Monthly Archives: July 2018

For the Moments When We’re Not Ready

“I’ve been waiting for this moment and now it’s here and I’m not ready.” This is what my daughter said to me the night we sat in our car on a dark street, waiting for another soccer family to pick her up and take her away for a weekend tournament. The weeks ahead of that one moment were marked with anxiety, not knowing the family well, wondering how she would do without me. So often life feels like that. Moments we knew were inevitable, but we just aren't ready for them. I Wasn't Ready Either Back then, I wasn’t ready for our son to drive on his own (could I just always be in the back seat?). I wasn’t ready for colleges to send him invitations (back, vultures, back!). Our kids were gearing up to fly to South Africa (SOUTH AFRICA) without us on a mission trip for 6 weeks. Life just kept coming at us. If I thought I felt unprepared then, how much more now, as those college invites DID come, and he just left? And his sister, who also just got her license, and a job, will follow him before we know it. Life relentlessly marches on, and these moments that feel unbearable keep happening. I Thought I Would Be Ready When they were little, I thought I couldn’t wait for these moments. I couldn’t wait for them to do it on their own. I couldn’t wait for my time back. I couldn’t wait. I’ve been waiting for this moment – the moment when our kids would grow up and stretch out, becoming independent, learning to live without us. And now it’s here, and I’m not ready. But just like I told her at that moment, He is with us. He has brought us to this moment, and He will carry us through. And just like I promised He would be with her in those moments when I wasn’t there, I have to tell myself the same truth – He will be with them when I am not. When we said goodbye to our kids that day at the airport, our friend who accompanied them saw the fear in my eyes for my 14-year-old and gently said, “We’ve got her. She’ll be okay.” And she was. We walked through that, and college applications, and teenage drivers, and we’ll get through this too. He's Always Ready Sometimes we’re just not ready, but He is. From that first day of kindergarten to the last day of the place you love. The first scary step into a new dream, or the death of an old one. The last goodbye. The first anything. [ictt-tweet-inline]He is more than enough for those moments we feel inadequate to face. [/ictt-tweet-inline] The next season that feels so huge, scary, undesirable even, you will get through. So we do it scared. But we never do it alone. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep…

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A Steady Diet of Truth

My daughter and I recently watched a few seasons of Survivor. It's fascinating. I would be terrible on Survivor for so many reasons, one of which is that I get seriously hangry when I'm deprived of food. I would be useless in the challenges. Grumpy around camp. They would vote me off SO fast. Nearly starving yourself in extreme conditions looks insane, but that's the way many of us can live. I'm not talking about food. I'm talking about truth. Why We Starve Ourselves When we get busy, one of the first things that can get pushed out of our schedule is time with the truth. We might have the best intentions to spend long periods of time soaking in scripture, parsing verses, digging deep into a word study. But then we stay up too late and sleep in and decide to skip the word that morning. Or the responsibilities pile up and instead of feeding on truth, we take up the time with one more task. I know that's been the case with me the last few weeks in the rush of graduating a child. It's, "I'll pray while I walk," or, "I'll listen to a spiritual podcast while I (cook, do laundry, etc)." But instead of praying my mind wanders, and instead of spiritual podcasts, youtube seems more entertaining. For a while, we can get by that way. But if we do it for too long, we begin to be people who truth snack our way through life. We eat just enough to get by. When our souls feel a little weary, we throw them some scripture, a short devotional, a few minutes of prayer. And so we starve. But why? Why do we just get by, when we could be gorging our souls on what they desperately need? We can gorge ourselves on truth. If there is one area of our lives where we can eat until we are stuffed, it's on truth. Reading scripture. Spending time listening to God. Filling our minds with what is true, instead of listening to ourselves. And we need food for our souls not only on a regular basis, but even more so in those difficult times. The times when our souls are strained, pushed to the limit, when more is asked of us. When we are most tempted to get by is when we need to stop and gorge ourselves. Admit our human need for something greater to sustain us, and eat what is good. Feed on the bread of life. Drink the living water. The more we do, the better able we are to face the trials that come. Feeding Ourselves Takes Time In some seasons, I wish things were easier and I didn't have to eat so much. I wish I didn't feel so needy, or that it didn't slow me down. But that's when we need to get over ourselves and surrender. In Isaiah 55, God invites us,"Come and eat. Buy wine and bread without cost. Feed on…

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