Find God everywhere - including the mundane!

From time to time, I get the pleasure of stepping back and allowing God to speak through my children to someone other than myself...like...MY WIFE!!!  

Janelle and I have been on a journey over the last 10+ years pursuing God's heart for the nations.  The road has been long and frustrating as we have attempted to walk through doors that we thought were open but were really closed, doors that had been open but that got shut in our face halfway through the threshold, or else doors that we probably knew were closed in the first place but that we hoped we could break open if we ran at them full force.  We've come to the conclusion that the dream God has placed in our hearts to spread the Kingdom overseas really comes from Him, but that the timing for whatever reason isn't quite right.  In the meantime, we meet the need to travel by doing lame things that make us feel like we have moved out of the country - we rearrange furniture.  Ha.  That sounded even more lame when I read it back to myself than it did when I thought it in my head.  Sometimes we paint walls or switch all our bedrooms around.  We've even been known to buy a new house, live in it for a year or two, and flip for a profit.  

For the most part, God seems to bless our endeavor to cope with the burden He has placed in us.  But every now and then, restlessness takes over that is clearly not from Him and we find ourselves struggling with discontent.  

This morning, while lying in bed, Janelle decided we should move - again.  I suggested she check her heart and explore whether or not she is feeling fulfilled by the Lord.  Right about then, Keziah came to our bedroom and wanted to show us a letter she wrote for us while we were sleeping in (or trying to).  I took a picture, just to rub it in...

Word for the day:  Change for the sake of change will only bring temporary satisfaction.  You can't run from discontent.  Find God everywhere - including the mundane.

"I love you Daddy and Mommy.  You are the ants in your pants mommy.  Daddy you are the best singer ever Daddy."

"You just don't wanna deal with my mess."

Was making lunch for my daughter this afternoon and turned around to find her pouring grape juice into a cup by herself - and I'm not talking white grapes.  I quickly hurried over to her without making too much noise.  I didn't want to startle her and in the process cause her to make the mess which I suspected was about to be made anyway.  I came around from behind her grabbed the jug out of her right hand and braced the cup with my left.

"Lemme help you with that.  You don't wanna make a mess."

As soon as I said it, I knew I was wrong - and that Mia was going to tell me about it.

"No, dad, it's not that.  You just don't wanna deal with my mess."

The way she said it stung - her choice of words...DEAL.  I began to think about it.  She was right.  The potential "mistake" would have been inconsequential - what, a little spilled juice and some stained clothes?  Not really that big of a deal.  This kid has only a few articles of clothing left that aren't stained anyway.  What's a few more?

The truth is, apart from fearing my response to her mistake, she really didn't care all that much if she spilled the juice.  I just didn't feel like being inconvenienced with her mess.  And that's when I felt the Lord tug on my heart and ask me some hard questions - questions that expose how I view Him as a Father... "Is that what you think I feel about you?  That the messes you make when you try something new inconvenience me?  That I'm hovering over your shoulder waiting for the slightest hint of a mistake so I can take over and just do it myself?  Do you think i DEAL with you and your condition, that I put up with you?"

So often, I make decisions with the perspective that their consequences are about to define my entire life.  Nagging at my heart somewhere in the background noise is the fear that I'll make a mess and that I'll put those around me - God Himself - in a position to have to DEAL with me.  I need to remind myself that God is not afraid of what might happen if I fail Him.  That He knows the end from the beginning and isn't intimidated by my imperfections.  He doesn't deal with me.  He wants me.  The areas where I lack do not inconvenience my Father.

Maybe it's time for some adults to join "children's church"

Mia often talks to herself and I find that when I listen in, I am sometimes given the opportunity to witness some pretty amazing conversations between herself and the Lord.

This afternoon, she has been talking to herself about what Jesus looks like.  When I asked what she was saying, she told me she thought His hair would be longer than it is cause of the way she has seen him drawn in her books.  Mia has a thing for hair.  Her best friend Logan (who she insists she will someday marry) one time told her after getting a hair cut that he liked it better long.  Around the same time, she began to memorize the songs from the Disney movie "Tangled" and since then will not allow anyone close to her hair with a pair of scissors.  She wants it long like Rapunzel and will not be happy until it touches the ground.

She continued, "But He doesn't look like a girl in real life.  And His hair isn't really that long."  I asked her how she knows so much about Jesus' hair and when the last time she saw Him was.  Listen to this - She told me that He likes to come when there are lots of kids all together in one place.

I like that.

She said the last time she saw Jesus was when Karla was teaching the kids at our house church.  Hmmm...I wonder if Karla knows that while she was no doubt struggling to deal with the behavioral issues that surface when 20+ kids under the age of 8 are crammed into a livingroom/dining room...that Jesus himself was sitting in on the lesson and showing my daughter the difference between how He really looks vs how the children's bible depicts Him.

It's an interesting thought to ponder...
I wonder how often the filter of how others have depicted Him to us conflicts with His true image?  I wonder how different He looks in person from the way we perceive Him to be?  Is He kinder?  More gentle?  Is he patient and caring?  Does he seem to understand us or is he sorta distant and stoic?  Is He happy or sad or angry?

Perhaps we should consider whether or not what we see when we look at Him lines up with who He actually is.