It came to me as I was chopping carrots.  I was so floored by it that I almost couldn’t manage to finish making dinner:

Some spend their entire lives struggling in order that those who come after might possess an even greater measure of victory than they themselves have.

The inspiration for my blog

This is what the apostles were all about.  Every one of them lived, suffered, and died that those of us who came after could possess a victory fuller than what they had.  For that matter, men and women of the Old Testament did this as well – Abraham, Moses, David, Ruth, and Esther, to name a few.  The things they did paved the way for a victory that they never fully saw in their lifetimes.  To bring it closer to home, this is what my parents have done for me.  The areas in which they have overcome will be areas in which I will have victory because of their struggles.  This victory is my greatest inheritance.

“[The Lord] brought out his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
he gave them the lands of the nations,
and they fell heir to what others had toiled for –
that they might keep his precepts
and observe his laws.” (Psalms 105:43-44)

It is the duty of earthly kings not only to guard what has been entrusted to them but also to expand it for the next generation.  The great kings of history were not those who mismanaged what they had or let it fall to ruin; no, the great kings were those who strove and conquered, who obtained great things that their children and their children’s children might live in that success.  It is the inheritance they pass down to the younger generation.  As sons and daughters of the King of kings, ransomed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, victory is always our inheritance.

“…everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:4-5)

To pass on victory is one of the greatest goals we can have.  Christ paid the price so that we could obtain victory, but victory is useless if we do not walk in it.  The ultimate objective of mothering and fathering is to lift up the next generation to a higher place than the previous one was at.  Mothering and fathering is not just a matter of having children; it is about nurturing and bringing our own victory into someone else’s life.  I am only a teenager and I have already done some mothering, not only of small children but also of young people several years older than myself.  And it is my honor to do so.  I want to build a legacy for others and for the children I will someday have – a victorious legacy that will not only last but will increase.  To carry out this victory is both a duty and a privilege.

“For the Lord takes delight in his people;
he crowns the humble with victory.
Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor
and sing for joy on their beds.  (Psalms 149:4-5)

We cannot allow ourselves to carelessly cast aside the victories of the past or even complacently hold onto them.  If we want to truly bring heaven to earth and show Christ to the world, we have to start walking in victory – and not merely the victories of the past, but victories still greater.  Let us live in such a way that we create a legacy of victory for all who follow, generation upon generation, because we serve a mighty and victorious God.

“‘It is an end worth fighting for….It may be for others to complete what we’ve begun, but there must be a beginning.  And we will carry this fight as far as we can before passing it on to those who come after.'” – from Tuck by Stephen Lawhead

The Lord always has amazing things to say, if we are just willing to listen.  The other day, I was (once again) asking God why I have such a difficult time making lasting friendships with peers.  It certainly isn’t for lack of effort or desire!  You know what God told me?  No, you don’t know, and I doubt you’ll be able to guess.

He told me that I scare people.

Upon hearing that, I was thinking probably just about the same thing you are thinking as you read it: “Ummm…okay?”  Great.  I’m scary?  That is why I have a hard time making friends?!

But that wasn’t what my heavenly Father was meaning.  It took some thought, but finally it dawned on me.  And the revelation was so astounding, I laughed out loud.

My identity, first and foremost, is in Christ as a daughter of the King of kings.  In my relationships, I seek always to keep that identity uncorrupted; wherever I go, whatever I do, I am always the “real” me – the “me” that God created to be wonderful and amazing and beautiful.  When people meet me, they can tell that I am open and genuine, but they don’t necessarily see my whole heart right away.  Then, when people begin drawing close to me in relationship, they begin to glimpse the depths of my heart.  What they see is wild, fierce, passionate, and lovely.  This makes people feel uncomfortable or even intimidated.  Why?  Human nature squirms at intimacy in relationships because the level of vulnerability in transparency feels dangerous.  As humans, we fear that, if we were to be completely transparent, we might be rejected.  Thus, when we see others who are living transparently, it causes us discomfort because of our own innate fears of others’ opinions.

Genuineness inspires trust.  Passion excites.  But genuineness and passion combined terrify people, because, together, they present something so pure, so beautiful, that it is scary to this world.  They offer a bold, unpretentious picture of a life lived fully and completely for our King of glory. 

