and alerts us when it's time to refuel. If our gas gauge is not working, the inaccurate information it provides may cause us to run out of gas unexpectedly!

I would like to advocate that our faith can be seen as the “fuel gauge “of our hearts, indicating us where our heart’s fuel is positioned...More often than not in life, we can find ourselves in one of 3 places, denial, despair or hope...I will position denial and despair at one end of the spectrum, and hope at the other end of the spectrum...I will mark Faith as being the “fuel gauge”...the question I dare to ask you, is how to stay in the hopeful space beyond denial and despair ? The very place where beyond denial and despair, faith becomes much more than just a potential for hope! A place where faith can completely change my moods, thoughts, feelings, dispositions, tendencies, even my choices...

I would love to invite you for a walk on my journey... I would love to to share with you how I allow my faith to take me to hope, especially when despair and denial persistently are knocking at the door of my hear and mind...please allow me, not to introduce you to a formula, but rather to show you how I comprehend and apply this...

No matter what journey we are traveling on, what is on our plates right now, yours and mine... good or unsatisfactory, stoppable or unstoppable, welcome or unwelcome, exciting or dull, acceptable or unacceptable, pleasant or unpleasant...you and I are both called to make a choice in which place we will land and stay...

Let‘s pick one of the ends...Denial.

I could use also the word Withholding...if something is good, I can stay in the place of denial, withholding excitement, happiness, rest, enjoyment, you name it...might be out of fear of disappointment...might be the fact that I believe and think this is too good to be true...might be that I don’t believe I deserve such a great thing...might be the anxiety that this could come to an end unexpectedly...of course you might be able to come up with other reasons for staying in such a place...a place of safety, better to be safe now than sorry latter...

Denial under bad things, I can stay in this place because of withholding of emotions and feelings such as anger, frustration, pain, disappointment, sorrow...it’s like playing the tough one...a place where I can dish this out, nothing bothers me, I am strong...

What I’ve noticed though in my journey, that somehow no matter how much I would like to camp out in the place of denial, I end up somehow moving closer to the middle, the place called Despair...distressed by my denial...sometimes making mistakes because of the distress, and sometimes yo-yoing right back into denial...

No matter which of these I will pick, neither of them are a site for picnic, both of these places will stop me from dealing with the real feelings and emotions and circumstances in healthy thriving ways...these two places are filled with habits, emotions, feelings, traditions, fears, superstitions...these are places for paralysis...

And there is Hope...at the other end of the spectrum...I love to also call this place trust, confidence, reliance, freedom...where my heart is open, a place of wonder, a beautiful place where my soul dances! A place where denial and despair can be balanced out, accepted and dealt with accordingly...

I can see your smile and I can hear your words, well of course...but let me show you how I see this place...

Faith as an indicator, not only shows me where I am, but also takes me to this amazing place called Hope, here I have a loving and understanding Father, who cares for and about me...a place I can call home...a place where I can bring my despair and denial and leave it right with Him...no shame...no condemnation...no games...no masks...as I stand in the middle, in this place, denial is not necessary anymore, because I can talk honestly about how and what I feel, fear, think and desire...Despair is not necessary anymore, because I do not need to trust what is right in front of my eyes, but trust in my Father’s promises to me, trust His love and care...this is the place where I become alive..a place where I find love, purpose, excitement, my true identity...

I know, it’s easier said than done...but many things in life come down to perceptions and choices...life is a matter of choices, and every choice I make, it will make me...especially choices and perceptions where I need to check and determine where my "heart's gauge" is positioned...but this is the way I understand it, no matter what it might be, you and I we’ll bend our knees to something...so I can bend my knees before despair and denial and stay there hopeless and bent, or I can bring my despair and denial to my Father, to the place of hope, faith, trust, and let denial and despair bend the knees right before my eyes, before my Father...

The way I experienced it, something or someone will always be exalted, the question I have to ask myself is who and what...to me this place at the other end of the spectrum, it is more than just a place called hope, it is the place of truth, honesty, comfort, trust, healing, thriving, love, and definitely victory...and that‘s how I change not only my perceptions and choices, but this is how I turn my whole little world around, by letting my “fuel gauge” move from one end of the spectrum to the other, from empty to full, with the help of an indicator called Faith!

The “fuel gauge” of our hearts is life's best secret indicator...and when this secret is discovered, all it takes is a quick glance on the dash to know exactly where to pull up to fill up.