The Dare to Live the Truest Thing {Five Minute Friday}
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My heart is blessed as I look back to the very first five minutes I spent nervously sewing together syllables on starting out small and living the truest thing. If you had told me back in August that this cup of words would be overflowing, and that my heart would be transformed through this gathering of women, I scarcely would have believed. I know now that Hannah's invitation to the party was the Lord's tangible provision.
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A moment of confession? I'm not much for having consistent quiet times, but the Lord will often bring to mind a verse or story that I think about throughout the day. Frequently, I find myself asking Him what He is trying to speak into my life through that particular piece of scripture. Lately, I have been meditating on the story of Gideon.
Gideon was the smallest man in the weakest tribe. When the angel of the Lord came to him, he was found hiding, crouched down in a wine press to thresh wheat. And all at once, I realize how much of my life, my one and only life here, is spent the same way: in fear of being discovered by that which knows and desires to exploit my weakness.
We have an enemy who revels in stealing, killing, and destroying, and the target is our joy. And he knows so well that if he can just gnaw away at our joy, our strength wanes in tow.
But our hearts are never hidden from the call of the Almighty. He has a way about Him, always reaching into our most vulnerable and dark places.
The angel said to Gideon, "the Lord is with you, mighty warrior."
Um, excuse me, I think you must have the wrong person, Lord. Surely, if you knew me -- if you knew about my anxiety, my depression, my addiction, my baggage, how I hurt that person; surely, if you knew what other people were saying about me, you wouldn't be calling me a mighty warrior.
We all have our stuff that keeps us from getting out of the boat. Stuff that we think disqualifies us. Gideon replies that he cannot possibly defeat the enemy, as he does not have the strength.
The miracle of grace is that our baggage is not the banner waving over us {Click to Tweet}. The Lord tells Gideon to go in the strength that he has. He tells Gideon that He will go with him.
And there it is, in front of my eyes in scripture: a dare to live the truest thing I know. The call to step out of the boat in faith, knowing that his voice calms the swell of the waves.
Because the Father's joy is to make a way where there seems to be none, to come to the smallest, the least likely, and accomplish the unthinkable. Gideon went in the strength that he had, and defeated the enemy.
I wonder what strength I have. Is it the strength to say a kind word when I am feeling frustrated? The strength to be patient with the unhurried daycare worker when I am late to a visit between a mother and her child? The strength to speak life into that mother's heart, even though it seems as though the deck has been stacked against her?
Sometimes it takes all the strength I have to get out of bed and come to this job again. But then, I realize that we, too, have been given the ability to reach into the pain in the lives of the people around us and come alongside them.
The most appropriate response to the gift of grace is to give -- give beyond what we think we can, knowing that the Lord will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory.
This, this, is how we overcome.
Sharing words and shaping culture with some of the most gracious women on the planet today at Lisa-Jo's place. I guarantee, you don't want to miss out on this party.
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