Leah Ness's Blog, page 5

Being the Right Church

 (Originally published 9/5/13)

I really like my church. The pastor gives a great sermon nearly every week and everyone there is very friendly. The church as a whole really cares about the community and does several outreaches as well as mission trips abroad. Their is a general heart for people at that really shines.

But their praise and worship music is way too loud. And there are a few other things that annoy me every Sunday. Some of these little things have been enough to start me contemplating a church change. I’ve been a ‘member’ of 4 churches in the last 12yrs, and while I remember my other two churches and the people I knew there fondly, I’ve so far failed to find a true and lasting fellowship connection.

I think a lot of people are in the same boat. They go to a church for a few years, fail to really ‘plug-in’, get annoyed with a handful of small details, and go looking for a change. Or perhaps they get too ‘plugged-in’ and, realizing that their pastors are humans and make mistakes, they get disillusioned and leave.

The worst is when someone in the church hurts you and you leave because of the pain, sometimes never to return. I myself have been hurt and annoyed by my fellow church attendees on a few occasions and, if I’m being honest, I’m still harboring some resentment about it.

Whenever I consider going church shopping again, I think of a story I heard one time:

Once, in a small mountain village, there lived an old man who liked to sit outside the village and greet visitors. One day, a band of travelers approached the old man and asked him to tell them about the people in his village. He responded with a question: “What were the people in your own village like?”

“They were terrible,” the travelers replied. “They were vicious and backbiting, they gossiped all the time and everyone was extremely selfish and judgmental. We finally had enough and we’re looking for a new home.”

“The people in this village are the same way,” The old man told them.

The travelers sighed and nodded, having expected as much. They continued on their way, in search of greener pastures.

Presently, a second group of travelers approached the old man with the same question and he replied in the same way: “What were the people in your own village like?”

“They were wonderful!” the travelers gushed. “Everyone had a real sense of community and neighborly love. We all looked out for each other and became like a real family. We hated to leave, but we felt led to go out and begin new settlements.”

“The people in this village are the same way,” The old man told them.

You see, I’m discovering that the common weak link in my church shopping is me. Churches, and Christians, get a bum rep. We are called judgmental hypocrites and churches are given wide berth by people who either a) don’t know what we are really like, or b) know exactly what we are like.

The thing is, we are humans. All of us. Christians too. People outside the church don’t want us judging them (and we shouldn’t) but then turn around and judge us for being judgmental. I myself have fallen into the trap of viewing my fellow church attendees according to their sins. Sins like overly loud music, or hurting those I hold dear.

But really, I should have even more love, grace, and forgiveness for them than I do for non-Christians. Why? Because the people inside that church building are my family members. Regardless of whether or not I know their names, like the same movies, share the same interests, or am in the same stage of life, if they are born again in Christ, then they are my brothers and sisters and I need to treat them as such.

I’m really excited because this Sunday, my church is beginning the ‘small group’ sessions for fall and my husband and I are going to find a group to join so we can start enjoying deeper fellowship with the members of our church. I don’t want to forsake the assembling of the brethren anymore. (Heb.10:25)

I’m eager to start loving my family members the way I’m called to love them, regardless of music volume, hurt feelings, or hypocritical judgments. A very popular phrase I hear is that we are the church. So I would encourage you, if you are dissatisfied with an aspect of your church (not including faulty doctrine, of course) rather than trying to find the right church, ask God to help you forgive your brethren and begin loving on them. Ask Him to help you be the right church. 

The (Easy) Christian Life

 

Isn’t it cool how easy it can be to follow God? No, no, really, I’m serious. I know sometimes it can be really difficult and life is tough and trusting Him is hard and there is no love without sacrifice… but really, I think we bring a lot of it on ourselves.

Let me give you an example: I used to figure skate. Practice sessions, private lessons, competitions, the whole shebang. And jumps.

I was never much good at it but I advanced at an average pace. Until I came to the axle, a 1.5 revolution jump.

The secret is, the jump really is simple. But because of an extra half turn, it’s labeled the most difficult jump a beginner can learn. And there is a lot of hype. For months as I prepared for my first axel, fellow skaters warned me about how difficult it would be.

They shared horror stories of massive bruises from huge falls, they told me about all the months it had taken to even become somewhat proficient with it, and they confided the truth that it was still their shakiest jump.

So by the time I set foot on the ice, I was all prepared to fall, and fall hard because I was too afraid to jump. My belief that it would be difficult was what made it so.

