Yep, you got it…no...wait…right a little…

It often amazes me how kids can go through life oblivious to the obvious. And, how things that I find so very important and in need of immediate attention are the very things that do not rate a second glance on the child priority list. For instance, exactly how many times can one mother say in a 2 minute time period, "Brush your teeth, please.”? I would be willing to take on anyone in such a contest- I am sure I hold the record! The very things they need to do are the things they do not want to take time to do. So I nudge them along, sometimes with more muscle than others, hoping they will allow me to teach them and equip them along the way.

Just before we were going into the sanctuary at our church the other day, I looked at my daughter, who was already rather disheveled after a full day of five-year-old play, and saw she had one big speck of glitter just below her eye. Now this immediately stuck out to me, and wanting to get it off before it got in her eye, I called her to me in order to swiftly and assuredly get the job done. I calmly asked her to come to me, to which she replied, "Why?". Not too thrilled with the question, but understanding she was simply curious, I clued her in to the glitter speck resting just below her left eye and told her I would remove it for her. Surprisingly, she again did not come! Instead, she took her hand and frantically ran it all over her face trying to remove the glitter. After her first failed attempt, she became more determined to do it on her own...this time taking two hands and rubbing them over every spot on that precious little face of hers. But when she finally dropped her hands to her side, there it was...that speck of silver-blue glitter holding tight to her now reddened little face. "Now is it gone?" she asked me- rather exasperated that I had pointed the nuisance out to begin with. "Nope. Still there..." , I replied, waiting patiently for her to finish putting forth her own futile efforts, "...just come over here and let me do it for you! I can see exactly where it is!" She finally conceded and in a matter of seconds she was free to roam and play in her glitter free world!

Oh, how similarly impatient and stubborn I am in my spiritual walk with the Lord! I get so flooded in my own perceived priorities that I refuse to stop when the Lord sees something sitting in the way! Caught in my own routine and minimal expectations, I wear myself out trying to remove what isn't supposed to be there. But Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) All too often I deplete my energy by doing something through my own efforts rather than letting go and letting the Lord work in the mightiness of His strength and power: “… ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” !(Zechariah 4:6) With such ease and perfection, my heavenly Father can not only recognize my need, but also fulfill it like nothing else ever could! The Lord doesn't just want to show us our needs; He wants to meet us at the point of our need: “The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.(Isaiah 58:11)
It takes my faith and trust, however, to allow Him work in the very area that He has lovingly and graciously highlighted as a part of my flesh that needs His touch! His Word says to, “…trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn…”(Psalm 37:5-6) It isn't enough for me to just know that I have the need, or just know what needs to be done...I have to, in faith and trust, let go, get my hands out of it and present it to God so that He can allow the fullness of His truth to get the job done :
“As for God His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord is flawless, He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him…It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.”(Psalm 18: 30, 32)
Not only will I find that He is exactly what I need Him to be, but I will also find that I am far less winded and red faced in the end if I will let go from the very beginning- choosing His perfection instead of my pathetic pride-filled pursuits!

The choice seems obvious, but too often we choose to remain oblivious, just like my little girl.
What lengths does God have to go to get your attention?
He desires your priorities to be His...all for your sake.
Will you take the time...take the time to give up?
Allow His hand to touch the face of your need.

“And My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19

Blah Blah Blah...You still there?

