Girl Lost

Girl Lost

Girl Broken

Stories Told

Words Spoken

Spirit Crushed

Dreams Shattered

Life Abandoned

Nothing Mattered

Self Abused

Conscience Slept

Girl Lost

Jesus Wept

Spirit Called

Breath Breathed

Girl Found

Sigh Heaved

Light Flooded

Heart Cleaned

Life Again

Girl Redeemed

~ Kari Day

The Trouble with Dreams

You don't have to be a genius to realize that there are a lot of people facing difficult times right now.

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."  2 Cor 4:7-8 

Nothing motivates us like trouble. A problem appearing on our radar moves us to act. It moves us to make a decision. There is nothing like being backed into a corner where you have few options to bring clarity to your path. When we are living lives of mundane mediocrity we have too many choices to entertain us rather than em-passion us. Can we really say that we understand fully what it means to "Count ALL things lost for the sake of knowing Christ?"

I don't know about you, but I don't need another TV show. I don't need another to do list. I don't need another routine week. I need to know Christ, and know him fully. To know him fully is to count ALL things loss for the sake of knowing him. That means my family, my children, my dreams....

That is a tough one. What if some of our very dreams, the things that we desire to see happen in our life, actually are things that can keep us from knowing him fully? Even if those dreams are things that we want to do for God, they can hinder us when we hold on to them more than we hold on to God. They easily can become works, and put in a place before God. 

 

Imagine with me for a moment that your dream, what you desire to do for God, is a blank piece of paper. Smooth and unwrinkled. This represents HIS perfect plan for that desire.

 

The more we hold on to it, the tighter we grip it, the more wrinkled and distorted it becomes and the less it looks like what it was originally intended to be. But when we loosely hold the paper and instead clutch to the one capable of fulfilling our dreams it becomes not only more than we can imagine but all that it was intended to be.  

Trouble causes us to let go and hold on to HIM for dear life. What if we chose to hold on to him for dear life every day not just in times of trouble? What if we chose to give our devotion in our relationship to him our full clutching attention, and let him work out the other details? What if we allowed for the fact that we may never see what he is doing in our life that is significant to his plan, but instead just trusted that he will use what we give for his glory. What if Loving him fully became more important to us than the way we are serving him?

If you are in trouble, hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down today God is allowing you an opportunity to hold on to him more than anything else. How does that change your perspective?

Lessons in Listening From My 9 Year Old

I have often said that I believe God uses the example of our children to teach us about our relationship with him.

Here is my latest lesson:

When we were camping this last weekend, my kids were riding their bikes with the other kids. The "moms" were walking behind and a bit of distance got between us. When we rounded the loop we suddenly saw that the kids had abandoned their bikes in the middle of the road and took off through the trees to the lake... 

Let me just say this was NOT COOL with me. 

When I had found my kids (and scolded them a bit) I sent them back up the loop to retrieve their bikes. This was not a very far distance and there were very few people.  I watched my 9 year old and my 6 year old walk back up toward the loop and completely miss the turn they needed to take. I began calling to them to stop, but the louder I called the faster they ran the other direction.  I couldn't reach them quickly enough before they disappeared down the loop going the very LONG way around. 

When I found them again I  asked my oldest, "Didn't you hear me calling to you?" 

he answered "Yes, I heard you." 

I said "Well, why didn't you stop then?" 

9 year old says "Because I knew what you were going to say." 

(stop for dramatic pause while mom internally blows up)

Believe me, the words that came out of my mouth next began something like "Well, do you know what I'm going to say now???" and he got the lecture you can probably imagine. To think that he clearly heard me, but chose to ignore my calling to him to stop.  How could he do that to me? Why didn't he listen to me? His mother and clear authority?

Then the Holy Spirit started talking to me. 

He said, "How many times Kari, Have I been calling to you to stop and you just kept right on running away because you thought you knew what I was going to say?" 

....."Many times Lord"

.... "And how many times have I asked you to do something for me, but you took off in your own direction instead?"

.... "Too many times Lord"

.... "And how many times have I forgiven you, restored you, and brought you back to wholeness?"

... "More times than I can count Lord."

When was the last time you felt the Lord tell you to talk to someone about Jesus, but you hesitated out of fear, and then ran away? When was the last time you knew what the Holy Spirit was convicting you of something, but you chose to ignore it? 

This is a hard lesson for me, but just like my boys, when we don't listen to the calling of God we just are running the long way around the loop. Eventually he will bring us back to face what we are running from. Let's stop running, and start listening and obeying what God is clearly showing us to do.