We do that as Christians all the time. We assume that it’s going to be so hard. We pray God’s will over a situation and wince, hoping it won’t hurt too much. We tell God we want to live for Him, yet hold back, for fear He’ll send us out as missionaries to a third world country.

But the secret is, so much of that pain and fear we experience, we bring on ourselves by trying to stay safe and comfortable.

Then, to complicate matters even more, we convince ourselves that God is going to have to do a lot of work in us to make us suitable for the battlefield. We become afraid of that work, because of how painful it sounds. So as a preemptive strike, we compare ourselves to people we admire and/or envy and try to give ourselves makeovers based on what we see in them.

We hone in on great men and women of the faith and try so hard to imitate them that we forget to imitate God. We try to fit into their mold and their calling instead of being who God made us to be.

Do you even realize how special and unique and precious you are to God?

Do you know that He has never before and never will again create anyone who’s exactly like you?

Do you believe that He made you on purpose, for a purpose?

And do you know that He loves you?

He paid a terrible price to tell you about that love. Don’t spend your time trying to earn it by being something you’re not.

The Christian life is something that’s meant to be enjoyed, and done wholeheartedly. We just need to get out of our own way and relax.

Are you looking for your purpose in life? What do you enjoy doing? What topics/projects get you all fired up? Odds are, God has planted those passions in your heart to accomplish something through you that no one else can do the way He wants it done.

Are you struggling in areas that you feel you should have conquered by now? Do you envy that guy’s gift of prayer, or that woman’s gift of boldness? Do you look at other people and wish you could have it all figured out like they do?

Take a look at 2 Peter 1:1:

“To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:”

Peter said we have received ‘like faith’ with the saints. He’s saying that our faith is comparable to the faith of those who physically walked with Jesus. How mind-blowing is that?!

God is not a respecter of persons. He doesn’t love this pastor or that missionary more than He loves you. He doesn’t spend more time with them than He does with you, or answer their prayers more quickly. He promises each and every one of us that if we seek Him, we will find Him.

We each have our own struggles, our own gifting, and our own calling. We are each unique and precious in His eyes.

Things get hard and complicated when we try to walk by ourselves, or when we try to follow in the footsteps of someone other than Jesus. When we try to figure out what God has planed, we often skip right to worse case scenario, and that’s when things get scary.

But the beautiful truth is that God has worked His plans around you, simply because He loves you and wants to include you in what He’s doing. You specifically. You individually.

He sees you, He loves you. He is after your heart, and it’s on Him to mold you into His own image. 

Even When it Rains

(Originally published 8/4/13)

I just finished the book of Job which, to be honest, has never been one of my favorites. It pains me to admit it, but the theological discussion Job and his friends get into is so circular and long that I quickly get bored. But this time, God impressed a truth on my heart.

Job is stated to be a Godly and righteous man. When satan catches wind of this, he gets God’s permission to attack Job and takes almost everything away from him: property, servants, children, health, etc. Job’s friends come and morn with him for seven days and nights without speaking, then the theological debate begins.

Job claims adamantly that he has done nothing to deserve his trials while his friends say over and over again that he must have done something wrong because God is just and righteous and would never punish an innocent man. They go round and round trying to make sense of it and that’s when I realized the problem.

These men were so desperate for an explanation to what had happened, but the fact is, God did not owe them one.They were trying in their human capacity to find God’s reasons and that’s something we simply are not capable of doing.

When bad things happen to me or a loved one, one of my first reactions is to try to make sense of it. But God does not owe me an explanation. He does not have to share His plan with me. He does not have to tell me the reason behind His actions.

God does not owe me a thing. When I’m feeling stressed out and everything seems to be going wrong, I will usually adopt a Job mindset: ‘But I didn’t do anything wrong! Why is this happening to me?’ When something terrible happens to someone else, I wonder why, because they seemed like such good people.

Tragedy doesn’t make sense to me; it doesn’t fit into my rules. I figure that if I play by the rules, then God has to as well. But they are not His rules. I draw up the game play and expect the Almighty Creator of the Universe to play along. It does not work that way.

God is mighty and just and all powerful. He is the Awesome I Am, the same yesterday, today, and forever. This is the God Who breathed the stars into existence, Who spoke the world into being. He knitted me together in my mother’s womb. He holds the universe in His hand. That is so incredible to me.

