thelifeofmitch

[thelifeofmitch]

First to the Shore

Have you ever been the only one to believe that something was possible? A miracle. An unlikely happening. An improbability. The impossible.

It's been one of those seasons. One that has really stretched me and worn me thin. Not physically unfortunately, but emotionally and spiritually. I feel weary. I feel battle-worn. I feel broken. But I want so badly to still see that thing come to pass -- the water I felt God calling me to step out on. The stillness that somehow exists beyond the waves. The very waves that can still be calmed by his voice.

Sometimes it's in the silence, in the waiting, in the hard, that we have to continue fighting -- not to win, but to believe. To believe that He speaks. To believe that we hear Him. To believe that in spite of EVERYTHING, in spite of every single circumstance or voice that would weigh you down and have you doubt, to believe still that HE CAN. That what He spoke he can, and will, bring to pass. That even in the midst of this darkness, this chaos, this brokenness, these tears -- even here, He is present. He is planning. He is moving. He sees through walls and around corners, and He isn't done yet.

Maybe it's been one of those seasons for you. One that feels like perpetual darkness, that the sun keeps forgetting to rise each day. Maybe it's been incredibly isolating. Maybe it's hard being the first to the Jordan, ready for God to part the waters. But maybe, just maybe He's called you there first for a reason.

I've been challenged and encouraged, then doubtful, fearful, and encouraged again by a phrase that's been circling my mind lately. "Maybe He gave you this mountain, so others could see Him move it."

It's one I wrote down during prayer months and months ago, but sometimes God has a way of reminding us when we forget. So what does it look like to walk THAT out? How do I wait well, knowing it's God's mountain and not mine?

Let me just say it's been hard. But it's also kept me on my knees. Kept my heart soft, aching though it may be. It's kept me looking to Him for signs, for comfort, for Him to speak, for Him to move. It's reminded me that I am not God, and no matter how I might try, some things are only possible by His hand. I can't will things into alignment, into submission, into focus. I can't do, I can't resurrect, I can't create something from nothing, or part the waters in my own timeline. Sometimes we just have to wait and trust. Broken and humbled, fighting our own will and spirit for a victory that only we can see, that only we hope for. Sometimes it doesn't feel like enough, but it's still the path that God's chosen for us, difficult as it may be.

If you've been there, if you are there, let me say to you, "keep going." When there isn't a person around you who "sees" the work at hand, the mighty move of God on the horizon, KEEP BELIEVING. Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep praying. Pray for his strength to sustain you. Pray that eyes may be opened. Pray that in this season of whittling and chipping, that you would somehow find such beauty and purpose on the other side. That you would be able to recount God's faithfulness even in the dark. That your faith would stand, and that yes, that others would see this mountain be moved for the glory of God. Because He can. Because when He speaks, what was once nothing, becomes something. He is able. He is good. He is at work. Don't stop just short of the breakthrough. Keep pushing a little longer. Find your way to the edge of the shore, and let the waves meet you for a while as you wait with great expectation. The way is coming, and you'll be the first to see it.

Romans 8:24-25 -- For we were saved in this hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

[thelifeofmitch]

A house of prayer is not built with brick and mortar but with the hearts of intercessors.

[thelifeofmitch]

A Graceful Start

In the midst of spiritual clumsiness, I find myself overwhelmed and overtaken by the extravagant grace of the Father. It truly has so little to do with me and has everything to do with what God can do in spite of me.

As I barely scratch the surface of 2014, I find myself here, with much to learn, simply in awe of the great love that God lavishes upon us. I used to say that, “You have to know the love of the Father first in order to understand the miracles, the blessings, and all those great things that come from Him. You have to know his heart first.” That is still undoubtedly truth, but 2014 reminds me that we are never done learning about the depths of the Father’s love, and He is never done giving us grace to get through the journey.

Amen for that.

[thelifeofmitch]

If you wouldn't say it to your friends, don't say it to yourself.

