Get Out of The Boat!

I was tagged in a photo on my Facebook page from 20 years ago when I worked at Malibu, a Young Life Camp in Canada. I was nicknamed Fern that summer because I had really big hair, particularly my bangs! I often remark to my husband how much I miss the old Lisa- care free and with a faith that seemed so real, alive, and easy. It was easy to be a Christian back then. I was surrounded by Christians like myself. I was part of something special, reaching teens for Christ. It was exciting to watch lives being changed and to have my own life changed by these experiences.

I would do anything for God as long as I was comfortable and liked.

I remember telling a friend 8 years ago that I was a seed planter. People knew I was a Christian but I wasn't about to proclaim anything about my faith that might make me uncomfortable or not liked. I managed safety for many years in my walk with God. Sure I heard sermons and read passages in the Bible that spoke of the discomfort about being a Christian, but I did everything to protect myself from experiencing any of that. I was managing my faith and why rock the boat. As God was preparing my heart to begin Faith Journey Bible Studies almost 14 years ago, little did I know that my boat was about to get rocked in a big way! All of a sudden, I was forced to come out of MY closet as a Christian and let it be known what my faith was all about.

God has taught me many things through these experiences;

I am beyond my comfort zone, I understand what rejection feels like, I have been lonely, I have been persecuted for my faith, laughed at and ridiculed, rejected, and have felt people distancing themselves from me. As a recovering people pleaser, this has been very difficult.

I tell God often, He has me in the wrong place. But deep down I know He has me exactly where He wants me to be. Scripture over and over affirms our purpose as Christians in this world."You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14(NIV).

Maybe you can relate to this? We are good at maintaining a safe distance from others and comfort level when it comes to our Christian faith. We do everything to blend in with the world and not stand out. The safer route is just to believe in God, the harder route is to begin walking with God. John Ortberg has a great book called, "If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat." I am grateful to be where I am at in my journey with God because where He has taken me from and where He is taking me to is developing me into a woman who is living more care free and full of adventurous life than she was 20 years ago but without the big bangs!

Focus on What You Know to Be True

I had a wonderful conversation a few months ago with a dear friend regarding Christianity and all the other religions out there in the world. These sometimes are my favorite conversations to have because they remind me so much of what my faith rests on-Jesus! One of her comments to me was,

“Lisa, everyone has the same conviction and passion regarding their belief system as you do. Everyone believes their way is the right way and that requires some sort of faith."

She has an interesting point.

 As I finished my conversation, I thought of a few things about Christianity that perplex me - Why does God care so much about ME? This world is so huge, how can I be significant to God? I am just a little peon woman living in Folsom. Is my conviction and passion for my faith really the same as the Muslim, the Buddhist, and the Hindu? They seem committed to their beliefs too? What is the difference? These are some questions I look forward to chatting with God about over my low fat latte in Heaven one day. Things that don’t make sense to me, or I can’t find the perfect answer for? I am sure you have your own “God Questions.”

But what do I know? What do I know to be true about God? What do I know about His promises? What do I know about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? What do I know about when I pray to God and He hears me and answers me. What do I know about the power of the Holy Spirit working daily in my life to help guide me in and out of my situations and circumstances? There is so much I do know and that is where I am choosing to put my faith in. Not the things that confuse me or doesn’t make sense to me.

Paul tells us in Romans 11:33: 

“Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen”

Divine Appointments

I am so thankful that my life is not built upon good luck and random coincidences.

That behind every event and season of my life is a God at work, orchestrating His divine details exactly suited for me. Every day there are missed opportunities to see the ways God is working. He is always eager to show us His plan, if we dare take the time to seek Him in all of the spaces and places of our lives. I have so many God stories and by the end of my life, my prayer would be that my entire life story is a legacy I can leave behind where God is the one who shines through as the author and creator of my life rather than me! 

Writing Bible studies for women is the last thing I would have imagined myself doing at this stage of my life. Clearly all efforts of my works are a work of His Spirit giving me the desire and the wisdom to work outside of my comfort level and use the gifts God has given me. Consequently, this has produced a lot of insecurity within me. Almost daily I am putting my fears and insecurities before God. It is a vulnerable thing to display your heart on pages others are reading and may be critical of. Oh, the impossible things God wants to do in our lives! 

A few years, I was working on a Hebrews Faith Journey Study in the café at my church while my kids were in youth group. On this particular evening, I happened to catch this beautiful middle aged woman working on her Beth Moore study. She had her Bible and workbook out and was so engaged in her time with God. It was awesome to watch the Spirit at work in her heart. 

I strained my neck to look at Beth’s study and saw pages and pages of her gracious, well thought, and theologically grounded writing. I looked at my Hebrews Study and thought to myself, “Really Lisa, you think you are a writer and that women will be interested in your study?” Instantly, my countenance changed and the enemy began to wreak havoc in my mind. “Quit now. You don’t have time for this. Just use the studies already out there.” How does the enemy mess with you when it comes to those assignments you clearly didn’t sign up for? I am convinced the ones we choose for ourselves, the enemy is not as busy to discourage and mess with us as those God sized assignments.

Defeated and discouraged I packed my bags and began to leave. As I brushed past her table, I caught out of the corner of my eye, a woman sitting at another table with her Bible and was flipping through her study. To my surprise, it happened to be a Faith Journey Bible Study on the Book of Ephesians. I did not know this woman and assumed she was in a group led by two dear friends of mine. Immediately, tears filled my eyes and I knew this was a divine appointment by the Lord to bring some clarity and to affirm what He wanted me to continue pursuing with Him. As I looked up into the moon lit sky, He affirmed the unique voice He has given me to write Bible Studies. In His economy, He needs all of us to raise our voices and not grow weary or defeated because we are not as loud as others, as mature as others, as spiritual as others. He only wants our availability. I told the Lord that night that I would continue to be available for Him to speak through me in writing Bible studies, teaching, and encouraging other Faith Journey Groups to get started until He called me elsewhere.

Having two women sitting side by side at a church café working on two different Bible studies may not appear divine to most people observing. However, for me it was. God used an ordinary circumstance to teach me something extraordinary about Him. It’s not that He needs me to write Bible Studies, He wants me to need Him and allow His grace to flow through me completely! Where do you see God calling you to do the impossible? Is it really about YOU and what you can or cannot do or about God and who He wants to use to bring glory to His Name?

Isaiah 43:1-7 says,

But now, thus says the Lord, your creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed even whom I have made" (NASB).