Thoughts, Songs, Podcasts

Thinking put into words, thoughts put into music, and music I like to shareAlso, a picture or two

[rebekahanncurtis]

New Post has been published on Rebekah Ann Curtis

New Post has been published on http://rebekahanncurtis.com/national-day-of-prayer-what-to-pray-for/

National Day of Prayer - What to Pray For

  May 4th, 2017, is the United States National Day of Prayer. I am addressing Christians, specifically, today. This is a day we are suggested to pray for our government leaders and the direction of our country, and I believe that we should.

There’s a lot to pray about, President Trump, his cabinet, different groups of people, corruption, etc.

Before we start laying out all of our wants and desires and concerns, and start cursing or damning the people in power, let’s first sit down and calm ourselves before God.

Jesus taught us how to pray, and we should go there first before listening to the leaders of our country as how to pray. How to pray prayers that work.

What should we pray for specifically?

After spending some time in worship, pray that God’s will be done on earth.

What does God’s will look like?

Psalm 122:6-9 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.’ For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’ For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity.

also

Matthew 28:18-20 18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

This last passage is also known as the great commission.

There are many other things to pray from the scriptures, but I believe that for our leaders in position of power, including their own relationship with God to be strengthened, but that we are to pray for peace in Jerusalem and for the ease of speaking freely the gospel and the ability to equip them in order to in turn share the gospel.

While many are focusing on just practicing their religion or ability to do what they please without fear from contention from the government, we should be even more so concerned with the true commission from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to be able to speak freely about what we believe.

This does not mean that we should be rioting, protesting, or causing trouble in the streets over this cause. (1 Peter 2:13-17) Or using our religious freedom to condemn (John 3:17), or spread hatred, rage, discord, jealousy, hostility, and other aberrations (Galatians 5:19-20).

We need to pray to be able to continue to share the gospel peaceably.

Unfortunately, evangelist takes on many extreme forms, and that’s not what we’re discussing today. We’re asking for prayer for the ability to engage people in a conversation about God that leads to the discussion of Jesus.

We should also pray for forgiveness for what the people in our country have done.

The shedding of innocent blood.

The persecution of the innocent.

Not taking care of the widows, the orphans and the hungry.

Not defending the defenseless.

And many other sins.

We need to pray for forgiveness, we need to seek the face of God, we need to resolve to not do terrible things anymore, and to live as God intended us to live with each other. (1 Corinthians 13, Galatians 5:16-26, John 13:35)

[rebekahanncurtis]

Love Trumps All has been published on Rebekah Ann Curtis

Love Trumps All published on http://rebekahanncurtis.com/love-trumps-all/

Love Trumps All

Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Whenever I think about what pleases God these two scriptures come to mind, to love God and then to love our neighbor, but what does it look like to love our neighbor? Jesus gave us a radical perspective with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), but oftentimes we forget about the ones who come in through the doors of the church on Sunday.

Read James 2:1-13

Several years ago I attended church with a young woman who had serious social anxiety, low self esteem, minimal social skills and desperately wanted to be included in the church young adult youth group. She was overtly awkward and tended to overshare and did not have a car. I thought she was different, but she had a huge heart and a love for God and the word of God. She became one of my close friends for a few years, and eventually a roommate, and I found her at times exasperating, but I was determined to help disciple her in her walk with Jesus. One evening, when she was living in the next town over, she wasn’t able to attend and the group was hanging out afterwards, as it did many times. One of the leaders of this group expressed that she felt a relief that this particular friend of mine did not attend that night and that she hated giving her rides to events. This leader’s comments made me angry and I looked right at her and asked, “if Jesus needed a ride would you exclude Him?” Shortly after that, everyone went home. While the group allowed her to participate in church sanctioned events, she was excluded from interpersonal activities outside of that. When someone would have a tea party, she was not invited. When someone would throw birthday parties for others in the group, hers was forgotten over the course of the year. She would on occasion be invited to others birthday parties, but I do not recall the group celebrating her birthday in particular.

I often think, if Jesus were in her place, how would He feel? Would we treat Him the same way?

There is a certain gentleman, Hank* (*not his real name), who attends the church I attend regularly. He is on the autism spectrum, has a love of airplanes and machines that fly. He loves these things, he also has a love for Jesus, because he attends our church on a fairly regular basis. I know these things because I have taken the time to slowly get to know him better. He wears the same kind of clothes, which are comfortable for him but not overly fashionable. Talking with this man takes a bit of time to understand because he’s translating the pictures in his head into speech and motions with his hands. Several times I have seen people end up in conversation with Hank, only to be desperately looking to get out of chatting with him.

It should not be this way.

The entire church should be looking out for his spiritual development in Christ, someone should be inviting him into their homes for small groups. Several people should be taking the time to listen to his week as he recounts it. What a witness it would be for him to be greeted with excitement and then tell other people how people love him and how he learns about God at the church he attends.

I believe God places the oddballs in growing and thriving churches as a test.

Are we really loving God and His word? If we love God we will do as he asks and all He asks is for us to love Him and love our neighbor as ourself.

This is a recurring theme in churches across the USA. How can we assume that Jesus is pleased with us if we ignore the lowly, the poor, the unwashed, the simple minded, the socially challenged, etc?

There are two commandments, one love God with your entire being and then love your neighbor as yourself.

If we truly believe God loves us, warts and all, we have to include and love others as they are. If God loves us as we are in spite of our sin and imperfections, sending his son for us, should we not in turn love those around us as greatly as God loves us?

This is my challenge to you, make a change as we move forward in this season of lent, meditate on how God so loved us and the world. Then meditate and act on intently loving the people around you, not just the people who look, think, and act like you, but beyond that. Love the person who is rough around the edges, who is socially inept, who is an oddball.

Let’s make America love again.

Love trumps all.

[rebekahanncurtis]

Read Chasing the Glory of God on Rebekah Ann Curtis

Read Chasing the Glory of God on http://rebekahanncurtis.com/chasing-the-glory-of-god/

Chasing the Glory of God

This post is intended for Christians. If you are not born again, this post will appear as nonsense to you.

Have you ever had a glorious worship experience? Exodus defines when the physical presence of the Holy Spirit descended on the tabernacle and filled it completely after it was built. (Exodus 40:34) The upper room at Pentecost also describes the Glory of God descending upon the apostles and people gathered, waiting for the infilling of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:1-4) Where you could literally feel the tangible presence of God on your skin, where you could feel God in the room as people worshiped Him. In that moment, that hour, the days of that conference, worship concert, retreat, etc, were so blessed, so phenomenal, that you found yourself wishing that every day could be like that?

I have.

Maybe you have too.

When that time was over, the presence lifted and the grind and the day to day crept in. The memories of fellowship and worship linger, and you find yourself without that energy, that spark, and you feel like grass withering without water.

This is where we are at a choice, to either accept that perhaps the conference, the concert, the crazy morning of worship in Church that went a few hours long because it was ‘anointed,’ was just a special blessing, or we begin to crave and desire what is dubbed the ‘Glory of God,’ and we begin to chase the glory.

