What has it been? One week since God gave me the wonderful news that I could be the person I was meant to be in the midst of all the "what" in which I live?
I still believe it! And yet, it is hard when one lives in "Whatville" to live like a "Who."
So, what happens when I fail at living out this truth?
Although the miry clay wants to reclaim me, it can't!
With a reminder (sometimes quickly and sometimes more slowly) I can back up and escape the snare.
I truly believe God is not disappointed with me for not living this out perfectly. His patience is soooo much greater than mine.
As the Compass Rose becomes more deeply engraved on my heart, I know I will respond quicker to the sight of the danger ahead signs and move around them with more finesse, agility, and wisdom.
Until that time I will become good at putting myself in reverse.
Ps 145:14
The LORD upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
NIV
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
Practise
Thankfully, when God gives me some wisdom regarding something, He follows it up with opportunity to practise what I have learned!
Since I wrote last, I have had many opportunities to practise not being stuck in circumstances, but rather being free to work on who God wants me to be regardless of the situation I find myself in.
I was in Uganda a few years ago during the rainy season. Our vehicle got stuck in the miry clay - deep, red, thick clay. It took about 25 village men to pull it out with rope! Stuck in that kind of muck is how I have felt for many years and I haven't had 25 people who have been able to pull me out.
For me, it's hard not getting consumed by the "disability." But the last couple days I have been practising getting my focus off disability (whether mine or my daughters) and getting it on "who does God want me to be right now?"
This revelation - that I can still be the person God created me to be regardless of the circumstance of living in disability - has been incredibly freeing.
Living in disability is a huge part of what I do, where I go and don't go, when I do things and how long they take, why I do things, and how I do things. I can't escape living 24/7 engulfed by this. BUT, disability is irrelevant to the WHO. Who I am is separate! I am free to be the "who." The who I am can fly high above the circumstances of the rest of my life.
2 Thess 2:16-17
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
NIV
Since I wrote last, I have had many opportunities to practise not being stuck in circumstances, but rather being free to work on who God wants me to be regardless of the situation I find myself in.
I was in Uganda a few years ago during the rainy season. Our vehicle got stuck in the miry clay - deep, red, thick clay. It took about 25 village men to pull it out with rope! Stuck in that kind of muck is how I have felt for many years and I haven't had 25 people who have been able to pull me out.
 |
| There were many more men up front pulling the rope! |
For me, it's hard not getting consumed by the "disability." But the last couple days I have been practising getting my focus off disability (whether mine or my daughters) and getting it on "who does God want me to be right now?"
This revelation - that I can still be the person God created me to be regardless of the circumstance of living in disability - has been incredibly freeing.
Living in disability is a huge part of what I do, where I go and don't go, when I do things and how long they take, why I do things, and how I do things. I can't escape living 24/7 engulfed by this. BUT, disability is irrelevant to the WHO. Who I am is separate! I am free to be the "who." The who I am can fly high above the circumstances of the rest of my life.
2 Thess 2:16-17
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
NIV
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Why The Compass Rose?
I ask the question
Lord, is this the direction?
But I get no answer I hear.
So I try once again,
Should I go this way then?
But the answer is still not clear.
It makes me wonder
Does He care if I blunder?
Or is it me that just can't hear?
Yet as I search His Word
I realize I’ve heard
The voice of my Compass Rose.
His guidance is strong
I can’t go wrong
In knowing just what He wants.
Hundreds of Scripture
Show the full picture
Of the direction He wants for my heart.
So wherever I am
and whatever my plan
I can be the me I am meant to be.
Linda
Was it a mistake that I went to university for nursing instead of teaching? Should we have built a wheelchair accessible home or should we have been satisfied with renovating? There are so many decisions and choices. How would my life be different if I had made different choices?
I have come to a realization that I am asking the wrong question.
It is not so important what University I attended, or even what course I graduated from.
My concern is unwarranted.
The true issue is not "Does my life look the way it should with the husband, children, place of residence career, and educational choices I have made for my kids." The true issue is "Am I the person I was created to be?"
Regardless of whether I married or not, had kids or not, became a nurse or not - I can be the individual He created me to be.
Although I can ask my Compass Rose all these other questions, and He indeed may direct me, I do not need to despair that my "wrong" choices or the "wrong" choices of others, have affected my life irreparably. My Compass Rose is bigger than that. What freedom!
My goal in 2014 is to seek His hundreds of instructions thorughout His Word, and begin the process of applying them. How exciting to be able to have this Compass Rose engraved on my heart.
2 Thess 3:5
May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. NIV
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