Breaking Ground

I’ve mentioned how quickly this blog came about over the past few days, however it is the visible result of the activity that has happened beneath the surface for years. We often hear the term ‘overnight success’. Yesterday we didn’t know so-and-so even existed, yet today the person is known by millions thanks to a popular YouTube video or viral FB post. In line with yesterday’s post about defining success (read it here if you missed it)…often what is considered success is what is seen. It’s the tangible and the measurable. We like to group things into categories and try to make sense of life in our heads so it’s easiest to measure the concrete.

I like to get insight into God’s kingdom through nature – His creation. For the most part what happens in nature is the result of what He set in motion when He created the heavens and the earth…so since it’s a reflection of how He does things, I often find ways to apply the principles to my every day existence.

I consider this blog as the equivalent of a new plant breaking through the surface of the soil. (agh, if I were editing, I would totally rephrase that sentence but I’m not so moving on…see, I’m making progress on this 31 day  journey 😉 )  God planted this blog seed in me a while ago…only He knows exactly when. He started working in me to open up and ‘be real’ and take off the perfectly pretty mask that covered up the ‘messy’ back in the summer of 1999 at a church youth camp. I can vividly remember standing in the middle of a circle, with the eyes of my fellow youth group members staring, saying how I was ready to take off the mask. That I was ready to ‘be real’ and allow God to use me openly even if it meant that my junk was hanging out.

‘Fast forward’ to now, 15 years later and I’ve started a public blog that’s created a platform for me to share my messy junk with whoever happens to land on www.readytobreathe.com. Yes I just laughed in my head as I wrote ‘fast forward’. Because obviously there was no fast forward. It has been a process. A process involving a TON of molding and shaping and getting me to the end of myself and coaxing me to step closer to the ledge and getting me to step out of the box of fear that had been tightly latched, keeping me stuck for the majority of my life. It has been WORK. Just like it’s work for the farmers who plant their crops every season.

This year especially, God has shown me how this life is ‘not about me’. I have lost track of how many times I’ve repeated that phrase in my head. When I’ve felt the feelings of disappointment or frustration or whatever else that has been opposite of the direction God has shown me to follow, He’s reminded me that it’s not about me. I can throw the junk in His capable and willing hands and keep pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me as Paul wrote in Philippians 3:14.

He’s been preparing the soil of my heart, feeding it, pulling weeds, pouring His living water, and nurturing the seed that was His all along. As I’ve followed Him in the ‘daily’, it has grown and taken root and as soon as I saw the info about this 31 day challenge, I knew this seed of writing was ready to break through the surface and become visible. That’s the funny thing. If you’ve ever planted a seed, you cover it up with dirt and then just wait to see if it will break through the surface one day. I know there have been some literal seeds I’ve planted that I wasn’t sure if they would show up…but then sure enough, there they were. Just not in my timing or within my expectations.

So much like God. He’s illustrated the principle of His timing over and over yet we still freak out and run around acting crazy and stressed wondering if the dang seed is EVVVEEEERRRR going to break through the soil and reveal itself to the world. And somehow we also go crazy wondering what the seed package looked like so we can know exactly what the seed is supposed to grow into. But peace and joy and rest and all of the other things that come with the presence of God flood our lives when we sit back and let the Master farmer tend to His crop. Our responsibility is simply to quiet the noise, hand it over to Him and listen for His direction.

Write31Days Breaking GroundImage credit: Erin Kass Photography

 

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