I hope that you have been enjoying this devotional as much as I. It has been a great encouragement to me to see some feedback and, although I try not to look at the numbers, to see them *ehm* rising.
Thank you.
Brave Enough To Be Where You Are
Be present right where you are
My pastor extended an opportunity before our church to seek God- like, seek Him. This includes intentionality. Time, resources, words- intentionally offered.
So I have been meeting with God and there are two locations in my house which have seen me most often: the blue and white area rug in the front room, and the stairs to the playroom.
When I go to the rug, which is most often and before the remainder of the house is awake, I kneel and catch myself feeling like Daniel, bowing to the Lord. This area rug once belonged in Thatcher's room and has a large bleach stain on it from the time I tried to clean the tiniest little piece of his poo which got on it while changing his diaper.
In my front room, I open the curtains and thoroughly enjoy the darkness of outside. It reminds me that this meeting is sacred, between God and myself.
When I meet with God on the stairs, it is most often because I am hiding from my family, craving some alone time with my Heavenly Father and trying to make it happen before someone realizes I left the room.
I debated writing this, because it seems personal in manner, but Annie encourages us today to seek and find our sacred places: the places we meet with God.
"Yes, we can talk to Him whenever, but I think it's really important to have a sacred place with Him too. If you don't, it's hard to be intentional. I mean, we're humans, so we might forget that God is God and we owe Him our reverence.
"...Because we have this amazing access to the Father through Jesus, it's easy to get complacent and forget that our God is holy and deserves our awe." (all emph. mine)
My Thatcher will be four in a handful of weeks. He is my baby-boy and I cannot even look at him without smiling with my entire face. He is so crazy-precious! I love his voice, and his pudgy thighs. I love how everything is a "poopy-fart", including me, the meal he eats at dinner, and even his shark blankets.
It is his love-vernacluar.
He speaks love with farty-language.
And he is 3, almost 4, so I enjoy this while I can.
While I was preggers with Thatcher, I was invited to a women's get-away with some women from our North Carolina church and, although my stomach was huge and I had to pee on the hour, I went. All of us ladies had a wonderful time getting to know one another and sharing embarrassing stories. (Children, body-issues, and what it means to be a lady are always great topics of hysteria!) One of the women who helped to plan the weekend invited a friend to share a Bible Study with us and the long and the short of the study was "awe".
Is there awe of God in our lives?
And it was so good because we knew, regardless of how close we felt to the Lord that weekend or what the situations of our lives looked like, we all desired more awe in our love of God.
Years prior to that weekend, prior to children, marriage, or even college, a high school student who didn't decide to care too much until her Senior year, I heard a song and the chorus begged,
"Oh let me not, forget to tremble"
And I thought of the song that weekend, and again today as I read Annie's words.
Tremble Lyrics
Have I come too casually? because it seems to me there's something I've neglected
how does one approach a deity with informality and still protect the sacred?
Cause you came and chose to wear the skin of all of us
and it's easy to forget you left a throne,
and the line get's blurry all the time between daily and divine and it's hard to know the difference.
Oh let me not forget to tremble oh let me not forget to tremble
face down on the ground do I dare to take the liberty to stare at you
oh let me not forget to tremble
What a shame to think that I'd appear even slightly cavalier in the matter of salvation
do I claim this gift you freely gave as if it were mine to take with such little hesitation?
Cause you came and stood among the very least of us and it's easy to forget you left a throne,
Oh let me not forget to tremble oh let me not forget to tremble
face down on the ground do I dare to take the liberty to stare at you
oh let me not forget to tremble
The cradle and the grave could not contain your divinity neither can I oversimplify this love
Oh let me not forget to tremble,
Face down on the ground do I dare to take the liberty to stare at you
oh let me not, oh let me not forget to tremble
Be Brave:
Do you have a sacred spot? Where is it? What does it mean to you?
(If you don't have a spot which feels sacred to you, find one! Make one!)
And this song, worth the listen!
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