It might feel like we're locked in the tomb, but SUDDENLY is coming!

Early this week, as I asked the Lord what He wanted to show me, there were two plants in my garden that particularly caught my attention. The first were some of my azaleas. Although at first glance, they didn’t appear to have any blooms on them, on closer inspection I realised they were covered in tiny buds that will SUDDENLY burst forth. I felt the Lord saying that in the place where we see nothing happening there will be a SUDDEN shift.

The second plants were the daffodils, and the word trumpet. The centre part of the daffodil is known as the “trumpet”. It felt to me that the TRUMPET is being sounded. As I reflected on what that was like, I found the following reasons for the trumpet to be blown on the “One for Israel” website:

· Time to pack up camp and move on, when the Israelites were traveling in the desert

· Time to gather the people and call an assembly

· To mark a sacrifice on a feast day

· A warning of war or danger

· To praise

· To declare a procession or feast

· Proclaiming a king

· Assembling the troops for battle

· To be used in battle

· To declare victory

It doesn’t take much to see how this relates to the season we are in. It is time to move into a new place; time to gather in unity (even if it is only virtual!); we are in a battle, but we can still praise and proclaim Jesus as King. He has already won the victory!

A number of people have suggested that right now we are in a “selah” moment, a time to pause, to stop. This morning I read of a picture Kaylie Singh had “…of a dark room and a person trying to force the door behind him to stay open…because he wouldn’t be able to see anything…there was a time of waiting…in the dark before the new door would be opened to him.”.

As I pondered this, I was reminded of how the disciples must have felt when Jesus was crucified and laid in the grave. The despair and hopelessness, the sense of loss of all the dreams and desires they had for the past three years with Him. There was no going back, but equally there seemed no way forward. And in that, I had a sense of us, joining Jesus in that tomb. Many of us have been seeking a way out of this "dark room" we find ourselves in. We are looking for any crack or crevice where light might enter, that might indicate an escape route. The door we came in - the desire to go back the way we came, back to "normal" - is enormously attractive, but even that is firmly shut to us.

Reflecting on the tomb, it is the place of laying down all our striving, all our desires and even our fears, and there is a sense we have no other choice but to wait on Him, to wait for Him to show us the way forward. However, at the same time, it fills me with excitement, because when the tomb opens, I see that the darkness will SUDDENLY be flooded with glorious light; there will be a SUDDEN bursting forth and the TRUMPET blast calling us into victory and the new season with our King!

Preparing the ground: A message for the Church (Part 2)

I often sense God speaking to me through spiritual parallels of what I see going on in the natural world around me. A little while back I felt Him speaking to me about the Church as I overhauled a section of our garden.

We live in a cottage that is over 100 years old, situated on around an acre of land. Although the garden is well-established, it ended up in disarray as the previous owner aged and was no longer able to keep up. It has taken much time and effort to restore and rebuild, as has the house. Although there are some “good bones” to it all, including some amazingly beautiful specimen trees of great height and strength, there have been many areas which ivy, blackberries, wisteria, “weed trees” - those growing in the wrong places - and a myriad of other weeds and pest plants had overtaken. Some plants lacked proper tending or pruning and have grown crookedly or in an unbalanced way. While we have been able to salvage many, others have needed complete removal.

In the past, my gardening had consisted of merely adding plants to fill the gaps just to keep the garden going and provide less space for weeds. It gave me little overall satisfaction. More recently, I have felt energised to make a fresh start on some areas.

I began completely revamping one of the garden beds removing many weeds and unhelpful or struggling plants that were in the wrong place. Much of the area had very little growing in it, and those things I had planted were generally quite unproductive. As I started digging over the soil, I found the reason:

The soil was choked and hardened by masses of tangled roots from previous plants long since gone.

It took a great deal of work to get it ready for re-planting. This was the prompt for the thoughts that follow.

As I removed new plants from their pots and placed them in the hole in the garden bed, which was now very easy to dig due to our excellent mountain soil, I thought about how much joy there is in planting:

Most of us love to plant, but how little do we enjoy the hard work preparing the soil for the planting.