The “Chase” can take on many different forms. For some, it’s spending a great deal of time and money going from conference to conference, following around certain preachers or musicians that are anointed, just to experience the Glory of God. For some, they move to places like Bethel, or Jerusalem, or start attending a large church where there’s a lot of flashing lights, some expressive preaching, and people appear to be under the influence of God. For others, they follow traveling evangelists, going from tent meeting to tent meeting in hopes that the Spirit of God will fall on them.  They’ll sit in services where the worship is over an hour, and the preaching is over an hour, all hoping that they will experience the physical presence of God. Some will attend retreat after retreat after retreat, hoping for an encounter with tingles, the willies, and awesome power.

I went through a time in my life where I was swept up in the “Chase”.

I was determined to live in a constant haze of God’s Glory. I was unable to afford going to several conferences, move across the country to attend a bible college, or visit exotic places. I was able to attend a few retreats in college that set up the foundation for what I did do. Since I couldn’t afford running around, or get the time off of work to attend multiple conferences, I set aside hours for bible study, hours of personal worship, and hours of prayer. I made it a job to get the physical presence of God to dwell in my apartment. I also attended church every time the doors were open, arrived early, stayed late, sacrificed all of my personal time to serving at the church. Choir rehearsals, cleaning crew, Wednesday night services, 8am to 1pm every single Sunday morning, children’s church, if they needed help, I offered whether I was a good fit for it or not.

I started my personal time with an hour of worship. I had about ten worship cds from Hillsongs, Ron Kenoly, Carman, Keith Green, Passion, among others. I rotated through them until I had an hour or more of personal worship done. I then prayed for at least an hour, whatever came to mind, I prayed for it. I laid myself before the Lord and said that anything He wanted me to pray for I did. I prayed for people I knew, I prayed for people I didn’t know, I prayed for countries, for the church I was attending, anything and everything that came through my mind. I also spent a lot of time requesting that God fill the apartment with His presence. Then I would spend time reading the Bible. I read the entire Bible. I had read so much, the entire New testament so many times, that I began reading the Bible straight through. Beginning to end. I read the NIV, the KJV, the RSV, the Message, etc. I found a Strong’s concordance at the used book store and began using that extensively. I read books by Brother Lawrence, Stephen J Foster, Kenneth Hagin, Watchman Nee, CS Lewis, etc. I listened to tapes by K Copeland and a few other preachers, but most of my time was actually spent in reading and studying the Bible.

I argued theology with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I challenged them to pursue the Glory of God. I wanted them to taste the Lord and see how good He is. I also struggled greatly in my flesh. I had deep rooted sins that I would fight with constantly. I was insecure, broken, and a complete mess. I was saved, but I had been given some incorrect teaching.

See, I was taught that being saved meant that I could overcome all these things that plagued me. If I received the blessing of being in the Glory of God, that I was good enough of a Christian, that I had overcome and was worthy of the physical presence of the Glory of God. So I ran after that with all my being, because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do, and I got wore out.

I became exhausted.

I was running to be filled with the Glory of God, chasing that thing.

Maybe you are in that spot right now, getting ready to run, or running after the Glory of God.

Stop.

I’m pleading with you, please stop chasing the ‘Glory.’

I ran so much and so hard, that I fell hard. I was empty and did not realize it. I was broken and not allowing God to heal me. I was hurting and denying it, because to admit that I was hurting was to admit that I wasn’t a good Christian, and the church I was attending at the time, if you weren’t putting on a face of being an ‘overcomer’ and being in the ‘glory’ you were backsliding and unfit for service. I needed the ‘glory,’ and we would spend hours at church prayer time, or in the prayer group praying for the purpose of revival, the purpose of experiencing the ‘glory.’

I’m pleading with you again, stop this madness, STOP THE CHASE!

If you are saved, (John 3:16, Romans 10:9, 2 Corinthinas 5:17), you already have the Glory of God inside you. You have that precious gift of salvation. You are literally walking around with the Glory inside of you. You are born again, you have that shiny goodness inside. You can converse with God at any given point in time and He will talk with you, you have relationship with the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. (Hebrews 1:3)

You have the Holy Spirit in you, if you are saved. (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Ezekiel 36:27, 2 Timothy 1:14, Ephesians 5:18, Romans 8:9, 11, 15, Galatians 4:6, 5:22, 1 John 2:27)

To find the ‘Glory’ turn within. God resides within you if have accepted Him as your Lord and savior.

That glorious gift, the peace, the joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, all of it is there. All you need to do to find it, is turn to God within you. (Hebrews 13:5)

You don’t need to exhaust your resources looking for God, you already found Him. All you are doing is looking for an external thing, you are looking to satisfy your flesh masqueraded as spirituality.

Had someone said to me, “Rebekah, you don’t need to exert the external so much to find God and to experience Him. He’s already within you, you can find that peace and comfort within the Holy Spirit that resides within you,” when I was younger or handed me a book that exemplified it such as this one:

I don’t think I would have become so exhausted.

I know I wouldn’t have struggled so much in my flesh. Because once I began to turn completely to Christ for everything and not relying on my strength, my power to get so much done, things became simple. Mind you, not easier in the sense that life is easy, because it is hard. As a Christian, life gets worse, but the comforter, the Holy Spirit makes it so much simpler to deal with.

I don’t need to struggle with pride so much, because in the end, God gets all the glory. It’s not me that gets it, so I don’t have to worry about being perfect or appearing to be perfect, because it’s not about me, it’s about God. I just need to focus on loving Him and the people around me.

I don’t need to struggle with sins, because if they come up in my flesh, I turn inwards to God, and my focus on Him releases me from the struggle. For it’s not by my works or how good I’ve been that I can come to God, it’s by the grace and mercy and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

I don’t need to overcome, Jesus has already done that for me, I just need to turn within to Him, to rely on Him to get through or how to get through whatever it is I am going through.

If things do(yes, I meant to type do, not don’t) go as I think they should, or if plans should fall apart, I turn inwards to Christ and release it to Him, because it’s not my will, but His be done. If what I think should happen doesn’t, I release it and thank God for the experience, and trust that whatever happens is for His good and His glory, and since it’s not about me, I don’t have to worry about how I will look, it’s all on God.

If I turn inwards and experience the Glory, then I thank God for that experience and that He allowed me to witness a physical manifestation of His goodness, if I do not experience the Glory, I thank Him for teaching me patience, for I know that He will never leave me or forsake me.

I stopped the ‘chase,’ because I had no need to chase God. God is within me. His glory, His power, His presence is manifested in my faith in the belief of salvation through Jesus on the cross. Everything else pales in comparison. The hair standing on end on my arms is nothing. There is nothing that even comes close to the faith I have and the power of the resurrection. I am a new creature in Christ, that is all the Glory I need.

I hope you stop chasing and find Him within.