I highly recommend you watch Louie Giglio’s How Great is our God video. This changed my perspective of God and allowed me to catch even the slightest glimpse of how unfathomably huge He is. There is no way a great God like that has to answer to or explain Himself to me.

There is a quote I heard one time that I tried to find but couldn’t. So sorry, I’ll have to improvise. Anyway, as the story goes, a woman approached a preacher (Spurgeon, I think) about Romans 9:13; ‘As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.’ The woman said she was having a hard time understanding the ‘Esau I have hated’ bit. The pastor replied that he struggled with that verse as well, but the part he couldn’t get over was ‘Jacob I have loved.’

And that’s the truth. God doesn’t owe me anything, even love. If He were to forgive me my sins and make me His slave, that would be a tremendous mercy that I could never hope to deserve. But He goes further than that and adopts me as His child.

He chooses to love and bless me, so even when rain falls, my response should to be to accept and submit to His will, even if I never know why He’s done what He’s done. Because God is great, and worthy of all praise and admiration, even when it rains. 

The Christmas Scandal

A scandal as arisen in the UK over the release of a Christmas commercial by Sainsbury Grocery. The commercial spends about 3 minutes depicting the Christmas Truce of 1914, with the end goal of selling chocolate.

Apparently, people are upset that such an extraordinary event should be used for advertising purposes. I find this hilariously ironic.

Every year, people all over the world see their largest boost in profit because of the advertisement advantage given to them by the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

I’m very grateful to this ad and its controversy because it stopped me dead in my tracks and caused me to look at the birth of Christ in a way I never had before.

We all know (some have experience) the trauma of childbirth for the mother, but I think few of us really reflect on the trauma the child goes through.

Everything the baby has ever known about safety and warmth and care is suddenly ripped away as the poor little infant is squeezed slowly through the birth canal.

He then emerges into a world of lights and sounds and cold that is completely foreign and uncomfortable. The baby experiences hunger for the first time, and cold, and weakness.

He is totally and completely helpless, too frail to even lift his own head and completely at the mercy of the strange giants around him. He can’t communicate his needs or desires through anything other than plaintive wails.

He is completely helpless.

Now picture the Almighty Creator of the Universe, Perfect and Holy God condescending to put Himself through this.

Condescending to experience pain, hunger, weakness, shame, rejection, betrayal, helplessness, in short, humanity, in all its splendor.

I don’t know where theologians stand with this, but I personally believe that Jesus was fully conscience of His God state in the midst of this event.

And He suffered through all this completely blamelessly, totally undeservedly.

From the Lord’s side of things, His birth was more unjust, more scandalous than anything that has happened or ever could happen here on earth, in war time or in peace.

And yet He submitted to it willingly, for your sake and for mine.

Every year, we hear a lot about ‘the reason for the season’ and words like ‘gratitude’ and ‘greatest gift’ get bandied about. I feel like this discussion has grown stale, and we don’t stop often enough to think about what it is that we are actually grateful for.

We’ve been told that Jesus died for our sins, but how often do we stop to think about how He lived for them? If you ponder the physical side of humanity, it can be stated that we begin to die as soon as we’re born, so Jesus’ death really began with His birth.

I like the commercial above. The company uses the word ‘share,’ but what I see is sacrifice. And maybe that’s what this season is really all about, the opportunity to truly reflect on the Sacrifice that was made on our behalf, and the chance to look around for opportunities to make sacrifices on behalf of others.

Full of It

Have you ever heard the expression ‘Drinking from my saucer’? It’s a reference to Ps.23:5 where David is describing the feast the Lord had laid before him and remarks ‘my cup runs over.’

It’s a beautiful image of abundance, of being loved excessively by an extravagant God. It’s a picture of being overwhelmed.

But many of us today don’t feel like we’re drinking from our saucers. In fact, a lot of us are going thirsty.

In light of the promises of God’s word – to say nothing of the theology of several mega churches today – Christians should be living blessed, full lives. After all, Paul says we serve a God who can give us abundantly more than we ask or think.

So why are so many of us just barely getting by? Why are so many of us getting by with less?

Everybody gets thirsty. It’s a completely natural, physical experience that afflicts everyone. And the first thing we want to do with that thirst is quench it. We think to ourselves about all the delicious beverage options we can choose from and continue to think on them until we can satisfy the thirst.

It’s the same with a spiritual thirst. We all want to live full lives, and we spend a great deal of those lives thinking about what exactly we want to fill them with. A few things that come to mind are stable finances, a nice home, healthy kids… you know, what the Jones’s have.

