Unexpected Detour

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt. Matthew 2:14 NIV

I’m a planner. I carefully select my events, my times, my meals, and even my accessories in effort to make my life – well, perfect. There is just one problem. Perhaps you already know it.

No matter how much we prepare, things don’t always go according to plan.

In this way, I set myself up for disappointment. For months, I envisioned the birth of my newest baby girl. The older two children would stand at the window of the nursery while she took her first bath. The grandparents, aunts, and uncles would stand behind them along with my husband who would be videoing this perfect moment. I, of course, would still be back in the recovery room holding hands in a circle with my best friends singing “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” That is how it was supposed to happen.

It didn’t.

Instead, my newborn was whisked out of the delivery room without so much as a how do you do. She spent not one day, not two days, but TEN days in the NICU. No siblings watched her bathe. No aunts and uncles stood in the background commenting on how she had my mouth and my husband’s eyes. Things did NOT go according to plan – at least not MY plan.

So, I wonder how Mary felt when Joseph shook her awake in the middle of the night and told her to get packing. The Magi, or three wise men, had just left their home after visiting the young King of Kings. Mary was just getting used to being the mother of the Savior of the world. If Jesus was God’s Son, then why were they running?

King Herod was on a rampage, killing every infant boy under a certain age. An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, telling him of Herod’s intentions and God’s plan for them to flee to Egypt. Joseph, the Bible tells us, got up, took Mary and Jesus and left in the middle of the night.

This was not a part of Mary or Joseph’s plan. But it was God’s plan.

I wonder how many times when my plans took a detour, God was protecting me. I was probably too busy complaining about my trek though the desert to realize God was sending me there for my own good. I’m thankful Mary didn’t park her heels and say, “No way. I just got this straw floor looking the way I want, and I’m not leaving.” Instead, she followed and in doing so, protected my Lord.

Dear Lord,

Sometimes the only I thing I see is Egypt. Help me to understand you often have a plan in the desert road. Thank you for Mary and Joseph, Father, for their obedient attitude helped to save Your Son. Create in me a submissive attitude. Help me not to focus so much on MY plans that I miss out on Yours. Lord, may I embrace the detours. Amen.

Visit Carol at sheep to the right!

Too Close For Comfort

Our family has been cleaning, purging and reorganizing around the house for some time now. The stuff in our garage is constantly shifting around as a result. And each time it changes, I have to relearn how to maneuver my large SUV in and out of my designated spot in the garage. This, for a woman with horrible depth perception and peripheral vision…oh my.


Picture me backing out of my space with EXTREME caution so that I don’t scrape up the entire right side of my vehicle, or hit the fence, or the trash can (again). What this means is that I go in reverse, stop and look, pull forward some to get further away from the wall, then reverse again. Admittedly, sometimes it takes me several backs and forwards. Try not to laugh. It will hurt my feelings. ;)


So one day not long ago, I was going through my normal brake & gas wasting ritual whilst backing out of the garage, and my teenage son in the passenger’s seat interrupted. “Mom, go ahead. You can make it.”


“No, Austin, it’s gonna hit.”


“You’re not going to hit, Mom…go.”


I took my foot off the brake for a nano-second, until my reflexes jerked it back to its comfortable place. “It’s going to hit.”


(frustrated sigh) "Mom. I’ve got the better view. It’s not going to hit. You’ve got like an inch. Go.”


I lifted my heavy foot from the brake again. I shut my eyes and let the car drift backwards, knowing full well it was going to scraaaape. And when it does, guess whose bank account the damages are coming out of? I thought.


“See? I told you, Mom.”


I squinted open one eye, then the other. I’d made it out free ‘n clear of damage. Wow. Lucky for him. I admitted to Austin that I couldn’t believe the truck didn’t hit the side. I knew for a fact it would…



…to which he lovingly replied, “You should trust me, Mom. I told you, I’ve got the better view. ALWAYS trust the person with the better view.”


Yes, he really said that. And the Lord has echoed that incredible piece of advice from my son over and over since that day. Not only when it comes to backing out of the garage, but also with life’s circumstances.

“Trust me. I’ve got the better view,” my Lord says.
And He does.

When God says, “I KNOW the plans I have for you, plans for a hope and a future,” we can believe Him. When He says to trust Him and “lean not on your own understanding,” we can depend on Him.

Isaiah 48:17b says,
“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”


&

Isaiah 55:9,
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”


In other words. Trust Him, He has the better view. His depth perception and peripheral vision are absolutely perfect. But this is where the garage analogy ends. Though His plan is never to harm us, sometimes His way involves pain. It’s painful because we live in a world that doesn’t make it easy to do things God’s way, and it’s painful because this world is not our home. Jesus knew this full well:


"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done."
Luke 22:42


Jesus didn’t want to bear the pain of the cross, but He was willing because He trusted in the will of the Father. He suffered horribly as a result, the worst of the worst, but now look at Him. Now He has the best view of all.


Wouldn’t we, my friends, do best to keep this in mind? Can we encourage one another to trust and obey the One who fully knows? As we “walk by faith and not by sight,” our hearts will experience peace that doesn’t make sense to the rest of the world (or even to our futile minds). We’ll rest in the fact that “now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12)


Trust Him today, even when the way is too close for your comfort. I’ll say it again just in case your reflexes demand your foot hit the brake. Go. Trust His direction. Always trust the One who holds the perfect view.

Lord, not our will, but Yours be done. Give us the faith to follow Your lead today.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Selah~ Pause. Ponder. Praise.

