Thursday, December 16, 2010

Iceberg Dead Ahead

No, I wasn’t on a ship that sunk. But my bank account has sunk a bit, not too mention I’m battling to stay above water with my joy-as this passenger aboard ship tries to get to the bottom of horrible navigation from leadership we are supposed to trust. I’m flailing fighting against the idea to be “joyful in all trials and tribulations.”

Yesterday it rained. Last night it froze. My car was about two miles from my friend’s house. When taking my exit, police lights shine brightly, much like the star in the east. Just beyond that star is where my destination lies. Unfortunately after this wise man made a closer examination, the realization occurred that someone hit an ice patch and found their way into the sidewall of the ramp. Immediately my gut said, “turn around.” I wish I had listened. My wise man score just dropped to a “b”.

After thirty minutes, traffic began to move. Joy rose up in me. My nerves were already beginning to nudge me in anticipation of getting to my destination safely. A parking space at an apartment complex never sounded so good. Halfway up the off ramp, all of we ramp passengers come to a stand still. Thirty minutes passes. An hour passes. It was time to make friends. Out of my car and into the cold I went. It felt like being at a PTA meeting with parents who weren’t happy with the school system. Although one man was content to be sitting still after his car had recently three-sixtied on the main highway. After the meeting it was back to the car to get warm. Another light, yet not the star of the east, but despair—the gaslight. The yellow couldn’t have shouted at me any louder. The options: turn of my car and be cold or stay warm and go ahead and call AAA for gas. Survey says: car off.

Two hours pass. It was getting colder outside and inside the car, and I was getting restless and more nervous. After two hours of fidgeting, I felt a small nudging from the Lord to spend some time with Him. The first thing I asked for was for Him to supernaturally fill my gas tank and my car with heat.

Thirty minutes later a cop arrives. It is now 12:30 am (three hours into the process) After assessing the situation, and after realizing he couldn’t even drive halfway up the ramp, I was at least hoping for a verdict. All of us received one. We had to abandon our cars for the night because due to the iceberg at the top of the hill, no one could pass. We were then asked to come back at 8 am to retrieve our cars. After getting two bags from my trunk, I struggled up the hill, using any car I could to help me ice ski to safety.

8 a.m. and the car is nowhere to be found. After investigation it is learned that all the cars were impounded and towed away. Two hours later, $139 poorer, and irritation at a new level, phone calls are beginning to be made as to the reason for this debacle. No answers yet, but this steamboat is full speed ahead.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Mary Christmas

Mary had to not only become pregnant with the Messiah, but must have been pregnant with many questions. She must have had so many thoughts and feelings as she took upon one of the greatest miracles ever. Dealing with the fact that she, out of all women on the earth, was highly favored by God and was the chosen one to carry salvation within her, yet face her people, friends and family with information that in the natural would never be comprehendible.

As my mind contemplated Mary this morning, I couldn’t help but be quickened to the thought that we are all impregnated with a miracle within us. There are stirrings in us that can only be accomplished in a supernatural way. There are stirrings in me- dreams, visions- that seem like impossible walls to scale, and like Mary are met with immediate fear and questions. The Angel put all fear away with a quick retort to not fear. It seems as if it were a command. Why should there be no fear, because there is favor. Favor is what allows the birth of dreams, a birth of royal things that take the throne and rule the kingdom. Something that seemed so insignificant as pregnancy became the equivalent of universal freedom for all people.

“I’m the Lord’s servant…may it be!” Trust fills those words. Mary came into the acknowledgment that humanly this was an impossible situation, but as the angel told her, nothing is impossible with God. A woman who was filled with humility became the key to revolutionize this world. A woman who stepped out in courageous faith birthed an unshakeable kingdom.

Sometimes you have to say and declare things before they happen. I wonder if Mary in faith said, “May it be” before she really believed it could be, and the evidential truth followed her faith. Or perhaps in that moment something rose up in her that she stood with unwavering strength in her protected favor. All in all, as we know the Lord has impregnated us with dreams we can easily hear the everyday world seems to laugh at us in its impossibility. But impossibility isn’t possible with God.

May it be.