Unexpected Blessings

Yesterday was my birthday. And it looked nothing like I had planned it to look, by no choice of my own.

If I'm honest, I was dreading yesterday. Time away, a visit from a friend, a chance to celebrate . . . all of these were taken away from me due to the current situation in our world. And I wasn't feeling much like celebrating.

I wanted to hide from the world. But, at the same time, I'm also tired of hiding away. All I wanted was for things to be normal and to be able to celebrate with my friends.

It would have been easy to stay stuck in the things I was missing that I wanted. In the things I couldn't do that I had been planning. And that would have made for a long and depressing day.

When I arrived at work yesterday morning and said hi to a coworker, I realized that I still had a choice. Instead of staying stuck in what wasn't, I could choose to look for the good. That coworker turned and very cheerfully wished me a happy birthday. Although it couldn't come with the hug it would have in other years, she reminded me that there was still reason to celebrate.

I wasn't expecting blessings in my birthday in the midst of all the current reality. But, as the day went on, I realized that's exactly what God had in mind.

A favourite coffee delivered. Coworkers finding a way to surprise and celebrate together when we have to keep space between us. Lunch brought to me. Supper made. A favourite cake. Cards from those I love. Facebook messages and texts from friends.

Unexpected blessings in a day I could have easily missed it all. A reminder of where I need to focus. I went into the day seeing only what I had lost, what had been taken away from me.

But, I was reminded to look up. To see what God wanted to show me in the middle of challenge. To see the unexpected blessings God provides.

Can I challenge you to look up? Look for the unexpected blessings God wants to bring your way. Open your eyes to see what God has in store in your day.

I don't always do this well. I forgot this same thing today, and I'm sure I missed things because of it. But, as I write this, I'm challenged again to pay attention and see what God is up to in my day.

Obeying the Opportunities God Provides

Sometimes things happen that remind me of how amazing it is to be a part of a local church. For all it's imperfections and the times something happens that brings hurt, there are just as many times when what happens is a beautiful picture of what it should be.

One of those moments happened for me recently. I was having a hard time with something and expressed that. I said it specifically to someone I knew and who knew my story so I didn't have to share the details. There was another person standing nearby who noticed I was having a hard time. They didn't try to get details about what was going on, or join in the conversation. They simply put a hand on my shoulder and spoke a few words of encouragement before they quietly walked away.

I had seen this person around at church before, but I didn't even know their name. They simply took a moment to encourage me when I was struggling and they didn't make a big show of it, or try to get involved in something they weren't invited into.

I didn't fully realize the significance of what they had done until later. But the words they spoke and the fact they would take the time when we didn't know each other played a big part in beginning to change what was going on for me that evening.

It makes me wonder about how I can do the same thing more.

How often have I walked past someone having a hard time and thought about what I could say to encourage them and just kept going?

How many opportunities to bring light into someone's darkness have I just walked by?

I'm not thinking about these things because I want to feel guilty about those times. They're about a realization that I have these same opportunities and a challenge to step into them, instead of walking by them. It takes only a minute for me, but it could be really important to that person.

Whether we know the outcome of our obedience to God in these things or not isn't what's important. The importance is that we follow through. That we listen to these promptings from God as go about our days.

In the time since this experience for me, my prayer has been that God would help me to see these moments where a couple minutes of my time can make a difference in someone's day. And then that I would have the willingness and the courage to follow through on those promptings.

I would invite you to join me in that. I believe it is the way we were meant to live.

Coming Alongside What God is Already Doing

I've been thinking about what I would write for this post all day. I've started and not finished a few posts the last few days. Usually I try to write things ahead of time, but that just didn't seem to be happening this time. So, I've been wondering what my post for this week, for today, would look like. 

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be available to God for Him to use for His purposes. What it looks like for us to let God use us.

I often read Scripture - especially in Acts - and see the things God did through the people of the early church and wonder why it seems so far from my own experience. Acts is full of stories of the way that God was changing people's lives.

