The Center of the Flock

Guest post by JoAnna Jordan

Posted by Nancy Lee on August 14, 2021

Please join me in welcoming guest blogger, JoAnna Jordan. Christian Fiction and Young Adult Fantasy novelist, JoAnna, lives in Houston, Texas, with her sons and spoiled fur babies. She loves spending free time at the beach, reading fantasy novels, or playing card games with friends.

                                                                   

 

                                                          The Center of the Flock    

                                                                   by JoAnna Jordan

 

Have you found your flock? Come in from the outskirts and wondered where to hang? Or have you been in the flock for a while and decided to follow the crowd, hoping they won’t see all the things you aren’t?

My knee-jerk preference is to hang out on the outer rim, watching for wolves or distracted by squirrels. As I speak to my Creator about getting in the center, a conviction is put on my heart with the urging to increase my involvement. This was when I decided that one of my gifts is to write and I must write for Him. Oh, how scary when I feel so under-qualified. How could I do this without running away screaming? Time to recommit…again.

I’ve “recommitted” to a Christ-centered walk many times across my adult years, so much so that I can feel my inner soul roll her spiritual eyeballs. It can be comical—this thing called human imperfection and insecurity. The truth of it, I was a lost lamb who returned to the fold sick. There hasn’t been an instant cure for the wounds and baggage I carry. In the rescue, Christ brought me to a place of safety and has continued to nurse me back to spiritual health. I have not made this easy as character defects and my own will have often challenged the remedies offered to me.

For most of my life, I have lived on what we’ll call “high alert,” always waiting for the shoe to drop with heightened anxiety. This has resulted in a life of self-will run riot, me trying to fit the proverbial square peg in a round hole. By learning to live my life in attunement with God’s will, I have experienced inner calm and stability while the habit of waiting for disaster to strike has lessened. With joy, I am learning to turn into His inviting arms and utter the words, “thy will be done.”

Doing this, sometimes hourly, is the only way I know to marry with the conviction to write for Him. When choosing to surrender the word HOPE comes to mind. It is necessary for me to rewrite my brain with HOPE and abandon those inclinations of gloom and doom if I am to stay in the center of the flock and contribute. For a successful outcome, revisions and recommitments are needed time and again. To do this, I have learned to turn to the source best able to lay new concepts on my heart and mind—prayer and scripture. 

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall rest in hope. -Psalm 16:9

There are many other verses which speak of HOPE, like Romans 12:2, 1 Corinthians 9:10, Galatians 5:5, or Matthew 21:21. The HOPE-rabbit-trail leads to FAITH. When we put our belief in the one who saved us all, we are enabled with power to remove or endure chaos when/if it comes. No doubt, it sometimes will. By FAITH we can receive the confidence to move mountains or cast obstacles into the sea. For me, the nurturing of FAITH has enabled me to work full-time while providing for my family and still get the writing done as I silence the nay-sayers (most of which reside in my head).

I urge you to turn to Him and then to scripture, leave no stone unturned when it comes to your relationship with the Lord. Allow Him to heal you. No matter where we are—still on the outskirts, returning to the flock, or in the center and uncertain—if we’re waiting for the shoe to drop there is HOPE, and that HOPE is in Him, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

                                         The Lord also shall roar out of Zion,

                                         and utter his voice from Jerusalem;

                                   and the heavens and the earth shall shake:

                                  but the Lord will be the hope of his people,               

                                  and the strength of the children of Israel.      

                                                      -Joel 3:16  KJV

Feel free to keep up with her events and blogs on https://www.jmjordan.net/ 

Ms. Jordan can also be found on the following social media sites:

Facebook: @JMJordan15 

Twitter: @JMJordan_15 

Instagram: @JMJordan_15 

*A special thank you to JM Jordan for donating a copy of her young adult fiction book, Flowers in Winter. All subscribers to InspirationalLee.com will be included in the drawing. If you are already a subscriber, your name will be added in the drawing a second time by leaving a message on the comment page. The drawing will be held on 8/28.