It seemed good also
“Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told (Elijah). And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave." 1Kings 19:11-13 (NLT)
Younger me would always look for God only in the big things. The loud things. The obvious things.
And, not surprisingly, I missed many opportunities to see God at work.
But now, as I continue to mature in my faith, God has opened my eyes to see him at work in quieter things...ordinary, daily things...a gentle whisper rather than mighty windstorms, earthquakes and fire.
This happened to me last night through an unlikely source...volleyball.
The rec team I'm playing with this fall finished up the regular season last night with a win. We've won before, but this win was different. We concluded that the difference came with our aggression.
Instead of "standing back on our heels" as one team member said...instead of waiting for the other team to do something and then responding, we were the aggressors. We were scrappy. We were serving. We were hitting--hard. We were blocking. We were making things happen.
And then it hit me as I was driving home. That's like a faith walk.
How often in our spiritual lives do we sit back and wait for something to happen? How often do we talk of doing SOMETHING, but that's as far as it goes? How often do we ignore those gently-whispered promptings?
What would happen if we started being aggressive? No, probably not going out a hitting someone in the face with a Bible...but putting the SOMETHING into action. Wouldn't we be way more successful in our ministry? Wouldn't we start looking different? Wouldn't we start winning?
To add to it, I remembered something Beth Moore talked about at her Living Proof Live simulcast I went to awhile back. (I promised I would blog about it...now's the time).
We spent the day discovering about the life of Luke. Several things stuck with me, but this info REALLY stuck out. In the beginning of Luke (in the KJV), Luke says that he wrote the book of Luke because "It seemed good to (him) also" to write of the things he had learned and of the things he had experienced.
No angel came down to tell him to write. No burning bush spoke to him. No fish swallowed him. It just "seemed good."
A gentle whisper.
So let's not wait...let's do the things that seem good also.
Younger me would always look for God only in the big things. The loud things. The obvious things.
And, not surprisingly, I missed many opportunities to see God at work.
But now, as I continue to mature in my faith, God has opened my eyes to see him at work in quieter things...ordinary, daily things...a gentle whisper rather than mighty windstorms, earthquakes and fire.
This happened to me last night through an unlikely source...volleyball.
The rec team I'm playing with this fall finished up the regular season last night with a win. We've won before, but this win was different. We concluded that the difference came with our aggression.
Instead of "standing back on our heels" as one team member said...instead of waiting for the other team to do something and then responding, we were the aggressors. We were scrappy. We were serving. We were hitting--hard. We were blocking. We were making things happen.
And then it hit me as I was driving home. That's like a faith walk.
How often in our spiritual lives do we sit back and wait for something to happen? How often do we talk of doing SOMETHING, but that's as far as it goes? How often do we ignore those gently-whispered promptings?
What would happen if we started being aggressive? No, probably not going out a hitting someone in the face with a Bible...but putting the SOMETHING into action. Wouldn't we be way more successful in our ministry? Wouldn't we start looking different? Wouldn't we start winning?
To add to it, I remembered something Beth Moore talked about at her Living Proof Live simulcast I went to awhile back. (I promised I would blog about it...now's the time).
We spent the day discovering about the life of Luke. Several things stuck with me, but this info REALLY stuck out. In the beginning of Luke (in the KJV), Luke says that he wrote the book of Luke because "It seemed good to (him) also" to write of the things he had learned and of the things he had experienced.
No angel came down to tell him to write. No burning bush spoke to him. No fish swallowed him. It just "seemed good."
A gentle whisper.
So let's not wait...let's do the things that seem good also.
Great post. I love it when there are lightbulb moments like that.
ReplyDelete