What is it that was different about them? Why do those stories sometimes seem so far from my own experience?

If God did all those things in Acts, then He can still do them today. So, why do they not seem to happen now - except in mostly far-off places?

I know those things do still happen. There are stories of this . . . and not all in far-ff places. It happens where I am too. But, I know I often miss them, or I hear the stories of them without seeing anything like them in my own life.

As I've reflected on this the last few months, I've started to wonder if the reason we feel like this is missing is because we're too busy to see the opportunities and be available. We're too busy to be stopped by the person we see on the street, or in the grocery store. 

Or maybe our hearts have become hard to what we see. We no longer see the people, we just see the problem that we don't want to get involved with.

We can easily come up with a ton of excuses why we're not the one to be used in that situation, with that person. But, as I was reminded tonight by a speaker I was listening to, when God is involved He removes all our excuses.

If we're going to see God do those amazing things we read of in Scripture, we have to have hearts that are soft enough to see people. We have to be willing to have our plans interrupted. So we can join in what God is up to. Not for the stories we can tell, but so we can be available to be used in what God was up to already.

For the last few months I've been praying differently. Rather than praying for God to do something big, I've been praying that He would give me the ability to see what He is already up to and how I can join in that moment. It's a prayer of being willing to be interrupted in my plans for the day, to have a heart that is soft enough to break for what I see as I go about my day. 

I don't have any stories of spectacular things God has done. But, I do know that something has been different in how I go through my day, in how I see the people that come across my path. I may not know what happens as a result of my obedience, but that's not even what this is about.

As I was reminded again tonight, it's about being available to come alongside what God is already doing. And, I think that begins with prayer. It starts with us asking God to interrupt our days and soften our hearts. And then we respond to what we see.

Is There Room?

Is there space in your life for God to interrupt and call you to something new or different?

Is there room for God to bring about His plan for your life?

This is something I've been challenged about a lot lately. It's so easy to fill our calendars and our schedules so full that we don't leave any room for God to have His way with us. We live in a culture that seems to prize busy-ness, and our spiritual lives pay the price for that if we're not careful.

We're only going to hear God interrupting our plans with His if we're actually creating space where we can listen. If we're able to pay attention, because we don't always have to run to the next thing. It won't happen on the run with out thoughts focused on what we need to do next.

In the culture we live in, we have to become intentional about creating this space to pay attention. Until it becomes our habit, we have to do the work of making it ahppen. Even once it becomes habit, we have to continue to watch that we don't slowly get off course and back into the busy-ness of our culture again.

Is there space in your life for God to interrupt and call you to something new or different?

Is there room for God to bring about His plan for your life?

If not, what can you do to create some space?

If there is, what can you to guard that time, so it doesn't disappear?

The Power of Really Caring

I was watching a rerun of a favourite TV show, and was reminded of the power of taking a minute to really listen to someone. Of stopping, asking, and really listening to what they have to say. That moment can change everything for someone.

This is something I've seen over and over as I've been reading through the Gospel of Mark. Jesus continually stopped to talk to people. To hear their stories. To discover their needs. To really care about them as a person.

In our busy lives it can be easy to just run on to the next thing we need to do. To just make assumptions about someone based on what we see at a glance or hear in passing. Or to decide we know best, even if we have no idea what the real story is.

But, when we take the time we need to really listen to other people, it can change everything for them and for us. It can change our entire perspective on the person. We discover things that make the person who they, that explain why they're acting a certain way.

It slows our lives down to do this. We have to be willing to be interrupted by God, even when it seems inconvenient. We have to be okay with being stopped in our plans, with having them changed.

But, it leads to a much fuller life when we do this. Both for us, and for the people we take the time to really listen to.

A life that Jesus modeled for us when He was on earth.

A life that matters beyond us.

A life that we were created for.

Escape

Sometimes an escape from what we call normal life becomes necessary. My blog went quiet for a week because that's exactly what I needed. An escape from what is my normal life to something different.

