{"id":447,"date":"2015-11-12T13:15:27","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T13:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplymeandjeans.wordpress.com\/?p=447"},"modified":"2015-11-12T13:15:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T13:15:27","slug":"the-wind-in-our-sails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/?p=447","title":{"rendered":"The Wind In Our Sails"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sailing\"<\/a>Over the years, I\u2019ve come to notice that life is much more about uncertainty than it is about certainty.\u00a0 There are a few things I feel sure of, but on a bad day I can even question those. \u00a0That\u2019s the journey, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know what tomorrow holds.\u00a0 We don\u2019t always understand why yesterday happened. And we often haven\u2019t got a clue what we should do next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The beauty of living life as a believer is that God is God and we are not.\u00a0 Thank goodness. That takes so much pressure off our shoulders. I\u2019m not saying that we have no responsibility.\u00a0 Far from it!\u00a0 Our choices really matter to God, they matter in our relationships and they matter in how we touch the world around us.\u00a0 I cringe when I hear people say things like, \u201cGod\u2019s going to do what he wants to do so why pray?\u201d Or \u201cAll my decisions are already decided so what\u2019s there to think about?\u201d And my personal favorite (insert sarcasm) \u201cI\u2019m saved by grace and it\u2019s impossible to be perfect so it doesn\u2019t really matter how I live.\u201d\u00a0 I believe that any thoughts along these lines are based on faulty theology and are a huge part of why the American church has lost its\u2019 influence in our culture.\u00a0 As followers of Christ, we do have a responsibility to seek God and to make the best choices we can.<\/p>\n

BUT, the beauty of being God\u2019s child is that He\u2019s in control.\u00a0 I know that I just said our choices matter. \u00a0\u00a0They do.\u00a0 But God is also in control and bigger than our choices. \u00a0\u00a0Why is it so hard for our brains to find peace in the fact that God\u2019s ways are beyond our understanding?\u00a0 Why would we want to fully understand Him?\u00a0 He\u2019s God, after all. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I love that I feel small when I think about how complex He is. \u00a0He is just and He is kind.\u00a0 He is mighty and He is gentle. He has given me free will and He has chosen me.\u00a0 He allows me to make choices about my life and He is in control of and has ordained certain things in my life. He isn\u2019t either or. He\u2019s both and.<\/p>\n

If you aren\u2019t okay with contradictions then you probably weren\u2019t okay with the whole discussion of uncertainty anyway. As for me, I find peace in it.\u00a0 It reminds me that I worship a living, powerful and big God that not a man on this planet can fully know or understand.\u00a0 There\u2019s always more to Him. \u00a0 God is the one I trust with my heart and He has been faithful to hold it gently for 40 years. But 40 years doesn\u2019t insure certainty and clear direction.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be fooled. Life is always about uncertainty. \u00a0It\u2019s a journey and that means that you face new places and new choices along the way. Making the choice as to which way to go is as uncertain, at times, as the outcome of that choice.\u00a0 \u00a0These choices come at every stage of life and are wrapped around the things that matter most to us.\u00a0 Our families, our occupation, our finances, our ministry, our friends, our values, our future\u2026the choices are real and the worry over whether we will make the right ones can paralyze us if we don\u2019t remember to take courage.<\/p>\n

God is God and we are not.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s bigger than our questions and our decisions.\u00a0\u00a0 He promises to care for His own and to lead those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. \u00a0No matter how old I get, I think I\u2019ll always need to remember this and God is faithful to jog my memory in beautiful ways.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written before about how God uses songs, movies and books to explain things to me in a deeper way and He\u2019s done it on this topic as well. \u00a0\u201cVoyage\u201d by Bethel Music<\/a> has been the cry of my heart for a month or so now. It has soothed my worries and stirred up excitement in my soul.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many mornings I\u2019ve wept as I played it over and over and over.\u00a0 Its\u2019 words have reminded me that God is always moving in my life and in the lives of people I care about. That my responsibility isn\u2019t to figure life out but to trust Him. \u00a0That following Him, even when I don\u2019t know where He\u2019s going, is part of the adventure. That I have a job to do so I need to do it even when I\u2019m feeling terrified or insecure\u2026<\/p>\n

God has used it to bring healing to my heart as I\u2019ve remembered that life can be easy, difficult, joyful and painful but He never leaves me alone and He is faithful to provide along the way.<\/p>\n

He is my peace. He is my hope. \u00a0He is my purpose.\u00a0 He is my joy.\u00a0 He is my rest. \u00a0\u00a0He is the wind that carries me along and He is the rain that refreshes me.<\/p>\n

If you are in the middle of questions or worries, I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do.\u00a0 I hope it brings peace to your soul and reminds you that He is bigger than your issue.\u00a0 \u00a0I hope that faith and peace become the defining characteristics of your life along the way.\u00a0\u00a0 After all, He is not only in the journey,\u00a0 He is the journey.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Jd3vuxpMKUM<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the years, I\u2019ve come to notice that life is much more about uncertainty than it is about certainty.\u00a0 There are a few things I feel sure of, but on a bad day I can even question those. \u00a0That\u2019s the journey, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know what tomorrow holds.\u00a0 We don\u2019t always understand why yesterday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[44,75,79,129,189,201,232,305,311,331,438,445,483,490,589,623],"class_list":["post-447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-family","tag-bethel-music","tag-child","tag-choices","tag-decisions","tag-family","tag-fiji","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-journey","tag-life","tag-promises","tag-questions","tag-sailing","tag-seasons","tag-travel","tag-wind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}