December 23, 2009 I drove home in tears. Six days preceding my 30th birthday and my future as an old maid seemed to be sealed. Talking to God through tears, I left my heart in his hands and visited my family.
December 26, 2009 as I retraced my road back to Dallas one name came into my head and remained...
Peace, Joy, Love and Faith require divine intervention.
I can never love God more than He loves me and I find that every day I need him more than I did the day before. Relying on His plans rather than controlling my own requires Him… and more than yesterday, I need him today. I mentioned Isaiah 30 in my last post and since then, I’ve been stuck in that chapter.
“So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help.” Isaiah 30:18
Easy to say… but waiting for God when we really don’t know His divine happy ending and if it’s what we really want… well, that requires us to rest in our trust that He really is faithful.
This song has been rocking my world every since the BFF’s hubby told me about it yesterday… Listen and enjoy. Kim Walker gets me every time…
This past week I was able to spend time with my closest childhood friend, Rachel. We’ve stayed in touch for the last 20 years, while she’s lived in Canada and I’ve been in the States. Destination: Winkler, Manitoba. Turns out people live there! This was my first time to the city and with all of my heart, I hope it’s not my last. While in Winkler, I didn’t have access to my cell phone and my Internet connection was spotty. For the first time in years and years… I completely unplugged.
Several years ago, I went to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta where Rob Bell talked about “unplugging from an online world”. His talk focused around how we are inundated with information, radio waves and noise of every kind so that when we need need to hear God, it’s often just too loud. I remember that talk so clearly and many times since have attempted to clear out the noise and hear God. It’s been good, but there was something different this week.
This week was just so peaceful. I was surrounded by people that loved each other and loved Jesus. I was surrounded by people that had hearts to serve others over themselves. I was surrounded by old friends and new and quickly grew to respect and adore everyone. I didn’t read my Bible for hours or spend hours in prayer… I simply quieted my surroundings and had time to listen and serve. And today as I sit in Dallas with my life laying before me and my calendar for next week completely filled… my heart is rested and full.
There is a verse in Isaiah 30 that contains the phrase “in quietness and trust is your strength”. The way I feel in my heart right now has me thinking about that verse. Once the noise has cleared, it seems much easier to look to Heaven and know that when my heart is quieted and my trust is renewed… my strength is found. Tomorrow, I’ll start work and life will follow behind that. I’m looking forward to that, but the rest in my heart… I pray that remains for awhile. There is nothing sweeter than hearing the voice of my Lord gently leading, gently directing and gently showing me the way… And I know that of the things that I am asking about – one day, I’ll clearly hear him say, “this is the way, walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)
Yes. I recommend unplugging completely from time to time… It’s refreshing.