Why Am I Being Persecuted When I Did the Right Thing?

If this title resonates with you, I can imagine that you’ve been frustrated with doing what was right and sticking to your convictions only to have people condemn you for it.

Good news, you are in good company! Bad news, sometimes a lion’s den is the reward for the good decisions that we make.

Daniel, chose to honor the Lord and he was thrown into a den of hungry lions. Jealous men set up a plan to get rid of him by using his love and respect for God against him.

Daniel 6:13-14
Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles
from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in
writing. He still prays three times a day."
v.16 So the king gave the order,
and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den.
NIV

Have you ever been there? You stood for what was right only to have it fly back in your face and be punished for it? At this point, I start to feel defeated and wondering why God allows such things to happen.

But as we read on in the story we see exactly what God has up His proverbial sleeve!

Daniel 6:19-24
19 At the first light of dawn, the king got up and
hurried to the lions' den.

20 When he came near the den, he called
to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your
God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"

21 Daniel answered, "O king, live forever!

22 My God
sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me,
because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before
you, O king."

23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift
Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was
found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

NOW who gets the glory??? That’s right- GOD!

If the story had ended with Daniel being set free, Daniel would have been the focus and hero of the story, but the way God let it all go down, He gets the glory!

Sometimes God allows us to walk through things so that He is the One who shines the brightest, and of course that is what we want. We desire to see God lifted up and magnified in our lives but sometimes we get discouraged with the situations He uses to do that. We need to remember that “it’s all about Him- not us.”

Look what happened to those jealous men:

Daniel 6:24
At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought
in and thrown into the lions' den, along with their wives and children. And
before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed
all their bones.
NIV

The bottom line with God is that we do reap what we sow. We may not see all the reaping on this earth in our lifetime…but God is not mocked.

However, when our heart is set on Him and His glory, we will not rejoice in the punishment of others, in fact I believe we need to pray for the mercy of God to pour out on the lives of those who persecuted us.

Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time
we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
NIV

Keep doing the right thing and don’t worry about who is watching, God sees it all!

Letting Who I Know, Overwhelm My Circumstances

I would not consider myself squeamish. I don't even know that I have any particular phobias. I can be cautious at times, but I don't get freaked out by spiders or heights or anything like that. In fact, for a number of years I took horseback riding lessons. A series of events and temperament ended up with me taking lessons on one of the biggest horses in the stable. While I was more hesitant at jumps after a fall, I always go back on and set my sites on higher jumps. So, height was not the issue one day at camp.

I stood on the tall block willing myself to relax. I told myself, "Close your eyes. Just lean back. They will catch you." But I couldn't bring myself to do it. I unceremoniously hopped down from the platform assuring the leadership team I was working with, "It's not you. It's me." Even after participating in 7 trust falls as one of the catchers when we had not dropped one person, I could not will myself to fall backwards and be caught.

Trust. I like to believe I'm trustworthy. I often come through in pinch. I go to great lengths to fulfill my promises. but being trustworthy and being trusting are two vastly different thing. The heart of the matter is control. If I'm being trustworthy, I'm in control. If I'm being trusting, I let someone else drive.

My lack of trust means that I am always waiting for a person to let me down, always wary that something good isn't going to last. Unfortunately, this lack of trust is also evident in my relationships with God. I can watch God come through -- like when we caught the rest of my leadership team -- with other people, but there is a wariness in trusting Him in situations where I most need to let him drive. I say, "Let me drive another 15 minutes and then you can.

I don't think I am far from the Israelites in this respect. They saw God move in miraculous ways. He brought Moses to lead them and rained down plagues on the Egyptians while keeping the Israelites safe. They came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh's armies behind them and cry out that it would have been better to stay in Egypt than to die in the desert. God rescues them and they grumble about food. God provides bread called Manna and quail. On and on the stories go: the Israelites crying out, sure that God has led them to their death through Moses and God providing. At some point wouldn't you think that they would see the pattern?

At some point wouldn't you think I would see the pattern in my life?

I have not had bread from heaven, but I have never been forced to miss a meal. I have not wandered the desert, but there have been deserts in my life where God has provided a drink.



Too often, my circumstances overwhelm all that I know about God. Too often when God doesn't answer the way I expect, I wonder if God is there at all. So, I'm making a list of what I know about God:

• He is my defender (Pslam 68:5)
• He is my deliverer (2 Samuel 22:2)
• He is my refuge (Psalm 18:2)
• He is my help (Psalm 40:17)
• He is my friend who laid down His life for me (John 15:13)

What can you add? Will you leave a comment with a verse reference?



Now here is where the rubber meets the road. What if we let who we know overwhelm our circumstances?

I was nervous when I started learning to ride. I was really nervous when I started jumping. I was really scared after the time I lost my balance and landed on my head (seriously). But I knew Eddie, the horse I rode. I knew he had jumped higher thousands of times. I knew that he needed me to put on the gas and steer, but I also knew that ultimately, he knew how to get over that jump better than I could imagine. Getting over the jump after a bad fall was about letting what I knew of Eddie take the place of my fear.

If God is my defender, my deliverer, my refuge, my help, my friend and so much more, I need never be afraid. When I look at my circumstances, I fear. When I let who I know overwhelm my circumstances, I fly.

I may still worry about money or friends or illness, but I can let it go on a deeper level when I focus on who I know rather than what is going on around me.


Will you let God overwhelm your circumstances?

God's Work In Progress,

I'd love for you to visit my personal blog: