My iPad is the bomb diggity. (Yes, I’m bringing that phrase back. Excited for it to catch on.)
Honestly, I probably don’t use my trusty iPad to the extreme that some hardcore Appladdicts do. (That’s my new name for people who love Apple products.) But I L-O-V-E the convenience and entertainment it brings to my life. Plus, it was a gift, so that’s a total bonus.
Last week, I volunteered to do our devotional for Staff Meeting at the church where I work. And while it was initially unexpected, I managed to integrate some iPad art into the heart message. Here’s how things went down…
I was praying about what to share with the group. I wanted to be prepared because presenting to that team of stellar Jesus leaders can be pretty intimidating. Between the people sitting around that staff table, there was over 100 years of ministry experience. And it’s not like our pastor is 80. It is pretty evenly spread… and can be a little scary for a gal who has been “officially” in ministry for less than a year.
Anyway, I was praying and God gave me a pretty deep heart message to share. The members of our staff were all going through some pretty crazy life stuff the week before: adoption, death of a father, cancer diagnosis of a parent, army junk, you name it, it was probably happening… So I shared the following message right out of my journal, which turned out to be a culmination of several different Jesus Calling takeaways as well as Prayer Week epiphanies.
“God is nudging us to continue to make Him the center of everything, knowing that He is bigger than death, cancer, exhaustion, the army, finances, all of it. It is in our everyday life circumstances that we MUST remember to He is walking with us. With Him holding onto our hand, we can live above our circumstances, living each day in light of eternity. We don’t have to walk the curvy, dark paths found within our circumstances. Instead, we can walk daily with Him on the staircase to heaven.
This is hard to do. Not only do our circumstances seem daunting at times, but the enemy is right there, waiting to whisper clever half-lies to keep us focused on the dark clouds of our circumstances. But God calls us to the light, because He is the light and in Him there is no darkness at all. No dark clouds. No ominous motives. No curvy paths. He gives us more grace and mercy than we could ever need. We must simply look upwards, stretch out our hands and receive those free gifts.
God does not call us to anything more than we can handle. He gives us circumstances according to our abilities. We can walk with Him and know that He is the one who called us to it, is faithful and will do it. OR… we can rely on our own strength, thinking we can tackle the dark clouds and curvy paths on our own as we walk in darkness. Which do you choose?
God desires to help us. If we keep every action and thought focused on him, we can live with Him ABOVE our cloudy circumstances, safe in His arms and on the path to heaven. Then and only then will be live be able to live in the meaningful life that God gave us. We will be literally… walking on the clouds.”
Wow, deep right? I thought so too. But don’t worry. I chose to bust out my iPad and share the following picture that God also gave me as I was writing to lighten the mood a bit…
I will give you a second to stop laughing. (Yeah, I had to wait for the staff to stop cracking up too. Praise the Lord for humor right?)
Let me quickly explain this picture a bit. On the left, you notice the faces. That’s you. Well, kinda. Maybe you are totally legit with where you are with life, or maybe you are overwhelmed you could throw up or you would like to sit down and cry. You pick.
In the world part of the picture, we have the “poo” of life. There’s a lot of it. The gray squiggly line? Yeah, that’s the path we can walk without Jesus. OR we can choose that sweet architecturally correct yellow staircase to heaven. As we walk up the staircase, we cut through the dark icky circumstance clouds. On the top is heaven, where all the love and great things are at. The smiley face at the top? You guessed it. That’s Jesus, standing right beside the checkered “congrats-you-finished-the-race” flags.
Are you living above your circumstances and walking on clouds, knowing that God is bigger than EVERYTHING going on in your life? Or are you wading through the poo in the world along on that dark, curvy path?
It’s your choice. Personally, I’m all about walking towards the hearts, kisses and extremely smiley Jesus. Go ahead. Choose the golden staircase and ask God to be your guide. Live above your circumstances and you too will soon be walking on clouds.
Cutting through the clouds (and the poo),
SGK
“Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute— you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.” Psalm 139:7-12 (MSG)