–

I still read my Bible from beginning to end. I still have morning devotions. I do spend time worshiping God, probably less than I should, but it’s without struggle to seek the Glory. For I know the Glory of God, the gift of His Son resides within me. I have that assurance. I don’t argue as much with other Christians, I find myself praying that God will reveal Himself through the scriptures, that the Holy Spirit will either appoint me to say something or keep my mouth shut and just pray that they are swayed according to His purpose. I don’t need to convince people that the scriptures are true, that’s between them and God. I just need to follow two commandments, to love the Lord with all my heart soul and strength and then to love my neighbor as myself. If I have trouble loving my neighbor, I turn within and find God’s love for them, because His love resides within me, and He loves them. That’s it. Everything else is up to Jesus.

–

This does not mean I am not releasing any music in the future, on contrary, I have been busy writing many worship songs that I hope will enhance your relationship with God.

When I release music, it’s out of my love for Christ that I do so!

[rebekahanncurtis]

New Post about Lemonade Rebekah Ann Curtis

New Post about Lemonade http://rebekahanncurtis.com/a-recipe-for-lemonade/

A Recipe for Lemonade

A Recipe for Lemonade

Or

How to Survive Post Traumatic Church Syndrome

I love a good glass of lemonade. The sourness of the lemon married with the syrupy sweetness of a ton of sugar and a sprig of fresh mint or lavender or a bit of strawberries for an extra layer of interest. Fill up a tall glass with ice and pour the faintly cloudy yellow liquid over it, and slurp it up through a straw. There’s something so satisfying about turning a fruit that was almost bitter and too sour to eat on its own into a delicious drink on a hot day. Try doing the same recipe with strawberries or apples in place of the lemons and you end up with a drink that is so overly sweet, there’s no relief from anything and it leaves you thirsty for water after a few sips.

A good church with a bunch of people who love Jesus and work together at being closer to God and doing good for their community, can be like a bowlful of grapes, apples and strawberries. It’s appetizing, doesn’t need anything more than a bit of washing, is refreshing and ready to serve.

Sometimes, we wander into a church full of lemons. Like a bowl of lemons, it looks really appetizing on first approach. It’s beautiful and shiny, gorgeous with bright yellow streaming from the bowl. They smell good and bright! They look good enough to grab one and bit into it. Typically, the uninitiated will grab a lemon, smell it, peel it, and then begin to eat it. If you’ve ever peeled a lemon, they are hard to get any good out of it. The pith is really thick, and extremely bitter. After digging around in the pith and peeling as much of it off of the segments buried in it, segmenting the lemon is equally difficult. The lemon is football shaped and does not separate easily. Eating a segment is not delightful. The acid content is high, the skin is bitter, and it’s harsh to say the least.

I spent a bit of time in a lemon of a church. I believe that God allowed me to participate and worship Him in such an acidic and bitter environment, because ultimately I grew a lot. Just this past week, I had a brief conversation with a former member, and it went well. I didn’t go into too much detail, I didn’t overly moan about how much I had been hurt. I identified that I spent some time being bitter after having left that lemon bowl, and it took me a while to forgive.

Maybe you’ve spent time in a church that was unforgiving and bitter, perhaps on the surface it seemed like a good place to be, but when you started peeling back the layers and getting involved, there didn’t seem to be as much good. Maybe you’re an optimist or as stubborn as I am, insisting that if you keep squeezing that lemon, you’ll find goodness, or you convince yourself that what you’re getting is really really good, when it needs a bit of sweetening up.

Here’s the first step of this recipe. The sweetness in this recipe isn’t sugar, it’s forgiveness, and you’re going to need a lot of it. Where do you find forgiveness? On the cross.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This can be one of the hardest things to do, it’s simple, but it isn’t easy. We must look to God, in our relationship, in our prayer time, and converse with Him about it. Tell Him it isn’t fair, that you got hurt by His people, allow yourself to be angry, and then allow Him to work on your heart. If you need the why, ask Him to reveal the why, but don’t go digging it up yourself. Allow God to heal the hurt. One of the things He’s going to ask you to do is to forgive.

Matthew 6:9-13 Amplified Bible

9 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.


10 
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

11 
‘Give us this day our daily bread.
12 
‘And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment].

13 
‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]’

The people in the lemon church may think they were in the right, perhaps they feel to be so now, and may not listen to anything you have said or want to say to them. It is not our place to convict them of wrong doing, that’s like blaming a lemon for being a lemon. The lemon sees nothing wrong with being a lemon, and you can’t convince a lemon to be a strawberry. The only way a lemon can become something else is by transformation, and unless you have magical powers, that ain’t going to happen.

On with our recipe.

When you think you’ve poured enough forgiveness (sweetness) into the mixture, you’ll discover you’re going to need even more. Whatever pain you’ve experienced, there’s a dose of forgiveness that exceeds your pain. The beautiful thing is this, the same forgiveness that Christ has given us, is also extended to your enemies. If you don’t feel you have enough, go to the source of forgiveness.

Sometimes, we think that the source of forgiveness wanted us to go through with all that bitterness, to drink that acidic juice as it is, bitter, sour, and unpleasant. Our source allows us to go through some tough things, not so that we can become lemons, but so that we can be transformed through the bitter, that even the bitter things in life can become sweet.

See, God desires for none to perish.

2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

We may want retribution for the wrongs done to us, and we may desire them swiftly, but if God dealt with us the way we want punishment dealt on others, we would never see salvation, we would only experience death and bitterness. If you want to experience life, you have to let go of all the bitterness and hurt.

As I told my acquaintance, I try not to think too much about that time or those years spent in that lemon bowl. I came away with a lot of lemon juice and pith, and there’s a lot of forgiveness I’ve had to pour into that juice.

There’s one more addition to lemonade, and that’s water. You have to spread out the juice with a lot of water. The only place you can get living water is in relationship with Christ. The more lemon juice you have, the more water you need. Spend time with God. Reignite the passion and fuel in relationship and communing with God.

Just picking up and reading the Bible can be painful when you have so much lemon juice, but you have to water it out by spending time in His presence. Some of the best teachers of practicing the presence of God are Brother Lawrence and Jeanne Guyon.

Both of these books, along with the Bible, are essential to reforming your walk with God, especially after being in a lemon bowl.

Slowly, and surely, through faith, hope, and love, being patient with yourself and God, and through the process of forgiveness and repentance and spending time in the presence of God, when you do find the strawberries for your lemonade, you will discover that even the most bitter of fruit can be turned into something sweet through God.

[rebekahanncurtis]

"Hearing God" has been published on Rebekah Ann Curtis

New Post has been published on http://rebekahanncurtis.com/hearing-god-in-a-real-way/

Hearing God in a Real Way

  I gave my life to Christ as a young child. My family attended a small church of less than 100 people, most of the families were retired couples, but they were excited to have my family a part of their church. There was a regular worship service where we would sing songs from an old hymnal and then listen to the pastor speak. Before the service, we would have Bible school. Like many young and new believers, I was excited about learning more about Jesus and I read my children’s Bible over and over again. Attending Bible Sunday School before the sermon was a highlight for me. In our class, it was just myself and my sister and the occasional child who’s family was on vacation or visiting their grandparents. The room we had our Sunday School class in was no bigger than a walk in closet. I remember there being just enough room for the teacher to walk around the table at one end and for us to sit on either side.