In the past, I have often been in too much hurry to see the end result of planting without doing the preparation. I had really not put in the effort to establish a good environment for the plant to grow well. Sometimes I have put plants in inappropriate places simply because I like them, not because they are right for the environment or position. Subsequently they have really struggled and not grown well, or simply died.

What I felt from God was something of a caution, or advice.

We are living in a season where many are sensing a great move of God. Things are stirring and shifting and the hunger for revival is rising. In among all this, I sense what God is showing me through my garden is not only what He is doing in the Church, but also about how we need to cooperate with Him if we want the change to be lasting.

Preparation is an essential beginning.

For at least the last decade or more, there has been a sense for me that God has been pruning, removing, digging up, stirring up, relocating His people. It has came with the feeling that the time for us to get on board and work with Him in this had a limit: if we refuse to move, or to allow the pruning, we will get left out/behind in what He is going to do next – such an important part of preparing His Bride. Just as with my garden,

God wants a Church that is well-prepared so it can grow well.

I believe church communities must be prepared to reassess what they are doing, to be prepared to rein some activities in, to prune them back and decrease the focus on them. Others simply need to go completely – they are either total weeds, taking over a distracting from God’s work, or they are in the wrong place – might be lovely somewhere else, but not for what God is doing in that particular community.

There are other places where there are still roots from things long gone. These are more difficult to remove. They might be belief systems about “how church works” or structures within church systems that no longer feed anything, but simply cause a blockage and prevent further growth and sustenance. They may have once been good, but are now simply a hindrance to further growth.

In a nutshell, I believe that while there are aspects of our faith communities that are like my strong, beautiful trees, that give structure and form, there are many aspects of how we “do church” that are past their prime and are no longer functioning or productive to our purpose. They may have simply been “place fillers”, or even worse, weeds; things we did to look productive or fill our space. Some of them were things we just wanted to do because we liked them, or they looked good in another church community, but in the long run they have either had no purpose, or not been productive in the way we might have wished.

As I mentioned in Part 1, we really need to reassess how we “do church” as a whole – come back to our true vision and calling, as The Church and as church communities and even as individuals. Along with the previous questions, we might ask these:

What is our calling in the community we are part of and how is the best way to do this with our resources, both human and otherwise?

Are we prepared to scrutinise every aspect of our church life in partnership with the Holy Spirit to determine our best way forward to be the most effective we can for the Kingdom?

Are there areas of our community life that we declare “untouchable” – sacred cows that tolerate no reassessment? These are often the areas in most need of change!

No going back: A message for the Church (Part 1)

As I have been watching churches scramble to bring some sense of normalcy and connection into their congregations at this time, when everything seems to have been tipped upside down, I am reminded of a dream I had just over two years ago.

It was quite a graphic and disturbing dream and everything was in full colour. In the dream, I was in something like an observation room overlooking a surgical theatre. All was pristine white, and there was a very large man lying on a gurney or operating table. Even as I looked, I realised he was fat because he was pregnant, and indeed, was in the process of birthing. It disturbed me and I was thinking, “That’s unnatural, but I guess it is to be expected these days”.

As I watched, there were three or four other men around him, all in white coats (like doctors), and as I wondered how he could physically give birth, they started to cut him open. They were behind him, and started cutting up along his spine starting at his buttocks and then, to my further horror, started peeling off his skin. He was screaming out in pain, and as I watched in revulsion the men were saying, it’s ok, he’ll be all right as we have another skin to replace this one with. At this point, there was another man standing in with them, watching, and I understood that they were going to give his skin to the original man. At this point, the dream was disturbing me so much I woke up.

Creative Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wings_Laparoscopic_operating_theatre.jpg

Reflecting and praying into what this dream means, I have sensed is that it is a message about the Church. There are several points that stand out to me.

Over the last few decades, as many branches of the Church have struggled with decline in numbers, various groups have investigated what needs to change to remain relevant or in touch with the general population, to bring people back in or keep them from leaving. To this end,

there have been numerous attempts to “birth” something new.