That is what God was telling me.  To live fearlessly is terrifying.  It is terrifying to the devil, it is terrifying to others, and sometimes it is even terrifying to ourselves.  He also told me that, to have amazing friends, I need to find people who are just as terrifyingly genuine and passionate as I am.  And you know what?  Those are the people I want to be around – people who are unafraid of their identity in Christ and living out their faith.  And if this is the world’s definition of “scary,” then by all means, let me be absolutely fearsome.  We need to learn to live as terrifyingly fearless sons and daughters of the King of kings so that we may fully take hold of our place of victory in Christ.

“There’s a new generation arising
A nameless, faceless, placeless tribe;
All they fear is the fear of the Lord;
All they hear is the Lion of Judah”
– “Lion of Judah,” Jason Upton

A few months ago, while my family was travelling in the United States, I told God that I would be His “yes girl” – that no matter what He told me to do, I would say “yes.”  This was a hard thing for me to say, because I don’t always want to do what God tells me to do.  Obedience is not the natural inclination of our flesh.  But it is the natural desire of our spirit.  The closer a relationship we build with the King of kings, the more we begin to want what He wants; as we delight ourselves in Him, the desires of His heart become the desires of our heart.  Honestly though, I was feeling a little leery of what I had promised God.  Now that I told Him I’d say “yes,” I was committed.  And now that I had committed, what was He going to ask of me? (gulp.)  Being as God-crazy as I am, I already scare enough people.  Was I destined to scare more?  Was I really ready for this?

At church, the Sunday after I made this life-changing commitment, God gave one of the ladies a word for me.  He had heard my “yes,” He knew what it was costing me to say it, and He was going to do beautiful things because of it.  And then I knew for certain, way deep down in my spirit: yes, this was what I wanted.  I had no idea what God had in store for me, but I wanted to be a part of it.

On my road to total surrender, I have learned some things.  I could site numerous Biblical examples of men and women who lived their lives saying “yes” to God, and I could tell you how, since I have begun my journey, I am able to see those examples so much more clearly.  But that would take me away from my real purpose: sharing what I myself have learned in saying “yes” to my God.

Being God’s “yes girl” means trusting God enough to believe that His way is the best, the most glorious to Him, and the most perfectly beautiful way there is.  It also means trusting that He has our good, our best interests in mind.  Because He honestly does.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”  (Jeremiah 29:11)

Mere trust, however, is not all that is required to be God’s “yes girl.”  Being God’s “yes girl” means having a bold faith.  This faith steps up when all others shrink back.  This faith says, “Here am I.  Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).  This faith is built on a foundation of trust.  As we learn how to trust our Lord whole-heartedly in every aspect of our lives and come to know our heavenly Father more, our faith continues to expand.  Thus, this kind of faith doesn’t just come out of nowhere.  It is built on the most solid, most eternal thing possible: Jesus Christ, our sure Hope.

And there is still more.  Whenever I say “yes” to God and His plans, I am automatically saying “no” to everything else, to every other choice.  I am not worried what those other things might have been because I already trust that His way is the best for me and those around me.

These are just a few of the things I have learned in my pursuit of obedience; I hope that I shall continue to learn and grow more as I continue my journey.  I want to be the girl God can go to when He needs something done, a woman after His own heart.  I want to sing, “Yes, Lord; yes, Lord; yes, yes, Lord; amen!” with conviction.  When He says “Speak,” I’ll say “Yes.”  When He says “Go,” I’ll say “Yes.”  When He says “Do,” I’ll say “Yes.”  And with His help, I’ll live out a life of pure, unadulterated obedience to Him.  Join me on this journey – this journey of saying “yes” to the One.

‘“….[The Lord] testified concerning [David]: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.”’ (Acts 13:22)

(If God is telling you it is time to say “yes,” check out the book Stark Raving Obedience, written by a good friend of my family.  It is a hard read – by content, not length – but it will stir up in you a hunger to pursue all that God wants to do in you and through you. http://www.amazon.com/Stark-Raving-Obedience-Listening-ebook/dp/B00BLSSDY0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370280524&sr=8-1&keywords=Stark+Raving+Obedience+books)

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What does this button do?  That button.  There.  The one right above these words.  The one that says “Donate.”  Do you know what it does?  Contrary perhaps to popular belief, it isn’t just an icon that we put on every blog and newsletter we send out.  In fact, if you actually click on it, it takes you to a page where you can donate to my family to support the work we are doing.  In my opinion, the most difficult part about raising funds is that everybody always assumes someone else is giving.  And this truth doesn’t just pertain to my family – it is a generally accurate statement.  People feel inclined (or led) to give, then human nature sneaks in, persuading us that good intentions are the same as actually giving.  But you know what?  They’re not.

