The 77th Academy Awards took place today. I watched and here’s what I learned…

1. Some people do love their day jobs. The person who won for best visual effects for Spider Man 2 yelled out "I love my job" when he got up to the mic. According to The Bureau of Labor statistics, 7 out of 10 Americans don’t like their jobs (that includes me). That’s 70% of Americans who are dissatisfied with their job. You spend a third of your life at work. You deserve to feel fulfilled by it. I believe God wants us to be. The current dialog with all of us in the church plant is this very thing. We need a break-though.

2. "What is not seized, is useless." That is one of the lyric lines (translated) from the song that won for Best Original Song "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" .  This spoke to me because I have a birthday coming up soon and in my usual pre-birthday life reflection stage, I ask myself, what have I done with the life God has given me? This lyric makes me dig deeper…what opportunities did I render useless because I did not carpe diem "seize the moment?"

3. Something good can come out of Nazareth. Or in my case, "the hood" of Ave D LES Projects! In Hillary Swank’s acceptance speech for Best Actress she said "What did I do to deserve this?" and then she went on to say how she grew up in a "trailer park". She did not expect to have achieved what she did tonight. I’ve often thought the same. So many of us have our backgrounds to thank for much of the garbage we carry around like Prada luggage. Poor. Unhealthy. Abused. Unwanted. Unloved. Lack of opportunities. You name it. But we all have to strive for something and yes, one day we can be in a key place acknowledging to an audience of 1 or 1,000, "I’m from X. I never thought I would have achieved Y but here I am!" Our moment is coming. Something good can come from a place of little expectations. Look at Jesus… his roots were in a place where very little was expected from those who were born there and yet He achieved great things for God. Don’t we long to do the same? Didn’t the Word say "greater works we will do?"

And finally,

4.  Don’t forget to say thank you. We never get anywhere in life without the help of others period. Some of us conveniently forget and some of us, like these Oscar winners are so excited about the "moment" they go blank.  Going blank for a moment is understandable, never going back to thank others who have helped us along the way is not. Think about it…the person who first gave you an opportunity to lead something. The person who trusted you with a big job. The person who first said, I see God’s call over your life and encouraged you to prepare for it. The person who introduced you to Mr. X who you got to know and eventually got you that job at Y company, or that gig at place A or that speaking engagement at place B. Or how about that person who told you about this book that totally transformed your life and the lenses from which you see the world. Whatever it was, there were moments that someone helped make happen for you that God used to make you the person you are today. So who do you need to thank?

I thank…

Primitive Christian Church (PCC) in NYC and specifically Pastor Kike, Pastor Marc and Pastor Enid for seeing leadership in me at a young age and allowing me to do various things there from children’s ministry, single’s ministry, youth ministry, Sunday school teacher, etc.

Rev. Raymond Rivera at LPAC who took the me that PCC started to developed and poured into me even more. For awaking my cultural side and giving me even more exposure to a world I’d never known before…one of educated Latinos as high as earned doctorates, accomplished theologians and dynamic ministry leaders.

The networkers and bridge builders in my life (Alfonso Wyatt, Rudy Carrasco, Richard Rivera) who never operated from a scarcity mentality but from one of abundance and introduced me to people that have given me in further opportunities to impact the global kingdom.

Most importantly, I thank my husband, soul mate and best friend Hiram for making it easy to do what I do. He is my most vocal cheerleader and believes in me. I would not have been able to achieve half the things I have if it was not for his support and his willingness to do more of his fair share in the house. He is truly a partner in every sense of the word.  We’ve had our struggles but he owns up to his stuff and that makes working things out so much easier. And like Jamie Foxx (winner, best actor), he has a sensitive side that won my heart 17 years ago.

So if you missed the Academy Awards today, don’t miss it next year…you really can learn from the Oscar’s.

I have collected some great pieces of cultural art by a great artist called Obed but I still have some bare walls and have tried to find religious art that have women in it! I have not been able to find many but Rachelle pointed me to a great web store that has not one but three paintings with women in it…check it out

The Last Supper

You see the women in the front? Remember, in biblical times women and children were not counted/recorded but that does not mean they were not there!

MARY OF MAGDALA on Canvas

“Apostle to the Apostles” This painting focuses on Mary of Magdala’s leadership role in spreading the good news of the Resurrection to Jesus’ disciples. Because of this she was given the title of “Apostle to the Apostles” by the early church. It is specifically based on John’s gospel where the risen Christ commissions Mary of Magdala: “Go instead to my brothers and sisters and tell them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” The gospel goes on to tell us “Mary of Magdala went to the disciples with the news ‘I have seen the Lord!’ and she told them that He had said these things to her.” (John 20:17-18). Here she is represented carrying out her mission, preaching with the authority conferred on her by the Risen Christ, preparing the disciples for His Ascension into heaven. Uh, who still says that women in biblical times were not in leadership roles?