While not all of this has been negative, in a number of circumstances, all we have really been doing is changing the outward appearance (the “skin”) without actually changing the fact that underneath we are still operating out of “man’s” flesh or the ways of the world. In short, I believe we have often been trying to birth the things of man, rather than things of the spirit. It reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the new wine in old wineskins, except this is trying to put new wineskins on old wine. However, I believe the old ways of doing things will no longer work; they are causing too much pain  - it is time for the Church to come into a new season of the Spirit in every way.

It’s time for NEW wine in NEW wineskins!

I see that this way of operating, looking to ideas of human origin has invaded many branches of the Church, whether traditional, charismatic, Pentecostal or otherwise alternative. Wherever we are tangled up in the difference between what we “should do” and how to “be” the people of God we will continue to struggle. This is both at a personal and corporate level, although in many scenarios, what some leadership carry can infect the congregation adversely as well.

To me, the underlying issue is whether our mode of operation is from the perspective of the knowledge of good and evil (i.e. “this is right, this is wrong”, “do this to be a “good Christian”, to have the “favour of God””) or whether we are truly connecting people with the life source, allowing Holy Spirit to be their Guide and Counsellor, helping people to be connected first to God and then to each other, so that each person’s identity is firmly in relationship with God, rather than looking constantly to church leaders to know how we must behave and whether or not we are on the “right path”.

Over the last few years, it has become very clear that we are moving into a new era. The era of the Church being the primary focus in relation to our faith is quite abruptly over, I believe. With COVID-19 and the lockdowns, we have been catapulted out of the comfortable nest of “church-life” into the air, to living out “Kingdom life”. This is not to say that Church is over, but I certainly believe it is being stripped of all that needs to go. We are being released from all those things that have tied us to the ground and prevented us soaring as we are meant to.

The KINGDOM ERA has begun!

Part of another dream I had a couple of months back also relates in here. In the dream, I was hanging out washing (just doing normal life), and as I did, I became aware of a swirling mist coming down through the trees. (We live in the mountains, with tall forest around us.) Just as I was wondering if it was actually mist or whether it was smoke from someone burning off (either of which was going to disrupt what I was doing!), I smelt the smoke, but also started hearing the crackling of burning green leaves. Things then happened very rapidly, with the crackling getting louder and louder and then the very large (20+m) pittosporum trees across the road from us suddenly bursting into flame. Even as I called 000, emergency services, I got a text on my phone stating, “we are aware of an incident in your area”. Straight after this, I got a call from a firefighter (I could see him in uniform – whoever said dreams had to be practical!), asking what was going on. As I looked back to the trees, I realised that the fire had already gone out. All that was left was blackened branches against the sky, with one central branch still burning.

As I explored the meaning of this dream, which again, I felt was about the Church, I feel the important part for this discussion is about the leaves. As I was looking into the significance of the type of trees burning (which didn’t really turn up much for me), what I was aware of is the fact that they are very prolifically leafy, which has its benefits. However, it reminded me that when trees produce a great deal of leaves, this can inhibit their ability to produce fruit. In fact, leafiness, to an extent, can be inversely proportional to fruitfulness.

The message to the Church as I see it is that much of what we have been doing has been producing leaves not fruit. God, in His gracious mercy, is giving us the opportunity for radical change. In this time of inability to continue with “business as usual”, we have a unique opportunity to really dig deep and reassess what is important for the Church, the Body perhaps especially down to how we are structured. As restrictions pare us back to the bare bones, will we continue to desperately scramble to work out how we can continue with “business as usual”, or are we ready to go on the Holy Spirit ride of our lives for something completely new?

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Is 43:19

As others have observed, the time for “cookie cutter” or “church franchising” is over. It is time to stop looking to what has worked elsewhere and simply adding it to our own model and hoping for the same results.

We have to look to God alone for our unique way forward.

To help us move ahead and find the new that God for us, the questions below are a starting point:

“What is God’s vision for our village/town/region?”