Little girls in Kuwinda slum help my mom hold up her skirt hem.

I like what the Apostle Paul says in II Corinthians 9:11, “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous in everything.  And through us your generosity will cause people to thank God.” (CJB)  And I like my Mom’s God-idea about giving, that you give to every good work when you are asked.  Now that is not to say we use no discernment — there are plenty of hustlers out there — but in my family, when we have an opportunity to give to God’s work we pray asking “How much?“ and NOT, “Should I?“   I’m not saying this to make you feel bad or anything – sometimes we pray and God answers, “Don’t give to that now” and that’s okay.  But choosing not to give until you have mentally determined that you have “extra” is simply not God’s way.  And neither is placating yourself that people who have “more” should be the ones that give.  (Read Mark 12:41-43.)

If you’ve gotten this far into my post, you might be thinking, “Are they asking for my money?  How tacky!”  But you know what?  The Lord says that we have not because we ask not.  We don’t serve a God of lack; we serve a God of abundance.  As missionaries, your donations are what allow us to live and eat and do what God has called us to do.  At the moment, we are packing to leave Africa after nearly four years of serving and loving here.  For the time being, God has called us back to Grand Rapids, Michigan to be a part of what He is doing there and to build up His church in our home city.  My family will be assisting with a downtown church plant, where my dad will pastor.  This has been a dream of my dad’s since he was a teenager.  We never thought we’d move back to Michigan, but we go wherever God leads.  And God is leading now.

What God is doing in Grand Rapids, Michigan is absolutely amazing.  He is stirring up revival and renewal, and my family will get to be right at the heart of it.

See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.  (Isaiah 43:19)

This is what God has been speaking to my heart lately: He is doing a new thing, a thing so glorious and beautiful that we can scarcely imagine it in its entirety.  But do you remember what I said about your support helping us carry on our ministry?  We still need that help.  The pastorate position at this new church plant comes with a modest housing allowance but not a salary.  This means that my family is now officially a “home missionary family” instead of a “foreign missionary family.”  But do you want to know something really cool?  If everyone would just give something, we would easily be able to cover our monthly living and ministry expenses, plus do “extra” things, like lead short-term mission teams to come back and serve in Africa.

We are really blessed that a friend has hooked us up with a rental house and that another friend has asked whether we need a washer & dryer (yes, please!).  But let me just lay it out straight for you a minute: since we sent our latest newsletter specifically asking for financial help with our move, we’ve generated oodles of excitement but only one donation (you know who you are — thank you so much!)

My Dad teaching a Bible lesson at Shangilia.

As missionaries, we rely totally on God to provide our income, which is generally supplied in the form of your donations.  Your financial support really matters to us — sometimes we can’t buy groceries or put gas in the car until a donation comes in.  Sure, God can provide miraculously (we’ve seen it) but the body of Christ also has a role to play in expanding the boundaries of God’s kingdom and reaching out with His love in the earth.  Don’t think I’m whining – I’m not – God has ALWAYS taken care of us.  You can chose to play a part in what God is doing, and maybe now you realize that the part is much bigger than you ever thought.

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The future is not ours to control – it is God’s.  We are watching BBC’s Merlin as a family and there is really some pretty deep stuff in it.  I found it interesting that, in trying to prevent a horrible future, the characters often made choices that they would not have made if they had never seen a glimpse of a future that could come to pass.

Morgana was told that Emrys was both her destiny and her doom.  Naturally she felt a sense of foreboding, but she also somehow got the idea that she could prevent this fate.  She thus set out on a desperate quest to kill Emrys before he killed her.  She made decisions and set certain things into motion, not always favorable, by trying to control the future.  And she allowed herself to become filled with hatred for a man whose identity she did not even know.  That was where Morgana went wrong.  She went all “bad girl” and Merlin (who was Emrys), being a good fellow, opposed her when he never would have done so before.  She became consumed with avoiding her destiny and in doing so brought doom upon herself, just as the prophecy had foretold.