Time for some camping with friends. Some people asked me if camping with friends and their kids would really be break. I told them yes before and even after I would still say it was. Even crazy wind, rain, and thunderstorms, on the same day we had scorching heat didn't stop the time away from being an escape.

I've been reflecting on what made this an escape from normal life in the few days since I'v been back. The conclusion I've come to is the absence of technology and the inability to do anything about the list of all the things I needed to do at home. My escape was a break from the things that can tire me out without me even realizing it. The laptop left at home. The cell phone mostly off - checked only a couple times a day. And I was too far away for the list to matter. That's what made it an escape.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the busy-ness and demands of life that we lose sight of our need to get away. But, we were created to nee time away from the demands of life, because even the good things can drain us over time.

Jesus modelled this and taught it to His disciples. After feeding the five thousand, Jesus sent His disciples away from the crowds and then spent time alone by Himself. "Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd. After He has dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray." (Matthew 14:22-23).

After a time of busy ministry Jesus took a break and He made sure His disciples took one too. He escaped for a while before He stepped back into the demands of His ministry and life. This wasn't a one time thing for Him either. (See also Mark 1:35 and 6:31-32.)

If Jesus needed to escape to a solitary place sometimes and taught His disciples the importance of doing so, then how much more do we need to do the same?

There's no clear prescription for what this time should look like - just that we need to do it. It's not about what it looks like, doing a specific thing. It's about taking time away.

For me these times of escape have had many different looks. Camping. A retreat. A walk or hike. A couple hours of just ignoring my phone and email. It's not so much the format of it, but the practice of it that matters.

When was the last time you escaped the demands of life to be refreshed?

Are you in need of another time?

What do you need to do to plan or schedule your next time of escape?

God's Plans or Yours?

I've noticed that sometimes when you think you have a plan in place, God changes things on you. Because He has a different plan. And often a better plan than the one we had - even if we don't see it as better at the time.

I took a break from posting here with the plan that I would do some writing and planning for upcoming posts here. That isn't what happened. I wrote a bit, but not the way I had planned. Some things that will come in future posts were planned, but not as detailed a plan as I would like.

As I think about it, I can see that God had a different plan. He wanted me to spend the time I would have spent writing with my family. We were together the way we were for only a short time and if I was focussed on writing, I would have missed some of the moments we were able to share.

It's not that I didn't do any of what I had planned. I just did less of it than I had planned. And that was God's plan.

It's something I seem to be continually learning. That God's plans aren't always mine. And when I choose to live a life that is surrendered to Him, He has permission to change my plans anytime. My job is to follow Him where He leads - even when it isn't the way I had planned it to be.

What about you? How do you do when God comes and changes your plans?

God's Interruption for Joseph

I appreciate the writers of each of the gospels has a different way of looking at the events that happened when Jesus was born. They each emphasize different things, but all of the share things that are a part of the story.

Matthew chooses to focus on Joseph and how he responded to the events. We don't hear much about Joseph in Scripture after Jesus' birth, but he would have raised Jesus like one of his own sons after His birth.

When I try to imagine the conversation when Mary told Joseph that she was pregnant and the child was God's, I find it difficult. I can't quite figure out how you would tell someone that.

But, it's a bit easier to imagine how Joseph would have responded. Matthew tells us what Joseph was planning to do in response: "Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." (Matthew 1:19)

I sometimes wonder if Joseph said anything when Mary told him or what he would have said to her when she did.

Did he just sit there quietly unable to say anything?

Did he choose to stay quiet because he didn't want to say anything and hurt Mary with his response?

Did he have words of disbelief for her story?

Whatever Joseph's response when he found out, we know that his initial decision was to keep it quiet and divorce he so that she wouldn't face public disgrace.

But a visit from an angel in his dreams changed all of this. The angel confirmed what he had been told by Mary (Matthew 1:20-21). That message from the angel changed his life. Whatever he had thought before, not that he knew the truth, his life wouldn't be the same.