“What has God placed in our area is unique or particular to us in our role to enlarge and release the Kingdom of God where we are?” 

“What is already going on that doesn’t match up with that vision?”

“What are the gifts and abilities God has already placed in our community to bring about this vision, that illuminate our role in this?”

“How can we work with the other communities of God in our area to bring about this vision?”

2020: It’s time to LEAP into ABUNDANCE

At the beginning of a new year, loss is not what we really want to focus on. However, loss is such a reality for many of us. Here in Australia, where much of our country is suffering crippling drought compounded by devastating bush fires, many are painfully aware of the experience of loss. Of course, we only have to flick on the news to realise that war, economic hardships, unrest, to name only some of the issues, leave few in our world untouched by encounters with loss.

When we live with enough profound and deep loss, though, it can threaten to become our identity. Like Naomi in the book of Ruth (my Bible just flipped open at this passage this morning!), we can decide to allow it to change how we see ourselves, our life and our future. We can believe that our life will never again be “pleasant” (the meaning of Naomi) and that we are destined to experience only “bitterness”. Just as Naomi asked to be called Marah, (which means bitter), we see this to be our lot for life.

In life, most people suffer terrible loss at some point. If you have, you understand the crippling, soul destroying vacuum that threatens to overwhelm all desire for living further – the inability to even hope that you might feel joy, or even peace, again. Loss and all its associated grief and pain can become a black hole in our being which seems as though it will swallow up all goodness and hope that may ever come our way for all our future. Indeed, it appears that it may well even have stolen our future, to the point we can see nothing ahead for us but continuing pain and bitterness.

In the past, as we have stepped into the new year, I have asked God for a word for the year ahead. Reflecting back, I can see they have been very accurate, although not necessarily in ways I expected or hoped.

At the beginning of 2017, the word was “resilience”. I remember well my disappointment with that one! Just as with learning patience, I knew resilience can only develop by going through tough times. As I look back through my blogs and journaling, I know that year did not produce many of the answers, breakthroughs and promises I was hoping to see. But woven through, I see the unwavering hand and love of my Father, drawing me deeper into Him, teaching me to focus more and more on Him and not my circumstances, building my faith and my ability to hold on to Him even when I don’t see the answers I want come to fruition. In the face of unrelenting disappointments and a lack of restitution of those losses we have felt God’s promise to restore, we have been learning the resilience to simply continue to stand when that is all we can do.

In 2018, to my excitement, “anticipation” popped into my consciousness. The desires of my heart that I was anticipating did not materialise, though. However, shifts have come in situations, relationships and the “bigger picture” I believe that God is more interested in. These have well answered (and continue to answer) the excitement of my anticipation.

This morning I was reminded to ask God if He had a word for me this year. As I put my knife into my nearly empty marmalade jar to scrape some out for my toast,

I felt Him whisper the word “abundance”.

Don’t you love His sense of irony!

Now, although I really like that word, there is a hesitation in my soul to be leaping in joy. So many hopes and promises we have been waiting on for years have not yet materialised. It does not quite feel safe to believe that I am hearing right.

Am I really hearing that? Or am I just making it up in my head because it is what I want?

I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment. After many years of feeling though we have been just getting by, continuously scraping the bottom of the barrel of our reserves (of energy, hope, finances, faith to name a few), the idea of abundance is even a little scary - it means letting go of mindsets that have become “normal”.

However, as I have been learning, it is so important that I don’t overlay this word with all I think it should mean.

I need to wait on Him to show me what abundance looks like in His realm; wait on Him for the abundance He wants to give me.

Which returns me to loss: surely the opposite of abundance.

What do we do with loss and how do we experience abundance when our losses seem irreplaceable?

First, for me, is the ever-deepening revelation of what God’s abundance is about.

On the surface, we can make abundance about material “stuff”: Prosperity in our goods and provisions and good times. At a slightly deeper level, we might make it about our relationships with family and friends, or even about opportunity to serve God.

