So often in life I find myself amazed at the fact that God's will has SO many facets. There are so many different aspects of His will, that when you dive in it takes awhile to appreciate all of them. Yesterday, as I sat on my driveway after two solid days of family time, watching my husband throw a frisbee with the kids, the fullness of one facet of His will struck me.
I believe with all of me that moving out here to the boonies was God's will. Initially it seemed like a dream that was "too good to be true.".. The slightest of all rent increases to move to twice the house, 10x the yard and the promise of finally OWNING a house. God brought it all together with lightening quickness which also made it seem "to good to be true."
Before we even moved (but AFTER we had already "signed our names" in all the appropriate places) our dream came true took a turn for the nightmarish. There was this miraculous thing sitting on our horizon, but Satan wasn't going to let us have it without a fight. We doubted. We worried. We hemmed and hawed, but through it all His voice kept saying, "Proceed." The fires got hotter and hotter. Stroke, Chiari Malformation, brain surgery, out of work for months... The first months in our new place brought all sorts of doubts: maybe we weren't supposed to move way out here so far from all our family and friends... So far from civilization and our renown brain surgeon.. Maybe we would be evicted because we wouldn't be able to pay rent now... Or maybe even worse it would no longer be just our dream house which was threatened but this little family we had built would lose its Daddy.
Its like that sometimes with God's will. As you start down the path to a great breakthrough or momentous victory Satan attacks harder (because he knows you're nearing something great). I heard the BEST song the other day, The Morning After, by Josh Wilson. This lyric stuck with me:
'Cause the pain that you've been feeling
It's just the dark before the morning .
It is always darkest before the morning and sometimes we have to fight REALLY hard to get to God's will for us. Satan's not gonna let us have it for nothing, AND I believe that is part of how you know that what you are doing is God's will: Satan will RAGE against you because he does NOT want you to be in the center of God's will.
Sorry I took a little rabbit trail into the dark before the morning... I need to get back to the many facets of God's will....
So fast forward 11 months from the momentous day we moved in here. We have traveled through all sorts of dark, scary valleys. We have triumphed over so many roadblocks Satan put before us. We are firmly in this house, eleven months closer to being homeowners. Our children are THRIVING in an environment where they have a HUGE yard and more space to live. But yesterday God was focusing my eyes on another facet of His will for this place! Moving to the boonies wasn't just about good financial decisions and a better home/yard for our children. It was about freedom for this family to BE A FAMILY. See back in Franklin we had a happy FULL life. Yet we sacrificed all our "family time" to service and socializing and GOOD STUFF, but again it left not much FAMILY TIME.
Out here in the boonies we are isolated..... Even a bit lonely at times... Yet we are free from some of the things that used to occupy so much of our time and attention.... Here on the threshold of entering the tween years we are poised to make our best steps or fall flat on our faces, and I believe a successful passage across the doorstep to the tween and teen years includes TONS of time spent as a FAMILY. The Daddy of this family isn't home much so when he is here we need to do stuff TOGETHER. Our isolation out here in Butt Nowhere, WI helps us do that. While I feel a bit like a fish out of water, and I miss random NDY kids dropping over, sharing nearly every meal we had with a guest of some sort, former cheerleaders popping in day and night, I appreciate the fact that without those things there is more time for the SIX of us to be the six of us.
So whether you are in the dark before the morning or are appreciating another facet of His will for your life... HANG ON! Take a look around you! Even the dark before the morning can be beautiful if you look at it right and His will has so many different facets to be appreciated.
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