Skip to main content

Left Turn



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.

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 2, 2018 at 8:53 AM

    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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Small Victory

I have a small victory to share with you:  Let me give some context... I blogged about the loss of children recently, verbally stomping my feet and telling the enemy that I will have no more of it- and that I have chosen my side and refuse to budge. The children God has given me "on loan" are all so different... Jonathan was an easy baby, and is currently a whirl-wind 3 1/2 yr old- he is FULL of energy, curiosity, music, rythm, he is friendly, relational, deep (yes, deep!), always thinking, processing, talking... He knows about God and that Jesus is real, and he knows that his baby sister Evelyn is safe with Jesus. Henry was a difficult baby, and is an easy 2 yr-old!  He adores his  brother and wants to be where he is, he gives AMAZING hugs, likes to be held, likes books, connects quickly with people, is caring, noisy, talkative, fast... and still has his innocence. He likes to pray. Evelyn has changed my life more than anything. Her body was tiny, but her existenc
11 comments
Read more

How great the Father's love for us...

Evelyn has changed everything. She has changed the way I think, the way I see my boys, the way I approach people, and most importantly she has changed my understanding of the depth of God's love. Yesterday the teacher at our church taught on John 3:16... which I have heard hundreds of times. BUT- yesterday (and today!), and from now on, it means more to me. The verse says this, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son..." WHAT?!?! I've heard that, quoted that, referenced that, but now, being asked to give up one of MY children, I see just a little more deeply how God loves me. Having felt the searing pain of being asked to give up a child, my response is so different to reading again that God CHOSE to give up His only child! ...and for me, the little girl I'm being asked to give up will go straight from the safety of my womb to the permanent safety of His arms (unless God gives us a miracle!). But for God, when He gave up Jesus, He sent Him here, kn
6 comments
Read more

Evelyn Rose

It's time to write about Evelyn Rose. We knew I was pregnant around Thanksgiving 2010 (no test, we just knew!). We waited to tell family until Christmas, and had our first Dr. appointment in January '11. In march we had an ultrasound and discovered we were having a girl! After a couple hours of high excitement and celebration over our coming baby girl, I received a phone call from our Doctor. She had hard news for me- that our little girl was very small, and her brain was not forming right. We scheduled an ultrasound with a specialist, and prayed deeply for a week, for healing. During that week I prepared myself for a miracle, and also reached a place where I was overjoyed to take care of her, regardless of her condition. I did not prepare myself to lose her. At our next appointment we met with a "genetic counselor", and I let most of what she said roll off of me, thinking it would not apply to us. We loved seeing her during the ultrasound- her feet, hands, face, eye
9 comments
Read more