However, I can’t help but reflect on this abundance through the lens of Matt 6:19-21

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Much of what we consider to be abundance and provision from the Lord (which it is good to be grateful for), can become our mainstay: when we put our trust and value into these things, they become props to our sense of well being and safety.

It is only when we suffer the loss of them that we realise what poor gods they make.

So then, what sort of abundance from the Lord can we and should we rely on? What does He really promise?

Galatians 5:22-3 springs to mind:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

(If you read this in context of the rest of the passage, the message becomes even more plain. However, this is a blog, not a sermon!)

The obvious problem with stuff and even relationships is that we can suffer from the loss of them. There are times where we have no ability to control that loss. In our relationship with God, though, His word promises us that nothing can separate us from His love (Rom 8:39). By extension, that means no matter what loss we experience in the physical realm, we still have access to those fruit of the Spirit, in abundance.

I know that these sorts of words can seem exceptionally trite and even unfeeling in the face of loss. However, this is something I have personally and painfully experienced. There have been a number of losses for me over the years that have felt like they have broken my heart and destroyed my life and future. And I know am far from perfecting living out of these words to the contrary.

More lately, though, I have started to get a picture of what it is like as we set our faces like flint toward God. When we feel like the situation in Isaiah 50, where it seems as though everything and everyone is against us, as though the pain, loss and destruction will never end, we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, (Heb 12:2). As we do this, in the picture I am seeing, the troubles and issues of this life become smaller and smaller and impact us less and less. Instead of our love, joy, peace, and hope coming from those things God provides us with, they come from Him directly. Nothing can separate us or sever that relationship unless we allow it (Rom 8:39).

A couple of years back, I was reading Psalm 23 in the Complete Jewish Bible. I didn’t get past the words “I lack nothing”. (Check out my blog on this here.) The landing point was that if I really believe this - that with God as my Shepherd I have no lack - I have to surrender the lack or loss I am experiencing to the Lord as well as all else.

Turning our faces toward 2020, we will only be able to receive and have space available for filling with all the abundance He promises as far as we commit to handing Him all those places of loss in our lives and our being that threaten to suck us dry and rob us of every good our Father has for us. (If you are not sure how to do this, it can be as simple as speaking it out loud, “Father God, I hand You all those places in me that have experienced loss. Please fill me afresh with Your abundance.”)

In the past weeks, I have been sitting with something I was sensing God was saying to me through my gazanias. (For those who don’t know, these are a flowering plant, as pictured here.)

The last six months or so, have found me energised to do much more work in my garden than in the past. There are places which have needed a complete start over and God has really been talking to me on a number of fronts through this (which may be another blog!).

As I have renovated my garden, though, it has included shifting some plants to fill spaces in different areas. My gazanias were one of those shifts.

These plants had been sitting in my garden doing very little for a number of years, despite the fact that they are known to be very resilient and prolific, both in growth and flowering. When I moved them, it was only a matter of a couple of metres distance, and I divided each plant in two.

Well! As we have SHIFTED into Summer, these plants have SHIFTED into overdrive. They have at least quadrupled in size and where in the past they may have produced maybe one or two flowers each year, this year they have been literally covered in flowers already, with more coming up behind. An overwhelming abundance!

What is different?

I can look at an obvious answer, that they are now getting that bit more sun compared to where they were. They are also not crowded out by weeds and other plants any more. Perhaps I have watered them more. However, the SHIFT was perhaps most important to them.

Like these plants, (who didn’t get a choice, but I believe they are happy with the choice I made!), sometimes

we have to allow God to SHIFT us if we want things to be different.

Saying we want to stay where we are and Him to move the sun and everything around us to give us “better growing conditions”, is probably not going to cut it with Him. In fact, when we start to dictate the conditions we want, we start to set ourselves up as god.

To allow the SHIFT to happen, though, we not only need to be prepared to let go of what we have and where we are, but also what we don’t have (our lack) and the pain and grief (and loss) of the past.

