South Carolina Heat and Jesus Fire

It's hot. Like I just want to hire people to fan me hot. If you haven't lived in the south, and you don't know what SC 100 degree heat feels like, you can just nod and pretend. 

If you have, you just said, "Bless her heart" and meant it. 

You don't leave anything in the car during the daylight hours unless you want it warped or cooked. Ask Jarrett's poor Chipotle rewards card he left on the dash. 

And God bless your soul if you sit down on leather seats with anything shorter than capris. It's the kind of hot you feel with every breath. It's humid and hot and even the shade wants relief down here. 

And while I complain and fan with my old church fan in the car(not even kidding- see pic))

WITH the air running...all of the sudden, I remember. 

I remember all those Facebook posts about a countdown to summer I saw everybody posting and the longings for heat filled bathing suit weather and all the sunshine. 

We asked for these days. 

We longed for change. 

But for that cold season to leave, heat had to arrive. 

Change could only come with heat. 

No doubt: Heat changes things. 

And so it is when God allows the heat, the fire of life to come to that area where I've been asking for change...and I pitch a fit. I fan and whine wanting the heat to be turned down because it's just hard to breathe sometimes. 

But He is changing my season and the heat has to come. 

He is transforming this vessel and the fire has to breakdown what was to prepare for what will be.

And I have to trust Him. 

Melted hearts in the hands of the Refiner.

The fire doesn’t change our worth, it changes our purpose.

Melted gold is still gold…its just being shaped by the Creator into something that is going to add to its value, not detract from it!

It will not be comfortable or easy. 

It may feel like running barefoot on a SC blacktop some days. 

But there's a big patch of country grass and clover waiting to pause and cool my weary feet and my racing heart along the way and it's right next to the heart of my Daddy. 

So when the heat comes and the fire blazes, just know that what we call destruction, God calls preparation for purpose. 

It may feel like an end of good things, but in reality it is the beginning of GOD things. 

God's plans are to prosper us, to PROPEL us into our purpose and future. 

He is our Refiner. 

He is the Rebuilder of broken walls. 

So the next time you feel like Jarrett's chipotle rewards card left on the dash in this SC summer heat- all warped and bent- remember that it just means you're ready and able to be shaped for a purpose you may not yet know in the hands of your Father who DOES. 

Fan on fiends. But don't remove yourself from the hands of the Refiner. 

He makes all things new. 

#SimpleTruth for when the heat comes. 

Praying you know your worth in Christ today and everyday.

~Julie 

 

“I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’””

Zechariah 13:9 NLT

“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

Isaiah 43:19 NLT

Herder to Hero: Finding Purpose in the Everyday

Sometimes we want the grand purpose of a giant slayer when Jesus is asking us to be a faithful sandwich deliverer and sheep herder. 

David was often called from his sheep pen to the battlefield...but it was only to take the soldiers their sandwiches. His dad sent him to feed the fighters and bring back, not his own amazing story, but the story of his brothers. 

David lived his life serving sheep, slaying animals, satisfying hunger, and telling other people's stories. 

Instead of getting to stay where all the action was, "David went back and forth", the Bible says. 

Maybe we can all relate to that a little? 

Stuck in the back and forth. Living what feels like the movie "Ground Hog Day", listening to stories all around us, but so painfully aware we are never moving forward in our own. 

Before David was a hero, he was a herder. But it was that day in and day out herding that prepared him for the day he was to be a hero. 

When we are longing for some glorious purpose on a well manicured platform, what we need to understand is that it may show up as a dirty, screaming giant in the middle of your daily delivery. 

Will we be positioned?

Will we be ready? 

Will we consider it someone else's problem? 

Will we have tended our stinky sheep so faithfully that we are confident to take on the giant slaying?

I want to answer yes. 

But some days, I think I am so busy complaining about my back and forth, that I never even see the great big purpose he sends into my path. 

Our faithfulness in the back and forth positions us to be propelled into the heart of our purpose. 

When you have trusted God to fight for you and be with you in your behind the scenes battles, you won't run from that looming giant out in front of the world...you will run TO it. 

You will wonder why everyone else is running away. 

You will stand in confidence that God is bigger than that giant in the path of your purpose...because you know He put it there to propel and prepare you for whatever is next. 

Just like with David, people may not understand your willingness to take on the giant...but, they didn't see the fights you've already come through. 

You can say with boldness, 

“The LORD who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” 

1 Samuel 17:37 

The herder became a hero because he trusted in Him. 

The Lord who rescues is the Lord who redeems. 

He rescues you in the everyday to redeem you for that some day. 

That day your purpose looms large and you know for a fact you are beaten and unable so you consider running back to the sheep pen and sandwich delivery. But then, you stop listening to everyone scream in fear and discount your contribution and you start listening to the One who has assured your victory because HE is more than able!! 