I have found that I like to talk a lot more than I like to listen. How many times have I been talking on the cell phone only to realize when it rings in my ear that the call had been dropped five plus minutes ago...yet I've been talking away!?! Even sometimes when I claim to be listening, in reality, I am just talking in my head to myself about whatever it is I am really supposed to be listening to or about what it is I wish I were hearing. Yes, guys, you get the bad wrap about not listening- but you're not the only ones...
So why all my chatter? Well, in some weird way it is comforting. If I am talking, I somehow think I am in control...there seems to be more vulnerability in listening. As I have been diving into a study about hearing God speak, He started it all for me with one simple verse-
John 10:27, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me."
So as I drove home tonight in the clearing thickness of a stormy night, my headlights briefly lit a pasture's edge, and I thought about how much more there was that I could not see. I began to think about what it must be like to stand out there in the middle of night, simply in the middle of darkness. The Lord brought back to me the depth of His truth from that scripture. You see, Palestinian shepherds led their sheep- they did not drive them. The sheep followed because they knew their own shepherd's voice. But think about what it would be like to stand outside in the middle of that darkness and storm and have to be quiet to listen for the voice of the Shepherd. "Be still and know that I am God"(Psalm 46:10)-that seems more difficult and impractical when surrounded by the dark and unknown...but my incessant calling would only drown out the very Voice of direction and protection that is longing to draw me nearer! I only need to call out once because His ears are already intent on me. He knows me. But I can only be led if my ears are intent on Him. The "knowing God", like in Psalm 46:10, is walked out by being still because you expect to hear His voice. John 10:14 says, "...I know my sheep, and my sheep know me." It is a deep mutual knowledge. The Lord doesn't just want to know me, He wants me to know Him...to have a deep knowledge of Him...to know the rises and falls in the sound of His voice...to recognize the subtle inflections...to not have to introduce himself each time He calls...to be waited on expectantly...all because I know Him. My Shepherd wants to impart that deep knowledge to me! Each moment I spend with Him, it is His desire and His delight because He knows that I will then, "...never follow a stranger..." because I, "...do not recognize a stranger's voice."(John 10:4) The Lord wants me to understand that I am vulnerable because I stop listening, not because I stop to listen.
I don't think I am in danger of running out of words to say anytime soon....I can always think of something to talk about! BUT... the Lord is teaching me to find comfort in the silence of knowing rather than in the noise of my redundant cries.

If I could just...I mean I need to...you know I...

AAAAH! All I want to do is complete a sentence and it seems as though lately I can't even do that! A freshly painted, yet not fully decorated kitchen, scrapbook pages prepped but not prepared, books of song lyrics written but not composed, flea market finds needing to be refurbished, digital photos stored and never shared, decorating items purchased yet not placed, devotional ideas noted but not fully written, green belt gotten but black belt never attained, lists made and never checked off, cabinets crammed and not cleaned...and there's more...but even this list I can't seem to complete! It seems as though I work and work, toil and labor and the pile never lessens...the epitome of the reason I HATE laundry: it is never complete!
Perception not always being reality, many reading this who know me slightly may be surprised by this revelation itself- while those who know me well may only be surprised to find that I am finally admitting how much like my mother I actually am! As I have solidly stepped into this new decade of mine now, I have to honestly look at my self and my life...and I am sometimes taken a back a the reality of who I am! The difference now is I don't run away from it as often! Here's the truth of the matter: I am wracked with incompleteness. It isn't that I get bored with one thing or another, it is that I want to be able to do them all at once, and do them all perfectly. My artistic mind goes 90 miles a minute, I get excited about possibilities, my drive to create takes over and there you have it....I have stepped into another thing that longs for completion!
So, recently, as I sat amidst these many loose ends beginning to entangle and on the verge of strangling me...the Lord showed me one area in which my perception of incompleteness did not represent failure: walking out my relationship with Him.
You see, I am made complete in Him alone: "But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him; Whoever claims to live in Him, must walk as Jesus did."(1John 2:5-6)I will never "arrive" as a believer- it is a process- a process that I have to walk out and as I do, try to follow after the only perfect model for living to ever step foot on this earth: Jesus. Just like all the many loose ends around me that can never be neatly tied up all at one time, it is irrational for me to feel like I am going to "have it all together" all the time as a believer. As a matter of fact, I set myself up for the very failure I am trying to avoid when I act I though I do have it all together. Why? Because it is then that I have begun to work under my power and from my own desires. Paul reminds us of Jesus' Words to us: " My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."(2 Corinthians 12:8) My flesh will tell me time and again that I have to have it all and do it all...and do it all perfectly. But the Lord will never require of me perfection that I can never attain...He will only ask me to , "...throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and...run with perseverance the race marked out for us... and to, " fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."(Hebrews 12:1-2)
The height, breadth, and depth of God's completeness, I can never fully attain...it just means I always have something to look forward to in Christ! No, I am not satisfied with my incompleteness as a believer, but like all the other things, I admit it. And by admitting it, I am embracing the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to make glimpses of Christ's completeness known in me....
Maybe now that I have admitted all the other things I haven't finished, I can embrace the "opportunity" for some family and friends to make their "completeness" known- in my garage, my cabinets, my closets, my.....no?....oh well....it was worth a shot!