[thelifeofmitch]

This is the lesson: Trust requires action. Trust requires faith. Trust requires prayer that persists beyond circumstance. The only way to fail is if we stop praying.

[thelifeofmitch]

#1

So blessed to have my FIRST donation toward my trip given to me by my loving parents.

These are the same parents that have always told me that God was going to have big plans for me and the same parents that have given me their blessing and support as I seek out God's plan. 

Thanks for everything Mom and Dad, I love you guys SO much!

[thelifeofmitch]

Marked

If there was one thing I could do for the rest of my life, one thing to be known for, it would be to live so fully inside of God's will for me. Those pieces and parts of His plans that are so outside of the realm of self pursued possibility, those are my destination. If that could be my legacy, if I could become someone that just lived and an extraordinary life happened upon my obedience to God's will, then I would have not one regret to my name. 

That notion, as strange and amazing as it sounds, is one of the most achievable things we could hope for in life. So many of us get so caught up in the fear and uncertainty of college and what lies just beyond that, that we miss it. We miss the call of a God that wants to not only ease that fear & uncertainty, but also who wants to give you a legacy that far exceeds anything a college diploma could grant you. Grad school? He'll take you further. Connections? He doesn't need them. Finances? He is the God of the heavens and the earth...seriously?

In all honesty, if this is such a good deal and we have so little to do with the big picture of it all, then what's the catch? Well, let me throw a couple big ones your way:

Surrender - This journey begins with you saying, "God, I give you control. My life is yours to do what you will, and I trust you with it. Guide my steps and show me your faithfulness."

Obedience - absolutely integral to the whole process, every step of the way, and in both large and small things. DO IT

Faith - We have to trust God, even when things seem crazy and unexpected. He not only knows what He's doing, but He also has your back and works ALL things together for your good. Cool right?

Prayer - Communication is key. Know that prayer is just an opportunity to dialog with God. It's not only less mystical or religious that popular culture portrays, but God actually participates WITH you in it. Give Him your fears and concerns, your joys and triumphs, your questions and your dreams, and trust Him to respond to you. Also, LISTEN for it. 

Discipline - Key to any success really. Know first "you're not that big of a deal." Know second "He is a huge deal." Then live a life that reflects it. He'll do cool things not because you deserve anything, but because He loves you in spite of it and is blessed by your pursuit of Him. Win-Win guys, I promise. 

Steadfastness - In layman's terms, "lather, rinse, repeat." Keep pressing in and pressing on. Things will inevitably get hard (that's life), but things will also be better than you could have ever asked or imagined. You will have lived and lived well, and He'll be preparing for you an eternal reward to top things off. Whoa, good stuff guys. 

Most days I just think how crazy life is going to look if I really commit to giving Him everything and letting my life trail forward into the unknown reaches of His will. Alternatively, though, I think what have I got to lose? This is going to be an adventure for the books. Extraordinary won't even begin to describe the lives we'll be leading. You in?

[thelifeofmitch]

[thelifeofmitch]

(50) The End. ...Chapter One

Long ago, it seems, that I lavished on the love of God. I spoke of the unending, unimaginable, unabridged, unchanging, and everlasting love that He has for me--for us. And it came to me tonight, or rather he did, that I want to outwardly love Him so. I want a love so passionate and untamed, so unhindered and abandoned for Him. I want everything to reflect Him in me, and I want the world to see it, to see a love so secure and otherworldly that it would inspire. To see something so pure and right, that all else would simply pale by comparison. I want a love that is so part of me that it ebbs and flows with the rise and fall of my lungs, that it beats with my heart, and that it escapes me with the words of my mouth.

Here I am, a woman wanting. Wanting and being called to chase this longing into a new season, into the next chapter. Knowing that as I run I will find satisfaction that I've never known, and that I, in return, shall not be found wanting.

[thelifeofmitch]

(49) Harbingers of That To Come

When words cease, we're left with the actions that breed them. And although words carry a great deal of power, they merely capture the essence of a truer reality or a depiction of a reality yet to be attained. 

