Good morning, you guys!

Well, here I sit. The world is still dark, and I am just starting to hear the birds tweeting from the trees while I am listening for the next sweet morning sounds of … chickens clucking in the background!! LOL!! 

Oh yes, there just “may” be a house on Summit Drive that just “may” have some chickens in the backyard, and that house just “may” have done this with a few birds a few times before, but THIS year there just “may” be 10 cluckers back there … or so I have heard. 🙂

And just “why” would us Crazy Conroys have these backyard chickens (besides being able to feed them all the bits from the scrap bucket, which just FILLS my thrifty-woman-soul-bucket?? 🙂

Well, it is that they bring these beautiful round brown delicious eggs into our home each day. Yes, perfect organic eggs that are ideal for frying, baking and whisking as they are so fresh, light and fluffy that everything we bake or make just totally tastes improved. Honestly, even the oh-so-important banana muffin batter looks BRIGHTER and tastes better, and so, that sealed the deal for me. These chickens are here and here to stay!

And while we’re waiting for those morning chicken sounds and those morning chicken eggs, I do have a question for you all: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Hmm, deep philosophical discussion, I know. 🙂 But hands up for “chickens”? Hands up for the “eggs”?

OK, so I know I can’t SEE you right now, but whenever I have asked this question to any group, regardless of size/age/gender, it is usually about half up for the eggs, half up for the chicken … and then the debate derails to what went down in Genesis. 🙂

But here is the big reveal as to WHY I am even asking this question—it applies to some concepts I have been reading about in the Bible. And they relate to which comes first, to believe or to obey? “WHOA,” you say. “Haven’t we just made a huge leap from chatting about chickens and eating their eggs?!!” LOL!

Yes, we totally have, but it’s totally something totally good to think about. How come sometimes it feels so easy to “believe” what we read, but SO hard to obey?? And other times, it’s so easy to “obey,” but not really to “believe”?

And does it still count as “right” when you “obey” IF you don’t fully “believe”? Or is it better to “believe” even if you don’t fully “obey”? 

Hmmmm, sounds like it could be a simple answer, but once again, whenever I ask groups this, the responses and results are along the lines of the egg and chicken: half for belief first and half for obey.

SO what IS the CORRECT answer? Well, here’s how these two concepts got worked out in my brain. (And PS: I’ve definitely spent A LOT of time thinking about it because I sure got twisted up about it in life trying to DO these TWO completely “correct” and feeling pretty darn bad when I didn’t. Anyone else out there connect with that?)

So, if it is something YOU ever go through, here’s the deal. In about 90% of my life (and maybe yours too) it’s really easy to read the Bible, see what’s there, “believe” it, and then go out and  “obey” it, no problem. For example, “Do not murder others,” yup, I’m up for that. “Do not steal,” still good to go. “Do not commit adultery,” totally fine by me. All this easy “believing and obeying” equals happy times for God and all.

But in some areas, sneaky areas, my still-sometimes-areas-of-STRUGGLE, well, THAT stuff is a lot harder and a whole other “journey to joy.” I mean, why can’t I just jump up and jump into what I READ GOD’S Word says I should want to do?? Like, just HOW do I “obey” something that I might not really even “believe”?

“Huh??” I hear some of you say. So for those of you who don’t know what I mean, here is an example of some thoughts and things that I have believed that “I would have to do” in my life, for my whole life: “I have to keep busy,” “I have to keep going,” “I have keep to-doing to keep the control.” Hmm, does that example ring a bell for anyone else?

And yet, what does God’s Word say about that topic? Rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, take a break, rest, rest. (Check out Mark 6:31; Psalm 4:8, 46:10,127:2; Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 33:14; etc., etc.)

Oh yes, there are dozens and dozens MORE verses in there, and I kept reading them over and over and over, and my heart would go prick, prick, prick: “GIRL, you need to REST.” And yet my BRAIN would go, “Nope, nope, nope, you need to GO!”