We would listen to stories about Joshua and the battle of Jericho, Jesus and healing the man at the pool, Zacheus the wee little man, and we got to ask all kinds of questions. Our Sunday School teacher encouraged all kinds of questions, and we would ask. If I wasn’t at church asking questions, I’d ask my mother. I would be playing with my toys, or thinking about whatever and then I would march into my mother’s kitchen and ask her and she usually had an answer, or she would tell me to ask my father, who had many answers about the natural world, being that his profession at the time was a science and math teacher.

One day, I think I was about eight years old, and I had a question about the return of Jesus and the rapture. I wanted to know if there was a possibility if anyone could be saved after the return of Christ. This was not the first question and I had been bombarding her with questions all day long. Either my mother didn’t want to answer any more questions, or she didn’t truly have the answer because her reply to me was, “I don’t know, why don’t you go ask God.”

I was astounded by my mother telling me to go ask God for myself. I remember thinking, I can do that? We had been learning about Samuel who was woke up by God in the middle of the night, and went and then woke up Eli, thinking that Eli had called him. I thought, well, ok, I’m going to go talk to God about this, because it’s important.

I went into my bedroom and prayed sincerely and then I waited. I truly expected that I would hear a voice talking to me from out of nowhere. I’m not exactly sure how long I waited, a child’s perception of time is vastly different than reality, but it seemed like a really long time to me. I began to be sad, because I truly expected to audibly hear His voice. In my sadness I reached for the Children’s Bible that sat on the bookshelf in my sister’s and mine bedroom. It had beautiful templates that illustrated the stories. There were pictures of David and Goliath, Noah’s Ark and the animals marching up a ramp, pictures of Jesus healing the lepers, and Daniel in the lion’s den. I loved that Bible. I started reading some of the stories I had read several times before, and read the parable of the 12 virgins and the 12 lamps of oil. I had read this parable several times before, but never understood it.

As I read, I began to understand. Here in this Children’s Bible was the answer I had sincerely asked my mother and then sincerely asked God to speak to me. I began to understand that there is a finality to God’s plan for salvation, that there will be a period of time where what we know and understand will change, and the door will close.

This simple act began a very deep and rich pursuit of hearing God through His word. Each time I read His word I get a deeper understanding of God’s love, and how much He speaks to me personally through each book of the Bible. I eventually graduated to a Kings James Bible and have read through the entire thing straight through more than once. It’s beautiful, it’s book that has the life of God running through it and I am renewed each time I read it. Anytime I have a question or fear, I ask God and then read my Bible and patiently wait as I read, because eventually the answer will be revealed through His word.

[rebekahanncurtis]

New Post has been published on Rebekah Ann Curtis

New Post has been published on http://rebekahanncurtis.com/im-hosting-a-new-podcast/

I'm Hosting a New Podcast!

Some of you know that I’ve hosted an all women’s music program on NWCZradio.com for the past four years, a total of 200 episodes of the Ebb&Flow, which highlighted women in music and women making music. I felt that for me, the interest had waned, and it was time to move on to other projects.

Then God steps in and says, hey, focus on Christian music.

I was like oh, ok, I guess this is what I’ll be doing in terms of the music side.

As I entered into this project, it became apparent to me that there is a wonderful treasure trove of music in various genres and from different cultures, all of it proclaiming the beauty and glory of Christ! It’s wonderfully varied! It’s a mess of awesome and I’m blessed and encouraged to know that there is a depth of love for Jesus and a pursuit of excellence while praising His name!

I’m so excited to be a part of this and to share it with you!

Every Sunday night at 5pm (PST), on NWCZradio.com you can hear the music of our brothers and sisters making music for the glory of God!

I hope you join me in this wonderful celebration!

[rebekahanncurtis]

New Post has been published on Rebekah Ann Curtis

New Post has been published on http://rebekahanncurtis.com/dont-tell-me-that/

Don't Tell Me That

  Recently I overheard someone say something like this, “you know when you falsely praise someone to boost their self esteem…”

I about wanted to puke when I heard this. Falsely praising someone? Why on earth would someone want to do that?

I suppose the meaning behind propping someone up is to make them feel better about themselves, but what if what you are telling them is a lie?

Proverbs 28:23 He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor Than he who flatters with the tongue.

Proverbs 29:5 A man who flatters his neighbor Is spreading a net for his steps.

Let’s call false praise exactly what it is: flattery. The Bible warns us multiple times about flattery! Much of the Psalms and throughout Proverbs and even the new testament tells us to beware of flattery, lying lips, etc!

If we think about what we are doing when we tell someone that isn’t exactly true, it’s setting the person up for failure in a big way. A few years ago there was a show on the WB called Superstar USA. This show spoofed a much more well known show, and evidently tricked several contestants into believing they were great singers, when in fact they were looking for the worst singers in America. They lied to the contestants, the audience so they would cheer them on, and to most of America. The woman who won, had no idea that she was considered the worst singer in America until she won and received money to pursue a recording deal, which she never made. Would you if you were told you were wonderful but it turned out to be a lie?

I cannot help but think if some of these severely untrained singers who were contestants on the show were told by family members who loved them dearly and didn’t want them to experience hurt or pain of any kind that they were the most wonderful singers and were as good or not better than some famous singers.

If you tell someone they are really good or great at something, when they are not, or do not have a talent for it, you are setting a trap for them to walk right into.

Sure, this example is in the extreme, or is it? We live in a culture in America where we want to tell people things without hurting their feelings, where there’s no room for growth, just be good at something and it will be enough. Or is it?

Being a songwriter and singer, it has been excruciating to find people who sincerely want to tell you the truth.

For every one person who will tell you that you need to improve in your art in order for it to be viable, there are literally thousands and thousands who will tell you that you are ready now. That it doesn’t matter, write what you feel, sing how you sing, art is all subjective anyway, market yourself and you will find your audience.

If we told our teachers, hey, teach what you feel is right, 3+3 could be 73 or 12, it doesn’t matter if it’s right, it’s all subjective anyway, you’ll find your students, we’d have a nation full of students who knew everything and absolutely nothing.

The arts are a discipline as much as writing, math, science, and social studies. Someone may have a natural talent towards being really good at that thing, but it takes time and learning to craft and hone that skill. Art is a discipline full of skills and tools that people learn to create something that makes sense.

Early on, I had someone tell me my songwriting was great and then I went to make an album which was a blast, and I started submitting my recorded music and I found that what I had been told wasn’t true. My songwriting was good, but it wasn’t good enough. It was a great start, but it wasn’t where it needed to be in order to record. I learned the hard way. I had people who told me what I wanted to hear, instead of someone taking the time and saying, hey, you still need to improve on this.

