The Surprises in My Reluctance

It happened once again several weeks ago.  I was presented an opportunity to see a movie with some friends.  I didn't want to go.  And throughout my life, I have discovered that when I start lining up a litany of  lame excuses to not do something, I know that I need to just go ahead and do it.

All my excuses crumbled, nothing to cling onto.  And so I reluctantly agreed to go.

My sister-in-law and her three sisters were attending the movie War Room which was released at the end of August.  I admit an inherent prejudice against cheesy Christian movies.  But I went.  We sat down in the theater.  And God brought me to shame.

I will not say anything more, but the powerful message in this movie just might change your thinking on a lot of different levels, a message that very well may change the course of your life...and everyone around you.

Wasteland and the Wilderness

I woke this morning with the words of an old hymn running through my thoughts on a continual loop.

"Guide us, O Thou great Jehovah,
      lead us through this barren land."

And as the words and tune repeated themselves in that early morning darkness, the rain steady outside my window, I realized that when I turn to You, O LORD, it does not appear such a wasteland at all, but a place of opportunity to serve You, one step of obedience leading to the next, not reluctant tasks, but ways to worship You.

Desolation and despair want me to believe they are the only ones who live there.

And I am called to find the splendors
         of the wilderness
filled by His Creation,
full of His Presence.

The difference is in which direction I stand
        and in whom I trust.

Near where we live in the mountains, there is a planned federal roadway through the valley of which its construction has been delayed for decades.  Other roads have been paved, houses have filled in the empty fields, livestock and small businesses thrive there.

"It is not obvious to me," I said to my husband, "where exactly that road would go."

And Bill replied, "If you get to a higher elevation and look down, you can see it."

Find His higher perspective in this.

Some things are not so obvious at the time, but God's deep purposes always prevail.  We have only to stay faithful to Him.  It will not just happen, but God will bring it.

But seek the welfare of the city
where I have sent you into exile,
and pray to the LORD on its behalf,
for in its welfare
        you will find your welfare.

                         Jeremiah 29. 7

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
                         says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.

                           Isaiah 55. 8-9

Beyond our comprehension
     and marvelous in His ways.

The Great Instead

One of our daughters texted me a week ago about a big test she was about to take the next morning.  "Please pray about my exam tomorrow and for my studying for it tonight."

Gladly.

In the next couple of days, I found out the results.  She missed passing by one question.

O LORD, I cried out.  Missed by one question? She could have seen Your power in this.

And God stopped abruptly that line of thought in my heart.

If she had passed by one question, WOW, surely God's hand would be evident in that.  We would all have rejoiced.  But to MISS passing by one question?  Why is that anything less than God's hand?  God knew this.  God is working a lot deeper than a set of answers.  God is redeeming even this.

The great instead
    is how God works it.

I can trust Him
        even when I don't understand the outcome,
because He is not done yet.

As Steven Curtis Chapman says in one of his songs:

"God is God,
              and I am not.
I can only see a part
       of the picture He's painting.
God is God,
              and I am man.
So I'll never understand it all,
       for only God is God."


O the depth of the riches
and wisdom
and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgements
and how inscrutable His ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been His counselor?
....For from Him
          and through Him
    and to Him
            are all things.
To Him be glory for ever.
Amen.

                     Romans 11. 33-36

God works instead
    something so much bigger
than I can grasp.

A story you won't believe

For a couple of days, we are visiting my in-laws.  When we arrived yesterday, my mother-in-law caught me glancing at a hardback novel placed on a table. "Have you read that book?" she asked.  "It is the most incredible story.  I couldn't put it down."  And pointing to my father-in-law, she said.  "I made him read it too."

"I couldn't even sleep until I finished it," he added.

It is one of our most basic affections to be drawn to stories, those written and those unfolding all around us.  That is how we learn, that is how we grasp the big picture of where we are and who we are, and that is how we come to know God more.

