Sunday by the Sea: Robin Jones Gunn

"And he [Jesus] saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!"
~ Matthew 8:26-27

Back in February I had the pleasure of meeting author Robin Jones Gunn at the Woman to Woman Conference hosted at my school (Corban University). I began a post series on what I learned at the conference, but I never finished it. However, I simply had to come back to it and at least share a few words of encouragement from Robin, as well as the picture (above) of me and her! It was super exciting getting to meet her, and she's very sweet!

Anyway, the title of the conference was What if God has dreams for your life? Robin talked to us about her own dreams and how God has worked in her life. (Her first talk of the two made me cry!) One verse she mentioned a couple of times was Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)--

"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us."

God is all powerful! He is in control of all the seas, of all creation, of all period! And yet how often do we put limits on what we think He can do in our lives?

Here are a few inspiring quotes from Robin:

• "Shame off you!" (Robin noted that she and her sister used to say this to each other instead of "Shame on you" in order to remind each other of God's grace.)

• "When God fulfills our dreams, it's not how we think it's going to be." (We've heard it said that God works in mysterious ways. Well, I think that's true in that we often don't understand how He's working in our lives until we can look back after the fact, and even then we don't have the complete big picture that He does. Robin noted that God plants the dreams in our hearts, but the way He fulfills them is often quite different from our expectations.)

• "You are a victim of grace, honey." (With all the trials of life, sometimes we look at ourselves as victims. But I love Robin's reminder that the only thing we are victims of is God's grace, which is far, far beyond what we could ever deserve!)

I loved getting to meet Robin, and as I've not yet read one of her books, I'm looking forward to diving into the one I bought (and had autographed!) at the conference called Under a Maui Moon--hopefully soon!

Have you had the opportunity to meet any authors? Have you read any books by Robin?

I'd love to hear your stories! And as you begin this week, please remember that the God we serve is omnipotent--all-powerful--and He has a dream/purpose for your life!