Oh my, I had a hard-and-fast habit that had built up to make me BELIEVE I had to go FAST and now, uh-oh, God’s word clearly showed that was not a way HE agreed with—not at all! Yes, NOW I had a “Decision DILEMMA on what I should DO.”

Oh, just what is a girl going to CHOOSE?? Well, it became pretty clear I pretty much have two options here: 

1) Stick with that hard-dug-in habit, which is really and honestly what I really and honestly “wanted to” keep doing.

2) Choose something NEW and opposite of what I FELT but based on what I READ.

Hmmm, there I was, oh-so-unhappily living IN the “straddling both sides of the fence” concept, which is this—trying to keep one foot DOING what God wrote was best, while still aiming for ways that my heart said would WIN with the other.

And unfortunately, as time moves on and they BOTH move out in opposite directions, you get stretched and pulled until … you can’t go anywhere, grow anymore and, oh my, you actually feel worse than before. So I guess that makes me a totally bad person, a full-on failure, and I better just hide and pretend, right??

WRONG! That just makes me a REAL person. Because, I realized, 90% of my life and of what I read I do believe and choose to obey, all the way. But this last 10%?? The sticky stuff in that  area I still sometimes struggle with?? Here’s where I have to straight-up OBEY until I GROW to believe!!!

Such a super-simple-switcheroo concept that made so much sense!!! So why didn’t I clue into this before??

Well, when I look back, I can SEE what was catching up with me. It was the fact of my “all or none” thinking (more to come on THAT next week!) when I felt that I HAD to GET 100% of the Bible totally CORRECT and just plain ol’ believe it ALL in about 2.5 seconds. When really?? There are things and thoughts that I had been doing and believing in my life for weeks, months, years, and decades that maybe I had been BLIND to even seeing or sensing. (Did anyone read the blog post called “The BLIND Spot”? Maybe take some time to check it out to discover more on this sneaky section.)

Yeah, these are the extra-tricky areas where I can’t trust my brain, and I have to OBEY what I read in the Bible as I BUILD up my belief. But then, once I slowly did that, and I reminded myself to give myself the GRACE that GOD has already given out, and I chose to practice and pursue building up the muscle of FAITH in that area of struggle, I DID break down old beliefs and break through to GOD’S NEW ones! It didn’t happen overnight, but happen it did. And I heard my heart switch to really believing what my head read. Yup, the old things that I thought I “had to do” and truly trusted in before? They lay broken, lying and falling to the floor.

But why bring this up? Well, because I SO do remember the season when I let go of what I called “I have tos” and “I can’ts”—the things I truly believed “I had to do” even in the areas God was truly telling me weren’t called on by HIM.

And as much as it isn’t always too easy to look at, it was THAT belief assessment season that became “the first step” to really being able to live free IN God’s Word and live IN what HE had laid out for me, all through CHOOSING to OBEY until I believed in those super tricky and sticky spots.

And so I’m challenging you today, when you go eat your morning egg, look at it and think, which comes first for which area of your life? Believe so you obey (in those oh-so-easy areas)? Or OBEY until you BELIEVE (in the slightly tricky and sticky stuff)?

Yup, it takes a little time and a lot of GRACE, but thanks to GOD, He has a ton of both. 🙂

And so happy “cracking” THAT CODE, ladies. 

Till next time, Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Beautiful Women of God.

Carol 😉

PS: Feel free to read Jeremiah 42 and how the Israelites were going through this exact thing—verses 5 and 6 are especially cool. 🙂

PPS: Did anyone resonate with the phrases “I have to” and “I can’t”? Next week is a blog based on this, and a little extra heads up on what’s COMING up!!

A 4 day-course based on Breaking Free from that “all or none” belief system of “I have to” and “I can’t.”

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, please email your interest to [email protected]. 

Thanks so much, team!! And I’m totally looking forward to chatting with you. 🙂