Our Part of the Tapestry

I'm sitting in the doctors office as I write this, waiting to be seen. Another "interruption" in my day that causes me to sit back and thank God that He does everything for a purpose and I can trust He already knew how my day would go today. 

I finished a Bible study last night that left me craving for more. So I pull out this book to read that I've been eyeing since I got it from the budget bin at the local bookstore: Max Lucado's God's Story, Your Story. 

The first chapter of Max's writing reels me in: God has a story for me. For my life. "You are so much more than a few days between the womb and the tomb."  

Who doesn't long for purpose? And who doesn't struggle to find it at times?  

Max talks about his genealogy, and the pictures of my own family tree projects as an elementary school student pop into mind. I have a new idea on how to chart this history in a more meaningful way to me.

Have you ever charted your family's history? Have you ever wondered if you were related to royalty or some great inventor? 

But God's story unfolds for me in the now. The history is still alive inside of me and I carry it. No, I don't carry the burdens of my ancestors nor do I claim their successes or failures. But I recognize their thread in a larger tapestry, and I continue that thread with my own color. 

I don't know about you, but I want my thread to be strong, to bind to other threads around me and create a picture of my generation that is more brilliant than the one before me, and one that is more dull than the one to come. I want my portion of the loom to build a foundation for the one to come: One of faith that rocks the world, that shocks the world; One of love and compassion fueled by the heart of God. 

Dream today with me, will you? Let's not give up on this journey of impact and purpose that goes beyond our today. Lets look to God for the bigger story and how we can be threads available for Him to weave.  

Check it out here!

Look Up!

I tend to choose books to read that are hard to read.  That is - they are so full of mindful nuggets of wisdom and thought-provoking subjects, that it takes me (literally) years to get through them. So it is with Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind.  

One of my favorite verses (I know, I have a lot!) is from Genesis, when Abram was discouraged about his situation.  God told him to take a moment and look all around him...  turn in a circle... do the whole panorama thing...  take it all in... because this was going to be his land.  God promised Abram everything as far as his eye could see. (Genesis 13:14-15) 

A neat point from this passage is that everything around him - all the vast, fertile, beautiful land - that was always there.  But Abram's problem wasn't the existence of it, it was simply seeing it.  Seeing it as the personal promise God gave to him.  

Here's what Joyce Meyer says about it in her book:

This passage clearly reveals that even though Abraham [formerly Abram] found himself in less desirable circumstances... God wanted him to "look up" from that place where he was to the place that He wanted to take him.

...I encourage you to take a positive look at the possibilities of the future... Think and speak about your future in a positive way, according to what God has placed in your heart, and not according to what you have seen in the past or are seeing even now in the present. (pp.195-196)

If you have any experience with dancing, you know that looking at your feet the whole time generally messes you up more than if you just focus on the movement of the person you're dancing with.  I like to think of life as a great dance with God, and as long as I am focused on Him, He whisks me around this dance floor of life with grace and beauty and strength.  

Will you join me on this dance floor, will you look up and into His face?  Will you let Him lead you into all grace and beauty and strength?  I promise the floor is big enough for all of us. 

Friction

I got burned a few weeks ago.  It was a pretty bad burn.  Who knew a heating pad could do that much damage?  I did.  But I wasn't really paying attention to anything but how good my muscles felt.  When the blister showed up the next morning, I was a bit surprised, because I didn't remember the heat getting that "hot". 

The burn is still healing. I learned a little about burn treatments, though.  Did you know that it's not good to layer them with things like triple-antibiotic, or other ointments?  My research told me that these ointments can actually cause infection.  Instead, for my burn, I learned to keep it dry, try to keep it clean, and just put cotton bandages over the burn.  Of course, I'm no doctor, and you shouldn't take this as any advice of such. 

What I'm realizing is that even after the healing, the burn is going to leave a big mark.  From pictures, I think it was probably a second-degree burn, and these burns are deep. Without ointment, it's going to leave a scar for sure. 

My thoughts wandered to heat today after a twinge of pain from my burn.  It made me think of the elements of heat and how heat is created.  From what I understand, heat is created by friction, and the resulting energy.  (I'm no scientist - just some memories from elementary school science classes...)

And then I thought of this....

How often am I burned by God? 

Ouch.  A hurtful thing, so it seems. 

But think about it, getting burned by God means that we've spent time with Him - enough to create the friction needed to cause heat strong enough to leave a mark.  Am I spending enough time with God to be permanently marked by my interaction with Him?

Remember the story of Jacob "wrestling" with God?  He got burned.  It's a pretty neat story....

This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break.  When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of its socket.  Then the man said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!"

But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

"What is your name?" the man asked.

He replied, "Jacob."

"Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him.  "From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won."

"Please tell me your name," Jacob said.

"Why do you want to know my name?"  the man replied.  Then he blessed Jacob there.

Jacob named the place Peniel (which means "face of God"), for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared."

Genesis 32:24-30

I don't know what Jacob was wrestling with God for that night, but I know he was close enough to do so.  And his actions earned him favor with God.  So his "burn" was a very positive thing.  In fact, an entire nation was renamed because of it. 

My challenge here is this: am I being burned by God?  What future nations are hoping for a God-changed destiny?  Am I doing what I need to do to be burned?

And I hope you find this as a good challenge as well.  Let's live for His glory always.  There's nothing better.