GOD and Glam? "G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S, yah."
What does God think of glamour? I don't have all the answers for the paradox of luxury amist a world with a billion people living in poverty, or where the line is between comfort and materialism. But I do know, that God IS glam.
EXHIBIT A: The Sunrise
EXHIBIT B: The Woman
One the second day God created the sunrise. On the seventh day, God created woman as the crown of creation. God created glam. From the beginning of time, the sunrise and the woman have been the two most glamorous creations on the planet. God is FOR glam. God IS glam.
Glamorous: I can't think of another adjective more fitting or a better description of a life living out of faith in the Lord. The riskiest most adventurous and exciting thing I will ever do. God will always call us into greater stories than we would have written for ourselves, and that is glamourous. Having a story to tell...that is glamourous. But the hard part is letting God write the story and following Him at all times.
Following God always means it's His will above all else, and giving up the pursuit of my own. In that surrender, He promises I will thrive and I will truly live. God will ask me to risk, and that means being scared…a lot. But it's been, and will always be, the most amazing, glorious, and glamorous adventure. Faith and hope, and love in the Lord is what gives life meaning, and color, and spark...the ultimate glamour for, and from, the ultimate Designer.
For some reason that version of what “following God” means isn't usually communicated. There's not a lot of emphasis on all the JOY that comes with the RISK of following God. God wants more than anything to meet us face to face and say, "Well done my good and faithful servant. You surrendered, you built My kingdom, you loved, you gave life, you served, and your reward is here with Me in heaven." (Matthew 25:23). That requires God asking us to do some things we aren't going to want to do, because we can't see the bigger picture. There will be requests out of our comfort zone that feel like trust falls. Trust in a bigger, better plan we can't see, and faith in God's promise, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11).
Unfortunately, before, during, and after all the risking, trusting and pressing on...there is the less glamorous part. The part requiring me to work for God wherever I am employed. Now this is the really tough part. It's the boring part. I do much better with getting crazy for God than I do with being boring with God. Yet, I am called to do everything for the glory of God. Everything? (Colossians 3:23) Yep, everything. So if I'm fixing the copier outside my cubicle for the fourth time today, then it's for the glory of God.
{Isaiah 48:4}
He's not always asking me to get crazy and move to Denver in the dead of winter on a wing and a prayer, or to pull over and walk into a little white church on my way to the market. Sometimes, more often than not...He's just going to ask me to fix the copier...again.
Right now, I'm employed by CIGNA. My job challenges me, stretches my thinking and it enables me to work with a lot of amazing people. It also pays the bills. Without CIGNA, there is no home in Greenwood Village (my humble 800 sf dreamhome), there's no BMW, no latte habit, no healthcare, no 401K, no way to payback my time at the University of San Diego. It's CIGNA (and God's grace) that rescued me from waiting tables after I moved to Denver in a bold move of faith. For this, I'm so very grateful.
Yet, it feels like time to take my passion for design, life, and grace, and make it sparkle. My mission is to make faith glam. Making faith glam means demonstrating that following God doesn't mean missing out, doing without, or living with compromises. But then, sometimes, that's exactly what it means. For now, I have to balance my purpose with my portion. I have to balance my passion for glittering life on Paper and Glam, with buttering the bread in corporate America. Since September 1st, its been ten hour days at Cigna, and when I get home another eight hours getting my vision for this site on the screen. (Sidenote: In the process, this girl learned enough CSS to be dangerous...which pretty much could have been Mandarin). I have every confidence that one day, in His perfect timing, God will provide a means for me to make a living by making faith glam. God is still changing me so fast it's giving me whiplash. With each day, I'm growing closer to the person He needs me to become to do this Paper and Glam thing His way. And everyday, I become more certain that God wouldn't have put this crazy dream in my heart without a plan to see it to fruition. But until that right time, I'll keep praying for a way to make my passion my profession. And I will pray without ceasing.
