This morning I felt some things stir in my heart that I hope to carefully articulate, with honor and honesty. This year our life took a sudden left turn. With a whisper of the Lord's leading, we uprooted and painfully left behind years of kingdom investment. We left the ground we had sown and tended, just as the harvest seemed to be near. We surrendered big dreams and big plans to the Lord, and He gave them away.
As I'm writing, I have my favorite album from my favorite artist blasting... Brave New World by Amanda Cook. Fitting, right?
She writes about the character of this enormous God. Her lyrics weave the waves of His mercy, His steadiness, His goodness. She wanders through tides of revelation after revelation of His magnificence. Her lyrics are surrender and rising as one.
This album is important to me for so many reasons, but today's reason is just that- surrender and rising.
Surrender AND rising.
With the Lord, surrender is not defeat. When we find ourselves in a corner and we have to lay down our dreams and our plans, He lifts our heads away from defeat, up to His upside down, magnificent character. He never forgets who He made us to be, He never cancels His pursuit of us, He never wastes.
In surrender we gain more of Him, even when the circumstances are painful, and He pulls us into His great generosity lifts us up.
When I look for Him, He's always there- He has promised to never leave or forsake me. I see Him in our season of labor in the hot sun, with hopeful expectations. I see Him in the planting, the tilling, the weeding. I see Him in the rain and the waiting. I see Him as plants begin to rise, and anticipation grows. He still has not forsaken, in that left turn, in the surrendered harvest. He has promised to never leave or forsake me, and I believe Him.
I know He is good and magnificent. He can hold my hopes, and all harvest belongs to Him anyway. In His promise to never leave or forsake me, I can surrender, because He is a masterful gardener, and the seasons and left turns will not get the better of Him.
Through it all He remains faithful and good.
He never forgets who He made me to be.
He never cancels His pursuit of me.
I am held by the Steady One.
Since God is infinite when you make a left turn you will end up running into Him cause He's a never ending circle!
ReplyDelete