Is the essence enough? Does a glimpse carry substance enough to sustain? Should our words serve as a veil that thinly lines the body of our beliefs or should instead we create a motion of action that finds itself incapable of being veiled? That once in motion captures the essence to witness the accuracy of action? 

To limit one's reality to stillness would be to miss the incomparable reality of change through circumstance, of victory in the face of trial, and travail over the obstacles that find themselves in our paths.  

The picture before us is one of which all others are mere shadows. We through action, through boldness, through security, through endurance, through a fighting spirit, through the unshakable knowledge that changes everything, through love, and through the hope that binds us can be harbingers with a call and purpose to change everything--harbingers of that to come.

[thelifeofmitch]

(48) True Story...

I love finding myself feeling like an idiot. Why couldn't I speak when it was merited or be silent when appropriate? The sad thing is I find myself still here, lacking in so much wisdom, awkwardly striving to compose myself. And maybe there's revelation in that statement. Maybe, I need to come to terms that composition is overstated and that I'll always find myself less wise than I hoped. Maybe me being a realist is such an understated and ridiculous ideology to attach myself to because reality is unpredictable and unfounded. 

Point: I'm not as wise as I sometimes believe myself to be.

Solution: Accept and move on. 

Cool that I don't know everything, cool that I can be surprised, and cool that I can afford to make mistakes that can teach me even more than avoiding them ever could. 

[thelifeofmitch]

(47) This is the Thing

So I've been thinking... As to what my thoughts pertain of, that is a great question. Up till now, I couldn't quite narrow it down. 

I think it comes back to getting lost. To getting to that place of being so swept off my feet, so blindsided to everything that love truly is. Again, I found myself so puzzled at the deficit that worldly love leaves in the shoes of divine love. Again I found myself at a loss, wondering, with no clear answer in mind, what the future holds. Wondering what's to come, what guarantees would be held, & why everything is so much more complicated than I hoped for. 

So many cliches could come to my aid in that statement, but for now, I'm finding peace in the silence. I'm finding peace in unraveling what I had begun to knit for myself. I'm finding peace in the absence of plans and the absence of certainty. 

I think now, I'm going to let my mind wander. I'm going to let my thoughts venture into the stillness that lies just beyond the circumstances that surround me. I'm going to think back to every parallel that God is bringing light to. And for now, I'm just going to revel in that. 

[thelifeofmitch]

(46) Simple Truths

If I could say but one thing in all of this, I know exactly what it'd be. I don't need a mouthful of words or lungs full of oxygen. I don't need dictionaries or thesauri to assist in summary. If I could say but one thing, one truth for all to hear: God is faithful. 

Seems simple enough, and many might even venture cliche. But to each who have known what it is to be tested in faith, many might agree that seeing it and believing it, independent of circumstance, is something quite different in entirety. It no longer exists as a mere phrase that serves as the logical foundation we cushion ourselves with in the midst of trial or tribulation. It becomes, rather, a notion upon which we base the very truths of our lives. Everything that flows from that knowledge is affected, everything is sustained by the reality of that truth. 

So here I lay my simple yet ever complex truth -- a truth that is unending in nature, unlimited, unchanging, and unstoppable against any force of darkness or the like. Here I lay the words upon which I cling most ardently. He I lay them, and ever will they remain.

God is Faithful

[thelifeofmitch]

(45) The Pause Before the Fall

Ever jumped off a cliff? Well, I have, and it's pretty much incomparable to anything else I've experienced thus far in life. No matter how many times I've done it, as I find myself on the edge, looking out over the abyss of space that separates me from the water below, I still feel fear. A fear that I can't quite rationalize or describe, because even when I know that I'm going to jump, even when no words could ever talk me down, that time that separates me from being in control to the time of being at gravity's mercy terrifies me.

Even knowing that, should I hit the water incorrectly, the pain won't last, and even knowing that it's a risk I continue to find worthy of taking, I still am forced to overcome the fear of finding myself there, enveloped in a new environment, treading to stay afloat, and looking up at a world from a completely different angle.