I sometimes wonder why we try so hard to be in control of things.  Perhaps it is a need to feel safe and secure, to make sure that we will be okay, that compels us.  The truth is, however, that the future is in God’s hands, and His alone.  Sometimes we try to make things go one way, but, in the end, all things follow God’s plan.  The created can’t help but answer to the Creator, no matter how hard they try to resist it.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard?….He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers….He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of the world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown…than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.” (Isaiah 40:21-24)  

We cannot control the future.  I do not say this to give a sense of futility or hopelessness.  Rather, this should be comforting, because God is good and He is in control.  Understand what I mean by saying we have no control over the future.  The outcome of things is in God’s hands and always has been.  Although He has given us choices, He wants us to choose Him.

Roses are truly amazing plants.  They manage to grow and thrive and keep coming back, and they are quite difficult to kill.  Sure, they wilt a bit when the midday sun shines down on them too brightly, but they perk right back up in the cool of the day.  Then, of course, they go through many stages of growth.  And every once in a while, they have to be cut back – you cut them, clip them, prune them until they look as though you’ve killed them.  You have to do this so that, in the next season, they can grow bigger and better and more beautiful than before.  Now bear with me for a minute, because there is a point to this…

When my family moved to Kenya, we purchased two rosebushes – or sticks, rather, because that is what they looked like.  One was yellow and one was a deep pink color.  It took time before they looked like much of anything (and I believe they would look even better if they weren’t living in pots).  For several months they maintained their stick-like mien, but after a while they grew leaves and began to branch out.  The best part, however, is their blooms.  I said I bought a yellow rose bush and a pink rose bush.  That was true – when I bought them.  To me, that is the most fascinating part.  I don’t know what other people’s roses do, but every season, mine always bloom a different color.  My yellow rose turned “striped” this year – hot pink, orange, and yellow, all blended together in one luscious flower.  My pink rose had pale lavender-colored blooms.

My Kenyan rose’s first new bloom

When my family lived in Michigan, I had about half a dozen rosebushes that I carefully tended.  Gardening isn’t usually my favorite task, but I loved my rose garden.  I had one particularly lovely lilac-colored rosebush.  One year, however, it didn’t survive the harsh Michigan winter.  Come spring, my mom and I dug up what appeared to be a small dead stump with a few straggly roots.  At my insistence that it could still “make it” (I seem to have a lot of faith for plants), we put it into a shallow pot of water mixed with rose food and let it sit in the garage.  After a good week or so, it was showing signs of – that’s right – life.  Oh, how I rejoiced!  I promptly went out back and dug a new hole for it near my other roses.  Weeks passed and it continued to thrive.  Then came the first bud.  I watch the buds on my roses closely, wanting to see the moment they open up to share their beauty and fragrance with the world.  The bud opened, but it was no longer lilac in color – it was a brilliant shade of sunshine-yellow.  When we thought the rose was dead, we were right – in part.  You see, the rose was a hybrid, and during the winter, the fragile strain had died, leaving in its place only the variety of rose that was strong enough to survive.

John 15 is a beautiful Scripture passage.  Jesus makes our task very clear: we are to bear fruit (or produce blooms!)  We are tender plants, firmly anchored in Christ, and God is our Gardener.  Sometimes, though, we like to pretend that we are our own care-takers.  In that role we are always quite lenient with our pruning because we hope to avoid pain and discomfort.  Because of this, we cling to things that are dead – things that only serve to sap our strength.  Like the blooms of roses, there is always a certain fragility and transiency about our “blooms.”  We keep them for a time, but at some point we usually have to let them go in order to make room for the new ones to grow.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Some seasons are growing seasons and some are blooming seasons.  And some seasons are bare seasons – seasons in which we are cut back until we think we can take no more.  But our Good Gardener knows just how much He needs to prune us to make us come back more beautiful than before.  A rosebush that is never pruned or never goes through a cold season will look nice for awhile but will eventually wither away because it needs those hardships in order to be rid of the weak, nutrient-sapping branches and blooms that have outlived their time.

