August 26, 2015 - Before We Go Roadtrippin'

August 26, 2015


The next several posts are going to deal with pit-stops I've made on this life journey with God. Some of it utterly laughable; most quite unbearable.

As I've been preparing to unpack this, my family has been staring down a few real time (happening now) challenges which again have put me on my face before God.  Needless to say, God's timing is always spot on and the ugly crying and clinging to God (think of a toddler not wanting to go to preschool kind of clinging) is actually preparing me to share my story.  (Isn't that just like Him?)

I'm affectionately calling the next several posts "Roadtrippin'." 

Before we begin, I want to share with you a book I am re-reading and finding so many statements of truth in its pages.  The book is 300+ years old and was written by brother Lawrence.  It's entitled, "the practice of the presence OF GOD."  A friend and life-long mentor, Jerry Riddle gave me this book years ago and it is in my top 5 books if stranded on a desert island I would want by my side.  Here is what I read today.

(I'm bolding the text that speaks directly to my heart.)


Dear Friend,

I cannot thank God enough for the way He has begun to deliver you from your trial. 

God knows very well what we need and that all He does is for our good.  if we knew how much He loves us, we would always be ready to face life - both its pleasures and its troubles.

The difficulties of life do not have to be unbearable.  It is the way we look at them -- through faith or unbelief -- that makes them seem so.  We must be convinced that our Father is full of love for us and that He only permits trials to come our way for our own good. 

Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God.  The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him.  As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.  

Although we seek and love God because of the blessings He has given us or for those He may give us in the future, let's not stop there. These blessings, as great as they are, will NEVER carry us as near to Him as a simple act of faith does in a time of need or trouble.

Let us look to God with these eyes of faith.  He is within us; we don't need to seek Him elsewhere.  We have only ourselves to blame if we turn from God, occupying ourselves instead with the trifles of life.  In His patience, the Lord endures our weaknesses.  Even so, just think of the price we pay by being separated from His presence!

Once and for all, let us begin to be His entirely.  May we banish from our hearts and souls all that does not reflect Jesus.  Let's ask Him for the grace to do this, so that He alone might rule in our hearts.  

I must confide in you, my dear friend, that I hope, in His grace, that I will see Him in a few days.  

Let's pray to him for one another.

(on February 12, 1691, just a few days after writing this letter, brother Lawrence passed from this life into the next to dwell fully in the presence of His God.)


Wowzer.  Deep AND Wide!

I've learned a leadership maxim over the past two years.

CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT THINGS & THE THINGS YOU LOOK AT CHANGE.

Isn't that what brother Lawrence is saying.  The trials -- the sucky stuff -- doesn't have to be unbearable. We can choose whether or not to look at it with faith or with unbelief.  He's not saying that we won't experience bad times...quite the opposite.  The sucky stuff drives our dependency on our Father.

Here's the TRUTH:

"Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." Romans 5: 3-5 NIV 

So, today I am thanking God for everything.  I'm thanking Him for the blessings AND I'm equally thanking him for the current trials I'm facing because I can definitely attest to the fact that these momentary trials HAVE driven me closer in communion with God and if it was good enough 300 years ago or 2000 years ago, it's still good for today.

More to come...