For those of you who are new to this blog, you may not know the significance of these thoughts to follow. I trust you will relate, however, because everyone's life includes stories of receiving undeserved gifts and giving up what you think is yours to keep. It's been exactly a year since Troy and I let go of one of the greatest investments of our adult lives. It was the church we started and nurtured with good friends for seven years. It was the place where my husband served as my pastor-- one of the most impacting teaching pastors I've learned from in my own life. It was the season where our family learned to minister and to pursue and persevere within the messy and refining realities of living in relationship as the Body of Christ. It was ground zero for witnessing the marriage between calling and enabling--God's provision for all that he prescribes. It was a labor of love that could never be about us or our agenda, but all about his glory. It was His, and yet, it was hard to let it go...release control...follow his lead.
I'm not being nostalgic or sentimental, though I can be. I simply recognize that remembering where you've been- and counting the cost of trusting God- paves the way for faithfully responding to wherever he chooses to lead.
For all that I feel insecure about today-- the impending arrival of a new baby, the feeding and raising of six boys, the labor of starting and sustaining a school, the beginning again in new community and relationships, the next season of teen years, our family's finances, the desires and hopes for the future...
...for all that, and much more, I can know that God is faithful--he is who he says he is, because I remember, I look at the testimony of my life, I trace the steps of his leading and providing.
One of the reasons why I blog is to wrap life's fiery passages, fearful pathways, and unknown alleys in the pure white cloak of God's grace. I want to consider these minutes, hours, days, and years in the light of his faithfulness, whether I feel it right away, or not. Whether I am comforted in his sovereign plan or still striving to trust that my Father knows best.
As with the Israelites, we must remember to not forget God's mighty works, his sovereign hand, his precious promises, and his tender mercies. We would do well to praise him for what he has already done, that we might have confidence in what he is yet to do.
Our lives are a tapestry to showcase the beauty of his character at work. It's lovely when we view it in his revealing light.