Over the last few months, I've been a part of a Bible study looking at the book of Jonah and how God interrupted his life with a new thing to do. Jonah had a choice in how to respond to God's interruption in his life.

In Matthew 1, we see that Joseph also had to choose how he would respond to God's interruption in his life. Would he choose to still take Mary as his wife, even when it would seem scandalous to those in Jewish culture? Or would he move forward with his plans to quietly divorce Mary?

Would Joseph step into God's interruption and be a part of God building His kingdom? Or would Joseph see it as an interruption and run from it?

We know that Joseph chose to participate in God's plan and take Mary as his wife. Joseph chose to join God in building His kingdom, even if he didn't fully understand it at the time.

We can learn from Joseph's example here about how to respond when God interrupts our plans. Joseph made the choice we should make - he chose to join God. That doesn't mean it was easy for Joseph. He would forever face disparaging opinions for doing so, but he went with God's plan anyways.

It may not be easy for us to go along with it when God interrupts our plans, but it will always be worth it.

How Do You Respond to Interruptions?

A couple of days ago I wrote about a Bible study I'm a part of on the book of Jonah. I talked about seeing things as interruptions or changing our view for them to be divine interventions. Today, I want to talk about how we respond to those in our lives.

When God comes along and interrupts our plans, we have a choice in how we respond to that interruption. And how we respond will often line up with whether we see it as an interruption or a divine intervention.

Jonah saw God's job for him as an interruption. He didn't want to go to Ninevah and preach to them. He wanted to stay where he was in Jerusalem and keep doing what he was already doing. So, Jonah tried to run from God's new job for him - as far as he could in the other direction.

As we've been studying this, I've started to wonder what would have been different in Jonah's response if he had seen it as a divine intervention instead. What if Jonah had seen God's new job for him as an opportunity to participate in God's work? What would have looked different?

We are often faced with the same choice Jonah had. God has come along and interrupted our lives in some way and we have to decide what we're going to do.

Are we going to run from it?

Or are we going to step into it even if it doesn't seem like what we want in the moment?

We always have the choice. God will always leave us with the choice when He comes with an invitation to join Him in His purposes.

Has God interrupted your life recently?

How are you responding to it?

Interruption or Divine Intervention?

This fall I'm doing a study on Jonah - the prophet - with a group of ladies from my church. It's been a great study so far.

The subtitle for the study we're doing is "navigating a life interrupted." When I read that it intrigued me. Who hasn't had life interrupted? Who hasn't found those interruptions hard to navigate at time?

For these first couple of weeks we've been talking about our perspective on interruptions to our lives and how we respond to them.

It only takes a few verses in Jonah for us to see God interrupting Jonah's life. Jonah was a prophet to Israel - tasked with taking God's message to His own people. Then, God came and gave Him a different assignment.

God told Jonah to go to Ninevah and preach. Ninevah wasn't just a city that was not part of the nation of Israel. Ninevah was Israel's enemy. They were a brutal people and it is likely that Israel suffered loss at their hands. Now God was telling Jonah that was where He wanted Jonah to go and preach a message of repentance.

Talk about an interruption . . . God took Jonah's nice, relatively easy life and turned it upside-down with a new assignment.

Have you ever had God do that in your life? Take your plans and the life you've grown comfortable with and turn it upside-down with something new or different He brings your way?

Jonah had a couple of options in how he could see God's change of plans for him. Jonah could see it as an interruption to his life. Or he could see it as a divine intervention.

It changes everything when we see it as a divine intervention when God steps in and changes our plans.

What is a divine intervention? It's when God invites you to be a part of His purposes on earth in a way that may look differently than you planned.

It changes everything when we begin to see things as divine interventions rather than interruptions. Interruptions are often seen as rude or inconvenient or unwanted. Divine interventions are significant opportunities to join God in His plans.

How do you see interruptions to your plans?

What would change if you began to see them as divine interventions instead?