Over the last week I’ve been able to spend time with friends I normally don’t get the chance to see. It has been a blast and I’ve loved every minute of it. During all of this God has been showing me some interesting things.
While enjoying a fantastic cup of coffee with a good friend, I started thinking about how much our friendship had changed over the years and what a blessing that friendship has been. We talked about Christmas and how our family will be having our Christmas after a memorial service. I walked away from the conversation being reminded that God places people in our lives at just the right time and, in the same way, takes people out of our lives. As people cross our paths, we have a chance to love them and see the image of God in them. And when we lose people in our live, we have the chance to praise God for the time we had with them and thank him for the opportunity to worship him through that relationship.
It isn’t uncommon to hear our lives described as a book that God is writing. Just like a book our lives have different chapters. Each chapter represents a different time or season in our lives. The character and settings in one chapter may carry on to the next. They may only be in that chapter or they may show up again several chapters later. Each chapter tells the story of what God is doing in our lives, the things he is teaching us, and the ministry he has entrusted to us. The problem is too often we forget God is the one writing the story not us. He closes one chapter and opens another one in his timing, not ours. I think the greatest way to glorify God is to live in the chapter he is writing for us right now. When we dwell in a previous chapter or try to skip ahead before God gives the go, we miss opportunities to bless and be blessed.
I think this is the struggle I’ve been facing. I am confident of the call God has placed on my life but God seems to keep saying the time isn’t right. Because of that I think I’ve spent the last year trying keep the last chapter going because it was comfortable. The reality is there is very little comfort when you hold on to tightly to the past or try to control things. Comfort comes in surrender and following God where he is moving. Chapters of transition may not be easy but I have a feeling when I get to the end I’ll see more growth and lessons learned in that one chapter then several others put together. So I’m going to live in the chapter I’m in right now. I’m looking forward to where God is going to take me and learning to be obedient in the here and now.
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