So we scrimp and save, strive and try, plan and pray, compare and despair, all with the aim to fill. And not only fill: fill to overflowing.

And we never quite get there, do we?

Wanna know why? Because that cup is huge. I mean enormous. That hole, that cup we are trying to fill is bottomless, fathomless. We can’t fill it. You could pour worlds into it and not even hear a satisfying splat.

Because worlds won’t satisfy. They can never be enough because they were never intended to be.

The only way for a cup to overflow is if it is already full. But what’s more than worlds? What’s more than all your hopes and plans and dreams?

God.

God is the only One big enough to fill up your life. He is the only One who can satisfy, who can fulfill. He built you to need Him and He never created any god-counterfeits.

The only way your cup can overflow is if it’s already full of God. Because once you have Him, once He’s enough, the rest is just excess. The rest spills over the side and splashes to the ground, incomparable to the sensation of fulfillment only God provides.

God has to be enough, because nothing else ever will be. Your life has to be full of God, or it will never overflow with abundance.

If God isn’t first and center, if He isn’t all, then you will always be thirsty.  

Mundane Courage

(Originally published 9/3/13)

Have you ever noticed how many times the Bible says ‘do not fear’? Take 2 Tim. 1:7 for example;

‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.’

We tend to associate the words ‘bravery’ and ‘courage’ with large scale endeavors. For example, if we find out that a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer, we encourage them, and ourselves, to be brave.

It’s like bravery is only needed in life and death situations, or acts of heroism, such as rushing into a burning building. But I think that courage should be far more common place than that.

I’ve always been an introvert, but even more than that, I’ve always been painfully shy. During my adolescence I was known as a ‘wall-paper kid’ and I remember once when I was around ten years old, it took me literally weeks to gather the nerves to strike up a conversation with a girl I wanted to befriend. I avoided the young adults group at my church for months because I was so self-conscious and afraid that people would find me annoying or stupid.

Though I’ve improved tremendously, I still struggle with reaching out to people I’m not comfortable around. There have been several times when I have felt God tugging at my heart to minister to someone, but, to my shame, I have only responded with obedience a few times.

Usually, I ignore the Lord’s call and walk away. I’m very good at signing up for the behind the scenes positions where I don’t have to talk to people, and while I recognize that there is nothing wrong with being an introvert, allowing fear of others to hinder my obedience to God is a sin. In Galatians 1:10 Paul asks if he is ‘now seeking the approval of men, or of God.’  This is the fear I suffer from most often.

The extreme situations we relate to the term ‘brave’ lead us to the misconception that courage is something we need only when we are approaching dangerous situations. There are certainly dangerous times in everyone’s life, but those aren’t the only times we need boldness.

Sometimes, it takes just as much courage to stand up to friends and family as is does to save someone from a fire; in fact, without the dose of adrenalin, we may have even more trouble steeling our nerves.

Maybe you fear others’ opinions of you, failing a test in school, or stuttering during a presentation at work. Others are afraid of being a bad parent or spouse or friend. Some people, like me, are paralyzed by the thought of asking the homeless person on the street if we can pray with them.

I believe one of the biggest fears among Christians is sharing our faith with those we know and love who don’t know and love Jesus. For most of us, the thought of leaving our comfort zone invokes the same level of apprehension as skydiving.

Anytime we allow fear to dictate our actions, or, as is more likely the case, our inactions, we are committing the sin of worry and we are not trusting God fully. Obviously there is a place for wisdom and prudence; I’m not telling anyone to knowingly endanger themselves just for laughs. But when it comes to actions that God has fully equipped us for – such as loving and reaching out to others with the message of Salvation – we need to be strong and courageous.

I would encourage you to be more mindful of those actions and/or people you avoid out of fear. For myself, I know there are a fair few instances when I listen to doubts from the devil rather than directions from God.

When you come up against an occasion that tempts you to give into fear, stop, be still and know that God is God, and, if He is telling you to do it, go for it! Be bold and courageous; God has already won the battle!

I leave you with one of my favorite inspirational quotes on bravery:

“The enemy is in front of us, the enemy is behind us, the enemy is to the right and to the left of us. They can’t get away this time!”

― Douglas MacArthur

Let’s Take Five

I had the privilege of attending a Woman’s Bible study recently and we took a look at Jesus’ walk on the water.

