Chapter 3: The Bigger Bear

I shared this graphic in the August 2015 newsletter on the heels of teaching my last regularly scheduled studio class.  It takes great effort to put words around what felt like the end of me.  I confess that I loved it {yoga} too much.  Things such as yoga can become an idol and our identity if we allow it to be.

And I had.

I described it then as a “season of pruning”, but inside…I was terrified there would not be another season that included teaching yoga.  I put on a pretty face {as all good girls do} and I carried on with the weekend events, but all the while, I was convinced it was over for me.

And I was angry.

I understood pruning was part of the sanctification process, and to become like Him, we must be tempered.  “But enough already, Lord!” I cried.  By the end of 2015, I described myself as a stump!   Isaiah 11 depicts our Savior in this beautiful metaphor: “Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot – yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.”  Visions of new growth or a “bigger bear” never entered.  I boldly told the Lord, “If you have a bigger bear, then you will have to knock me down with it, blow my mind, wet my fleece, or write on the wall!”

You get it.

Friends…settle in, follow along, and {be} prepared to see just how amazing our Great Father is!  He has gone {beyond} anything I ever imagined (Ephesians 3:20), and it is important that I share His story in entirety.

God has used many stories to minister clarity to my heart since last July.  The Word of God is relevant today, and if we seek Him through the stories, He will give guidance for our decisions today.  I no longer see them as text to read, but truly the living breathing Word for today – relevant to our everyday life.

And so, as I made the decision to leave the yoga classroom last July, I was reading the book of Ruth.  Last fall landed me smack in Ruth 1:20-21: “Don’t call me Naomi (or Keleah).  Call me Bitter.  The Strong One has dealt me a bitter blow.”  And then in Ruth 2:6, “She went into the field and worked steadily from morning ’til now…”  I went to work, and I found favor.  I worked the fields of Moore Elementary with some of the most amazing, godly people I have ever known.  They loved and accepted me as we served the children side-by-side daily.  Their favor made my Chapter 2 a place that was as comfortable as pruning could be.

I love how God does that.

For the next nine months, I was stuck in Chapter 2.  I shook my fist at God when I did pray and asked “Where’s my Chapter 3?”  I decided Ruth had a better story than mine.  No bigger bear, no kinsman redeemer…and one had better {NOT} say to me how teaching yoga and sharing His message through movement was “my calling”.  Because if you know me, you know my response included a nostril flair and an untamed tongue!  I did not believe there was a Chapter 3 for me, and I did not want to hear it!

True to form, I used my mess to be the message for the November Fall Retreat.  I opened with “The Valley of Dry Bones” from Ezekiel 37:11: “Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there is nothing left for us.”  The gift of pruning was in the 13^th verse, “When {not if} I open your graves and bring you up from them, I will put my Spirit in you and you will live…”  But {be} encouraged.  The valley was not the end of the message, because He is a grave-opening, bone-digging-up kind of Jesus.”

‘Did I even believe my own teaching?’

I closed the retreat with 1 Kings 17:1-7 “The Brook Dried Up”.  “Sometime later, the brook dried up…”  Below is the closing reading from the entire weekend:

“If you are here and you have been resting by a dried up brook or walking through the valley of dried up bones, God says to you He is not punishing you, but rather He is preparing you for greater things (Jeremiah 29:11).  God was teaching Elijah, and perhaps, teaching us.  I brought you by the brook to teach you to depend on Me and Me alone.  Settle down! (Isaiah 30:15 MSG)  And even though the brook is dry, I am never dry!  I am a grave-robbing, water-walking God who reigns over every situation you will ever find yourself in.  In fact, do not give up by the brook.  Hold your head up, because God may {be} about to blow your mind.  Just one chapter later, Elijah was not dry anymore (1 Kings 18).  He was calling down fire, wiping out 900 prophets of Baal and Asherah, and out-running chariots (1 Kings 18).  So rest in that!  What can God do in your next chapter?”

‘…But this was for them.  Not me.  Right, Lord?’

I was in the valley and my brook was dry.  I could believe it for others, but for myself…no bigger bear.  I stumbled into the New Year pretty numb, but also beginning to accept the goodness in where I was.  But I wrestled with the bigger bear concept all the while.

