It Was No Accident

She was young, yet her age wasn’t an obstacle.  Her heart, somehow, was already responsive and ready. 

She didn’t require answers from a God who had spoken.  She didn’t demand understanding when her heart heard His voice.  She didn’t give room to her fears to come in and whisper a bazillion “What ifs?”  She was a lovely canvas on which God had been given full permission to create beauty, life, and a path by which He could draw mankind to Himself in any way He chose. 

Still, at each moment along the way, like us, she had to continue to choose to trust Him.

We saw it first when she was barely past girlhood.  Her words (without having to text her friends to get their opinion and support) were these:  “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to do whatever he wants. May everything you said come true.” 

She didn’t insist on convenience or happiness for herself.  Mary believed Him as the one designing the plan and who was in charge of the timing and the outcome. 

As the years went along she obviously didn’t shift to a different mindset.  It was after a few decades of watching and waiting for His plan to further unfold when she was simply sitting at a wedding celebrating and noticed a tension arising when the wine supply had run out.  There was no question about where provision could come from or who had the answer, even though her son hadn’t done a single miracle yet.  Her simple effort now was to encourage the servants to believe Him.  Perhaps she was so practiced at being ready that she could now anticipate when God was about to do something.  Is this the fruit of those who ready themselves for His call?  There was only one way for Mary to do life:  “Do whatever He tells you.”

Today we each have the same opportunity.  Just check--is following Him at the top of your to-do list today?  If so, keep your ear tuned, for He will make very good use of your yes. 

We don’t accidentally become His disciples.

Photograph from morguefile.com by Marinapriest

Becoming

As we enter another year, maybe it would be helpful to remember what inspires us.  I am guessing that most of us appreciate those who have weathered storms, pressed in with grace and integrity in the face of difficulties, and developed character by believing a good outcome would eventually come if they did the right things now. 

The best outcomes usually don’t happen instantly.  Set your minds now for what kind of person you want to be in the year ahead, then do what it takes in the moment, even if it isn’t the most convenient or comfortable.  When next December arrives and we get to the last days of 2017 you will have more peace and be content in a deeper place for having lived well through whatever struggles come.  You will be stronger, wiser, more mature.  We will all have some difficulties.  Who will we become for having encountered them?  

Photograph from morguefile.com by BBoomerinDenial

A New Year, the Same Goal

My goal for 2017 comes from a decades old song that impacted me from the beginning… “to see Him more clearly, love Him more dearly, follow Him more nearly day by day.” 

My hope is that whatever the weather of the days ahead, whatever the circumstances of my life, whatever the junk I discover in myself that needs to go, I will press in, surrender my will to His, and trust in His vast ability to do good work in and from my life.  I cannot imagine any greater thing than the opportunity to know Him more in the year ahead. 

Onward.  Welcome 2017 and the lessons and provision and miracles ahead. 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

My friend and co-worker Jill posted this on her facebook page the other day:  “Summarize your 2016 in three words…”

My reply was: "God showed up."

I am pondering the events of a year that is wrapping up that had many peaks and valleys.  It held deaths and weddings, chaos and peace, need and provision, endings and new beginnings.  I have seen miracles happen in it.  I am not expecting anything different than that to keep unfolding in 2017. 

I ordered a little book that arrived this week.  This morning in it I came across this sentence:

“Miracles can only be exhibited in brokenness.”  That short statement fits what I have been considering in the last several months—His power to heal and restore, His endless invitation for us to come close, to know Him, to believe in His goodness, to witness and participate in His provision coming to earth.

As we enter 2017, be confident in the care and power of a God who is going to be there, doing His work, waiting for those who will believe Him and live in a way that will open the doors for miracles.  The ones we read about in the scripture occurred because a human being was in a circumstance of difficulty of one kind or another, heard His word, believed His intent was good, and followed His call.  I am counting on seeing God do more magnificent things in the year ahead. 

I wish you all a happy new year, and one where you believe Him and are filled with wonder at how He meets you in it.

