What do shift and the little red pickup have in common?
When I picture the word shift, I think of my first driving lessons. Like many other baby boomers, I was taught to drive with a stick shift. My dad’s red Ford pickup was equipped with a stick shift—a long skinny metal stick with a knob on top that came up from the floor board. The stick danced a bit as you moved down the road.
When I was driving it was positioned to the side of my right leg.
In newer pickups the gear shift was a lever located behind the steering wheel. The driver had to visualize the letter H to know how to shift. First gear was at the top left of the H. Second gear was at the bottom left of the H. Third gear was at the top right of the H, and reverse was at the bottom right of the H. If you never learned to feel for the gentle nuances between the clutch and the brake, the truck would jolt and jerk, and you wouldn’t get far. And if you shoved the “stick shift” to the middle of the H, you went nowhere, even though the engine kept on running.
That’s called idling.
Later on in life, I’d discover that learning to shift that old truck would be a lot like my journey through life. Like many women, I’d be tempted to remain stuck or push my way through the gears without learning the rhythms of the engine. My spiritual life would sputter, stall, and get stuck in idle. Isn’t that a bit like so many women’s lives? We run, but do we get where we want to go in life?
Women’s lives are full.
Media feeds us false messages of who we should be. The fast pace of life leaves us harried and exhausted. Social media tempts us to compare ourselves with women in our church, community, across the nation and even around the world. We frantically scour the web, television, or shopping aisles searching for peace neatly wrapped in pleasure. In our efforts to run through life, we grind our gears and idle in agitation.
We need to shift into another gear—to a life of freedom.
Enable me, Lord, to Shift is a series of inspirational coaching devotionals that teaches readers to examine each domain of their life. In order to change we must look at who we are and then evaluate our life. We must embrace the good but also pull up the dead weeds in order to plant the seeds of truth that bring about spiritual transformation and wholeness.
Transformation takes time and practice. Only you can change yourself. I know because I learned these principles through the discipline of pain and personal practice. I invested my time, and the seeds that were planted years ago have begun to multiply.
I coach women. I teach women. In this book you will read some of their stories. I have changed names, locations, and situations to guard their privacy yet tell their story.
Enable me, Lord, to Shift, offers you a self-assessment report card, a verse, an inspiring story, and coaching questions to help you evaluate your life and align it with the truth of God’s Word.
This book will teach you how to shift, from being stuck—to the truth in order to live a life of freedom and walk in your true identity.
I encourage you to grab your Bible and read each verse for yourself. This encourages the habit of opening the Word and personalizing the truth. Then if you desire, mark, highlight, or underline the verse so you can easily find it again to refresh and revitalize yourself. Read the inspirational story, answer the questions, and close with the prayer.
Are you ready to make the shift? If so, the best time to begin is now. And you can download the first book FREE right here. Click here!