In the story (Mat. 14, Mark 6, and John 6), Jesus sent His disciples off in a boat and went up into the mountains to pray by Himself. A storm rose up suddenly and the disciples were afraid. Jesus went to them, walking on the water, and calmed the storm.

What the Bible study leader brought to my attention was that this was the second storm Jesus had calmed for them.

In Mat. 8 and Mark 4, we read about how Jesus got into a boat with His disciples and promptly fell asleep. A sudden storm rose up and His disciples woke Him, begging Him to save them. He did so by simply telling the storm to ‘Be still.’

Here’s my point, since the disciples had already witnessed Jesus’ sovereignty over nature, why didn’t they trust Him to quiet this storm too?  

But then, I do this all the time. My husband and I just left the midst of a tumultuous job search and the undeniable fact that God has never before let us down, and never will, kept slipping my mind.

But I’m just a plain Jane, I didn’t walk with Jesus as the disciples did, so what’s their excuse (I ask defensively)?

There are probably several different reasons behind their lack of faith, but one in particular spoke volumes to me.   

Let’s take a moment to step back and look at the events that preceded the storm. Earlier that same day, the disciples helped Jesus host a picnic for 5,000 men, not including the women and children.

According to Luke 9, we know that the disciples had just returned from being sent out to preach the Gospel and heal the sick.  

We also know that Jesus and His disciples had just received the news about John the Baptist’s death.

Sound like a busy day? I should think so. In fact, it was busy enough to earn special note:

And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

Mark 6:31

Their planned rest was interrupted in the very next verse by the arrival of the 5,000. By the time the disciples got in that boat at the end of the day, they must have been absolutely exhausted. Now you add to this the fact that their boat ride should have taken 1-2hrs and they were still in the middle of the lake at 3am. That means they were fighting the storm all night long and had only made it about half-way.

I can’t help wondering what the disciple’s reaction would have been if they’d been better rested.

In today’s overly hectic world of rushing to and fro, we so often get burned out. We spend the majority of our days, and sometimes nights, trying to survive between cups of coffee. And since all the things we are doing are astronomically important, we tell ourselves that it would be wrong to slow down, that an unchecked item on our to-do list is a failure of the highest order.

But Jesus teaches something very contrary to that popular belief.

He told His disciples to rest, and He Himself went off alone to talk to His Father and recharge. If you want further proof that rest is not a sinful action, I refer you to Gen. 2:2:

“And He [God] rested on the seventh day”

Don’t give into the lie that our lives can only matter if we accomplish something ever minute and never slow down. Yes, we are called to work. Yes, there will be plenty of times when, like the disciples, the needs of others outweigh our own and we will have to give until it hurts. But our time with the Lord must come first, and we need to guard it jealously, because the enemy loves to attack when we’re tired.

If there is no time for rest, no time to just be alone and talk to the Father, then may I suggest that it’s time to re-prioritize and slim down the to-do list?

Pointing the Finger

(Originally published 8/30/13)

As I’ve mentioned a few times, I occasionally watch two little boys, a 4yr old and a 2yr old. The other day, they got in a fight that involved kicking and whining. When I asked who kicked who first, the 4yr old pointed to his brother and promptly responded, “He kicked me back first.”

I love kids because they are so candid and literal. We laugh at the things that come out of their mouths, but in actuality we do a lot of the same things. We just disguise our behavior by giving it a ‘grown-up’ sheen.

Take this response for example: it’s hilarious the way the kid stated it and I’m positive that in his mind it was a perfectly logical explanation for his actions. Sure, he had done something wrong, but so had his brother. And all’s fair, right?

I’ve noticed that I have a tendency to do the same thing. I’ll say something I know I shouldn’t, use manipulation, or lose my temper all because of what so-and-so did. I somehow think that their actions justify mine, or even cancel them out. I think that if we both sinned then my sin didn’t really count.

The sad thing is though, that when I stand before the Lord and give an account, ‘Well, she started it,’ is not going to be a sufficient excuse. Furthermore, retaliation can hurt just as much as an initial attack, if not more.

I don’t know, and therefore cannot judge, another person’s heart or their motives. Their sin or wrong doing does not negate or justify mine. Romans 14:12 says,

‘So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.’

There is no clause to this verse that states, ‘and they shall be allowed to bring before the throne, as evidence, the sins of the other person involved.’ We are each held accountable for our own personal sins. We have no control over any other person; the only thing we can control is our own actions. We may have no say over the hurts that others inflict upon us, but we have complete control over our reactions to them.

