Face Off

One of my favorite movies of all times is "Face Off", which starred two of my favorite actors, John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. Not the typical movie I normally watch, which usually consists of chic flicks, comedies and Disney movies. This is one of those "guy" movies, with lots of guns and action. It involves your usual "bad guy" versus "good guy" scenario, but with a little something more. Of course, there was an evil scientist/doctor character, who knew way too much about the human anatomy and genetics. With his scarey and profound "movie like" knowledge, that all doctor's characters in movies seem to have, he was able to remove the faces of people, and give them a brand new one, without any scarring at all. Amazing! Completely natural. Freaky huh?! So, the good guy gets the face of the bad guy, who is locked away in a medical facility/prison, to do some undercover work. But, as we know with all movies, there has to be a twist to make it interesting. The bad guy ends up escaping from the facility and forces the freaky scientist/doctor to put the good guy's face on him. I know! Cool right?! The plot thickens and the battle begins. The good guy versus the bad guy. There is one point in the movie, where both men are in the same room, standing in front of one another, and staring eachother down. The bad guy stares at himself while the good guy wears his face, and the good guy stares at himself while the bad guy is wearing his face. (Are you confused yet?) It is so intense! Awesome plot! I could watch it over and over. In the end, all works out well, and the good guy wins. (The crowd applauds) You are probably wondering where in the world am I going with this one... I'm afraid to say, that I find myself living inside of that movie these days. I am at a point in my life, where I am uncomfortable with some circumstances around me. It is causing a struggle to happen within myself. It seems as though, I am finding myself in moments of battle. The "good guy" in me, versus the "bad guy" that used to be me. He is trying to sneak back around. I'm not at all saying that I am perfect now, because I am far from it. It is only by His perfect grace that I am who I am. It is a continual duty, to do what I need to do, to stay God-minded at all times. I do what I can to stay in this world but not of it, which can come with so many challenges. With the frustrations I have been having lately, I find myself looking in the mirror at my old self. There I stand, looking at my reflection, not recognizing who I am and who I normally see. The new me versus the old me. The born again, sanctified in the blood, undefeated, Holy Spirit driven, praying and testifying me, versus the lost, lonely, bitter, defeated, confused, angry and tired me. Good guy versus bad guy. It's a Face Off. Life is filled with issues and struggles that seem to get the best of us. We feel as though we have hit a brick wall, no where to go, no solution, and no escape from the torment of the situation. I find myself in those times right now. I'm searching for answers, longing for hope, wanting to give up and desperate for a way out of my situation. The bad guy ways want to creep back in...filling me with doubt and frustration. I have always been the person who prays for God's guidance and direction. I do my best to seek His will before my own. So...why is it that I feel so stuck? Why is it that I can't seem to find the answers I am looking for? Maybe because my eye is focused on where I am and not where I can get to. Maybe because God is waiting for me to move. Here I am screaming, "Where do I go from here God?!" When He just wants me to keep moving forward. He is waiting for me to rip that doubtful face off, that I see staring back at me in the mirror, revealing the stronger me, the more confident me, and the hopeful me, that He knows I can be. As my good friend put it so well in a blog she recently wrote, "If you keep doing what you have been doing, you are going to keep getting what you have been getting. That's it. Plain and simple. No frills, no bells, no whistles. YOU must take the first step on the road toward where you want to be." (I swear that girl is in my head sometimes!) God just wants me to move forward in confidence. It's about choice. The choice to keep going! So many times, we sit whining about our circumstance, wondering what God is going to do to rescue us from it, and waiting for God to do something about it. When the ability to change or fix our situation lies within us. It is the basics that God has already instilled in us. I forget that when He says in His word, "by His stripes I am healed", that means all of me! My body, my mind, my spirit, and my life! I need to rip off that bad guy face with the bad attitude, stomp on it, throw it away, get in front of it and choose to move forward with my "new" man. The new me is full of solutions becuase I am filled with God's love and power! In Him I am made whole! So there I stand in a Face Off. I can do one of two things. I can give up, call it quits, be depressed, throw in the towel of defeat, not go anywhere, and let the old man win...The Bad Guy Face. OR...I can remind myself who I am in Christ Jesus, rip off the old man, tell him where he can go, revive myself with God's word, get a little excited with some Holy Ghost fire, and move forward to some place new with the new man...and a new face. Then when I look in the mirror...all I see looking back at me is an undefeated child of God!! Undefeated by doubt and confusion. Someone ready to move forward and make a positive change for my future, for my life! Face forward!! II Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come." Matthew 16:23, Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Hebrews 12:1 & 2, "...and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish."