The Snooze Button

Top of North Mountain, Phoenix, AZ

Because the daily temps are well into the 100's here in Phoenix, AZ where I live, my hiking schedule in the summer has my alarm going off at 4:30 am so that I can be on the trail by 5am. Three days during the week, I meet a friend at the trail head so I have to be on time, but then there are days like today....

Today, the alarm went off, no one was waiting for me and I hit the snooze button about four times before I mustered enough energy to get out of bed. Finally, around 5:30am, I got up, got moving and was on the trail at 6am.

But, at 6am, the sun had already risen and the air was quickly heating up so the hike was more intense and more taxing on my body as I made my way through the winding trials and steadily (and sometimes rapidly) climbed the mountain. How I wished I had gotten up an hour earlier, but at that point it was too late and I had to power through the ascent.

Regardless of my prior relationship with the snooze button, I was moving, but the delay just made what I had to do a bit more difficult and a bit more dehydrating. Which leads me to this question...

Do you ever feel like you're hitting the snooze button? You know, the snooze button of life? As I reflected on this, I know there are times and areas in my life that I do. I think about the plans that I have to reach out to my neighbor, to call that friend I haven't talked to in a while, the songs I want to write, the people I want to help, the places I want to volunteer and the areas I want to serve. Yet, what do I find myself doing? You guessed it, hitting the snooze button and telling myself "I will do it later, I just need a few more minutes (which sometimes turns into months) before I get up and go."

The reality is the longer we hit life's snooze button, the more likely the alarm is to get stuck and soon it just stops going off at all. The nudging to move is silenced from neglect. Oh, that we would respond quickly when the alarm goes off, the alarm in our spirit that propels us to love, to serve, to respond and to move SO THAT others will know the love of Christ before He returns.

Blow the trumpet in Zion;

sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble,

for the day of the Lord is coming. Joel 2:1-3

I pray that what was learned today will remind us of the urgency of the call and I hope that the bee sting I got on top of the mountain this morning, that I am convinced I would not have gotten if I would have been there an hour earlier, will remind me to get up when the alarm goes off.

Blessing, friends!

I love you in the Lord,

Mia

Rumors-My Heart on the Chopping Block

As I sat down to write this blog, I had a completely different focus until my fingers hit the keyboard. I was going to share a funny little take on rumors that I thought would encourage you, but instead, I find myself standing in a place of tension. On one side, I hear a whisper of what I am to write and on the other side, I hear my flesh saying "Don't share that, it's one of the secrets that no one knows, the one you have kept hidden for so long.

Yet, as I sit here, I wonder......I wonder if anyone else feels this way...so I write.

Before we jump in, here was my original post. "I heard a rumor, God can do all things" and then I was going to tell you how some rumors are true and aren't we glad this one is, but instead, a shift happened and this is where we are left. Rumors... they have the power.

It is no secret that I was very reckless in my past, emotionally, physically and sexually. But, there are vivid moments in my life that I remember as turning points. Today, I am going to share one of those pivotal moments with you.

As a senior in high school, I sat confidently at the chemistry lab table talking with friends, minding my own business and doing my work. Then, I heard the whispers. I saw the way the girls looked at me and I found the note that someone had written. I remember it like it was yesterday. It said what a slut Mia was. It listed the names of certain boys that I had sex with and all the things I had done with them and it labeled me a whore.

That note crushed me. That note wrongly confirmed all the things I believed about myself. The only thing was.....I WAS a virgin. Now I am not saying I was holier than thou, I repeatedly put myself in situations that allowed boys to make up stories about me, but what I did know is that the words in that note were not true, but still, I allowed it to speak to me. I allowed it to change me.

I remember at that moment giving up. I consciously decided to not try anymore and just become wholeheartedly what everyone else already believed about me. I allowed it to become my truth and I set out to act on my new identity.

I turned into what they said I was. And for lack of better words, I was "on a roll" and I didn't know how to stop. I remember keeping track of all the men I had been with, writing their names in a secret place in the corner of my closet wall, clinging to a (false) truth that a "real whore" wouldn't know how many men she had slept with, but this too became tangled and hard to manage and I would spend years sinking down into a false identity, self destruction, unplanned pregnancy and adultery.

Now, I share all of that (even though I didn't want to) not to say that all because of that one note, I became the way I was....and to be honest, I don't know why I am sharing this at all.

But maybe, if we realize that the words we say have the power to build up and also destroy, we will be a bit more attentive as to what comes out of our mouths and more importantly what is in our hearts. Maybe, we will realize that rumors, gossip and slander, can really hurt the spirit of a person. Maybe we will even realize that rumors (most of the time) are not even true. And maybe, just maybe, we will realize how powerful we truly are.

