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.

Stop the Noise and Just Listen

My family went camping again over the fathers day weekend with 3 other families. That means there were 11 kids all under 10 years old. It was an amazingly fun time! And a miracle that all the kids got along! LOL!

There are so many wonderful things about camping, but what I really love is getting away and into God's creation. There is somthing about sitting in the midle of a quiet lake in a canoe and just listening to the sounds of nature... the wind in the trees, the water, the birds... that brings out the calm in me.

We  are so connected to our things. Our phones, our laptops, our cars and hair dryers that it can be difficult to just be quiet. It takes a real effort to find that quiet these days away from everything we come to depend on. 

But that's just it isn't it. We depend on them. What would we do if all electronics stopped. If cars no longer ran. What would we do with ourselves? Those things are great tools, but I fear that we as a society become so attached to them that we are easily distracted by their instant entertainment gratification and we forget to stop and just listen.

...Listen to the words Jesus spoke... listen to the sounds HE created on this earth... listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit in our hearts telling us what is right, giving us courage to move forward in our purpose. Do we really listen ever?

The bible talks about Jesus often going off to lonely places to pray. He modeled what we should be doing. I want to encourage you today to actively seek to be alone and quiet with your savior and then really listen to him. What he has to say to each of us is so beautiful, it renews us, and sets us in line to fulfill that purpose he has for us today.

God's Purpose For You Right Now

Christ is coming back soon. And I just really want to be all about HIS business. Our time is short, and I want to do what he has purposed me to do for HIS kingdom. I want to be living out my GOD given purpose on this earth Right Now. It's not a someday thing for me. It's in my everyday walk of life.

I think sometimes we get caught up in life, paying bills, caring for kids, relationships with spouse, illnesses, and on and on... that we forget that God has a purpose for us beyond what life throws at us. His purpose isn't for "when things calm down" or "when we get more money" or "when the kids are older". His purpose for YOU is right now in the MIDST of whatever you are going through. 

If we aren't looking at everything in life through the lens of God's bigger purpose for us, we miss the mark. We are lost. We lose. And we will be unfulfilled. 

But when he is our focus, no matter what the circumstances are, we cannot be beaten. Because our purpose and our hold is not on the things around us, our problems, our needs, our hopes, but on God alone. He is all. And whatever you are going through is just color in the fabric of the tapestry he is weaving of your life. He will work ALL things for you GOOD. Not just some things, not just happy things, not just positive things. But ALL things. 

"In one thousand trials it is not five hundred of them that work for the believer's good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside." ~ George Mueller

So my question for you is, how will you live out God' purpose for your life RIGHT NOW?