I’ve learned to hold certain people’s opinions in check, because there is no guarantee that the person I’ve asked for their opinion has my best interests at heart. I give honest feedback because I want honest feedback. My opinions may be harsh, may seem to be nitpicky at times, because I want the best for the people who are asking, and sometimes I give without someone asking, but I’ve been working on not giving out so much of what I’ve learned to people who don’t want it.

Since then, I’ve been my own worst critic. I ask my husband to be harsh and not hold back any criticism, because I want to grow, I want to be good, I want to write great things for the kingdom of God and I want what I create to matter in people’s lives. That means a lot of the time, I create, I share with people I trust to tell me an honest opinion and if it still needs work, I go back and work on it, or start a new project and work on it until I find that the project has either served it’s purpose, or get it ready to share with others. Now my husband knows my heart and has experience in music and art on a professional level, and when he’s honest, I take it to heart. I do have problems accepting when he truly likes a song I’ve written, because I crave the criticism. I want to work on it.

So when I heard the idea of ‘falsely praising’ someone, it literally made me want to gag. This is what I’ve spent my entire career as an artist trying to avoid and to hear someone state that they knowingly do this to people, just really made me a little angry.

On the flip side of this coin, I am aware of the art teacher that told some student to never draw or paint again. There are several famous singers who have great careers who were told they couldn’t sing by their teachers. Or the science teacher that discouraged girls from participating and learning science. Talent is not born. I used to think it was, but I believe that natural aptitude towards a discipline is a God given ability that with learning skills and technique a person can develop into a person who is great at that ability. This is what we call ‘shows promise’ and ‘talent.’ However, if a person spends a great deal of time honing a skill, because they are interested in it, even the less naturally inclined can become quite good and possibly great at any skill.

If someone shows interest, encourage the interest, but be realistic with where they are at in their development. If someone is a budding songwriter, and they need help with lyric writing, point them in the direction of Jason Blume. If they’ve been at writing for a while, point them in the direction of Pat Pattison. If they are interested in pottery, have them take a class at a local studio, don’t just buy them a wheel for the house. If they are interested in science, encourage learning about whatever scientific discipline by taking a class at a local university or community college. The idea is that there is always more to learn. No one person can be the best wherever they are, there is always room for improvement.

If we follow what Proverbs says, then we should be ready with a fair assessment instead of flattery. Encourage with fair assessment, criticize fairly over inflating egos.

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Failing Beautifully

  How to Fail Beautifully (Part 3 of Failure)

Once you accept that failure is part of our existence, perfection (in the sense that one is trying to be without sin or not to sin any further by your own strength), is no longer a goal. Being mature, obtaining maturity in spiritual matters is the goal, not perfection and then failing is no longer a fear.

How does one become spiritually mature in Christ?

I recently had a chat with a friend who joked that something I said wasn’t very Christian. I laughed, but I then began to think on it. In that moment, I failed to be the example that Christ wants me to be. My reaction should have been in that moment, then I need to spend more time with Jesus, instead of laughing it off.

I didn’t feel condemned, I didn’t feel ashamed that I wasn’t perfectly showing Christ, at one time I would have and then continued to do the same thing over and over magnifying my guilt, but instead I acknowledged my failure and understood the remedy for my failure.

Why is it so simple, but so difficult to do?

Because while we are young in our faith, we still assume that it is by our own strength that we overcome obstacles. We assume that by following the law, and being perfect in the law, we become blameless before God. That our own actions, in essence our own righteousness is what frees us from sin and ultimately failure. But, we know that our own righteousness is faulty, that anything we do to overcome our faults and failures, is as if we washed ourselves with the same rag over and over without being able to clean the rag. If you’ve ever washed something and used the same rag to clean, it gets so dirty that eventually all you are doing with it is pushing around dirt from one spot to another, our own righteousness is as filthy rags.

If we are saved, having believed by faith in the salvation through Jesus, then we do not need to do the works of the law. Through the law, we are dead, because we are consistently faced with our failure and no possible redemption, forced to examine our flaws. Yet through salvation by faith in Christ, we are free from condemnation, and we live by grace. We are able to fail beautifully.

Read Galatians 2:11-21

Failing beautifully is not willfully running around and carrying on like a heathen and saying “I’m saved! Don’t judge me!”

Giving yourself permission to fail is accepting the work, that your relationship with Jesus is doing in you.

By faith, entering into the relationship with Christ is what gets you saved.

By faith, we are justified before God through Jesus Christ, so that you can go chat with God at any given point.

By faith, we spend time in conversation with God, examining His character, sitting before His feet, listening to what the Holy Spirit has to say to us.

By faith, we read our Bible, meditate on the word.

Faith is not hoping we are saved, or hoping that we go to heaven.

Faith is believing that God wants to have a relationship with you and made a way through Jesus Christ.

It’s simple, but can be exceedingly difficult for some.

Believing is not easy, but it is simple. It’s making a conscious decision to wholeheartedly believe. For some it is easier than others, for others it is difficult to believe and have faith. We must have patience with those who struggle in their faith and walk with God.

*

This past weekend, I attended a Christian music concert. Thousands of people gathered at this event, there were speakers, performers, people from charities with booths that had information about what they were about, and people attending. 10 acts performed, several speakers talked in between acts getting on and off stage, and it was loud.

On the way into the event, one of the people in our grouped joked that the ‘Christian protesters’ might be out there. These are typical street ‘evangelists,’ they have bullhorns, large signs, and they mock and tell people they are going to hell as they walk towards their destination. We crossed the street, in no way intending to avoid these people with signs. As we passed a few, I felt moved to turn aside and chat with one of the people yelling at us that the event was pagan and woe to those who entered.

I began the conversation with scripture John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” Telling people they are condemned is not helping the lost, they already know this.

He agreed and then said that his purpose was to Christians attending the event, and that they were sinning by attending the event, and to save them from going to hell, because sinners go to hell.

I asked him if he knew that our flesh was unredeemable and even the apostle Paul spoke on this subject in Romans 7:13-25, he agreed and asked if I had studied it, which I, replied in the affirmative.

He then asked me about what then if we are crucified with Christ, not completing the passage, how this all plays into not sinning. In that moment I responded that it is not I that does any good work. For it is not my righteousness that justifies me, but through Jesus Christ. I even went further to say that if I do any good work, I cannot take credit for it, because it’s Christ within me that does it and not anything I’ve done.

I was shortly then pulled away by the group I was with to get into line for the concert, and our conversation ended.

I prayed that this man I had chatted with would enter into a deeper relationship with Christ, that he would understand that salvation is not by our doing good, but rather through faith in Jesus Christ.

I also re-read Galatians 2:11-21, reaffirming that salvation is through faith and not by the works of the law.

I was also grieved knowing that if a brother sins against us, we are to talk to them privately and confront them and restore them gently to correction in their relationship with Christ.