CREATION OF WOMAN Canvas

CREATION OF WOMAN is based on Michelangelo’s famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel in Rome entitled ‘Creation of Adam’. Nora Kelly’s painting shows God as a loving Mother. We are reminded that both women and men are made in the image of God. For too long we have imaged God only as a stern Father rather than a loving Mother. Consider this feminine version of Genesis 1:27
God created woman in the image of herself
In the image of God she created her,
Male and female she created them.

If you still believe in the God kind of marriage…

My plan is to be there. Last year it was so wonderful. But last year it was paid for by my company, I did not need vacation time and I got to go with a friend. But I really, really want to make it this year.

When in comes to prayer and "God changing circumstances" I feel the jury is out on that…at least for me. Oh Gosh. To be a church planter/pastor and to have these thoughts are almost blasphemous but I have often wondered…when I pray do things really change? I found this wonderful article that spoke about this very thing today. I was raised in a typical Hispanic Pentecostal church, where all the people would say, "if you believe long and hard enough, God will answer your prayer." Its funny because "answer" for me was always that He would say yes. Nothing was as big of a prayer need as when my 2nd son was born prematurely (3 months early) and after a hospital infection received a grim prognosis. But I believed. I believed that God would turn the situation around and my son would come out of the hospital with only his scars to show for his premature journey. Unfortunately, while I had literally hundreds of folks praying for my little boy all around the country and while me and his dad, cried ourselves to sleep in prayer…God did not heal him. As a matter of fact, things got worse. My son eventually went through 27 surgeries. Each time, going in to surgery, I would say a prayer for him. Inside, I wondered would this be the prayer God answered.

I hear wonderful stories of how God turned around situations. I even have a few miracles of my own that I attribute to God’s sovereignty but this one, the one about my son, mattered the most to me and the answer was not the yes I wanted but the no I never expected. Perhaps it is a not yet. What this article pointed out is God does not need our prayers. Prayer is his way of getting us to do and be who he wants us to be. If I am brutally honest, I have to say that I would not be the me I am today, if it had not been for my major crisis with my 2nd son and the prayer and actions that made up that journey (one that when I think about it still makes me cry). I think God carved out a softer, more gentle Liz the one He saw be being before I could ever be in the place I am right now. Unfortunately, it took me and that journey to see with major impact how I need Him in my life, guiding my steps all of the way.

Today, I still believe that God CAN heal my son. That one day he can get up, walk, talk and see and say mami. But that is his prerogative, He is Sovereign. I also know that He can take my son at any moment as well. I live with that reality everyday. But in my journey, I know that whatever happens, even if it is horribly painful, He really wants the best for me that only He can see and I have to trust that because if I don’t…then what the heck is this all for?  So does prayer change God’s mind? The article says no, it changes us. As for my theology, I am grateful for the change in my life but I sure do hope that God will eventually heal my sweetie pie DJ but if he doesn’t I will still serve Him and love Him. I just hope that I can remember this question when I get to heaven (during that long walk with God, after celebrating and eating with all the heavenly hosts!)…"why did my son have to go through that?" and "why didn’t you ever change your mind?"

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Well it should be. Check out the nice paper weight here. I love to surround myself with things that remind me to be a better person and live the life I know is possible.

If you ask me, one of the most annoying statements a person can say to me besides blaming everything on race issues is well…"God told me… I heard God say," etc. It’s not that I cannot believe that God can indeed speak to a person (not necessarily with an audible voice) but that I think it is a way to justify something we are doing. Almost like a way to say, "please don’t correct, argue, tell me your feelings on it or otherwise try to change my mind…cause you know…God told me." We Pentecostals are notorious for this.

1 Cor. 13:12 tells us that we see through a glass darkly which can be interpreted as there will always be some element of uncertainty in our choices. In life, we won’t have this 100% absolute, total certainty even when we seek divine guidance.

All this to say, I have grown comfortable with uncomfortableness, uncertainty and not sureness. BUT I still don’t LIKE IT. I have to try to follow what I believe God is directing me to do and I have to discern (which is a choice between one or more good options) what of the wonderful opportunities coming my way are the ones I should go for but in the end, it will still be me making the choice. And bottomline, I hate to make God look like some confused absent-minded professor…so I rather say, I feel God is telling me to, or I think God is telling me to but definitely NOT "God told me".  That card is so over played and so frequently not backed up by uh…you know…God.

And I don’t know what pushed my button to write about this today but it could be the fact that I am going through yet another period of heavy decision-making and needing God’s guidance and feeling a few things that could be God but who knows…as Gordon T. Smith once said, "at some point we trust God and make our choices despite the lack of absolute certainty." I guess that is where I am. But whatever I decide, I won’t be using the "God told me" card.

I was cleaning out my office closet and I found some wedding pictures. Wow. We were 25 and thin.  I am still very much in love with this guy. May 18, 2005 make 15 years married…not without our hard times but God…

Our church plant’s focus also has a bent for the de-churched, those who formerly were church attenders and have since decided they want nothing to do with the institution. There have been many interesting articles, discussions and online posts about this growing group. Read more here.