If you haven’t realised yet, 2020 is a LEAP year. As I have reflected on what this might look like, I keep getting a picture of a mountain goat LEAPING up onto and over boulder after boulder, higher and higher up a mountain, with great speed and agility. If you have ever seen how goats can jump, you will know that they can LEAP on and over obstacles that seem insurmountable. (Check them out on YouTube if you don’t know what I mean.)

I sense that this year, as we connect in with what God is doing

there is opportunity for us to LEAP up the mountain of obstacles that have held us back in the past, HIGHER and HIGHER in faith,

until the pain, grief and losses of the past are but distant memory. And here, we can experience the true abundance of His fruit, His love, peace and joy. However, we will not be able to do this holding onto our past losses, pain, grief, guilt, sadness and disappointments, to mention a few.

My encouragement:

Bring Him your empty marmalade jar, the yawning chasm of your losses and emptiness. As you lay them at the foot of the cross, consecrating and leaving them with Jesus, you create a different kind of space that He is more than willing and able to fill with His very great abundance.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Eph 3:14-21

Get ready for disruption!

Yesterday I went to meet some friends in the central part of the city. I thought I would catch the train as I enjoy being out among people as well as being able to sit and think my own thoughts or read a book on the hour long journey. On the way to the station, it started to rain. Getting there early, I sat in the car for a few minutes waiting for the rain to abate and eventually made the trek through the pouring rain to the platform, only to find the train was cancelled. Being a Saturday, the next one was going to get me in way too late, so I decided I was better off driving.

On my way, I reflected on my disappointment with not being on the train and the extra pressure of driving on the freeway in heavy rain, not to mention the traffic jams, gridlock and detours at the other end. Asking God about what was going on, the first word that popped into my head was "disruption". Yep, that was true. My day wasn't wrecked and even my overall plans hadn't changed. They had just been disrupted. What disrupted them was that rain!

If you have been following my previous posts, you would know that we have been longing for rain. It has been about 10 weeks since we have had any significant rain, so I could not possibly be upset or annoyed about the rain. However, it did disrupt me. Besides the train being cancelled, I was wearing sandals and my feet got wet! (Everyone say "ohhh")

However, as is His way, this wasn’t the only time this week God has flagged disruption with me. On Thursday we had our 'lives' disrupted when our new neighbour was taking down a tree and managed to drop our telephone line in the process - no internet!! Quelle horreur! Amazingly, Telstra came out and fixed it within a couple of hours and I got a lovely bottle of red from the neighbour for our trouble. But, oh, the potential for disruption!

The third disruption happened today, with a farewell to our much loved senior pastor and his wife as they (and we) move into a new season. This one has the even more potential for real disruption. Replacing a pastor is not usually a quick and easy process and there is the problem of keeping up momentum in the meantime. And what if we don't like the new person? What if they want to change stuff we like? What if they make us uncomfortable?

Coming back to the rain, what strikes me is that sometimes the things we really want to see happen, that we know are from God impact us in unforeseen ways and disrupt our lives. However, I do believe that when God disrupts us, there is always blessing and provision in the midst of it, (way better than phone data and red wine!)

It reminds me of when my daughter was born. I was ready to be a mum. I wanted to be a mum. I was so happy when she was born (she was getting way too big and uncomfortable inside!) and I finally got to meet her. It was so amazing to go through that experience of a new being growing inside you and of becoming a family. 

However, boy did it disrupt my life!

I remember having a conversation with myself one morning at 3am as I was awake feeding her, having my very own little pity party about disrupted sleep. "You wanted this - and this is what it means to have a child. No, your life will never be the same, but it is a good thing."

So, yesterday, when my day was disrupted by the rain in the middle of it all, I felt God was saying, 

Get ready for disruption!

Many of us are longing for change. We are longing for God to step in and bring about those shifts, whether in our personal lives or in our communities and beyond. As we look around the world, we are longing for the transformation that only God can bring: New Life!

