Life is a Highway

Metaphors can be found anywhere in life and although fun to see, they are not always easy to apply or relate to on a personal level. That is until they stop you in your tracks. Until you’re King David and Nathan the Prophet says, “you are that man”. Ouch.

 Driving back from a recent road trip I had one of those moments. Not quite a King David but still a metaphoric moment coming alive.  A couple hundred miles from home I had a sense of where I was and where I needed to be going. I knew I needed to head directly north but my GPS insisted on taking me east around a city and on a toll road to boot. It was mid morning on a Monday and almost no traffic so going miles out of my way made no sense. I kept heading northbound while Tomtom (my GPS) protested loudly from the dashboard. “Exit here!”, “Exit left - toll road”, “Recalculating”, “exit left ahead”. He kept insisting I take a different route. I'd had a bout enough of him! The day before Tomtom left stranded in DC as he couldn’t recognize HOV lanes. According to him we were on unnamed roads and he was freaking out about it.

I started complaining just as loudly about Tomtom. Couldn’t he get it straight? This was simple. Couldn’t he just follow my directions? The way I had programmed him? Why did he want to go his own way? Or if he went my way why did he have to protest it so much? Get with the program Tomtom!

Then came the voice of the Lord.
Lord: “Katie, aren’t you a bit like Tomtom?”
Me: “ouch!”
Lord: "You have given control of your life - I’m driving, but you are still sitting on the dashboard whining. Can’t you trust Me, that I know the direction and destination I have planned for your life?”

Ouch. I am like Tomtom at times. I want the Lord in control of my life - He is driving it. I’ve given Him the wheel but I still freak when He goes off what I think the course should be. I almost never recognize HOV lanes – the bypasses in life saving me from the tangled wrecks and congested areas – until I’m on the other side of them. I complain because they aren’t “normal” and I have to trust Him to tell me when it is safe for me or best for me to get back on the main lanes.

I want to divert to the toll roads and distractions that will ultimately cost me something. Sometimes a lot of something’s.  There are times the Lord wants me to bypass a city, other times He wants me to go through it. Why can’t I trust Him to know the difference? Follow his leading in different seasons. Ultimately we will arrive at our destination even if we take the toll roads – that is His grace in action – but how am I stewarding that grace? Lord forgive me for whining, and thank you that I get to watch the adventure of this life as it unfolds from the dashboard!

Are you whining or enjoying the ride?

Removing the Veil

The first thing I see every day when I walk in my door is my refrigerator. A refrigerator covered in a plethora of wedding invitations. I’ve lost count of the number of people I know getting married this year!  I’m excited – no I’m stoked for all these weddings! Do I love helping friends where I can with the planning, dresses, cakes, or even being in the wedding? Yes. Do I love getting to see people and an excuse to wear a pretty dress and heels? Yes. But what I love the most is the picture their marriage is painting to me and to the world.

The Trinity is the most beautiful picture of unity, oneness, perfect unconditional love and diversity/equality that the Lord gives us. God gave us marriage and family that so we can mirror that picture in a tangible way. In the first few verses of the Bible God says He wants to “make man in our image” signifying that man was made for community. Community and fellowship like the Lord has through the Trinity.

In Radical David Platt puts it this way:

“Apart from everything else God created, we were made in his image. We alone have the capacity to enjoy an intimate relationship with him. The first word the Bible uses to describe that relationship is blessing… God immediately followed his blessing with a command. ‘God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it’. God gave his people his image for a reason – so they might multiply his image throughout the world.” p. 65

We can love and serve the Lord alone successfully and Paul advocates that at times, but it’s in the context of unity within a marriage that allows the world to see the power of the love Christ has for them and for His church. That is why I am so excited about all these weddings!!! As my friends commit to a covenant with each other and the Lord they enter a deeper understanding of who the Lord is. Check out these illustrations* from a dear former professor of mine, Dr. Del Tackett.

Marriage is under an attack because it directly reflects the nature of God. Marriage is about happiness sure, but it’s about holiness and learning to reflect a love that changes the world.

In 2 Corinthians 3 it talks bout how when we turn to the Lord the veil that lies on our hearts is taken way. The context speaks about the old and new covenants. When people believe in the Lord, He removes the veil from their eyes and hearts allowing them to see and experience the new covenant which brings freedom from the law making the way for a deep, personal relationship and community with God.