Barriers Broken

He came in flesh to live with us, this God of restoration and will do the most unlikely things to woo us back and to reveal His vast and strong love. 

This morning as I was thinking about this amazing series of events unfolding, it occurred to me for the first time that at the very moment when He was born a tiny picture of His greater coming work was happening in miniature.  Mary, being a virgin, would have had her hymen still intact until that moment of Jesus’s birth.  It was a thin veil of skin broken and a symbol of the intimacy that had now begun for us all by His work.  This incarnation was a whole new way of God coming to meet us, to live with us, to have the barrier between us removed.  That tiny piece of flesh in Mary was torn, some blood spilling out at this arrival of a new king and a new kingdom.  This young woman who had trusted His greater plan, experienced the first breaking barrier as He entered the world. 

And so it can be for each of us as we align our wills to yield to His, that more and more barriers are broken because His death for us tore the big barrier forever.  Through this freedom He won for us, we are now enabled to win the little victories that we are here to bring to earth.

Photograph from morguefile.com by diannehope  

The Unexpected

We would have thought God would choose a more spectacular way to save the world. Perhaps His Son would be sent in glistening armor, followed by a massive army of angels to plow through the evil in the world in an unquestionable display of power and simply set up a new government.  Instead He sent a baby boy who would take another thirty years to begin doing something extraordinary.  Even then, the things Jesus used...water, bread, fish, words, wine, fishermen were not anything beyond the norm.  What He did, however, with the ingredients of the everyday was superb. 

We can notice a few things:  His perspective was different. His motivation was different, and His goal uncompromised.  It is stunning what happens when belief and willingness are added ingredients to the stuff we find all around ourselves as we mix together the activities of our lives into the recipe of a day. 

Jesus has never forced anyone to hear, see, or follow.  In fact He seems remarkably satisfied with those who are frayed but honest, gritty but humble, average but available to see what He is up to in each moment.  It has always been simply an invitation, never a demand.  Rare is the person with so much power who chooses not to exert it over someone they could easily control.

The opportunity is to pause and notice, to taste and see, and it happens when we step into the water of faith and walk through the waves believing that a God who loves lavishly will somehow, eventually work all the things of our real lives together for the good.  We can easily opt for hanging our own glittering baubles and tinsel and lights over our lives to make them look good and feel satisfying.  Or we can wait and trust and watch our burlap rough circumstances be the very things that miracles are birthed from.  The older I get and the more I understand that His way and economy are never the way that mankind would run things, the more excited I get about what He will do with a life that will offer itself to the Wild and Grand Invitation. 

Warning:  You may be called into some difficult days.  Those are the places He has the fewest willing participants.  Those are the places He wants to make the most amazing miracles happen because someone was willing to love there.  It isn’t always going to be fast food service or instant results like an ATM.  But the more we draw on Him, the more we savor His company, the more we see His faithfulness, the sweeter the taste of following Him becomes.  And, after all, He IS the gift.  We are invited to unwrap each day with expectation to find His presence.

I wish you a merry Christmas and the most delicious new year.

Photograph from morguefile.com by  Jogonesoft

The Nativity

Mary SAID YES, then WALKED OUT HER FAITH.  She LABORED to bring God to earth.

Joseph TRUSTED what God said and planned, even if there were skeptics who would forever raise their eyebrows, spread rumors, and shun his family.

Jesus CAME, and YIELDED to His Loving Father’s greater plan every moment of His life.

Shepherds were amazed, and REJOICED.

Wise men traveled far, knowing that to SEEK HIM was a divine and amazing opportunity.

These were all living people who made choices, some of them in extremely difficult circumstances, to respond to God.  It wasn’t just theory for any of them.  They adjusted the rest of life to be participants in His plans, to share what they were observing, to discover more of who He is and meet Him in person.  They ended up with incredible stories to tell.  It is the invitation to all of us.

Photograph from morguefile.com by paulabflat