Song of the week- Nichole Nordeman :River God

“I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.” Ph.4:13

In our house it’s the girls who are the thrill seekers. The higher, the faster, the rollier the roller coaster, we’re on it.

But every thrill seeker has her limits right?

Storms are my limit. When fast winds start slapping at our little rail-side beach shack, the house rolls and shakes, threatening to take us to Oz…and munchkin-land really freaks me out. My heart pounds so hard I’m sure it wakes everyone in the house cause when I open my eyes, the cat, dog and my little girl are all on my side of the bed staring at me!

They want comfort. From heart-thumping me! So up they come to hide, cuddle and squirm their way toward peace. And you know what? It works. Every time. It never fails. When I comfort them, the reality of a scary storm where I get whisked away to a land filled with petite creatures singing with ridiculously fake lollipops, while staring at the shriveled legs of a wicked witch, simply seems like an odd dream and I fall back to sleep.

Getting the connection to church planting yet? No?

True, we are forgers, risk takers, thrill seekers, and vagabonds, the whole lot of us. Most of the time we feel grateful God has even called us to clean up or section of  the chicken coup, but like the bristles on an old toothbrush, we all have our limits don’t we?

It may not be till you hit the storm at the beginning of the third year. When your best friends leave, saying its not what they signed up for and when your kid comes down with some random illness that the doctors can’t figure out. It may be when you have to repack your house for the third time that year because the toilet in your new home won’t stop over exaggerating all over the place.  Or maybe your storm hits you in the middle of the grocery  store. The day you finally realize you just left everything and everyone you know as “home” and now you can’t find tortillas either! Down you go, peanut butter in hand, on the floor of…what’s the name of this store? This town?

( Yes this was 23 year old me in Port  Talbot Wales…store=Tescos)

Well well, it’s then we realize. We were never called to set up our little kingdom on earth. …Although I do like new comfy bedding…We are called to help Christ establish his home in individual lives and storms somehow do it for us.  They shake us and remake us. Give us the power to comfort amidst our own fears and Insecurities. They show His magnificence, and our weaknesses. They show us… Life. Real life.  Not a tidy, non fat, soy, peppermint chocolate frappuccino life. But a life we can’t organize or predict. Where the quiet neighbor meets us outside our car when we are in a hurry to “succeed for The Lord”  and asks what religion we are, breaks down crying and wants us to pray for them.

I really don’t want my tear ducts to get worn out on the wrong things. The human body only has so much water to expend. I know, I’ve tested it. If I’m always worried, frazzled and frustrated over things as random as munchkins in the land of Oz, what’s left for me?

Jogging today I looked out on a magnificent stormy sea and I didn’t have the slightest trepidation that I would be whisked off into OZ. It was daylight, I was keeping pace with the pelicans, and they were far enough away to offer me no real danger, only beauty. But I was face to face with a stormy sea and black clouds and all I could think was how magnificent it was. God was. I was, cause I was His. The sea just doesn’t hold the same awe factor for me when it’s clear and blue. And I suppose, if I’m honest, neither does my life or ministry.

What if we all could be that one pebble thrown into the eye of the hurricane, unafraid of where the storms take us?…What if we were so secure of the stone we’ve been hewn from, we rode the storm, instead of hid from it?…

I’ll let you know when I get there…still learning.