I find myself here again, in that fear. In the panic of the pause that comes before the fall, and I truly don't know how to gauge what lies ahead. I don't know how to brace myself because I've never jumped something quite like this before. I don't know, and I'm learning that it's okay not to know, even when I feel like gravity is now in control. If it hurts, it won't be forever. Will it be worth it? Absolutely--and possibly for completely different reasons than I may imagine, but I'll learn, and I'll grow, and someday, should I need to, I'll jump again. But until that point, Lord let me appreciate the process, and give you ever fear that precedes this journey.

[thelifeofmitch]

(44) The End is Near

Sometimes it seems I keep running just to reach the end. It's as if the immediacy of the finish somehow outweighs the journey. That perspective, while it does occur, is not the one I wish to cling to. It speaks not of my heart, nor my steadfastness. It speaks more of comfort than conditioning and expedience over expectation. On both counts, I choose the latter. 

I want to take in the very marrow that lies at the heart of this journey and walk these strengthened bones to the ends of the earth. I want to capture every ounce of light that's been shed and let it be the beacon that guides me home. I want so very much for 50 days not to merely represent a season, but the turning point of a life. 

I want to look back and see so much more than the finish line that consumes me now, but to see every moment that has built to this very climax. Let me keep running because there is so much more to be found. The prize lies not at the end of this race, but in all the moments that surround each race to come.

[thelifeofmitch]

(43) An Interesting Parallel: Where Hope Meets Fear

"It's all on the line." A phrase I feel we most often hear it movies. It comes down to this climactic moment when one finds himself at a tipping point. Change is inevitable, no matter which way one tips, but it's all riding on that point. 

It seems those moments of great change, that stare us in the eyes, come with a bold challenge. They pose us with the option of "all or nothing," because in change, there really is no middle ground. We can find ourselves swept away, unprepared and unaware, or we can submit fully to the unknown that lies ahead. However, submission, I've come to realize, comes with great risk. 

It's risky to let oneself go. It's risky to surrender to the will of another. It's risky to allow vulnerability to expose you. And it's risky to do it all in pursuit of something "great." Because great really isn't easy. It's not something you can just stumble upon. It's more like the treasure that must be sought and fought for, and truly, that journey is a difficult one. 

So what then? I find myself at this place where it's all on the line. I find that I'm allowing myself to hope, with a hope that goes beyond logic, and I'm afraid. Afraid of things falling apart. Afraid of not being enough to capture the great, and being left to unscramble the broken pieces before me. I'm afraid to stand vulnerable and exposed, yet I feel it happening. And so often I find myself secure and protected, but I also see a crippling fear creep in to draw me back to the familiar, to the "safe." And fear, I find, is hardest to admit, because it means that I'm in this. It means I've invested myself and placed myself, along with everything else, on that line.

Great. That's what I want. Because my heart doesn't lie with average, it lies with extraordinary. Hope, meet fear. Meet it face on, then keep going. Keep hoping with all you have. Someday, we might unearth something pretty spectacular.

[thelifeofmitch]

(42) Still Learning a Thing or Two

Sometimes I think there is so much to be learned in a prayer. Today, my prayer was this:

"Lord Jesus, I want to talk with you. I want to be a conversation that never ends, that never finds the conclusion of a period. I want only for commas, for a pause that holds us over for while. Lord, I fought for so long to know what it meant to hear you speak. I struggled with myself, with understanding how it looked to just "be" with you. And I know, now, your heart, the comfort of your voice, the intimacy of dwelling in your presence, and the way you long for me to come into your company. Again, Lord, I ask you to take me in--to draw me further into communion with you, into completion through you. Let us become one Father, so much so that without you I would cease to be."

I see a heart that longs so much for more of the one that brings each beat. I see one that knows she hasn't arrived, and more-so, never will. I see one that values the intimacy of relationship with her Heavenly Father, and wants still to get more lost in Him. I see a process, but within that process the hope that comes with forward motion.