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits." 

Proverbs 18:21

Or perhaps, we will realize that rumors DO NOT define us. Perhaps someone will be reminded that no matter what the world says about them, God speaks a truth into us that can not be tangled, distorted or disproved. Perhaps we will realize that sometimes people are just mean, but God is good.

Maybe, my friend, (who this is specifically for) you too will realize, 

as I now realize, that "I am who the Great I AM says I am!"

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17 

 "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 139:14

I sign off, with a rock in my stomach, nervous to post this, but more nervous not to.

I love you in the Lord!

Mia

My sweet friend Rachel Barrentine sings it perfectly. Take a listen HERE: SAYS I AM

How do YOU measure a year?

My favorite thing about the New Year is looking back. Looking back on all the 525,600 minutes, all those those moments that have happened, all that God has done and all that He has brought me through and all that He has accomplished. It's the beauty of hindsight. New Years's Eve gives me that chance each year.

This past year has been a journey through the Word of God. Reading through the Bible in a year, Digging deep into the character and faithfulness of God has been nothing short of life changing. I didn't want it to end, but then my husband said, "You know, you can read it again." I know, I know, he is a genius! That's why I married him on this day 21 years ago Dec. 31, 1993.

Dec. 31, 1993

Well, in the last month of my daily readings, through prayer and meditation on His word, I knew God had something new in store for me. I prayed each day with anticipation of what it was. And true to His character, He revealed it to me.

To me, there is something overwhelming about God and His revelations to us......... and that is our response. Now that it has been revealed, will I be obedient to what God has been equipping me to do over and throughout this past year?

The answer is simple. Yes.

Sometimes God asks us to do things are comfortable and right in our zone. Then there are those times when we are pushed way out of our comfort zone and into a place of complete and undeniable dependence on God to see us through and for courage to even dare to step out.

That is the place I am in. It's scary for me, but I know that for me not to move forward in His plan would mean complete disobedience on my part and that's just NOT where I want to be. The funny thing is, my place of discomfort may be your place of leisure and what seems like a simple instruction to me, may be the hardest step of faith you will ever take.

Whatever our marching orders, whatever our call, the beauty and intimacy we share in saying yes to God surpasses the heartache of running from His will, even when the run away may seem easier, especially when we can run and so easily forget what He asked us to do in the first place. God does not forget His plan for us. God is faithful.

So here I go, ready to jump into 2015 following His call and looking forward to the next 525,600 minutes, those moments that will lead me to, Dec. 31, 2015 (Lord willing) when I get to look back again.

"In daylights, in sunsets

In midnights, in cups of coffee 

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife 

In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes 

How do you measure, a year in the life?" RENT~Jonathan D. Larson

So the answer for me in How do I measure a year in the Life? It really would be in Love, the true love and the glory of God weaved in and throughout each day, the love of a Father who sent His son so that we could have eternal life with Him. May these seconds, these moments all point to Him,....all of it, even the sweet moments sippin' on a cup of coffee. May it all bring Him glory!

Happy New Year Friends! 

May you hear His call, see His plan and follow with all your heart.

Christ was born for this!

And remember WE Are NOT Alone!



"You Are Not Alone" by Mia Koehne

The Unrivalled Power Of Prayer

"Romans 8:26-27 "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God."

I am convinced that until I stand in glory, I will have no comprehension of the unrivaled power of the Spirit of God that dwells within this temple, my body. I cannot even come close to imagining all that the Spirit prays for me, for the saints and all that is deep within my heart and soul in words that cannot be uttered.

But this I know, I find matchless peace in the little bit that I do comprehend of how the Spirit that dwells within this temple, my body, prays without ceasing the perfect will of God on my behalf...Matchless peace.

"Lord, Daily remind me of this Holy temple that I might be prepared each day 'to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true, with thanksgiving, a living sanctuary for you.' Amen"

My Utmost For His Highest~Oswald Chambers
The Unrivalled Power Of Prayer ~Nov08

We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; we know what it is to pray in the Spirit; but we do not so often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays in us prayers which we cannot utter. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.

“He,” the Spirit in you, “maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God,” and God searches your heart not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what is the prayer of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God needs the nature of the believer as a shrine in which to offer His intercession. “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, He “would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.” The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and said – “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

Have we recognized that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, though it is only a tiny bit of our personality, is to be regarded by us as a shrine of the Holy Ghost. He will look after the unconscious part that we know nothing of; but we must see that we guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.