Tuesday, May 3, 2011

He brought me out into a spacious place....2 Samuel 22:20


Whenever you get somewhere you haven't been before, you can be assured that it will not be at all like you assumed. We have this uncanny habit of referencing everything we're experiencing back to something we've experienced before, and can find ourselves disappointed when the new thing isn't anything at all like the old thing. But, funny thing is, that is exactly why it's called "a new thing."
  • new   [noo, nyoo] adjective, -er, -est, adverb, noun –adjective unfamiliar or strange: ideas new to us; to visit new lands: Ring out the old, ring in the new.
So, fancy that this new place, with new people, new experiences, new ways of living, new everything, would be so entirely different from the old things we were so nicely used to.

Don't get me wrong, I would be the one that would intentionally go to a restaurant I've never been to, eat the strange food I can't pronounce, sit somewhere I never sit, and visit different countries just because they are different. But get me just a little bit too uncomfortable and I start looking back at what was.

The word I felt God was giving us as we moved was 2 Samuel 22:20 - "He brought me out into a spacious place." Sounds exciting and promising and...big! What I didn't realize that once the boundaries of what had become so comfortable were removed, and I was faced with that "spacious place," I would want to default back to whatever looked familiar, just because I don't yet know how to be here.

There are things that make me uncomfortable here. No job. No permanent home. No idea where things are. But these things have been strategically placed in my life to make me uncomfortable so that I learn peace and trust and rest. Because who needs those things when life is easy?

And for this I have Jesus.

r.

Also posted here

4 comments:

  1. Not that you guys are gangly. Not at all.

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  2. Discomfort is also just an intrinsic part of growth; not even necessarily a requirement, but an inevitable byproduct. Look at a teething baby. Look at that gangly kid going through his growth spurt, knocking everything over.

    We love you guys.

    David

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  3. I commented before, but the internet thought it was so witty and delectable it devoured it. So sad.

    David

    ReplyDelete
  4. or, I guess you thought it so odious you deleted it.

    hmmm...

    ReplyDelete