After only living in San Diego for 36 hours, I joined my roommate, Melly, on a women’s retreat with my new church here. This roommate of mine has a tattoo on her foot that reads “Walk in Faith”. Since letting God take over my life, I keep contemplating tattoos. But I am far too indecisive to settle on one phrase, one spot, one anything and absolutely petrified of pain. So Melly and I are sitting in the pool, escaping the blazing August desert heat. While basking in the cool water and talking tattoos again, I blurt out the phrase Captured by Grace. And it instantly resonated with me. I have since spent the last three months fixated on this phrase. I didn’t know if it came from anywhere, I hadn’t read it anywhere. God just put that phrase on my heart and wouldn’t let me let go of it. So, now consistently in my daily planners, journals, scratch paper, I have dozens of tattoo designs for Captured by Grace*. And obviously it has also since become my blog name.
Fast forward to yesterday morning (Sunday). I was in Los Angeles and super stoked to go to my church there. My still jet-lagged body wakes me up at 8am in plenty of time to go to 930 service. I started getting dressed, but then I just feel like I’m not supposed to go. So I sit down, start praying (if you could do a speed prayer, that’s really what I was doing. I wanted answers fast. I was on a time crunch!). And all I hear is “Stay.” Which is a really frustrating thing to hear when you’re already awake and dressed. So I stay. And I hear nothing else…or so I thought.
I eventually get this itching to go buy two different books from Barnes and Noble. I look up on their store website, they say they have them in stock. I get in the car, drive to the Grove–which in and of itself is weird because I despise LA malls. I go the Christian Inspiration section and NEITHER book is there. Super frustrated. Ok God. You didn’t let me go to church, the two books I want weren’t there. WHAT is going on? So I start scanning the bookshelves because I’m already there, there has to be something else I want to read. God has to have a reason for my being there**…Well eventually I am completely indifferent towards everything on the shelf. It was hard to justify a book I wasn’t itching for when I’m also trying to come up with 12k.
BUT. Then in the very bottom corner of the shelves, a single book title catches my eye. It’s a book called….you guessed it! Captured by Grace. And it’s the only copy. Obviously I picked it up, and obviously the book left with me.
So. I have my reasons for why that phrase is sticking, but I’m really excited to find out what’s in these pages–if per usual, God has so much more coming out of this, if something super only-God is going to happen while I’m reading. I don’t know. But He led me to the book yesterday. Apparently, I’m not the only person who has had this phrase stuck put on my heart.
I’ll let you know how this one plays out.
*So Melly and I were on the same team in Haiti this summer. That’s how
we got to be roommates. A third girl, Amy, is coming out to visit us
this week. As I was writing this, she sent me an email saying she
wanted to get a tattoo while she is visiting us.Iiiinteresting.
**At this particular B&N yesterday, there was a Justin Bieber appearance/ signing going on. I was pretty sure that was not why God led me there.