Sometimes circumstances seem unbearable, and we wonder just how much longer we will last.  Yet with every trial, every hardship, every bleak season in our lives, we are being refined and strengthened.  Because He is always at work, we can always live with soul-deep joy:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking any good thing.” (James 1:2-4)

Our Gardener is caring for us, rejoicing over each bloom and mourning over each season of hardship and pruning but knowing that His tender ministrations will bring about greater beauty and abundance.  You may be in a winter season now, but springtime is coming; the Love-light of our Gardener will cause you to flourish even as His gentle rain nourishes your spirit.  So bloom on, little roses; bloom on and take heart knowing that your Gardener is caring for you.

“For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

There it is.  The verse nearly every Christian can quote from memory and perhaps the most well-known verse in the Bible.  I probably didn’t even need the reference.  In fact, as you read the first few words of the verse, you may have even glossed over the rest because you already knew what it said.  As for myself, I realized that I had become somewhat immune to the meaning of the verse because of my ability to mindlessly quote it.  Thus, I decided to take another look at John 3:16.  And wow.

I know the words of the verse, but the order of the words is amazing as well.  It just occurred to me that it doesn’t say, “God loved the world so he gave.”  No, rather it says, “For God so loved the world that he gave,” as though this was the very logical conclusion of a love as great as His.  God didn’t give grudgingly, sitting on His throne, heaving a sigh, and saying, “Well, I love these people, so I guess I have to do something for them.”  Neither did He feel beholden to us.  It was very simply this: His love was so great that the natural outpouring of that love was to give us His most precious gift – His only Son.  That alone ought to remind us just how profound the words of this verse truly are.

As I looked again at John 3:16, it gave me a fresh view of the amazing love of God.  More than that, God is love, and if we don’t take the time to understand that, how can we even say we know our God (1 John 4:18)?  What Jesus did on the Cross was the most epic act of all time, and it was the epitome of love.  His was a Love so powerful, so sweeping in its scope, that it overcame death itself.

“Death cannot stop true love.”
~ The Princess Bride

How can I say no to a love like that?  How can I gloss over a love so great?  This is a Love that cannot be overlooked, because this is True Love. *

* All credit goes to The Princess Bride official website for the movie images used in this post.

We often treat God’s grace as a very lofty subject.  Indeed, it is lofty, for it pertains to our matchless and perfect God.  Yet it is something we must both understand and take hold of in order to truly live out grace-filled lives.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

The first part of God’s grace that most people embrace is His mercy – His not giving us what we deserve for our transgressions.  But as we grow we need to learn to live our lives with a bigger view of God’s grace.

In the parable of the prodigal son (it’s a fairly well-known one, so I won’t go into all the details, but you can check out the passage in Luke 15 to refresh your memory), the prodigal realized his mistake in trying to “do his own thing” and decided to return to his father and seek mercy.

And mercy he received.

But had it only been mercy, the son would have been set up in the position of lowly servant – which was all he wanted, all he really hoped for.  Instead, the father threw his arms about the man and called him “son,” lavishing gifts upon him.  That is grace – the full-blown, unadulterated grace of our loving heavenly Father.  “How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1).  The mercy of God we can almost wrap our minds around – almost – but the grace of God blows us away.  When we are faced with God’s grace, our minds scream, “Unworthy, unworthy!  This could not be for me!  I do not deserve it!”  And that is the great scandal of grace – unmerited favor, worthiness for the worthless, beauty for ashes.  (Just in case this isn’t quite clear, “unmerited,” by definition, means “unearned”; you didn’t say or do anything that made it your right to receive the favor you have been shown.)

