Running in the Snow
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Heb 12:1-3
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house, your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Ex 20:17)
Well… I have officially been stuck in my house for going on 4 days. Trying to see the blessing in it in that I have had time to do things I might not have had the time to do otherwise, but also trying not to go steer crazy being inside for 4 days. I am going to be adventurous or dumb...not sure what call it yet...and venture out into the great outdoors later. I still hear that there is world beyond this house, but I haven’t seen it in 4 days…that can’t be good. The bad thing or good, depending on how you look at it, about being inside all day is you think a lot; and when you think a lot the moment you get another human on the phone you talk a lot... if you are like me. Well, such a thing happened when I was on the phone with my best friend the other day and we had one of our, as my dad calls them, “deep and profound thoughts" conversations. Before I share with you our deepness and profoundness I thought I would share with you a clip from Gilmore Girls where LoraLi pretty much says what I now feel towards snow right now...I'm sure we will make up, but today we are not on good terms!
Ok, now re-focus. In the conversation I had with my friend we said something that has been on my mind every since. It was defiantly a moment where the Holy Spirit was speaking straight to us about the seasons we find ourselves in.
“Stay in your own lane. Run YOUR race. God will give you the strength to run the race he has set out before you. Stop trying to run someone else race”
I went and listened almost immediately to the main session Beth Moore taught at Passion 2010 that I had saved on my computer, because the “stay in your lane” was something Beth Moore had said last year that Jacinta was reminding us both of. As I listened to the message at the end she shared the story of a boy she knew who was in the Special Olympics. He ran track and field and even though he was last to finish he got a gold metal. His mother asked why he received the gold metal when he came in last place…and the lady who was giving out the metals said:“he was the only one who stayed in his own lane.” It’s funny, and sweet, but also such a picture of what I know I do at times; compare.
I think the whole being 24, single, and still in school, and living at home was getting to me. In my mind I was not where I thought I would be at 24. We all have a LIST and God was showing me that my list and His list where very different. I am reminded that this whole mind set we have that we have to have accomplished A,B and C by “set time” is such an American thing. So many of us want to come out college and have the perfect job, meet “the One”, get married and have 2.5 kids before we turn 30…and if we don’t have at least half of that accomplished by 25 something is wrong, or other people think something is wrong.
The Lord has had to consistly remind me that He has a plan, a destiny, specifically designed for me. My life, my race, isn’t going to look like everyone else’s’. I do long for a husband and kids, but that is not the season I am in and as great as those things we should not see them as goals,but gifts from God to glorify Him. I would love to have a College Degree already in my hand, but that is not my reality as this time. It would be nice to live on my own, but its’ cheaper to live at home right now. There is the reality of life that hits…I think that’s hard. We all have “A List” and when life doesn’t go according to that list we get thrown for a loop. God is going to help you and I run OUR race not someone else’s. We can’t look around at what others have and get envious, because when we do it steals our joy and the ability for us to see the blessings that are right in front of us.
I look at how God has answered so many prayers, and met so many desires of my heart right and left…but sometime when He hasn’t answered that BIGGIE yet, we forget to be thankful and realize that He knows what He is doing. The more Jacinta and I talked the more we both realized that as a generation we have to get over this idea that life is going to be handed to us. We don’t know how to be faithful to one thing for a long period of time, or really wait for anything (ourselves included). My dad likes to tell me this from time to time when I am feeling a bit down about the particular season I find myself in: I just love...not always easy to hear,but I still appreciate it so much: “Your generation, not all, but some, have this idea that you are going to go to college and come out being able to make 100,000 a yr or something close to that...and then when you can’t find ‘the job YOU want’ you say there are no jobs. No, there are job...just not the ones you want. Just get A job.” This isn’t about working, but about not getting caught up in checking off our lists and getting discourage when it seems others have what it is we think we want.
Author and Speaker Marian Jordan shared during a Bible Study I went to of hers how she felt the Lord whisper it to her heart "If it was good for you to have you would have it."
As I have working on the Esther study for the girls camp for this summer, one of the sessions I am working on right now is teaching about God’s Timing. Sometimes there is time to act, a time to wait, and a time to wait on someone else’s time. We have to realize that there is a time for each season. Run YOUR race! I am not called to do what bobby, sue, jack, and sally are called to do…I am called to be Brittney to the glory of God, and fulfill the ministry for which God planned in advance for me to fulfill.
I get discouraged when I start looking around at what others have, or what God is going in anothers’ life. I love what Jesus said to Peter in John 21:22 “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” Basically, stop worrying about so-n-so over there, you follow me. And do what I have commanded and called you to do. Your calling is going to look different than your friends calling and that is ok. As the body of Christ we need to do what God has called each of us individually to do to accomplish the big picture….telling the nations about Jesus Christ. To do that…I will say it again, WE HAVE TO RUN OUR RACE, and trust that God knows what he is doing.
Francis Chan’s talk at Passion last year was about how God’s plan is like a GPS…if you make a wrong turn by His grace and our obedience and repentance He will get us going in the right direction again. I don’t know what I would do without my GPS and I don’t know what I would do without God guiding me and giving me 2nd and 3rd chances by His grace, mercy, and love. It is a daily battle and I am sure it will continue to be something as long as I live on earth to not compare, but it just keeps me running to the throne of grace asking God to remind me that He has a plan, that he is good, and ultimately in control. We have to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ and not run in someone else's lane. I don’t want to cause them to stubble, and plus its rude...lol. I am not equipped to run in their lane, or equipped to run their race, I am equipped in Christ for mine!
