Last week Mackenzie and I sat tensely in the stark cool room of the doctor's office as I fielded questions about why Mackenzie needed a malaria vaccination, and more importantly why I was taking my daughter to Haiti, a suffering third world country.
It was an encounter that left me somewhere between offended that someone would question my parenting and unsure of my ability to be a good mother. I passionately recounted the experience to my husband, who I called as soon as I was safely inside my car. I said things like, "They don't even know us. They don't know the call of God we've seen on Mackenzie's life. They don't know how we fervently prayed and prepared for this decision."
After I hung up the phone, my words began playing back in my ear. Warm guilt rose up from my chest to my throat as I began to think about how many times I have made a flash judgement about someone when I didn't really know them or what God was asking of them.
I like things conventional, stable, predictable. If things don't fit within that box, I'm likely to judge them irresponsible.
But God doesn't operate in a box.
Sometimes He asks us to do something bold or unlikely to deepen our trust in Him and enrich our testimony of a God who does exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
Most of our greatest Bible heroes are remembered because when God asked them to do something radical, they cared more about obeying than about what other people thought. Like Noah for example, who constructed a huge boat in the middle of the desert, or David, who volunteered to fight a giant with a slingshot and a stone.
At the end of the day, I really can't throw a stone at that doctor because I've been him. I've thought if something doesn't seem "smart" then it must be wrong. The problem is my definition of "smart" is usually based on what I think. But what I think doesn't matter.
It's what God thinks that matters. In fact it's the only thing that matters. There's freedom and grace in that. It's a freedom I am hoping to embrace, and a grace I'm hoping to share with others.
Promise for Today:
Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
It was an encounter that left me somewhere between offended that someone would question my parenting and unsure of my ability to be a good mother. I passionately recounted the experience to my husband, who I called as soon as I was safely inside my car. I said things like, "They don't even know us. They don't know the call of God we've seen on Mackenzie's life. They don't know how we fervently prayed and prepared for this decision."
After I hung up the phone, my words began playing back in my ear. Warm guilt rose up from my chest to my throat as I began to think about how many times I have made a flash judgement about someone when I didn't really know them or what God was asking of them.
I like things conventional, stable, predictable. If things don't fit within that box, I'm likely to judge them irresponsible.
But God doesn't operate in a box.
Sometimes He asks us to do something bold or unlikely to deepen our trust in Him and enrich our testimony of a God who does exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
Most of our greatest Bible heroes are remembered because when God asked them to do something radical, they cared more about obeying than about what other people thought. Like Noah for example, who constructed a huge boat in the middle of the desert, or David, who volunteered to fight a giant with a slingshot and a stone.
At the end of the day, I really can't throw a stone at that doctor because I've been him. I've thought if something doesn't seem "smart" then it must be wrong. The problem is my definition of "smart" is usually based on what I think. But what I think doesn't matter.
It's what God thinks that matters. In fact it's the only thing that matters. There's freedom and grace in that. It's a freedom I am hoping to embrace, and a grace I'm hoping to share with others.
Promise for Today:
Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
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