I will note that although I engaged this fellow believer in conversation, in the past my emotions would have taken hold and it would have been a yelling match on my end, for I am passionate about the word of God and what it says. This conversation was an aside and done in a conversational manner, and I actually found myself caring for this man and how he was approaching brothers and sisters in Christ, rather than just being right on what the word of God says.

This is approaching maturity, being patient, kind, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, love and joy.

Failing transfers into beauty when we exemplify these behaviors.

In years past, I thought I was doing good when I tried so hard in my flesh and strived to be good and do better, when all I needed to do was accept that I was failing and go enter into prayer and conversation with God. I needed to stop trying to be good and allow the goodness of God to flow from out of my relationship with God.

  Scriptures to read and think on: Galatians 2:11-21, Romans 7:13-25, John 3:16-20, Galatians 5:22-25

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New Post - Failure pt 2!!! Rebekah Ann Curtis

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How Can I Allow Myself to Fail IF I'm Supposed to Be Perfect?

  Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

It’s so easy to fall into a trap of thinking that we need to be “perfect.”

We socially think of being “perfect” in a few ways:

1. Physically perfect

This is something we are bombarded with on a daily basis, especially if we pay attention to any sort of entertainment. The physical beauty. The perfect face, ideal skin tone, the perfectly sculpted abs, etc. There are creams, clothes, gadgets, and all sorts of videos and programs for you to purchase to make yourself ‘perfect.’ (For fun, read 1 Timothy 4, pay attention to verses 7 and 8.)

2. Socially perfect

This comes in as being ‘cool.’ Always having the right thing to say at the right time to the right people. Being the life of the party, the guy or girl who is always invited, never has a moment of being left out. To be desired by friends and to be popular, to be so ‘cool,’ that everyone wants to be you, because you are socially ‘perfect.’ (We are not to desire the favor of man, but of God, in so doing we win both Proverbs 3:3-4)

3. Intellectually perfect

This is all about being smarter than Einstein. To pursue knowledge and exercising the brain to the point where your intelligence is superior, to achieving perfection in smarts. Knowledge is a great thing to have, learning is important, (Proverbs 1:22, 10:14), but lording it over others is childish.

4. Spiritually perfect

This last one is perceived two ways. One, that we are ‘perfect’, we don’t sin, we never make a mistake, never offend, and make sure that we are Godly by doing ‘good works.’ In doing we are ‘perfect.’ This is typically how the church sees being ‘perfect.’ That an outward appearance of being good, doing good, abhorring anything that appears to be evil, not hanging out with the wrong crowd, etc. The second is being perfect as God is perfect.

The misconception comes from us understanding the word ‘perfect.’

First, we quote the scripture out of context. Meaning, we throw it around because it sounds good without quoting or understanding the 47 verses before it. (Matthew 5:1-47)

Perfect in Matthew 5:48 is the Greek word: τέλειος – Teleios (tel’-i-os) which is defined as perfect, (a) complete in all its parts, (b) full grown, of full age, (c) specially of the completeness of Christian character.

Further, the word has a meaning of ‘consummated goal’ and ‘mature.’ The root of the word, Tel, means reaching the end. *

*Strong’s Concordance 5046

If you read the entire chapter of Matthew 5, you get a sense and weight of what it means to be spiritually mature.

A spiritually mature person will mourn, be meek, be merciful, be pure in heart, be peacemakers, hunger and thirst for righteousness, poor in spirit, be persecuted, rejoice in persecution, will not hide their faith before others, not call others fools, or be angry with others, settle disagreements out of court, not lustfully look at men and women, will consider others before themselves, will keep their word, love their enemies, bless those who persecute them, love those who hate them, greet people who are not part of your tribe or inner circle, etc. There’s 47 verses that go into good detail about what maturity looks like, or spiritual perfection.

This is a long list for anyone to read and realize that they’ve already failed in at least one of these areas, if not daily.

It’s impossible to be ‘perfect’ in the way that we understand it as society dictates.

It’s also readily realized that no one is ‘perfect’ spiritually, however, we are drawn to be mature in spirit as God is mature.

Reading today: Matthew Chapter 5:1-48

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How to Fail Like a Champ!

  It’s OK to fail.

Failing is a part of life. Everyone makes mistakes, does things they regret, and does horrible horrible things. Everyone.

Some people are better at hiding it than others.

What I want to give you today is permission to fail, and the ability to learn and move on past the failure.

Let’s start with Moses, you know, guy who parted waters, said ‘let my people go,’ wandered around in a desert for 40 years with an entire city of people? Yeah, that guy.

We don’t often think of Moses as a failure, but he was an utter complete failure. He started out his journey to freeing the people of Israel with one of the worst possible cases of failure, murder. Exodus 2:11-15

Moses was an outsider to his own people. He had grown up in Egyptian society, but still felt a strong connection to the people of Israel. In Exodus 2:11-15 we see that Moses not only felt that the Egyptians were treating his people terribly, he also felt that he could do something to ease the suffering of the Israelites because of his position. Moses’ way was to kill the Egyptian that was beating this Hebrew. Unfortunately, the Israelites didn’t feel that Moses was a ruler or a judge and possibly even really one of them, because Moses had been raised by Egyptian royalty. Since murder wasn’t really looked as a good thing, Pharoah tried to have Moses killed, but Moses fled into a different country.

Talk about major failure.

Here’s a guy who feels serious injustice is happening and tries to do it on his own terms.

That’s when epic failure happens.

How many times do we feel something we’re supposed to do or try and when we do it fails on an epic scale?

I mean, hopefully it’s not murdering people, but then again, you might be in that position.

You might even feel like Moses did, after running from Egypt.

See, later on, God approaches Moses and tells him to go and tell Pharoah to let God’s people go, that God himself will deliver and rescue them from the Egyptians, Moses just needs to deliver the message. Exodus 3:1-21

Moses protests and gives all kinds of excuses, (Exodus 4:1-17) ‘they won’t believe me’, ‘I don’t speak well’, and then asks God to send someone else. Each time God gives an answer and provision for Moses, including allowing him to have someone else speak for him.

It is possible that the thing that was really bugging Moses, was the people who were after him for his previous sin. The murder of the Egyptian.

It isn’t until after Moses agrees to go that God says in Exodus 4:19, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”

If we allow our failures, or even the possibility of failing to paralyze us, we create a stagnation in faith for God to work. It wasn’t Moses who parted the waters, who delivered the Israelites from Egypt, who fed them in the wilderness, God did all that. Moses just delivered messages. Sometimes, we think we have to do all the impossible work, when all we need to do is be obedient to what God is telling us to do.

God is willing to work with us despite our mistakes, failures and shortcomings. The Bible is filled with people who failed miserably, but God was able to work around and past those things. Moses, David, Peter, Thomas, Paul, Elijah, etc. Read the gospels for people who failed and then continued to fail even after following Jesus, even after His resurrection. Failure does not exclude us from fulfilling a life that we’re meant to live.

