Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Opossum Whisperer

Last night, as I rounded the corner of my apartment building, I was greeted by two beety, little eyes staring me down from the top of the stairs. I jumped because it scared the bejeezus out of me! I quickly realized this wasn't a cat I was dealing with...it was a opossum!

My initial thought was to turn back around and get back in my car; however, as I turned to walk away, I thought, "This is STUPID! I'm not gonna let some stupid opossum keep me from going down the other set of stairs to my apartment!" I promptly turned back around, pepper spray in hand and ready to fire! It was then that I began to reason with the opossum. "OK, little opossum, you stay right there and don't come after me. You come after me, and I'm gonna spray you with this pepper spray!" I talked to that thing the whole time I was walking down the other stairs. My fear was that it was going to jump from the flight of staris above me and onto my head! He didn't move an inch!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The Game of Life

I have always compared life to a game of chess. I know nothing about chess except that each player is trying to block the planned moves of his opponent...well, that and checkmate, but I don't even know what that means or when to use it! :) So many times I find myself laying out my plan for my life only to have my plan blocked by God, or so I think! When disappointment comes because the path I had envisioned hits a snare, roadblock, detour, or dead end, it's easy to lose hope. In the process of losing hope, the desires are lost, too. The enemy wants me to lose hope and desires because the moment I do, I lose sight of God. John Eldredge sums it up in one sentence, "When we abandon desire, we no longer hear or understand what He is saying." For me, I try to abandon desire because I want to self protect. If I don't desire anything, nothing can be taken from me and I won't be disappointed in God, myself, or others. This isn't the life that God envisioned for me or any of us. God created us to have desires. Ps. 37:4 says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart." There's more to it than just that verse. When you read the verse before and after, you see God's vision for our desires. Ps 37:3-5 "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." I've realized that I need to be vulnerable, admit my desires, ask for God's help in obtaining those desires, and trust Him.

There are a couple of problems with my chess scenario...1) God isn't always responsible for blocking my plan. We are all broken and we live in a broken world. We block our own plan and occasionally we block the plans of others. 2) God doesn't block or detour my plan because He is a mean God who doesn't want me to have the desires of my heart fulfilled. I don't think I really understood why God would want to detour a plan that would allow me to realize a desire until I was reading in Deut. 8 about the children of Israel. "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert those forty years to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart...He humbled you, causing you to hunger." Deut. 8:2-3

I find it amazing that God led the children of Israel through the wilderness 40 years to find out what was truly in their hearts. They had been so close to The Promised Land, but what kept them from seeing it sooner was a heart problem. It's not that God doesn't want us to have desires, He just wants us to desire Him above everything else.

Plans

Isaiah 55:8-9 "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'"

Do you ever think you've got the plan for your life all figured out only to realize that the plan you've determined isn't God's plan? I've been there many times! I'm so sure of where God is leading me and think I know the end result that He has in store, only to find that God has a different end result in store. Why is it that I still try to figure out what God's plan is when He's told me that His ways aren't my ways? When I try to determine how things are going to turn out, I'm putting God in a box. When I give up the need to understand, I allow God to be God and I can rest in who He is. Eventhough it is a little unsettling at times to just sit back and enjoy the journey, I think I would much rather not get caught up in my own plans that I miss out on God's!

Ode to the Flip Flops

Flip flops, flip flops I adore you! How do I love you? Let me count the ways.

First, you are THIS shoeaholics dream. You come in a variety of shades and styles and you are so affordable. Why settle for just one pair of shoes, when you can have multiple pairs of flip flops?

Second, you give freedom to my feet! You offer protection for the soles of my feet while allowing my little toes to feel the sun and wind. It's like going barefooted with shoes on! Sheer bliss!!!!!!

Third, but most importantly, you make me happy! I will wear you anytime of year as long as the temps are warm enough for my little toes to brave the elements.

So, yes, my dear flip flops, I do love you!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Shadowfeet

I have been looking for a title for this blog for a while now. Music is a big part of my life, and God often uses music to speak to me; so it is really no surprise that this blog title would come from a song. My hope for this blog is that it will encourage others on their individual journeys as I share things that God is teaching me on my own journey. Below are the lyrics to Shadowfeet:


Walking, stumbling on these shadowfeet
Toward home, a land I've never seen
I am changing: less and less asleep
Made of different stuff than when I began
And I have sensed it all along
Fast approaching is the day

(Chorus)
When the world is falling out from under me
I'll be found in You, still standing
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
When time and space are through
I'll be found in You

There's distraction buzzing in my head
Saying in the shadows it's easier to stay
But I've heard rumors of true reality
Whispers of a well-lit way

(Chorus)
When the world is falling out from under me
I'll be found in You, still standing
When the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
When time and space are through
I'll be found in You

You make all things new

(Chorus)
When the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in You, still standing
Every fear and accusation under my feet
When time and space are through
I'll be found in You