It is not so much in books that we experience those truths, but in realizing that we are each living in a story you won't believe, a story of God's own redeeming.

Incredible stories are God's specialty, a profound narrative from the beginning of time, the chronicles of real people with real problems woven together in God's Word, no glossing over imperfect actions, but the seamless fabric of God's redeeming in the lives of ancient peoples.

And as God intends for me to see, redeeming even my own.

Both writers and voracious readers know the pattern of what is known as "the story arc."  The elements of the story build upon each other, layer upon layer, character by character, the tensions are not arbitrary but intricately designed.  The crisis is not random, but an integral part of the story. Intrigue keeps us turning the pages.

And then ... the redeeming.  All the pieces suddenly come together.  What doesn't belong makes sense after all.  It is all connected, the hand of the master storyteller, the hand of the Author of life itself.

And so, when things seem impossible
   and the pieces don't make sense,
and "how in the world is this going to work out?"

God says, "Ahhhhh, you are just getting to the good part."

One of my favorite memories of our daughters was when they would burst in the door after school with great excitement in their voices, "Oh mom, you wouldn't believe what happened today!"

Live that way
    even in that which you don't understand.

You are in the midst of the most incredible tale,
            a story you wouldn't believe.
It is not that you will somehow make it through,
it is not that things will work out,
           but God is bringing it.

Now to Him
   who by the power at work within us
is able to do
              far more abundantly
than all we ask or even imagine...

                          Ephesians 3. 20

Your story is not over,
      but bursting with profound hope.
There is something deeper going on here.

Watch how God redeems every detail.

Blue skies, big rocks, and the storm in the forecast

 A few weeks ago when one of our daughters was having a particularly difficult time with her job, I told her I would be praying that she would have a nice day at work.

“Mom,” she said kindly.  “I appreciate your encouragement, and I appreciate your prayers, but it is not going to be a great day.  With everything I have on my plate today, it is going to be a rather difficult one.  That is already evident.”

She stopped me in my tracks.

What puny things have I been praying?  Praying for  “a nice day,” when she is in the thick of battle and slogging through the miry bog and squeezed between the proverbial rock and hard place?

 Shame on me.  “Have a nice day?”  Where is God’s strength in that?

 God does not want her to “look on the bright side of life,” and to pretend all is good and easy in the midst of the turbulent storm.  God wants her to know the reality of His Presence when life is tough, to know the strength and peace that only He can give in impossible situations.  He wants her to know that He is her Redeemer, no matter what is happening.  God is sovereign, even in this. He wants her to possess deep roots in Him, no matter the landscape, no matter the drought, no matter the storm.  God is her Rock.  God is her stronghold in the day of trouble.  God is the Almighty God, not a warm fuzzy feeling when the skies are blue and everything is going my way.

Recently I went hiking with friends along a rushing mountain stream.  The path was strewn with huge rocks, the water danced wildly between the boulders, the leaves revealed their true colors against an azure sky.  Our sights were drawn upward to the waterfall ahead and to the boughs of the deep forest reaching high as if in praise of the Creator.  But as we hiked up that stony trail, I began to notice huge trees alongside of us, living trees that were growing out of sheer rock, defying all reason to even be there, let alone thriving in that absurd place.  “You should not even be able to grow there,” I said out loud.  But they do, and they are stronger for it.

We pray for our children to be those luscious green trees that send down their roots by streams of waters.  But I am convicted that we should be praying for a faith that thrives even out of sheer rock, not dependent on favorable conditions, but rooted instead in a God who is there no matter what.  “…so live in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith… and to grow with a growth that is from God.” (Colossians 2.  6-7, 19)

God’s strength transcends all circumstances.

Though the fig tree do not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

    and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet  I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

He makes my feet like hinds’ feet,

He makes me tread upon my high places.

                                      Habakkuk 3. 17-19

Pray like that.

Live like that

                 in the high scary places

                 in the miry bog

           even in what seems impossible

with a strength that is not your own.