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. 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

The Snag

  Are you tired of hearing about sickness yet?      Seems like a swirl of illness has been making its way through all the pods of community around us. Despite all our elderberry and all the home remedies this grow-your-own geek Mama could muster, the germs entered our household too.    The big ones were down first, a sister shortly after. Then the Little Bear, and Papa Bear. One sister and I escaped, and eventually even the combination of our introverted selves and a can't-go-anywhere week finally gave way to some restlessness. She began begging to be dropped off at a friend's house, and I think I inwardly begged the same- ha!    I hadn't quite counted the cost of it all. The week wrapped up, and the nights settled, but the sour and the "hey Mama"s continued. All of a sudden my heart began to resist. The quiet, restful days had been nice for a little while. I got some projects done that I don't have time for during full-swing school at the table. ...

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 exis...

Snip, Snip

  Isn't pruning just your favorite Biblical topic? Right next to submission and death to self, for sure. I've been thinking about pruning after a great conversation about it recently, and today I set out in the sunshine to finish up some winter pruning on the fruit trees. I waited WAY too long to prune my fruit trees because it kinda scared me, but after seeing the explosive growth that happens as a result, I am much more willing to chop and trim and collect a pile of twigs for future burn piles.  Three aspects of pruning registered in my heart while clipping: Prune off branches that will grow into each other. One of the purposes of pruning is to keep branches from tangling with each other. I was taught to clip off little growths that WILL run into another branch, even if it will take a long time for the intersection to happen. It is so, so much easier to snip a little twig than a 2" branch. Don't wait until the two areas of growth have tangled- look at the direction e...