Joel and Nathan, running wild and playing on our new land in Texas. Sometimes the messes obscure the reality of the joy of life God wanted us to experience. We have to look beyond the messes to see the beauty. Today, I can look at this memory with pleasure and a giggle in my heart. Not so sure I saw it that way back then.
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Very early one morning found me and my four little ones creeping along the freeway towards the Denver airport on the busy freeway near our mountain home. Flying to Dallas seemed more sane for me with all the kids, as Clay drove a trailer full of books in our car for the 12 hour trip to our yearly mom conference.
A snowy morning, clouds of steamy fog hovering and moving mysteriously along the pathway of our car meant we had almost no visibility. I strained to keep us on the road. In the foggy darkness, one of my little ones was confused by the scene outside our car as we drove in the muted darkness of twilight just before dawn.
"Mama, lift the curtain so we can see the mountains," one of my little ones said as we crept towards the airport that memorable morning.
This little one knew what was real and what he could not see, because the mountains graced our little home every day. He was sure of what his eyes had seen and his feet had walked--the purple mountains just outside our back door. But this day, the snow, steam and fogged covered over so that our eyes could not see behind the curtain of mist.
I realized that this scene pictured for me what life felt like at times. I believed that God was real, by faith, I had learned to believe in His goodness and love. Yet, sometimes His reality was veiled from me in my day to day life because of the life-fog and the snowy mess of life whirling around me.
The fallen world has veiled the glory of God, and sin has robbed us from understanding how marvelous He created our lives to be. We must push beyond the veil and find our God who is real and present.
Each of us is born with a spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical capacity to live vibrantly into vast potential for accomplishing great feats, (it is a glory to God when we are excellent in skill, wisdom and life), to love deeply and generously, (to experience deep intimacy, friendship, companionship), to know and understand great intellectual and wise knowledge, (God commanded us to worship Him--to serve Him with our minds).
He created us to know and experience so much because He is great, infinite, transcendent, and dazzling. But we must learn to see with the eyes of our heart and find that His story for us, right in the middle of our messes holds purpose, beauty, celebration, love and life.
The beginning and ending of Owning Your Life is recognizing the God who created us, loves us, knows us, created us for purpose and intimacy with Him. The God who longs for us to understand His purposes and blessings for us so that our lives might be rich and fulfilling.
Today, amidst life messes and circumstances that seem impossible are the exact places where our own Father is building our character, strengthening our spiritual muscles, teaching how to love more, giving us the grace to leave all the burdens of life in HIs hands.
This is the day, this day, that God has made. We, as a act of our wills will choose to rejoice and be glad in the moments we have been given.
In the podcast today, you will hear my own story of how out of control I was of my life when my children were little and we had moved to a very remote country place to start our ministry. You will learn about the circumstances in which I had to yield my impossible life into God's hands and by faith believe that this awful place was exactly the place he wanted me to be, the place I was to cultivate life in my own desert.
Today I also discuss the idea of moving from chaos to order, the choice to put priorities in place that will yield a sustainable life.
My challenge to you this year, in 2018, is to live into God's ways as deeply as you are able. Look with the eyes of your heart to see His presence, His fingertips of His reality in all the moments of your day right where you are. Believe Him and serve Him with all of your being. Engage your heart to believe in prayer. Extend generous words of love, encouragement to those who walk in darkness.
This is your year to Own Your Life and to live with deep intention, bold faith, generous love. When you choose by your will to decide to be faithful in the life you are living, you will begin to see a future in which God will bless you and work through your life to bring you ultimate fulfillment, peace and a life worth living.
