God Grows Things

   
We just returned from a wonderful 9 day Christmas vacation in Colorado with family. We spent four beautiful days skiing on Copper Mountain and lots of time talking, playing games and eating yummy food. Ryan and I have awaited this vacation for an entire year. He graduated seminary on December 12 after taking 10 classes in one year. We were ready for a break! 

During our down time I was able to finish two books. Sparkly Green Earrings, a hilarious and inspiring tale about motherhood, and Jen Hatmaker's Interrupted. I read Hatmaker's 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess this summer and it not only opened my eyes to the excess in our life, but it also challenged me to think differently about my walk with Christ (and to purge in many areas and in many ways).  

Interrupted is the prequel to 7 and to say that it was powerful is an understatement. Jen and her husband write about how God called them out of their church ministry where they were "blessing blessed people" and showed them what Jesus meant in Matthew 25:40 when he said, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." 

The Hatmakers write about planting Austin New Church, their ministry to the "least of these," and how God interrupted their comfortable Christianity to draw them closer to the heart of Christ. I read many parts of the book aloud to Ryan and we reflected on how faithful the Lord has been to us since the last time we were in Colorado in 2012. So much has happened in the last two years! We had no clue how the Lord would bless us, grow us (spiritually, emotionally, academically, physically), and beautifully interrupt our lives. 

Over the course of our 3.5 year marriage, and in the last two years specifically, it is through the experiences and opportunities to trust God that we have not only grown, but have seen His unmistakable hand. Ryan now has his masters, we have a home and dog to call our own, and are overjoyed to have a baby boy on the way. God, in His perfect holiness, used our time in a one bedroom apartment, in school, and through ups and downs of ministry to draw us closer together and to Him. 

He is using this pregnancy to do the same exact thing. During the first trimester I often wondered how great it would be if I could just skip all the vomiting, fainting, and nausea and fast forward to delivery. But then God reminded me of a quote from a CIU professor and something my friend Abbey used to tell us at Bible study...

"God grows things and He's not in a hurry."

And so it is with our Christian pilgrimage. Maturity does not happen overnight. An acorn takes years to become an oak tree, a baby takes 9 months to develop, and while it may seem like we wait a long time (or sometimes just a couple of years) for God to show us His plan- His ultimate goal for us is the same: to sanctify and grow us into people that look more like Him. 

I am so grateful we didn't have the option of skipping over the last few years of knowledge and growth we experienced. I'm also grateful for the 9 months He graciously gives us to prepare for a lifetime of parenting and shepherding our son. It is only because of God's guidance and provision through seminary, full time ministry, and through every situation, good and bad, were we prepared for where He has led us today.  

I pray the Lord continues to interrupt our "plans" with His and wrecks our comfortable Christianity so we might truly experience what it means for the last to be first and the first last. I can't wait to see what the Lord will do by the next time we head to Colorado in December 2016. I have no doubt that we will, once again, look back and see His faithful hand growing and shaping us, slowly yet perfectly, into the people He has called us to be. 

Happy New Year!

I pray in 2015 you "have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Ephesians 3:18-19