I have the good fortune of being able
to wake up to this each morning for the next two weeks, starting
tomorrow. For the past few years, I’ve made it a point to come here and
just unplug for at least a week, even from technology, as much as I can manage.
In that time of stillness and no obligations and freedom from the busy-ness of
life, I can truly “hear”. And each and every time I've listened, I have
been blessed with inspiration, direction and certainty.
I’m particularly excited for
this year’s respite and what I might find myself listening to. To say
that I have been on an amazing journey with God since January would be, well, an
understatement. By “amazing”, I don’t mean pain-free or easy or non-stop
joy for that matter, but truly amazing just the same. A big phase of that
journey culminated with what I can best describe as a miraculous encounter
with God in early July - a supernatural “marker” of sorts – and His way
of letting me know the really hard work of this year’s journey was complete and
now He would be moving me into the time of breakthrough He had promised He’d
give me, if I took the journey with Him.
Since that encounter, I’ve had
sort of this heightened sense of awareness within my relationship with
God. At the same time, He has been challenging me to simply act in faith
– without hesitation - whenever He asks me to do something. Now that's
been interesting, not to mention exciting and eye-opening as well. The
more I listen and then act in faith, the more He speaks – or perhaps it’s
really the more I listen and act in faith, the more I can hear what He’s
saying.
Not everything He has asked me to do has made sense. Sure,
hearing “Take that $20 with you because someone is going to need it” as I’m
headed out to walk my pooch, and then indeed, someone really did need it,
that’s sort of logical, right? And actually kind of mild compared to some of
the other things He has requested. I mean when God wakes you out of a sound
sleep, and it's still dark out, to tell you to email someone about going
to the endocrinologist or to “Feed my lambs”, the normal reaction would be
something like “Um…really?” Now, my reaction is "Okay!" and to act
in faith. It’s really been kind of cool to experience
all this. Do I know why He asks me to do these things? Nope. Do I
do them anyway? You betcha. In fact, writing this post today is what He instructed in response to a simple question in my morning prayers.
Isaiah 55:8-11 tells us that
God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. And
that just as the rain and snow come down from Heaven and don't return without
first watering the earth to make it bud and flourish, so is it for His word
that goes out. "It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish
what I desire and the purpose for which I sent it." So even though sometimes I
might not understand what God is asking me to do or why He wants me to share what
He is saying, I can know that there is purpose in it. And based on
experience, blessings have always followed doing what He asks.
I’ve mentioned in other posts
that as an artist, when I’ve allowed myself to be led during the creative
process, the best results always come forward. So wouldn’t it stand to
reason that if I allow myself to be led now – in this broader, more
encompassing way - the best results would come also forward? In faith, I
say yes.
So off I go for some respite and
breathing and listening. Perfectly timed according to His plan I
imagine. God has already had me do some “prep and organizing” to get
ready for what He has planned for after, this time away. What's
interesting is that what He's had me act on to prepare, is something I asked
for confirmation about way back in May, after receiving an artist's grant (more
on that in a future post). No confirmation came then - in fact, it was
pretty much a no. But through a really interesting series of "do
just this" over the last few weeks, He's lead me right into that
confirmation, and with an entirely new creative perspective and process.
What an adventure!
There’s something about this
time of year that always feels like a launching to me. And this year in
particular, I’m ready to go where He leads, and acting in faith, step right
into the breakthrough He’s promised.
Posts
