Sometimes you find yourself smack dab in the middle of a transition and God asks you to do something humanly ridiculous. You start to hear yourself yelling right along with your personal paparazzi, "You're crazy. That's a terrible idea! Where's the wisdom in that?" (and other such reasonable responses). Meanwhile Your Favorite keeps right on reiterating His Resurrecting Power, His All-Sufficient Grace, His Track Record of Deliverance and His Continual Presence with you. he starts telling You about the things that win His approval: a life of faith and obedience, of testifying to His glory and excellence, and a broken and contrite heart. He starts speaking these words during your time together: "'Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?' says the LORD; 'shall I, who cause to bring forth shut the womb?' says your God. Isaiah 66:9What do you do when He starts sending strangers (yes, that's plural) to tell you that God is pleased with what you are doing, that Congratulations are in order because clearly there has been a transformation happening in your life? Do you stand in His way with shoddy faith? You might be tempted to, but then He sends reminders of His unstoppable will like this: "If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, WHO WAS I THAT I COULD STAND IN GOD'S WAY?" Acts 11:17What do you do when He starts emphasizing the Provider facet of His infallible features and provides for an opportunity almost seeming to support the humanly impossible endeavor? You may start to question as I have, "Are you just keeping me distracted while in the middle of this transition or does this idea have actual weight? But then He reminds You: "And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him." 1 Samuel 18:14When He steps in and emphasizes that He is responsible for EVERY success you've ever had because of His grace toward you, you start to perk up. You start to remember that your life is not about you; it's about what He wants to show the world through you. Disbelief ought to be quickly overcome every time by the reality of the resurrection. "But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, 'Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that IT IS I MYSELF. Touch me, and see.'" Luke 24: 37-39Consider always the contrast between you and Him. Never lose sight of how vastly finite, fragile and incapable you are as you gaze upon the One Who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all you ever ask or think, the One who won't quit when you want to, and who increases the strength of the one who has no might.
I'm in the middle of moving, staying with kind friends for the next little while, and He asked me to reignite an old business flame of an idea. At a time when I have no money and no idea if anything will come from having a booth at a rather large event. But He keeps doing all these things (see above). Should I have a back-up plan if this fails? I can't honestly say that He has been leading that direction in the slightest. So, is my hope in this business being successful? Nope. My hope is in Him and what He very clearly seems to be doing that He has asked me to join in on. So, I'm buckling that seat belt of truth for the back woods adventure we're going on together, trusting my Driver Who knows just where He's going, the Place where His Plan makes sense whether or not it ever does to me. I guess you might say I'm all in.
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Wakeboarding. Drag Racing. Paragliding. Parkour. BMX. Zorbing. (Yes, zorbing. It's a thing. Look it up.) And the list goes on. Extreme sports are the reproducing rabbits of our day as new thrills are incessantly sought, while onlookers like myself are captivated by what they are able to do with their bodies, risking their lives for new personal bests. If you're like me and need a working definition of an extreme sport, might I direct your attention to the following: "[An extreme sport is] a competitive (comparison or self-evaluative) activity within which the participant is subjected to natural or unusual physical and mental challenges such as speed, height, depth or natural forces and where fast and accurate cognitive perceptual processing may be required for a successful outcome" -Dr. Rhonda Cohen, emphasis mine So, you can see that there is something about the circumstances that make their participation in the sports challenging (i.e. terrain, weather, etc.) that requires something just as radical from the athlete in both physique and mental acumen. And failure is not merely shame or a disappointed onlooker, it can be fatal. Why is it that we continue to use the word "just" in front of prayer? Or how often do we hear, 'Well, I guess all I can do is pray" which only serves to reiterate both the hearer's and our belief that prayer is Small, Least, and Weak. Have we not instruction from the very Word of God that "the prayer of a righteous person has GREAT POWER as it is working" (James 5:16)? Perhaps we prefer to remain insensitive to the spiritual realm around us, and the fear of what happens if we become a people of prayer overtakes our desire to practice it. Do we believe our God is slow or cruel or shallow? For if this is what is dictating our prayerlessness, we need an overhaul of the mind and heart. Beloved, I say this truth with as much love as I can muster: Stop making your God less than for He is FAR GREATER THAN. I know you're scared or sad or hurt or freaking out or anxious or mad or in those straits called Dire, but don't let your own lack of understanding and perspective distort your view of the Unchanging One. It's time to recognize prayer for the extreme sport it is. Hectic chaos can come at you fast, do you have the spiritual agility to sprint to your Lord with your reaction so He can give you a response? Maybe there's a huge chasm that is standing between you and something He is asking you to do, do you have the guts to leap in faith (after all, with your God you can leap over a wall! 2 Samuel 22:30) and daily trust Him to increase your dependence on Him? Is He asking you to trust Him to go deeper in a relationship that you might be absolutely TERRIFIED of because of the sacrifices you know it will mean? Good thing you can pray! Good thing you have access to the One who holds your whole world in His hands! He ENABLES you to do spiritually what You did not think possible as His purposes are accomplished in your life. He can show you how to pray more specifically, more authentically, more OFTEN, and more MINDFUL of the fact that your life is NOT about you but about Him and His exceptional ability to perfectly perform flips of your circumstances or even of your heart. May He increase the speed and dexterity of your walk with Him--yes, go deeper and higher with Him--that you might even become one known for a prayer life that resembles that of our Savior, who yes, is praying for YOU even now (Hebrews 7:25). And know that your life is safe with Him, that He will be with you as you take what may feel to you like risky and dangerous moves. And remember that trusting Him is not the scariest thing to do, it's the SAFEST. |
Brittany Van RynWorking out thoughts with HIM. Archives
February 2017
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