I can’t help but think of that as I watch these brides remove their veils and enter a new covenant with their husbands and the Lord. A new covenant that testifies to the world the divine design for unity, love and relationship the Lord offers us. We are his image bears. It’s a scary but incredible responsibility and testimony.

This blog is for little brother, his wife and all my friends who got or are getting married this year! I’m proud of, pray for, and love you guys! I'm unbelievably excited for you!

My bother and sister-in-law

Adam and Pihla, Jeremy and Melissa, Alexandria and Will, Joanna and Dave, Sarah and Jordan, Annalee and Amos, Jordan and Joellen, Rachel and Robert, Laura and Steve, Katie and Ed, Danielle and Dave, Mark and Becca, Emily and Jedidiah, Luke and Joyce, Jessica and Joshua, Lindy and Jon, Justin and Brandy and all the others – I pray the Lord will grow and strengthen your relationship together in Him -that He would add depth, dimension and a greater hunger for Him to it. May He unify and strengthen the ties between you. Thank you for your example to me and to the world. We watch, we see and rejoice with you as the veil is removed!


*Slides taken from The Truth Project, Lesson 7 – Sociology: The Divine Imprint.  Copyright 2006 Focus on the Family.  Learn more about the Truth Project.

Other bride/groom picture compliments of:Alena Root - Fotolia.com

At Home

5 Minute Friday Prompt: Home
The word home brings a million different associations to my mind, but most recently I feel at home where ever it is I can hear the Lord speaking to me. Learning to hear His voice and follow Him as taken me a lot of places, but He is the home that always comes with me. He makes the difference between a job and a ministry, between an apt and a home and being at home with people.  Some people just make you feel at home. In the last 6 months the Lord has put two wonderful older (than me!) godly women in my life who make me feel at home. I feel at home with them because I see the Lord in them. They have taken the charge in Titus 2 seriously and have mentored, discipled, encouraged and challenged me to find my home in the Lord. NJTS and NST you have blessed my life! Thank you for being a safe home for me. A place to be myself, to cry, to be weak, to ask the hard questions, to laugh and when I run out of words you still understand. You comfort me, encourage me, call me out and challenge me when I need it. Your friendships mean more than I can say. Whenever I hear this song I think of you and I cry for the Lord knew how much I needed you in this season of my life!

"Something brought you to my mind today
 - I thought about the funny ways
 you make me laugh
 - And yet I feel like it's ok to cry with you - 
Something about just being with you - 
When I leave I feel like I've been with God - 
and that's the way it ought to be, yeah

 - Chorus: - 
Cause you've been more than a friend to me - 
you fight off my enemies for me
 - cause you have spoken the truth over my life - 
And you'll never know what it means to me - 
just to know you've been on your knees for me
 - Oh, you have blessed my life
 - more than you'll ever know
 - Yeah, yeah, yeah, more than you'll ever know
 - Yeah, yeah, yeah

 - You had faith
 when I had none - 
You prayed God would bring me a brand new song
 - When I didn't think I could find the strength to sing - 
and all the while I've been hoping that I'll
 - do the kind of praying for you that you've done for me - 
and that's the way it ought to be, yeah

 - Chorus

 - You have carried me
 -You have taken on a burden
 - that wasn't your own, yeah
 - may that blessing return to you
 - A hundredfold
 - oh oh yeah, a hundredfold" More Than You'll Ever Know by Watermark

I do pray the blessing will return to you and that I in turn can be a safe haven and a home for other women as you have been to me. Thank you for making me at home!


5 Minute Fridays from the Gypsy Momma: 
To paint a verbal picture. To just write and not worry if it’s just write or not.
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Get a little crazy with encouragement for the five minuter who linked up before you.

Backwards

The more I know of life the more I see it is all backwards. At least a life serving Christ is backwards. When how did we get and define the normal views of achievement and success? Climbing corporate ladders, families with white picket fences, the American dream…. We always think up and more is better yet God came down and had less.

Backwards. 

He must increase and we must decrease. Dying to ourselves, letting our will’s be molded with His.

 Backwards.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher then the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than our thoughts.”

Backwards.

