Still or Rushing?

I took this picture at Evins Mill in Smithville last week as Mike and I were celebrating 22 years of marriage.  Yay GOD!  As I walked down these stairs to cross this water, my eyes were drawn to the contrasting sides...One side smooth as glass, and the other rushing violently out.  I'm tempted, most of the time to desire the smooth side, the one where all is buttoned up nice and neat and things are flowing and going just as "I" planned.  Life seems easier over there.  Safe, I'm finding, can be slow moving or stagnant...little growth...no new life pouring in...the water looks stuck.


The other side looks alive, fresh and something I would want to drink!  Yes, it's scary to get to the edge where you feel like you're losing control and you just have to leap over the edge and let the current take you.  But there's true LIFE on the side that is moving, rushing, seeking what's ahead, even though there's rocks and hazards to anticipate.


"...but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream."  (Proverbs 18:4)


"But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you."  (Philippians 2:17)

Dear Jesus, may I allow you to take me wherever You want us to go.  I don't want a safe life with You, I want the FULLEST life with You.  Amen

A New Thing

Maples are strange trees unlike any I've seen.  They hold onto their dead leaves right up until the moment that the new leaves come in.  They don't have blooms like other trees.  At the appropriate, God given time, they just let go and new leaves come.  It's kind of crazy to look at them right now when all the other trees are blooming with new growth.


As I've looked at this tree over the past months, I've thought, "God, what do you want to teach me through this tree?"  Looking and looking, God has shown me that many times in my journey with Him, I have chosen to cling to things, habits, and sin that suck the life out of me.


"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."  (Isaiah 43:19)


Do I cling to things that God is no longer working in, that are basically dead like the leaf on the Maple?  Why do I long for what's been, when there's new growth just waiting to push through?  It's probably the same reason that the Israelites started moaning and begging to go back to Egypt to be slaves again.  It's all they knew.  It stunk (is that even a word?) but at least they knew how to navigate it.


Lord, help me to allow you to do new things through me.  I don't want to cling to things are not "life bringing".  Just because it's known doesn't make it your very best for me.  I want to bloom for You.


In Jesus Life Giving Name,
Amen

Chasing Glory

The absolute brilliance of this sunset sent me chasing after it yesterday in my car.  I felt like some kind of crazed storm chaser as I raced down a side road, not really even paying attention to whether there was any oncoming traffic.  I had to get that perfect shot with no obstructions to block the Glory I wanted to behold.  I stopped right in the middle of the road and God allowed my eyes and my heart to breathe this in.  All I could do was sit in my car and clap for joy at the marvelous display my Father had created.  I felt like it was just for me.

"Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice."  (1Chronicles 16:10)


"Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all."  (1Chronicles 29:11)


“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”  (Isaiah 6:3)