Off the Interstate Highway?

Bev and I mused about the ways in which our lives are changing as a result of her illness. We are working toward understanding that life will never be what it was, that we are in a time of transition, and that a new future will open us as we accept each day from the Lord.  It’s so much easier to write those words than it is to live them! I want to race through these hard days. I want to find a way to make it go away, but God and His grace are found in the process.

Gordon MacDonald says that God sends ‘disruptive moments.’  They allow Him to reclaim our attention creating new ways for us to experience His purposes fully. He takes the American road system as a parable! The Interstate highways let us drive 70 miles per hour, traveling with efficiency.  Stoplights on an interstate highway? No way!  Curves are long and sweeping so as not to slow traffic.  

For the sake of ‘fast’ all the towns that make up America are by-passed. If you want to experience these United States, you have to travel  on secondary roads.  “They wind through small towns and villages … you see things on them, even though it takes more time and caution to travel them.  Secondary roads do not promise unhindered passage. Sometimes they are poorly maintained.  … Each town has one police officer with a radar unit designed to raise revenue. … Be prepared for the inevitable slow-moving vehicle that keeps you crawling along for miles in no-passing zones. … There are many potential disruptions along the way.”  (The Life God Blesses)

Most of my life I lived in the way of the Interstate Highway. I was focused on efficiency in reaching goals that precluded stops to experience people and places to their fullest. Perhaps I am poorer having missed the opportunities that might have emerged in a slow conversation over a cup of coffee that was not scheduled on my full agenda! God, in His infinite wisdom, has detoured me onto a secondary road at the present. Some destinations and dreams are now out of reach as the trip will be slower.  I pray for faith to accept that this new normal teach me how to live a richer, fuller life, more accessible to others and loving better than I have in the past.

Are you open to the Lord’s ‘disruptive moments?’ 
Can you allow for the fact that your recent job loss may be His call to a new way of life along lesser traveled paths of deeper intimacy with Him? 

Could it be that what you have resisted so ferociously is actually His persistent urging to a life more centered on His Way?

That painful situation you have resented so bitterly could be an invitation to greater faith and to a new dream.

 Here’s the word from the Word. May it bless you with His peace this day.  Paul experienced disruption and pain. The Spirit showed him the purpose. "To keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said,
“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." (2 Corinthians 12:7-9, NLT)

____________________

Blessings

We pray for blessings,

We pray for peace, comfort for family,

Protection while we sleep.

We pray for healing, for prosperity,

We pray for Your mighty hand

To ease our suffering.

And all the while You hear each spoken need,

Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things.

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?

What if Your healing comes through tears?

And what if a thousand sleepless nights,

Are what it takes to know You're near?

And what if trials of this life

Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom,

Your voice to hear.

We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near.

We doubt Your goodness,

We doubt Your love,

As if ev'ry promise from Your Word is not enough.

And all the while You hear each desp'rate plea,

And long that we'd have faith to believe.

When friends betray us,

When darkness seems to win.

We know that pain reminds this heart

That this is not this is not our home.

It's not our home.

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?

What if Your healing comes through tears?

And what if a thousand sleepless nights,

Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if my greatest disappointments,

Or the aching of this life,

Is a revealing of a greater thirst,

This world can't satisfy?

And what if trials of this life,

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights,

Are Your mercies in disguise?

Laura Story

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