Getting ahead of God

My niece got married last week and she wanted to have a picnic at our farm the following day to celebrate with her new Phoenix family and DC law students. 

My mom and dad worked relentlessly. Let me tell you Martha Stewart has got nothing on my mom. They returned from a trip a few weeks ahead and everyone kicked into high gear. Planting, pruning, watering, cleaning; the whole staff took part.

As each day clicked off toward the big event, we stressed that flowers were dropping leaves and shriveling. They should have been fully grown and thriving in the favorably mild and wet summer.

At the party, my father apologized that he had treated the flower beds with fertilizer to help them along. The only ones that survived were the flowers he missed.

Isn't that just like us with God?

Fertilizer is a good thing, but too much at the wrong time and growth stops.

I can think of many times I've done the same thing. I've given my daughter good advice, but too much at the wrong time and growth stops.

We are working through business restructuring right now. We needed answers two months ago. Some decisions or non-decisions seem wrong to people.

It reminds me of Gideon. If it had been me God told to go into battle with a candle, a jar and an instrument to blow hot air through I can hear myself now, excuse me God do you not understand the size of this problem? Guess I don't understand what small faith and how little patience I have.

I told a friend yesterday, sometimes those who wait on the Lord sweat bullets.

Do you feel like that? Are you sweating bullets waiting for answers?

The world looks up to people who can make things happen. They are the movers and the shakers. They know how to get things done.  That doesn't mean we have to come in with our fertilizer. We can do a lot of good things, we can make a lot of good decisions.

But too much of our own efforts at the wrong time and growth stops. God can't work.

I remain confident of this: 

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 

Wait for the Lord; 

be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:13-14

But for us who call God our Lord, no decision is greater than letting God work in His time and His way.

I encourage you today to resist the small faith, little patience urge to fertilize.
There is richness waiting.
The soil and the seed God is preparing will be a thing of beauty.

Take heart.

Don't get ahead of God. You might miss the beauty.

Backing Forward

“Still, accepting God’s existence is one thing; honoring his command is another matter entirely, especially if we’re required to go back when we’d rather go forward.”~Liz Curtis Higgs

I had no choice. Every part of my life was ripped away and shattered beyond repair. The dark giants were celebrating their victory as I lay immobilized in pain and confusion. How could my life have come to this point? I have tried to be faithful. I thought I was following God. I tried to stand for truth and listen to Him. Admittedly, my life was not completely honoring Him. I had allowed the rebellion of others and their pursuit of sin to infiltrate my life. But did I deserve this? Deserve it or not, I was being fed to the wolves. I made the hardest phone call of my life, and back I went to a familiar, now foreign place. Home. I’ve stayed since.

The day I left home I was young, full of hope and sure I was headed where God wanted. Returning years later, every hope crushed, I was desperately alone. All I felt was shame and failure. I constantly cried out to God. Can I have any part of my life back? You want me to do what? Where do you want me? Who do you want me to be? Show me God.

At first the answers came in bits and pieces. As I grew stronger, I saw answers faithfully and lovingly come, even when I didn’t like the process.

Fast forward over a dozen years. The hurt of that dark time has faded so that I have trouble conjuring the emotion. I am changed and I am so completely thankful. I would have never become who I am now in my former circumstances. I pray dozen years from now I look back at today and say, I am changed.

Is there really any going back with God? What if my puny little mind just doesn’t get it. The journey I mean. Is it about going back, or staying or going? It’s inside. Scraping away what is not Him and asking Jesus to fill the gaps and make me over.

There are days I wish He would allow so many things to be different. Times will come when I long to hear "Go". On those days, I will fall back into His arms, stay in His care and go where he leads. And I can do all that right where I am.