Up until this point the whole book has been about a journey of looking beyond certain things to keep moving forward with the plan God has for us in our lives.
You might ask the question, "How do you know what God has planned for your life?"
My response would sound like this. I have no idea what his ultimate plan is, but I do know this, God seems to be weaving ever so slowly a plan into my life and as I keep listening and walking towards what I feel he has planned, the more he unfolds it before my eyes.
Now do I feel worthy of fulfilling that plan?
Absolutely not.
But when God makes a choice and we line ourselves up with his will, he moves and does as he chooses, not as we chose.
So as I write the book, each chapter has been about looking beyond and it's been an exciting thing to write about as I discover how far I have come in life in looking beyond my fears, looking beyond what I think should take place and looking beyond into the adventure the Lord has planned.
This week wasn't quite as exciting as the Lord showed me what the next chapter of the book should be about. Most of the time I get excited when I start writing a new chapter. This time I realized the chapter was going to be"Looking beyond the surface," a subject we all tend to squirm a bit when our lives are exposed.
On the surface, we can look like we have it all together, we show the appearance of not being afraid, not running in front of God, not walking in our own ways but walking with the Lord,
When the surface is peeled back, something else might instantly be revealed
My niece recently lost her home and car to a horrible fire. and through that fire, the Lord allowed me to write this blog, THROUGH THE FIRE. I realized amidst the horrible things in life that seem to have the power to destroy us, this great God sifts through the ashes, the filth and debris, He holds us ever to close and says, I have found my precious treasure. He then holds us out for the world to see that although everyone thought there could be nothing of worth left, we still are able to shine forth and be something of beauty for his kingdom.
This brought up a new subject in my mind about fires, "How long do fires smolder?"
Needless to say, a fire can smolder for years upon years. You may think the fire has been put out but there could be all sorts of things that could take place. There could have been a basement under a home and as the fire burned the debris could fall into the basement and the roots around the house could smolder for days or weeks and one small amount of air from the area the basement set could ignite the roots into another blazing fire.
There is a place in Kentucky, where some fireman set a fire years ago, and then put it out. Not knowing a mine was close by and coal lay under the surface waiting for the moment to burn, they left the site. The coal smoldered for days and suddenly there was another fire reported in the area. They put that fire out and still more fires ignited. They finally found the source was the coal under the surface was smoldering, air hit it and more fires were started. Days pasted, weeks, then years upon years past with the coal still smoldering. Then the ground began to get so soft that a small child walked across it and he fell into a sink hole where the earth had smoldered into ashes. Still to this day, they have the area blocked off with signs due to the ground still smoldering and being a dangerous area to enter.
Do we have things in our life exactly like this. We allow it lay smoldering for years waiting for the perfect breeze to blow our way, and poof the flames starts blazing.
Now prior to learning this, I would have thought that the things I have under the surface didn't need to be looked upon and evaluated too closely. But as with the smoldering coal, there comes a time that we need to make sure all the flames and smoldering has come to an end before it brings destruction to my life,to my mates life, my children and grandchildren's lives, my church, my co-workers or anyone else I come into contact with.
Now working on this in my life for well over a week now I was thinking everything is good.
Oh, but wait! that wasn't what God said, that is what I said.
His plans can catch us by surprise at times and here is one time that He got me on.
I took Noah to his socker game early this morning. Right before the game started Noah walked over and said, "Hey MeeMee, do you have another one of those moneys in your purse? My response was, "Yes, but you have to get out there and show me you are willing to try really hard.
He played for awhile with the same enthusiasm as he normally did. Half time came and I reminded him that the money is earned by giving it all he had to score a point, not by half playing.
Determination set in as he walked out onto the field and clinched his fist as tight as he could and pushed his arms down. He had the look of, I can do this! I can do this!
Sure enough the coach pulled him aside to kick the ball in to begin the second half. He kicked it with all his might and it went out the back side. They brought the ball back in and he kicked it really hard as you can see him in the green below after kicking the ball. He ran and kicked it one more time and in the goal it went.
The game continued and as he was much more aggressive now wanting to score again. Suddenly he fell down and someone stepped on his hand with their cleats.
He came to the sideline to get a hug and assurance and I gladly gave it. I told him that sometimes we get hurt in our aggression to score but even when we get hurt we should get back into the game and give it all we have so we can score even more.
Hmmmm, then I had to ponder and think about this statement. I knew God has a plan for my life and he is working it out but there is one field I don't give him full reign to let him play on. That one field is God's house, the church.
The smoldering that I had been dealing with for over a week is, the house of God. You might be surprised as everyone knows I play the piano and I am there every single Sunday. Yet you can't see what was smoldering under the surface. I let God use me on the streets all the time, I give him full reign of the playing field at work. At home, the same is true, I give him full reign and he has taken "Digging a Well Ministries into over 60 countries because of that. But I had built this little wall of protection around my heart that not everyone could see.
Then suddenly God wants to move beyond the surface and break through that wall . He knows that if he doesn't put out the smoldering underneath the surface that the slightest thing can cause the smoldering to ignite once again and that slightest smoldering could destroy things that it took years to build.
Once the smoldering was dealt with the Lord gently said, "Let's play ball," and my heart froze at the thought. I didn't want to get hurt again.
The smoldering feeling is gone but surely he doesn't expect me to get back and play on that turf.
I don't want to take the chance of getting hurt again, but the Lord says, "In order to score on that turf, you must be willing to get hurt." "The victory is always better than the pain." "Let's play ball."
Why is it so easy to see this in a child's life and so difficult to see it in our own life. We want the prize, we want the feeling of victory, we want to celebrate that triumph but we don't want to get hurt. We run away from the real victory due to protecting ourselves and settle for the smaller ones.
It's time to let go and play ball...
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