Moses didn’t have to convince the Hebrews, God did.

Moses didn’t have to convince Pharoah, God did.

Moses just delivered the messages.

All of the difficult stuff wasn’t on Moses to do, he just had to show up and be faithful and let God do the hard work.

What is it that God is telling us to do?

Is it to submit applications to places that are hiring?

Is it to be faithful in plugging away at a project you’ve been working on?

Is it just showing up and being willing to lend a hand?

Is it saying hello to that person you see everyday?

What is it that God is nudging you to do?

  Reading: Exodus (the entire book) and Acts

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How to Pray Prayers that Work

    Prayer is an important part of our lives as Christians, or it should be if we are not in practice of prayer. It can be difficult as a Christian if we don’t know how to pray, that we get frustrated when we don’t see our prayers get answered, or they aren’t answered the way we want them to be answered.

Many Christians I have come across spend more time in petitioning God for things and outcomes of situations rather than sitting and listening to what the Holy Spirit has to say. If you’re constantly talking and asking without spending any time listening, how will you ever receive an answer?

This connection with God is through our Creator’s spirit to ours. The first place we learn how to listen is through prayer. Jesus gave us a template to prayer and communication with God. (Matthew 6:9-13)

The first step, when we pray, is to celebrate and honor God through praise and worship.

“Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”

By praising the name of God, celebrating who He is and who He claims to be, we are making sure that we are identifying the one true God and not calling upon some false deity.

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

In this next line, I feel is where we as Christians tend to fall short of communicating with God. In a group of Christians, when they begin to pray, they usually get that first part right, by acknowledging God and the access to our Creator through Jesus, but immediately afterwards, we start asking for things for ourselves, rather than for the kingdom of God to reign upon here on earth.

Here is where we tend to ask, instead of listening. We ask for things that we think are what God wants instead of what the will of God is. Is it here that we ask to be glorified, or for God to be glorified? Are we asking or are we listening?

Have you ever had a friend where you spend the entire time listening to their lives, their troubles, their ideas, but when it comes for your turn to speak or share, they pick up their phone, have somewhere to go, or some other response? Are we that friend to God? Do we share with God our lives and woes, but when it comes to listening to his heart, are we too busy? We tend to ask for our daily bread before we listen to the heart of God.

“Give us this day our daily bread”

This is not a request or even a demand on our part, this is a call for us to listen. Where do you know to go to get what you need, (daily bread), if you don’t listen? Have you ever had a conversation with someone where you’ve given them directions, told them how to do something, but they won’t keep their mouth shut long enough to hear what you’re saying, and consequently they get lost or can’t find where you told them to find it? That’s who we are, when we don’t listen. We are that foolish person who thinks they know everything, but won’t pay attention long enough to learn even directions of how to get to the store or search for something.

“and forgive us our debts”

There is a conversation that I continually have with other Christians about sin. Once you are saved, the sin nature, that which propelled us towards death and separated us from God is now destroyed. We have been given a new nature, a rebirth of our spirit, in which we are now born of God, however, your flesh, that which is unredeemable, is still steeped in the pattern of this world and trained to continue in sin. Although we have been redeemed, we fight continually with our flesh. (Romans 7:15-20) It is by the grace of God and the sacrifice of Christ that we are able to have a clean conscience, and the things that we do good are not of our own doing, but Christ within us that does them, this new nature that is indwelling in us. However, our flesh does get in the way. If all Christians were now completely without sin, we wouldn’t have the divisions in the Church, backbiting, fighting, and problems that are apparent. We are to ask the forgiveness of God for our debts.* (*This word has been translated as sins, transgressions, etc. The greek word is opheilema, which translates to a debt, offense or sin.)

By asking for forgiveness, we acknowledge that it is not our righteousness that makes us right with God, but our Creator’s righteousness that covers us. In doing this, we humble ourselves, reminding us who we were before God’s grace and the power of the redeeming quality of Christ’s sacrifice for us.

“as we forgive our debtors.”

If God is great enough to forgive our sin, and we now have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us, it is imperative that we forgive those who offend us, those who sin against us, those who we feel owe us something. Our Creator forgave us for something we could never repay, for something that had been done thousand of years to us, before we were ever being born. If God is indwelling in us, we are to forgive those who have held us captive, stolen from us, and persecute us, for we were at one time against God with our sin nature and yet He forgave us. If we do not forgive, it interferes with our ability to hear the voice of God. When you harbor unforgiveness towards a person or people, it consumes you, occupies your thoughts, infiltrates your actions, and causes unrest within yourself. It is difficult to be still, when you are angry and worked up over sins against yourself or others.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:”

Most of how Jesus taught his disciples to pray, is based on the principle of active listening to the voice of God. Our Creator is not the giant candy dispenser in the sky, doling out cars, piles of cash, and miraculous deliveries out of terrible situations to utopias! No! He is the author of peace that passes understanding, the savior of our souls, the bridge between death to life. If you are serious about your salvation, and you truly believe that you have that bridge of communication, cross that bridge and begin listening to His voice.

“For thine is the power and the glory forever and ever, amen”

No matter how much good we do in His name, we can never take responsibility for the good done. Any thing that is done that brings good to people and glory, is done because of Christ through us, not because of us. Without Jesus, our righteousness is as filthy rags, any good we do is worthless. If we allow ourselves to take on God’s righteousness and then claim it as our own, we deny the power of Christ within us. We then say that we only need Christ when we are weak. In all truth, we are at all times weak when it comes to the power of the resurrection within us, for it is not us, it is Christ within us that allows us to do anything of good for His kingdom. It is our responsibility, when we pray, to acknowledge where glory and honor is due, and that is with God alone.

When we pray this way, allowing our prayers to be in God’s will instead of dictating what we feel we need or desire onto God, we end up more satisfied, for who knows better what we need than God? He knows what we want before we even speak it, but even more so, God ultimately knows what we need before we ask. (Psalm 139)

Let’s make our hearts align with the will of God as we pray. If we don’t know what His will is, then let us pray for His will to be done and lay our desires at His feet, and if it’s what God wants for us, then let it be up to Him how it should come about.

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"What A Friend We Have in Jesus" Download

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The Art of Hiking

Hiking is a beautiful and wonderful thing.

I have given several talks about backpacking and the equipment involved and have taken several people on introductory hikes into the world of backpacking. It is a rewarding and beautiful thing to strap only what you need for a few days and take a walk into the wild to enjoy the beauty that surrounds us.

This is not merely entering a sweaty gym or yoga studio, cranking out db’s of the latest Miley Cyrus tune and getting fit. This is something much more.

This is experiencing nature in all of it’s wondrous glory! Seeing mountains, moss covered forests, hearing birds chattering, seeing animals scurrying about, and breathing in clean clear air. The bonuses to venturing forth to see such amazing things is better health, and also to see how harmonious nature is for yourself.

There are things to expect when you go hiking.

>Dirt.