We all have times where we are prodigal sons and daughters, and we all have to return to God to seek His mercy.  Being our loving Father, God awaits us with open arms and the fullness of not only mercy but grace.  We have three primary reactions to this gift of grace:

• First of all, we can reject God’s grace by telling Him, “Lord, I am not worthy of this yet, but someday I shall be; I will do my very best to earn it!”  This usually stems from a desire to please God (or rather, do what we think will be pleasing to God) and be “good enough” for the great things He offers us.
• A second way we respond to God’s grace is to reject it by refusing to believe that He would or could really be offering it to us.  This comes from a lack of self-worth: “This can never be for me.  I have been too bad.”  (In that case, I would like to point out that the King of the universe died on a cross because of love for you!  If that doesn’t change your opinion of your value, I don’t know what will.)  In the end, though, neither those who won’t believe they can have grace nor those who are busy trying to earn it are in the right.  God’s grace cannot be earned.  You can never, ever be so good that you deserve it, and you can never, ever be so horrible that you cannot receive it.  If either of those things were true, Jesus Christ would have died for nothing.  (Take a moment to let that sink in.)
• The third main response we give to the grace of God is to simply say, “Thank you.  You are so good to me, your child.”  Sadly, this response often comes after we have already lived out one of the other two responses.  However, this thankful acceptance is really the only response God wants us to give Him.  He does not give so that we must repay Him (as though He needed something from us), but rather He gives to us for two reasons.  Firstly, it reveals His goodness in our lives, and therefore brings Him glory.  Secondly, He delights in giving us good things.  He is, after all, our Father.

All this is very good.  However, in the story of the prodigal son, the father had not one son but two sons.  The elder son can give us just as much to consider as his younger counterpart can.  The elder son was not at all pleased with the grace lavished upon his little brother – it wasn’t fair!  If his father had shown only mercy and simply put the prodigal brother into a position of utter humility as a slave or servant, the elder brother would not likely have raised a fuss.  It was the fullness of the grace, of the wholly undeserved acceptance, that bothered him.  The elder son was furious.  After all, it was he, not his errant sibling, who had faithfully tended his father’s business.  Why, then, should he not be the one receiving the honor?  When he had voiced his complaint to his father, his father gently rebuked him, saying that he could have had anything he wanted had he simply asked for it.

The reaction of the elder son should give us pause.  He was, though a faithful son, clearly not living in the fullness of his father’s grace and, because of that, was unwilling that anyone else – especially his obviously undeserving brother – should live in it either.  This “elder brother” reaction is something painfully common in the church, though we pretend it is not.  We see others receiving God’s grace and we feel resentful.  We stomp our feet and cross our arms (in spirit, of course) and say, “But God, what about me?!” (Can you hear that whining voice?) “When are you going to do something for me?”  This mindset can only be uprooted when we learn to walk in God’s grace in every part of our lives.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, then, let us embrace God’s grace – a grace we do not deserve but are surrounded with daily.  Mercy is for the dying; grace is for the living.  As we are brought from death to life, we must learn to live in the fullness of God’s grace.  As much as we like to hold on to our humble and self-sacrificing, do-without ways because they make us feel as though we are deserving of God’s love, God wants us to remember that His grace is our gift.  After all, a gift left unopened can’t be of much pleasure or use, can it?  I for one refuse to put my Gift on a shelf and let it collect dust; I’m tearing the package wide open.  If a life overflowing with the grace of my King is scandalous, then may I live to be the most scandalously grace-full woman of all time. 

My favorite name for God is I AM.  It’s so all-encompassing.  It took me awhile to get used to all the implications of the name.  It not only implies all the things that are part of God’s nature, the things that He is (good, holy, love, etc.); it also tells us that He just is.  What does it mean for us that God is?  It is actually quite simple: we are not, never have been, and never will be.  I am not just conjugating the “being” verbs here; I am saying something that is very important for all of us to understand.  HE IS and we are NOT.  He is the center of everything, and we are not.  He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and we are not.  He is infinite, and we are not.  This used to bother my very limited, very human mind.  I wanted to know all the things God is; I wanted something I could rationalize, something I could measure.

I recalled a verse I learned when I was very young.  (I remembered it because it was set to music, and now whenever I read it, this little tune plays through my head.)  It really is a great verse.  “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.  Where is the house you will build for me?  Where will my resting place be?” (Isaiah 66:1).  In other words, “I AM God; what box are you going to try to put me in?”  And that’s the thing.  As humans, we like to control things and understand things.  We have all these things in our life that we put into these little “boxes” – things we make sense of and break down into comprehensible pieces.  In our spiritual life, we often try to put God in one of our nicely labeled little boxes.  Later, many of us find that the box we have put God in – our understanding of Him – is too small.  We, of course, will then apologize and offer God something more suitable – a more God-sized box.  Or so we think.

