I wonder, what is God speaking into your life at this very moment that doesn’t seem to make sense? Could it be instruction for the promise He is still bringing to pass? A reminder that it’s coming, and when it does, you need to be able to care for it well. Listen up, friend. It will make sense soon. The instructions He gives now may very well be the source of your fruitfulness then.
I recently got a new phone, and like nearly everybody else, I wanted to get it for as cheap as possible (since when did the cost of a phone exceed the cost of my monthly mortgage? Who approved this?!) Getting the discount meant I had to trade in my old phone, but before sending it back, I had to perform a factory reset. Wipe it completely clean and remove the sim card in order to make it useful for someone else.
And now I’m just wondering… how many of us could use a factory reset before the new year? Would we be more effective if we got rid of the old sim card, so to speak, before embarking on something new?
More importantly, how do we get there, spiritually speaking?
What if this year, we took the time to pause. To reflect. To remember why the baby laid in a manger, only to grow up and hang on a cross. It was for us. Just to be with us. Just to give us the chance to say yes to Him, so that we could begin a life with Him. This year, let’s not only recall what He’s done. Let’s recall the memories of time spent together, of relationship with God.
There is one thing I’ve been keenly reminded of today as I sit in the middle of my old stomping grounds: Though He really never does things in a way that I can predict or expect, God always brings things to an expected end of His design.
Ever been ghosted by a friend? Like just out of the blue, no more brunch dates, no more texts, no explanations, just gone. This has happened to me with a few people over the last few decades. A couple of them have come back around and let me know “Hey I realize that my disappearance must have been hurtful, but it had nothing to do with you. I was going through some stuff, and I just had to focus on me.”
He is bigger than we know. Bigger than what we read on these well-worn pages in the Bible. More powerful. More loving. More perfect than we can ever imagine. And how could we when everything we have ever known in our earthly lives is fallible and broken? How can we entertain eternity when all we’ve known in life is a series of endings?
That’s not to say we should abandon our efforts to know Him; instead, we should seek to eradicate our curiosity by devoting ourselves to communion with Him.
I’ve been feeling a little unnoticed – mostly by God, a little by man. Even though I know He sees everything, I just wasn’t feeling like He cared about how I felt. Maybe He sees the circumstances, but doesn’t notice my feelings about those circumstances. You too? Let’s talk about it…
Can I tell the truth about how I’m feeling now? I’m tired of myself.
Tired of only seeing the world according to my vantage point.
Tired of fixating on what I think God should be doing or why He isn’t doing it, as if I had any wisdom to add to the conversation at all.
Tired of being frustrated. Tired of “faithing” it.
Tired of my selfish humanity. Tired of my pride.
Have you ever felt this way? Let’s talk about it…
Is trusting God really as risky and dangerous as it feels, or have we just forgotten who He is? I recently had an experience that led me down a dark and anxious path, resulting in me laying in bed wide awake at 3 AM. Caught in a battle between my heart’s desires and my God’s timing. Rather than resting in the fact that all the days ordained for me were written in His book before one of them came to be, I wrestled with the fact that I was not given the option to write any of my ideas into anyone’s book.
You’re back! I’m so glad – I missed you this week. I can’t wait to continue our conversation. Let’s grab our preferred caffeinated beverage and jump back into this. If you need a sec to skim through last week’s discussion, no worries. I’ll be here when you come back.
Ready? Let’s talk about it.