Don't resent your days in the sheep pen...its preparing you for the giant that marks the path of your purpose. 

#SimpleTruth for your everyday as you wait for that some day. 

Where Are You Going?

She was running away.
Mistreated. Used.
Thats where we find Hagar in Genesis 16.
And my flesh says, "Run, Hagar, run!"
But then the angel of the Lord finds her, calls her by name and says, "...where have you come from and where are you going?"
And she replies, "I'm running away from my mistress, Sarai."
So that answered where she had been.
But through His messenger, the Lord asked her TWO questions, and she never answered the second:
"WHERE are you GOING?"

When life mistreats us, we run because we are trying so desperately to get away. We are so bound and determined, planning and executing our escape route, that we never stop to think about where we are actually going.
We get so caught up in what we are getting away from that we never ask God what we should be heading toward.

But if we would simply ask God the question, "God, where do you want me to go?", He would not have to ask the question, "Where are you going?".

We are living in a sinful, fallen world amongst broken people like ourselves...so yes, the world will mistreat us. You can count on it.
But that doesn't mean we should escape by making our own way.
Because when we do, we end up creating more havoc than that we hoped to leave behind.
We have to ask God to show us the path He has for us- to show us where we should be going.
And sometimes that is right back to face the stuff you wanted to escape.

But you know what Hagar found out? She wasn't alone.
She says in Genesis 16:13, "You are the God who sees me."
See, it wasn't escape she needed: it was the healing promises of the person of God.

She stopped at the spring to refresh her physical body, but it was the refreshment for her soul that she needed most.
When she believed and understood anew Who God was, and that He was for her, she was able to walk back toward the place from which she had run.
In that place is where she would give birth to God's promises for her life. 

There is purpose and healing in the path God chooses for your life-even when it feels more like persecution and pain. Even when He is asking you to labor amongst those who mistreat you, like He did Hagar.
We already know, and He already knows, what it is we want to get away from...so why not talk instead about what you are believing God to lead you to?

Whenever change or movement is involved, be sure it is motivated because you are called TO a thing rather than because you are trying to escape FROM a thing. 
If God calls you to remain, He will strengthen you to do the remaining.
Believe me- even in the darkest, loneliest, suffocating moments...He is with you and is at work on your behalf.
He is a good God, with a good plan for your life.

It will not be easy.
But set aside the urge to run.

Paths blazed out of desperation rather than Divine direction 

often lead to destruction rather than deliverance.

Stop and marinate on that. 

In His voice, in His presence, we can know where we are going- and it is with Him.
We may not have all the details, but we know the direction in which He calls us to move: under His wing, in His shadow- near to Him.
And even when the direction He calls us to isn't exactly what our plan and timing had looked like, we still steady on...not running from a bad thing, but walking toward a God thing- learning and growing along the way as we keep the company of the Way-Maker.

I know you want to run away today.

Honestly, me too.
But today, even if just for this moment...lets try running to Him, instead.

#SimpleTruth
#First5

Rocky Places

Today, I walked barefoot on a slimy, rocky river bed.
It was a completely unexpected adventure, but a necessary one all the same.
So, I rolled up my pants, ditched my shoes and waded into the cold water alone, as my family stood watching, safe and dry on the shore.

A razor cut, fresh from the morning's shave, stung like a thousand needles.
And then, the rocks.
It didn't look so bad, but the sharp little suckers were hidden from sight under the sludge of sandy river bottom...but not hidden from the tender soles of my feet.
I felt every one.

I don't like the rocky places.

Being barefoot, sole exposed, on the smooth sandy places, now that's where it's at.(excuse the grammar)

But when the path gets rocky and painful to the exposed soul...ahhh becomes ouch, and every step reminds: this is not a smooth place.

And so steps are taken with intent and care, but still bearing the weight and the pain...always, the pain.

The necessity of the rocky places.
None of us long to embrace that necessity, but it calls us to all the same.

As I stepped gingerly across the rocks, an image I recently took came to my mind.

It was a geode.
At face value-ugly, forgettable, even worthy of disdain beneath the feet...but when time is taken to look at the rock, turn the rock, treasure can be found within.
Crystals-shimmering beauty-reflecting light with brilliant color, yet, all hidden to the sole too focused on the pain of it's rocky outter surface.

These hard places that bruise our souls are rocks of purpose placed beneath our feet.

If we will take time to see them as just that-treasure that enhances the path-we may come to discover the beauty of the rocky places.

So, when you find that its time to wade deep into the cold, unexpected waters of life, even if it is all alone...roll up those pants legs, ditch your shoes, and know...
...know that there is beauty and purpose ahead for your soul.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
James 1:2-4 ESV

"You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God."
Isaiah 62:3 ESV