Our problem is not trying to know God better (that is a good thing, by the way); our problem is trying to understand God and rationalize Him (which we can’t do, because we are not God).  Even Paul, who had quite an amazing call of God on his life, wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord…?” (Romans 11:33-34).  When we chase after God and call upon Him, He promises to tell us “great and unsearchable things [we] do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).  This is what happened to Paul while he was writing Romans.  God told Paul some astounding things, and Paul wrote them down.  When he was finished, he wrote what is now Romans 11:33-36, which basically says, “God just blew my mind.  I’ll never fully understand Him, but I can fully praise Him anyway, because He is glorious beyond all imagining!”  This is where the idea that HE IS and we are NOT comes in.  We like to control things and put them into boxes in our mind, but our God is an out-of-the-box kind of God; He is uncontainable.

I used to be struck by a feeling of my own insufficiency and smallness when I thought about my being, well, not.  Now, however, I take comfort in it.  It is not my responsibility to be I AM; that responsibility and honor belongs to God and God alone.  I am weak, but He is strong.  I am limited, but He is limitless.  To borrow a very apt line from Louie Giglio, “I am not, but I know I AM.”  I have learned to rest in the fact that my God IS, and that is more than enough for me.

I was swing dancing with my friends last night (I know, you wish you had friends as cool as mine), and I was practicing an aerial move with my partner.  (Now, the wisdom of trying any sort of lift that you learned about solely through YouTube videos is debatable, but it is good fun anyhow.)  This particular move I was doing requires the girl to jump, land on her knees on the guy’s bent legs, and have him toss her to his other side in a sort of twisting action.  (Basically, as a girl, you jump and hope that your partner doesn’t drop you!)  In previous practice runs of this move, the girls would usually stop and wait for the guys to get into position before they jumped.  The move is not meant to be danced that way, however; the girl is supposed to jump and trust that her guy is going to catch her.

I love to find God in everything, so I am going to bring Him into swing dancing.  Most of us have heard the admonition “Look before you leap.”  When my friends and I were practicing our aerial swing move, the girls did just that – they froze and considered the wisdom of it, waited for their partners to get perfectly positioned, and then, with looks of trepidation on their faces, hesitantly jumped.  Their hesitation hindered the flow of the dance and, when they offered only a half-hearted attempt because of their fear of being dropped, they often did end up falling.  In very human terms, they were afraid if they simply gave a leap of faith, as it were, they wouldn’t be caught. I began to consider that.  How many times do we hear God calling to us, saying, “This is what I want to do. Will you trust Me to do it right, to catch you when you jump?”

The importance of taking those leaps of faith that God calls us to didn’t fully dawn on me until last night as I was dancing.  My partner told me we were going to do the aerial.  I agreed and without a thought went into the steps.  Not pausing to see if he was going to be able to catch me, I jumped.  And our execution was great (at least for total amateurs!); we danced it without a hitch.  It was only then that I realized how absolutely amazing it felt to simply let the dance flow and not worry about whether I was going to be caught.  In everyday life, we tend to get very wrapped up in the “wisdom” of “looking before we leap.”  In some cases, that is very pertinent; but it is not pertinent in a relationship with God.  Once we have counted the cost and decided to follow Him, He asks us for nothing less and nothing more than our complete trust in His ability to lead us well and to catch us when He asks us to jump.  We have been called to something much greater than “looking before we leap”; we have been called to “live by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).  When you first learn to dance, you move slowly and make mistakes.  As you get more and more adept, however, you can dance flawlessly at a very fast pace.  In learning to trust and obey God, it is exactly the same.  (If you haven’t already read it, you should check out my blog “Dancing with God.” – http://www.journey247.com/2012/03/25/dancing-with-god/ )

God asks each one of us to dance with Him, and if we accept, it is vital that we trust Him implicitly.  I have found this to be so true in my own life.  Each day, I am learning how better to dance with my King, how to trust Him and synchronize myself to His movements.  Truly, there are few things more breathtakingly lovely than dancing in the arms of someone you love, and we have some very safe, very loving Arms to dance in.  Dance beautifully, dear friends, and always be open to those leaps of faith, for they make the Dance so much more thrilling!