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” 3:12-14
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house, your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Ex 20:17)
Well… I have officially been stuck in my house for going on 4 days. Trying to see the blessing in it in that I have had time to do things I might not have had the time to do otherwise, but also trying not to go steer crazy being inside for 4 days. I am going to be adventurous or dumb...not sure what call it yet...and venture out into the great outdoors later. I still hear that there is world beyond this house, but I haven’t seen it in 4 days…that can’t be good. The bad thing or good, depending on how you look at it, about being inside all day is you think a lot; and when you think a lot the moment you get another human on the phone you talk a lot... if you are like me. Well, such a thing happened when I was on the phone with my best friend the other day and we had one of our, as my dad calls them, “deep and profound thoughts" conversations. Before I share with you our deepness and profoundness I thought I would share with you a clip from Gilmore Girls where LoraLi pretty much says what I now feel towards snow right now...I'm sure we will make up, but today we are not on good terms!
Ok, now re-focus. In the conversation I had with my friend we said something that has been on my mind every since. It was defiantly a moment where the Holy Spirit was speaking straight to us about the seasons we find ourselves in.
“Stay in your own lane. Run YOUR race. God will give you the strength to run the race he has set out before you. Stop trying to run someone else race”
I went and listened almost immediately to the main session Beth Moore taught at Passion 2010 that I had saved on my computer, because the “stay in your lane” was something Beth Moore had said last year that Jacinta was reminding us both of. As I listened to the message at the end she shared the story of a boy she knew who was in the Special Olympics. He ran track and field and even though he was last to finish he got a gold metal. His mother asked why he received the gold metal when he came in last place…and the lady who was giving out the metals said:“he was the only one who stayed in his own lane.” It’s funny, and sweet, but also such a picture of what I know I do at times; compare.
I think the whole being 24, single, and still in school, and living at home was getting to me. In my mind I was not where I thought I would be at 24. We all have a LIST and God was showing me that my list and His list where very different. I am reminded that this whole mind set we have that we have to have accomplished A,B and C by “set time” is such an American thing. So many of us want to come out college and have the perfect job, meet “the One”, get married and have 2.5 kids before we turn 30…and if we don’t have at least half of that accomplished by 25 something is wrong, or other people think something is wrong.
The Lord has had to consistly remind me that He has a plan, a destiny, specifically designed for me. My life, my race, isn’t going to look like everyone else’s’. I do long for a husband and kids, but that is not the season I am in and as great as those things we should not see them as goals,but gifts from God to glorify Him. I would love to have a College Degree already in my hand, but that is not my reality as this time. It would be nice to live on my own, but its’ cheaper to live at home right now. There is the reality of life that hits…I think that’s hard. We all have “A List” and when life doesn’t go according to that list we get thrown for a loop. God is going to help you and I run OUR race not someone else’s. We can’t look around at what others have and get envious, because when we do it steals our joy and the ability for us to see the blessings that are right in front of us.
I look at how God has answered so many prayers, and met so many desires of my heart right and left…but sometime when He hasn’t answered that BIGGIE yet, we forget to be thankful and realize that He knows what He is doing. The more Jacinta and I talked the more we both realized that as a generation we have to get over this idea that life is going to be handed to us. We don’t know how to be faithful to one thing for a long period of time, or really wait for anything (ourselves included). My dad likes to tell me this from time to time when I am feeling a bit down about the particular season I find myself in: I just love...not always easy to hear,but I still appreciate it so much: “Your generation, not all, but some, have this idea that you are going to go to college and come out being able to make 100,000 a yr or something close to that...and then when you can’t find ‘the job YOU want’ you say there are no jobs. No, there are job...just not the ones you want. Just get A job.” This isn’t about working, but about not getting caught up in checking off our lists and getting discourage when it seems others have what it is we think we want.
Author and Speaker Marian Jordan shared during a Bible Study I went to of hers how she felt the Lord whisper it to her heart "If it was good for you to have you would have it."
As I have working on the Esther study for the girls camp for this summer, one of the sessions I am working on right now is teaching about God’s Timing. Sometimes there is time to act, a time to wait, and a time to wait on someone else’s time. We have to realize that there is a time for each season. Run YOUR race! I am not called to do what bobby, sue, jack, and sally are called to do…I am called to be Brittney to the glory of God, and fulfill the ministry for which God planned in advance for me to fulfill.
I get discouraged when I start looking around at what others have, or what God is going in anothers’ life. I love what Jesus said to Peter in John 21:22 “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” Basically, stop worrying about so-n-so over there, you follow me. And do what I have commanded and called you to do. Your calling is going to look different than your friends calling and that is ok. As the body of Christ we need to do what God has called each of us individually to do to accomplish the big picture….telling the nations about Jesus Christ. To do that…I will say it again, WE HAVE TO RUN OUR RACE, and trust that God knows what he is doing.
Francis Chan’s talk at Passion last year was about how God’s plan is like a GPS…if you make a wrong turn by His grace and our obedience and repentance He will get us going in the right direction again. I don’t know what I would do without my GPS and I don’t know what I would do without God guiding me and giving me 2nd and 3rd chances by His grace, mercy, and love. It is a daily battle and I am sure it will continue to be something as long as I live on earth to not compare, but it just keeps me running to the throne of grace asking God to remind me that He has a plan, that he is good, and ultimately in control. We have to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ and not run in someone else's lane. I don’t want to cause them to stubble, and plus its rude...lol. I am not equipped to run in their lane, or equipped to run their race, I am equipped in Christ for mine!
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” 3:12-14
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