I digress a bit to share an important part of the story here, because it highlights the importance of persistent obedience and prayer for one another.  I will be forever grateful for my sister, Nicki Robbins.  During the holidays, I was decorating Nicki’s mailbox (for a cheerleader fundraiser) and she came out to the street to visit.  You should know she got that nostril flair, eye-rolling, untamed tongue response when she asked me “What are you doing not teaching?  It’s your calling!”  {She forgave me :)}

She then said to me, “Have you met Amy Weber?”  My very inappropriate reply was, “Nicki…that would never work.  She’s not a believer in Jesus!  And, no…I have never met her.  I have just heard of her work and her studio.”  Nicki’s reply, “Are you sure?  She sounds like it.  And the studio reflects HIM.”  I drove away blowing her off and ashamedly limiting our good gracious God, who is in the business of relentlessly pursuing every lost soul – even studio owners with Buddha in the window.

I did not think another thing of that conversation, probably because I went on to decorate 20 more mailboxes, celebrate the holidays, travel to Disney for Cheer Competition Nationals, and host the Winter Yoga Retreat – all the while still reading the book of Ruth.

Where was my Chapter 3?  Was there a Bigger Bear?

On February 23, Nicki reached out again about Amy Weber.  She said that God had told her while in the studio taking a class that ‘I was supposed to be in this studio.’  She told me “You should at least have a conversation with Amy.”  I was probably the weakest I had ever been in my life at that moment.  I was in the bed with the flu and pneumonia.  It felt like the closest to death that I had ever experienced – physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  I grabbed my cell phone, opened Facebook, and typed out a message introducing myself to Amy.

She replied within 10 minutes.

The next day, my husband Mitch and I walked through the doors of Relevé One and into what would be my Chapter 3.  I was so guarded…like the walls of Fort Knox were resurrected around my heart.  I hardly said a word (I know…you are shocked!)

I told the Lord “Please…do not break my heart.” 

I was just letting go of it.  I was beginning to move on.

I scanned the place for anything that would tell me she walked with Jesus.  Mitch asked several questions, and I felt like it was an out-of-body experience.  The Spirit was so strong, I felt I could barely stand – or was that how weak the flu had made me?  Quite abruptly, like a little girl anxious to share her news, Amy shared, “I know you and what you are all about.  And I want you to know on October 25th of last fall…I gave my life to Jesus.  I am a Christian and I was {never} going to be a Christian!”  (Read Amy’s story here, as well as a couple of excerpts from her FB page below:

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March 1st:
For 20 years, I doubted, denied, and even spoke against Christianity!  I wanted nothing to do with hearing about it…or about Him!  It wasn’t until October 25, 2015 when a radical encounter with the Lord forever changed my heart.  All the while, He had been perusing and protecting me…LOVING me!  And here I am today, shouting His name and telling our love story every chance I can!  We live in the world of the enemy and he is real too…in every negative, hateful, dark, ugly, addicted, judgmental, and doubtful thought, voice, and action in and around us!  If you know me well, you can attest that I was never going to be a Jesus Girl! You may read my posts of recent and think I’ve completely gone crazy.  Well, I kind of have…crazy in love with Jesus!  Because that’s what He is…LOVE!  These words are what it’s all about.  His faithful, never-ending, unfailing, perfect, immeasurable LOVE! #holyspirityouarewelcomehere #lovesperfectlight #howgreatisourgod #jesusgirl #love #ifitsnotloveitsnotHim

March 15th:
This is a place where strength meets peace. A place where love lives and joy dominates!  A place where freedom over mind, body, and soul overrides doubt, fear, and anxiety! In November, I asked the Lord to fill up our studio with HIS unfailing and perfect love…and wow, has HE ever!  Ask and you shall receive!  Beautiful things happening within our studio, and I can’t wait to witness our community soar to new heights! Praise HIM in ALL things! #livelifeinreleve #lovesperfectlight #riseup #love #fitness #mindbodysoul #releveone #thepowhermethod

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I began to weep!  Could this {be}?

She continued by saying, “I want every person who enters every class in this studio to feel the love of Christ and hear His message.”

That is all I needed to know.

We laughingly now say ”She had me at hello!”

Chapter 3 had come!  The Bigger Bear was here!

It is with inexpressible joy that I announce the Beyond Yoga Studio will open May 1, 2016!  Relevé One will continue to exist as it is in Studio A, and a Christ-centered yoga studio will be taking residence in Studio B.

Why Beyond Yoga?  Because HE has gone {beyond} anything I could ever ask or imagine!  “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly {beyond} all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us…” (Ephesians 3:20)  He does not withhold blessings, even when we are bitter, give up, and harden our hearts.  He is bigger than that, and let us {be} generous with Him.  He reaches down to save lost souls to make a way for His work to be done.

I invite you to be a part of our community.

But most of all…I ask you to believe for yourself and trust, even when things are dried up.

He can be trusted!  He is always at work!  Hold your head up, and when you cannot, there are brothers and sisters out there who will do it for you.  Praise the Lord!

{Beyond} blessed,

Keleah