And what I feel God is saying to us is: 

"You want change? You want transformation? You want Me to birth something new? Well, get ready for disruption. I am going to do something, and it is going to be big, but I warn you, it is going to disrupt you. Are you ready for that? Anything other than Me that you have held on to as central, as so important, vital even, in your life, are you prepared to have disruption there? Because when I come, I disrupt the status quo, I disrupt the comfortable, I disrupt the satisfied, I disrupt the self-important and self-focussed. There is something bigger at hand, and I am not going to let anything come before it. I'm not going to let anything disrupt my disruption!"

If you don't believe me, just look at what happened when Jesus came the first time - even as a tiny baby, He caused huge disruption. By the time He was a fully grown man. He caused so much disruption to people that they wanted to kill Him, which is exactly what they did, and He even disrupted that, by rising from the dead!

So how will you respond to God's disruptions to your plans, your comfort? Will you complain? Will you throw yourself a little pity party? Will you run and hide? Or will you ask Him to show you the way forward, and embrace the new path, be ready to pour yourself out for whatever God is doing to bring about that change?

Get ready! Disruption is coming!!

What's Your Next Season?

There are only two certainties in life: Death and Taxes.

So goes the quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Not wanting to upstage him at all, though, I would like to add a third certainty: Change. Change is just as inevitable. The way we respond to change, however, is as unique as each of us.

My husband and I are going through one of those changes in life right now. As we move toward becoming "empty-nesters", the next generation of our family is arriving. Our niece had her first baby last October (so now I have graduated from being an ordinary, run-of-the-mill aunt to being a great-aunt!), and we became grandparents in January, with a second grandchild on the way in August. It is a new season in our lives, and one we are happy to see.

But what happens when we approach changes we are not so sure about? What happens when we are comfortable where we are, and we don't want things to change? How do we deal with changes we just don't want?

Sitting out on our deck recently, I noticed that a few leaves on the trees were starting to exchange their vibrant summer green for their autumn glory. It got me thinking: how do the leaves know it is getting time to change? The weather didn't seem any cooler or wetter. And what makes some leaves change earlier and others wait?

As I reflected on this, I realised that it was a good picture of how we humans can respond to the changing seasons of life.

Some people are ahead of the game. They can see change is coming, and they get ready straight away, embracing it with gusto. While others are still settling in after the previous shift, they are already looking ahead, already preparing for and getting excited about what is coming.

For others, they wait a little longer, wait until they are sure the change is coming. Like the leaves realising the temperature is dropping, the days are significantly shorter, we can wait until the previous season is definitely over before we are ready for the next. Sometimes we see the trend, also. We see the increasing numbers of others ready for change, and we join them, moving with them, not wanting to be left behind.

Then there are those who just want things to stay the way they are. We can be like those leaves that just hang on and hang on, all through winter, stubbornly refusing to let go of the tree even though they are well and truly past their prime, brown and dried up, but refusing to drop. We can be just as stubborn, holding on to the past when that season has well and truly finished and we should be well in to the next.

Jesus talked a bit about recognising seasons in some of His final messages, (see Luke 21, for example). In the middle of describing some of the signs of the times, He reminds us not to be afraid, (v.9), but to be alert, ready for what is next (v.34-6). The bridal party in Matthew 25 is another great example of our need to be prepared for what is imminent, to be looking ahead.

Dealing with change has been a real struggle for me at times. Either living in denial of my need to change, or having unrealistic beliefs about my ability to change things back to how they were kept me stuck at a number of points in my life, even contributing to depression at one point.

Over the journey of transformation that God has led me on, I have realised that burying my head or running away is counter productive. I have learnt that it is much less painful and far quicker to embrace change, to push past the struggle; to meet the difficulty head on in those times where change is not my choice. I have learnt that although change can be uncomfortable, if I allow myself to move and even be changed with it, the benefits generally far outweigh any discomfort.

Although we can get very comfortable in the season we are in, and wish we could stay there forever, just like the leaf on the branch, refusing to fall, we end up out of place and alone. The weather has changed around us, and we find it is no longer as comfortable as it once was. One way or another, we will get shifted on by what it coming next. It is up to us whether we jump or get pushed. 

What changes are on the horizon for you? Are you  ready to allow your true colours to come through as you launch off your branch into the next season?