Sunday Sentiments

 

One of the faith-building aspects of life at WillowBridge is reading and learning together with daily devotions. The guys (team and tenants) always do a reading plan together, and the girls do as well. We just finished up a plan written by Leeana Tankersley, and I don't know that any other plan could have been more perfectly timed for my heart than that one. Sarah and I choose the plans based on what we think will meet the tenants where they are, but that one may have ended up helping me more than anyone! 

I wanted to share with you an excerpt from one of the readings, in case it's as meaningful to you as it was to me! Leeana said:

"One of the hardest things about hard things is that you are typically not the only one in your life who is affected by the hard thing. You likely have a network of people who are impacted, each processing their own big feelings in their own time and in their own way...

...We pick up our problems and our people's problems when we lose our hope in God's potential, the divine possibilities. We forget the creative genius of the...

...rainbow

burning bush

manna

pillar of fire

cloud by day

wilderness

mountaintop

belly of the fish

stormy sea

stable

star in the East

dove

wedding

cross

earthquake

bread and wine

spirit.

These were all God's way of saying the same thing to humanity: I am here. I am here to help you, give you rest, give you hope. I am here to protect you, nourish you, save you. I am here. It's not all up to you."

As we prepare to move and begin a new chapter, this hard of our lives affects more than just the two of us. We have a boss who has to adjust running an entire department in the transition time after we leave. We have co-workers who will have to change everything about their days to fill in for what we used to do. (And we know what that's like, because we did it last year when our co-workers left!) We have tenants who are preparing to not have us here with them. We have a small group who just found us and now have to say goodbye to us.

It's hard across the board. And it's hard for us, too. For all of the good and the exciting that lies ahead - and there is much of that! - there is also hard as we say goodbye. 

There are also answers we don't have yet. Things we are walking toward in faith alone, and that is hard to do. (Easy to talk about, but hard to live out in reality.) I loved all those reminders of God's creative and miraculous solutions to big needs. We have actually already seen His creativity and miracles at work in our own journey, which gives us hope for much more of the same! 

That last line though: It's not all up to you. My reminder that I am not God's personal assistant. I'm to walk in obedience to His directives, not creating answers as I go! 

Thank You, Lord, for these words this week. And thank You for Your creativity!