magnum opus

Years ago I learned the concept of a 'trifecta' from my friend. She said her dad would put together three like things, concepts, facts and then proclaim them 'trifecta!' I've taken to this concept and, when three things in my life relate together in a short period of time, they are labeled as such. To proceed...

Recently my mom sent me the "Tribute to Joan Horner," wife and co-founder of Premier Designs jewelry. This company, centered in Texas, is a home-show business that mothers, wives, and the like can be part of to enjoy community and make some extra money. It was started in Andy and his wife Joan's later years in life, as an alternative to the typical retired lifestyle. As Christians, they have founded the company on principles of ethics and healthy, God-centered lives. A portion of their sales go to support missions and they also support their own Premier Designs family, such as through their prayer ministry. And as a $350million+ company corporation, you can imagine the large impact through which God may use this company...

anyway, Joan Horner recently died, and this is a portion of her tribute:

That honor is reserved for the Horners' living example of TRUSTING GOD and following Him to the magnum opus for which he formed them. They showed us all that God can, andwants to lead us to our destiny! Review it again: (1) they quieted themselves long enough to hear His call; (2) they let go of their "rights" and "possessions" and surrendered both to Jesus; and (3) they bravely and prayerfully obeyed.

In short, Andy and Joan provoke us to seek, love and trust in a God who desires to be as active today in our lives as he was in Abraham and Sarah's...

What about us? Ephesians 2:10 says we ALL have a God-made destiny, with God-sized challenges, that we can't handle independent of Him. Is God calling you to give Him what's precious to you and follow Him? Don't settle for less than your destiny. It may not be as public as the Horners' is, but it's spectacular. It will cost us to find it, and we'll never regret going for it but bitterly weep missing it.

May we be so wise as to listen for Jesus' voice, let go of what holds us, and bravely follow Him.

She left quite a legacy. And while taking a class about women + society this quarter, it's easy to dismiss many points being argued back and forth of women's identities in men, in power, being suppressed, etc., in light of women who are indeed making a difference from where they are. The author of this tribute describes her "magnum opus," her greatest life work, coming from her surrender to God's plan.

Next. I enjoy listening to podcasts from my pastor in Seattle at Bethany Community Church, Richard Dahlstrom. While chipping away at a model of a classroom for studio (first model making in 18 months!), I listened to Richard speak about fear. He explains that it is through our weakness that we're able to find our place in God, our need for Him. Richard tells a story of how he recently visited his mother and, while moving things from storage, came across old photos of his mom in her youth. He describes the photos that "you can just feel the life of youth;" they exemplify to him a life that knew strength and, now at age 91, now understands weakness. She lived her life for God, following Him, and can look ahead to what is promised. She has no fear of death, she's ready to go, he states. There is peace in a life on earth spent with God.

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. -Jesus in Matthew 10.39

And the third: I somehow stumbled upon in the last year the website of Elisabeth Elliot. Elisabeth is no woman to mess with, she is fiercely devoted to her Creator and living out His plan for her. She is the author of many Christian books, one of which I've read entitled The Mark of a Man. She is also the widow of the well-known missionary Jim Elliot, one of the men killed while evangelizing to a tribe in Ecuador, who later came to faith after their deaths. Anyway, I've kept Elizabeth's website on my toolbar and occassionally visit it, usually when I'm making rounds of the other blogs I follow about awesome things, vegan food, and boho becor. Going to her site today was the final part of the trifecta, as I read a devotional entry with a photo of her in a rocking chair, looking peacefully to the distance. There is value in humility, in being surrendered to the only One who knows what's better for you than you, providing the only way that will make you more at peace and joyful than any of us can imagine.

Our magnum opus, found solely in our surrender to God our Father.

Trifecta!