Welcome (back) to Georgia

"Welcome to Georgia!"  I saw these signs everywhere as I arrived back in the US with the 21 other people I just spent the last two months in Kenya with.

This was my second time in East Africa.

It was not anything like the first time I was there.

My team was completely new.

The ministries were completely new.

The church was completely new.

The entire experience was completely new.

And that's what I needed.

The Lord gave me newness in all areas this summer in order to break expectations I didn't even know I had.

So long I have been living under the rule of expectations, constantly trying to live up to what I think or what others think is required of me.

The Lord asked me to go on this trip not to continue to live under the rule of expectations, but to experience freedom from them and relish in knowing the Lord has made me sufficient.

As long as I do what God has asked of me, I have done enough.

It took me a while to realize this, and not without the wise words of my co-leaders, but I was able to step into this with confidence through the course of the summer.

I ended this last semester in the freedom God has given me, without expectations, and in anticipation of what He has next.  This ending transfers over as the beginning of this upcoming semester, and I cannot wait to see what else the Lord will walk me into if this beginning is already so good.

Not in a Spirit of Fear

The other night my entire bedroom was uproariously laughing at a super lame joke.  There was snorting, honking, gasping for air, and cackles.  Even in our over-tired state there was so much joy filling the room, and I was sure God was laughing with us.

All of a sudden our laughter stopped and every head turned toward the window.  We heard a scary noise.  There was a bit of rustling and some heavy footsteps.  Every heart in the room started racing, eyes wide open in the dark, ears perked to hear what might happen next.  Our spirits froze.

But we have not been created in a spirit of fear.  We are not meant to fear anything.  We are meant to rest in the peace our Lord gives us, knowing that we have been created in His image, knowing that we have authority because of how we were created.

But I couldn't help it.  The Enemy placed some fear around me, and instead of fighting against it, I succumbed to it.  My mind raced through all the horrible possibilities of what might happen.  I was making up a thousand what if circumstances, deciding how to make a run for it rather than stand up and fight.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to choke out the words "in the name of Jesus Christ, there is no fear, and in the name of Jesus Christ, we are protected."  Within five minutes of this declaration, all the girls in my bedroom were sleeping, including myself.  God dropped a divine rest upon my room, and we all woke up feeling more refreshed and joyful than the day before.

When I woke up in the morning, after recounting the terrifying noise, I went to examine the compound to see what it could have been.  Turns out it was the guard dog bumping his food dish around the driveway, and the footsteps was the security guard trying to make the dog stop.

There was nothing to fear afterall.  What amazes me is how we allow the Enemy to take a dog's food dish and turn it into a murderous prison escapee breaking into our room.

All this to say, we ought to stand in the authority and strength we have as children of God, knowing we are protected and can cast out fear in Jesus's name.  If I had remembered to do this in the first place I would have saved a lot of adrenaline from pumping vigorously and unneccesarily through my veins.

New... Again, and Again, and Again

The other day God gave me an incredible revelation:


Just because you are struggling today with something you struggled with one year ago does not mean you are taking steps backwards.

It means He is making you new... again.

He is always making you new.

You were new a year ago.

You were new six months ago.

You were new last month.

And yesterday.

And now you are new today.

God always has something more for us.
A deeper intimacy.
A greater mercy.
Bigger eyes to see.
More words to speak.

God takes us to places where He knows we will be stretched and where He knows we will grow.
Shouldn't we be happy we have struggles?  Even if they are the same as they were a year ago or a decade ago, it means the Lord loves us enough to bring us closer to Him, to make us more like Him, and to make us newer than we were a minute ago.