Daily I am seeing backwards is better. We put so much hype into Christianity and make the gospel so relevant it looses its power. Truth doesn’t need our help, it can stand on it’s own feet solid and unmovable, not rushing forwards like we do to the newest coolest thing.

 Backwards.

C.S. Lewis puts it this way “Reality, in fact, is always something you couldn't have guessed. That's one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It's a religion you couldn't have guessed."

Backwards.

Christianity is delightfully backwards yet it works forwards!

5 Minute Friday Prompt : Backwards
From the Gypsy Momma. Come join the fun. http://thegypsymama.com/

Take a deep breath. You made it. It’s Friday.
Got five minutes? Let’s write. Let’s write in shades of real and brave and unscripted.
Let’s just write and not worry if it’s just right or not.
1. Write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

3. Get a little crazy with encouragement for the five minuter who linked up before you.

Listening Scared

Listening to the Holy Spirit is scary! What if we hear wrong and mess up? It could mean stepping out of our comfort zones, looking crazy and taking risks.
But what is life lived comfortably?

Last night, I was sitting in a service of church and youth leaders preparing for a large summer camp. I’m simply in the service to observe and learn. From the side view I watch as executive leaders prayed over their team leaders.  As I entered into prayer for the camp I looked up and saw the camp director sitting by himself on the center stage with head bowed.

Enter Holy Spirit prompt. I don’t know why or how but I knew someone needed to pray for that man.  Chicken that I am I leaned over and nudged my co –worker: “Hey someone should go pray for that guy”. His reply: “Really? I was just thinking the same thing.” Guess who that ‘someone’ became?

Walk up to the stage in front of hundreds of leaders? Scary. Pray for someone we met only an hour before and don’t know? Risky. Pray when we don’t know what to say? Crazy.


But we did. Gulp.

Sitting back down the thoughts of “who am I a little no body from nowhere, praying for an experienced leader, a big somebody? He’s going to think we are nuts! I here to observe, learn, and I wanted to make a good impression not a stumbling bumbling one!” I prayed the first thing that came to mind asking the Lord to refresh and renew this director during the week. It was a weak prayer in human terms and I got up feeling so inadequate. But battling the inadequacy was the peace that came from knowing that I had obeyed. I left it there.

This morning in chapel the director preached from Proverbs 11:25 “… He who refreshes will himself be refreshed”. After encouraging the leaders to refresh the teens coming in this week he began to share the story of how he was praying the night before and two people came out of the blue and started praying for him, asking the Lord to refresh him. He too needed to be refreshed as he was refreshing the leaders under him. He said “it was like she got into my head as she was praying and knew what I was planning for the message this morning!” Scary. Crazy. Risky.

AWESOME!

Sitting in my seat I got shivers. The Holy Spirit knew. I had no idea, but He always does.  When will I learn to trust? Will I mess up sometimes and hear wrong? Definitely.  Not too many months ago I did. I felt the nudge to get up but stayed glued to my seat preferring the comfortable life. I missed an opportunity to help someone  I KNEW was hurting because of my pride. I still regret it to this day. Taking a risk is chancy but missing one is even more so.  Is it worth the risk? Every time.

God uses little scared people. How does He want to use you? Are you listening to Him? Or are you scared to?  Run towards the challenge and see what He does! Is the bigger risk possibly making a mistake or never finding out how God can use you? Wants to use you? Guess what? He’s bigger than you and me. Go for it!


Photo compliments of Fotolia: Man - Woman

Learning to Speak

5 Minute Friday blogs – following the prompt “Every Day”.

Every Day I feel like a toddler. I know, I see and I comprehend more than I can speak. I stumble and grasp for words to describe what the Lord is teaching me. I begin to grasp concepts but passion and excitement over take my tongue. How can I put into words what the Holy Spirit is showing me? Intriguing me with? The mystery that isn’t a mystery?

It calls for me to know more – I hunger but cannot yet speak of it. My prayer is to know more of the mind of Christ and His perspective on things. I stumble, I race forward, I crawl always every day reaching. It’s misery, it’s beauty.
I identify with Paul:

“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 1 Cor. 2:10-13

I thank God for the Spirit that allows me to being to learn and grasp. I pray for His words to communicate His messages.

Every Day I am a toddler learning to speak.




For more information on 5 Minute Friday's please check out the Lady's blog that started it all: Gypsy Mamma
Photo compliments of fotolia