I also fall into the habit of offering and accepting advice and comfort like, ‘no, they started it and you were perfectly within your rights to do what you did.’ Society would like to make us think that all’s fair once first blood is drawn, but in reality, we are just as much in the wrong whether we throw the first punch or the second.

It is very important to remember that when we stand before the judgment seat one day, there will be no one else around at whom we can point the finger of blame. God isn’t going to take a short recess to question witnesses and suspects and check for alibis.

That being said, we will by no means be standing there alone. If you are a born again Christian and have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for you, then He will be standing right be your side. And He will point the finger at Himself and say, “I already took care of their sins. Their debt is paid.”

Rather than taking this as permission to treat others any way we want, we should be so grateful of the grace that was shown us that we can do nothing but show grace to others and turn the other cheek as often as possible.

From now on, through the grace of God, I’m going to try to be more mindful of His grace and forgiveness towards me and strive to give more out to others. Rather than allowing their sins to affect my actions in a negative way, I’m going to try (again, with God’s help) to take every attack against me as an opportunity to turn the other cheek, rather than as authorization to retaliate.

Riding the Waves

Last week, I had the privilege of listening to an amazing sermon by our new pastor, Ty VanHorn. In it, he shared a story about a time when he was swimming off the coast of Hawaii.

He was in the water when the life guard started blowing his whistle and pointing emphatically at something beyond Pastor Ty. Ty turns to look and sees that the horizon morphing into a huge swell that quickly gains in speed and size what it loses in distance.

Ty understands the lifeguard to be warning him of the wave and, as most of us would, swims like mad for shore. All the while, the lifeguard continues to blow his whistle and point at the wave.

The wave begins to suck water from the shoreline, drawing Ty with it and, despite his frantic efforts to reach land in time, the water’s pull drags him back. When it finally crashes, it does so right on Pastor Ty’s head.

He likened it to being in a washing machine. Up was down, all was chaos, and he received the thrashing of a lifetime. But when the water calmed, he was able to stand up and wade quickly to shore before the second wave hit.

It was only later that he realized the lifeguard wasn’t warning him of the wave, he was telling him to swim into it. Had he done so, rather than being sucked under, he could have ridden the top of the wave safely to land. This misunderstanding on Ty’s part nearly cost him his life.

The moral of the story is that when God sends waves our way, the worst thing we can do is try to swim away from them.

The second worse thing would be to stay still and hang on tight to whatever we happen to be using as a floatation device.

Instead, what we need to do is let go of anything that is hindering us and swim for the wave with all we’ve got so we can rise above it and ride it home. Instead of fearing the wave, we have a unique opportunity to trust God for the ride of a lifetime.

As I sat in church listening to this metaphor (oh how I love a good metaphor), I wondered to myself why this message was coming now, and not two or three weeks or even months ago. My (nervous) thought: The last three and a half months, the move, the job search, all of it, has only been training.

Now for the real work. I confided my nerves to Hubby who replied with the affirmation that he too felt God saying He was sending quite the wave our way. Gulp.

I don’t know about you folks, but I’m not a fan of winkled plans and boat rocking. I’m also not too happy with the idea of surrendering floatation devises.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that God knows best, and I think I’d rather be riding on top of the wave than beneath it.

So as I enter this next season of life, I’m praying that God will help me lay down my plans, schedules, preconceptions, and sandcastles in favor of enjoying some pretty awesome waves.

The Other Side of the Wait

I had to wait twenty-four years for my first boyfriend, my first kiss, and my first romantic ‘I love you.’ But on the other side of that wait, God had prepared a man who was exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think. One of the many, many ways my Hubby blows me away is by writing me a poem every month on the 30th, in honor of our first date, 6/30/12. This is the one he wrote me at the end of last month:

We’ve been through fire, you and I,

And our love still remains;

We grow closer when we’re tried,

Love coursing through our veins.

We’ve had a famine, you and I,

Yet our faith grows stronger;

Lack shows us that we can get by,

Waiting just a little longer.

We’ve been waiting, you and I,

For purpose and guidance;

Heaving many heavy sighs

As we prayed for subsidence.

He’s been there with you and I,

Each day seeing us through;

I’m thankful for lessons applied,

But e’er more grateful for you.

Hubby wrote this on the other side of another wait; after a nearly five month long job search, he starts his new job on Monday.

Once again, I’m left awestruck in the face of God’s unfathomable grace and faithfulness!