Oh boy is there a lot of dirt. Dirt beneath your feet, on trees, stumps, benches, rocks, pretty much everywhere. When dirt mixes with water you get mud. Inevitably, when you go to places that have dirt and possibly mud, you are going to end up getting mud and dirt on you. Often times, I see people wearing clothes that are better suited for the gym than the trail. Dirt, moss, and grass can stain. Thorns and branches can rip your clothes. Wear something that is comfortable, you can move around easily in, something that you can be seen in, in case you get lost, but also something that you won’t mind if it gets filthy. Because it will. Leave your designer clothes at home.

>The sounds of nature.

Did you know that the woods and nature isn’t quiet? Far from it! In fact, some of the sounds nature makes exceed the decibel levels required at night by most city ordinances. Like, frogs. Frogs are so noisy! So are birds, chipmunks, squirrels and other animals. What is amazing is that these animals are not the only things that make noise. If you go to a place that has running water, it can be deafening, or soothing depending on the time of year and the amount of water flowing over, and sometimes under, rocks.

What gets me is that these noises are beautiful. Not very often do you get to hear these noises, because they’re being drowned out by the sounds of a busy road or highway, construction, or some really loud stereo blasting from your neighbor’s patio.

Please put away your mp3 player while hiking. If you are wearing ear buds while you are walking, that’s one thing, but to blare it out of the tiny speakers in your iphone is horrendous. Not only are you polluting the sound of nature with your music, but with crappy sounding music. It’s only crappy because it’s coming out of an improper speaker, not because the music is a crappy composition.

I’m a musician and I love playing, listening to and creating music, but the forest has music of it’s own. If you must bring your iphone, don’t drain the battery listening to music. Turn it off, stow it in your pack, and just enjoy the hike. That way, if you do get lost or get into some trouble, you aren’t left with 3% battery to call someone who can help you. Plus, the musicians who made the music would be happier if you came back to buy more of their tunes.

Also, if you put the tunes away, you’ll see more wildlife.

>The Smell of Nature

Nature can be pretty funky. In the northwest, we have this thing called skunk cabbage that blooms every spring, and it is funky. It kind of smells like skunk and rotting vegetation. It’s not wholly unpleasant, but definitely skunky. Wildflowers will bloom in the spring and they have a wonderful odor. Standing water can have an interesting odor. Mud drying out in the sun has an interesting smell. Kind of like socks that are slightly moldy. Plants also have their own funk going on, and then there’s the animal scat, also known as poop. Animals also like to pee on things as well, and sometimes the outdoors smells a bit like a cat box, because there are things like bobcats, cougars, lynx and other smaller but larger cats that act a lot like the animals people keep in their homes. These animals are used to the ‘funk’ of the woods and find them normal.

Perfumes from clothes, laundry soaps, lotions, hairspray, and cosmetics are very different and can be alluring to animals that would find them interesting. Like bears, wildcats, coyotes, rats, and other predators and opportunists. 

Before you go out and about, leave excessive amounts of perfume, cosmetics, lotions and other things at home and off of your skin. Wash your clothes in an unscented laundry detergent. It will deter larger predators from seeking you out and possibly seeing you as something tasty to eat, or having something tasty to eat.

>Know your limits.

I am aware of a book by Cheryl Strayed, I think it’s called “Wild” or something like that.

I have no intention of reading the book.

Someone asked me if I had read it, and I said no. I then asked them what the book was about, and after a few questions, I determined that it was a book I would probably throw across the room after lighting it on fire.

It appalls me, beyond reason, that anyone would waltz into a backpacking store and purchase a few things right before heading out on a 2,000 mile journey.

The first backpacking trip I went on was with a group. I learned everything about what to carry and what not to carry. I purchased a backpack that was comfortable and in my price range. I practiced putting things in it and balancing things in it so it was comfortable, for weeks, before I even set one foot on a trail with my pack on my back. I now own about 6-8 long distance packs and a couple of day packs. Oh, the gear you can buy...

By the first time I hit the trail, I was leaning towards lightweight backpacking, and dreaming out plans for trips that I would love to do up and down the coast of Washington State.

It can be difficult trying to get where you’re trying to go. Don’t do more than you are capable of doing. This seems like a no brainer, but you have to know your physical limits. Err on the side of caution. If you physically cannot go to the end of the trail and must turn back, turn back. If the weather takes a turn for the worse, head home. If you don’t have wool socks, buy some before you head out hiking. If you don’t have the money but still want to go, find something that’s closer, less elevation gain, and you will be rewarded with a wonderful day in a park. Take the ten essentials with you on each and every hike. REI’s website has a list, but they kind of look like this:

1. Water (exra) 2. Food (extra even if you won’t eat it) 3. Rain poncho or large garbage bag 4. Knife (even a pen knife is better than no knife) 5. First aid kit (something a bit more substantial than band-aids and neosporin) 6. Fire starter kit (waterproof matches, fire starter, candle) 7. Flashlight 8. Compass and map 9. Sunscreen 10. Extra clothes

This list is ingrained in me. It’s essential for life, the kit you need to have in your car, your house, where ever you go that these things are not readily available.

>Pick up After Yourself (and others)

Not everything is biodegradable.

I have this burgeoning love/hate affair with plastic.

Plastic is a horrible, horrible, horrible thing that humans have made.

As I type this, the majority of what I’m communicating to you through is plastic, the clothes I’m wearing are plastic, the chair I’m sitting on is plastic, the speakers are plastic, the computer screen is encased in plastic, the router is plastic, the light switch on the wall is made of plastic.

If I threw away a paper bag in my yard, in a year, it will be mostly disintegrated, the light switch on the other hand will remain. I could probably wash off the light switch plate and put it back on the wall after a year and it would still work.

Plastic just does not go away.

If you take it into the woods, take it out. Even paper bags.

If you find an article of clothing, pick it up and pack it down to the trail head. Leave it under the trail head sign. If you find a bag of dog crap, pick it up and take it out with you. If you find an orange peel, pick it up and pack it out. (They take forever to biodegrade and are not a valid food source for anything in the woods. Even your apple core is not a valid food source for a squirrel.)

I recently went with a group into the woods. I was the only one who picked up a container for some margarine that isn’t butter, a piece of foil, and a purple straw. The thing is, I was at the end of the group, which means that most of the people probably saw those items but chose to ignore them, while a few just didn’t see them.

You know, I didn’t put that garbage there and I make a very conscience effort to make sure I pack out all of my own. When I’m the only one picking it up and packing it out, out of a group of about 12, that’s less than 10% of people who are interested in conservation.

If you really are interested in conserving the woods, don’t just flap your mouth about it, do something.

The least would be picking up other people’s trash while hiking. Take a small garbage bag with you and pick up what you find.

Another way would be to join WTA.org or similar orgs and volunteer to do some trail work. It’s a blast and you should do it, it will also give you an appreciation for the work that goes into maintaining trails, and also a good trail.

Of course, write to your senators, governors, and the president to ensure that we have forests for years and years to come. 

[rebekahanncurtis]