Tap, Tap, Anybody There?

Hello friends! John told me yesterday I should post an update just to let anyone out there know we are still breathing air :)

{Thank You, Lord! He is good and sometimes I just take deep breaths and thank Him for it, for the chance to know Him on this earth, for one more breath's worth of communion.}

We are doing well. The PhD program is just about to kill us (not really, but it feels like it is :) ) We are under the mighty hand of the Lord and it is a difficult place to be, but I'm finding that if you get down under it, submit, accept, embrace...it isn't so bad.

Maybe that is what it's all about...accepting the humbling of the Lord instead of hanging on to rights and fighting for what you think you need. Yes, Lord! I surrender!

I had prayer time with a friend yesterday. We did a lot of repenting. In the Christian circles we are in, it is a dog- eat- dog world. It is terrible. Everyone is out for their own interests, not those of others and certainly not Christ's.

It broke our hearts.

We confessed to God how it makes us want to clamp down and guard our own. When everyone else around you is giving lip service to Jesus but living for themselves, there is a temptation to try it yourself.

When everyone else around you is running off and meeting every whim and fancy, you start thinking you're entitled to a few things too.

Like I said, we repented.

We offered ourselves afresh to God, even if it means we are the only ones serving Him in the ways no one else wants to be bothered with.

I think we all get consumed with what we think we "need." This is a funny example, but when I go to Sonic (yes, we like Sonic), I will hear people ordering and they say, "I need a ....." and it never fails to crack me up because really, that is probably the LAST thing that person needs!

But it does illustrate a point. We convince ourselves we "need" a whatever. We "need" a break. We "need" comfort and ease. We "need" this and that and the other.

And by golly, we are going to get it!

Is it possible to live in a way where we let God alone determine our needs? And let Him alone meet them? Emotional needs, time needs, physical needs?

Yes, it is scary and you can sure bet it means going without a lot of what we've become accustomed to (like maybe the Sonic burger?)

But maybe, just maybe, it opens up a whole 'nuther world. Maybe it lets us in on the divine attributes of God like humility and gentleness and servant hood and true meekness, which amounts to power under authority.

Yes, I'm liking the sound of that. I'm drawn to the idea that through giving up seeking my own interests and doing things my way, I can instead get down, go lower, be humbled under God's mighty hand...and discover Him in a way that will blow. my. mind.

Yes, Lord.

So. All this rambling perhaps ends in this: no more Sonic for me. Just kidding. well, if He tells me to. Seriously, it ends with me asking the Lord to help me live by this verse: "Give, and it will be given to you. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." Luke 6:38

Instead of wishing someone would see my need and meet it, I'll focus on meeting someone else's. I'm committing myself to GIVE... time. energy. emotions. affections. finances. LIFE.

And thank You, sweet Jesus, for the chance to do it.

Tap, Tap, Anybody There?

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