Happy Monday, friends!!! If you know me, you may know, slow mornings are my FAVORITE. I do not like to sleep in very late, but it is something about having time to get your thoughts together and just have a moment to breathe before your day starts. My mornings do not ever look like that during the week, so I treasure the mornings on the weekends when that is available. Although I tend to label that as a “slow morning,” I think it can also be identified as rest; however, that is still not real rest and what my soul needs most weeks. Anyone ever feel that way or is it just me? No matter how many “slow mornings” I have, if I am not receiving spiritual rest, my bucket is still going to be empty.
I have been attending Summit Crossing Church (which is wonderful if you are looking for a church home), and we are going through a study of Mark currently. This week, the sermon was centered around the parable of “Feeding the Five-Thousand.” If you have ever read or heard it, you know it is a story of Jesus feeding five-thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Not neglecting the miracle and the teaching from that aspect of the story, but there is even more to take away from it. This story has some significance, seeing that it is the ONLY miracle told in all four gospels.
So, here it is: “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.’ For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, but many saw them leaving and recognized them, and they ran on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them because they were like a sheep without a shepherd. Then, he began to teach them many things.” Mark 6:30-34.
Notice where the apostles were and what happened when they were there: They were in a REMOTE place, and Jesus began to TEACH them many things. If we look back on our life and the things we have been taught by Jesus, I think it tends to be in the dark, in the ugly, in the wilderness. When we are in the dark and the ugly and the wilderness, we are vulnerable and Jesus uses that to reveal truth and provide us with grace.
If you continue to follow me on my World Race journey, more and more of my testimony and how I got here will be revealed through lessons I am learning right now. I am learning to be content and thankful for the times in the wilderness. Sometimes it is hard to walk out this Christian walk and love the people that are hard to love when you do not see fruit. BUT, let me encourage you: Stay faithful and continue to walk through the wilderness. Being in the wilderness is what led me to choose to go on the World Race. Can you imagine if I hadn’t been in the wilderness with open ears and an open heart and would have neglected to take this opportunity and completely missed this calling?
Jesus got me in a very vulnerable and REAL place, and He used that and oh how thankful I am He did. To be very honest with you, there are things right now that would hinder me from applying for the World Race, because things are good in my life and it would be really easy to stay in this comfort bubble; however, Jesus is not calling me to do that, nor is He calling you to do that. You are called to bigger and better things, only achievable with Jesus. Some of you may have just come out of a season of being in the wilderness, or some of you may be IN the wilderness, but either way, embrace it and really lean in to hear what Jesus has to say, because there are far better things ahead, my friends.
Please let me know if I can pray for you in any way, and please continue to pray for my squad and I as things are getting more and more real as we are preparing. Remember: Enjoy the wilderness 🙂
