It's Not Impossible

 

This week, I had lunch with a college friend.  We then spent the afternoon together exploring her beautiful little city's Main Street.

I met Cheryl in college at probably 18 or 19 years old back in 1984.  We lived together for a brief (very brief) moment in time before each moving back home, getting married, and having children.

We now live an hour away from each other, but after reconnecting at friend's funeral recently, we made the conscious decision to stay in touch.

I love my friend.  She is kind.  She is gentle.  She is beautiful.  If I could morph into anyone, it would be Cheryl.

As Cheryl drove us around this week, we talked about our lives - our children in particular.  How our now older selves can look back on the younger versions of us and see (maybe) how naïve we were as Moms and maybe some things we would have and could have done differently.  Still, here we are today.  

Many of our children have chosen paths for themselves outside our belief system or are living in a way we feel could be improved upon.  STILL, they are our babies.  God gave them to us, and we love them with everything fierce inside us.

We realize God will take whatever decisions we have made in life and give us the path He wants for us.  The glorious thing about God is that He creates the people He loves with free will, something not everyone can grasp or understand.  God didn't create us to do everything perfectly.  If He had, he would have just created robots, not humans with feelings and emotions.

And that's why we love our babies and our families fiercely.  Because, just as God loves us so much, He also loves our family members with that same love.  No matter what they choose to believe or the path they chose to walk, God is silently there beside them.  Waiting.  Giving them opportunities to meet Him they aren't even aware of (yet).

So, today's devotion strikes me especially tender and at my heart's core because it talks about the things Cheryl and I rambled on about together (as girlfriends do) while sipping Black Bear coffee together (in that adorable little Main Street coffee shop, full of vintage floors, ceilings, and charm).

Pictures Courtesy of Coffee Camper FB page.

Today's devotion reflects on how God works.  We, as believers, just keep praying and walking and believing.  It's what we do, and eventually, God's love will work its way through to those in our paths.

I know we're not perfect.  I fail daily.

But I love this sweet story of two sisters.  It shows that even in our failures, God is there.  He is always there and waiting.

I hope you enjoy this devotion; it is a gentle reminder that God is good and hope is always there, even when we can't see it.

Thank you Cheryl for always being so kind and so sweet.  I wish I possessed a tenth of who you are.  I love you, and I will always love our time together.

"Praying for the Impossible

I sat beside my youngest sister and listened as she boldly rejected my views of God. She’s always been a free spirit, much too unconventional for traditional religion.

“Good thing I’m not into religion,” I gently replied.

She twisted her face and took exception, “But you are religious.”

I laid my head against the back of the lounge chair, closed my eyes to the sun now washing over me and simply replied, “Nope.”

When she asked me to clarify, I explained that I follow God, not a list of rules. I am passionate about getting into the Bible—God’s teachings—and I let my feelings and experiences be evaluated in light of God’s Word.

I took my sister’s hand and told her I’d be praying for God to mess with her in ways too bold for her to deny.

Fast-forward five years. My sister walked into her professor’s office and saw one of my books. And it messed with her.

She went home, poked around my blog and listened to my testimony. God’s Word messed with her so much that she let the possibility that God exists slip into her heart.

A few days later she went and had Jeremiah 29:11 tattooed on the back of her neck. And she called, wanting to talk to me about life, tattoos and God.

Then one day, I stood in the middle of the Atlanta airport praying for this precious girl. She called. She asked. That’s the miracle of our Jesus. He is the God of the impossible.

Let’s dare to ask God for the impossible a little more often."