BD: When Life Gets "Lumpy" - Part 2
The Current Story....
After experiencing something as incredible as divine healing, and being able to see it with our own eyes, there's a season that follows that is vital to the faith process. Preston and I were so excited that we stood on the promise of God and saw our faith manifest what we were believing for, and we got really comfortable. We kind of took on this attitude of feeling like we're in the clear....life can resume as usual on our own little busy path. We developed this mindset of: "Thanks God, we can take it from here." I plugged away at kids ministry, and Preston dived into his music!
Little did we realize....God wasn't done guiding us through. Our faith hadn't matured into its full fruition. There was still a war going on, and we only got through one battle. 1 Peter 5:8, "Keep your mind clear, and be alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion as he looks for someone to devour." In fact it says several times in the NT to "be alert": Mathew 24:42; Mark 13:37; Luke 21:36; Acts 20:31; 1 Corinthians 16:13; Ephesians 6:18. Our process wasn't limited to Preston's prognosis.
Looking back I can understand now how easily the Israelites would falter after experiencing the mighty power of God and after receiving the blessing of God. They fell into the trap of having lazy faith. Being human also means we can tend to be short-sighted thinkers. We think that life is a sum of circumstances we have to endure one by one as they come rather than understanding that it is about being an active participant in God's plan. That's why Proverbs 3:4-5 says, "Trust the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING. In ALL your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths smooth." It says "ALL," not some. Not just the bumps in the road...."ALL!"
But we didn't fully understand that coming out of that rough season, and unfortunately, we fell into misguided faith. We went back to serving God, loving people, doing what we thought we were supposed to be doing, but left out earnestly seeking God's active, daily direction in our lives. So, mid-May comes around, during a random self-breast exam.....life got "lumpy".....AGAIN!
Of course, the old thoughts were present and the lurking "uh-oh's" and "no, it couldn't be." We even thought, "Well, God wouldn't let that happen because He healed Preston, so there's no way its THAT! Not again." I mean afterall, we were doing God's work! We were being faithful doing what WE knew to do! Right? Didn't we "earn" a continued healing? :-P (Cuz that works right? Yeah, not so much!) So, we developed a false sense of confidence as we started walking that out by speaking to the obstacle and using wisdom and having it checked out...you know, just to be sure!
And this is how our current story started. This was our mentality going into the pre-season that followed--between finding the lump and getting the diagnosis. Looking back, we see it for what it is. I take the time to include this in our story because this is the most vital part of the story that can make the difference later, when the big heavy hits, and you need to decide what you're going to do about it. And perhaps you're going through something and you're in a pre-season. If you can learn from this part of our story, and make different choices than we did, even if it just means being more alert than we were, then it's worth telling.
**This blog was written in October 2012, but chronologically happened in May 2012**
After experiencing something as incredible as divine healing, and being able to see it with our own eyes, there's a season that follows that is vital to the faith process. Preston and I were so excited that we stood on the promise of God and saw our faith manifest what we were believing for, and we got really comfortable. We kind of took on this attitude of feeling like we're in the clear....life can resume as usual on our own little busy path. We developed this mindset of: "Thanks God, we can take it from here." I plugged away at kids ministry, and Preston dived into his music!
Little did we realize....God wasn't done guiding us through. Our faith hadn't matured into its full fruition. There was still a war going on, and we only got through one battle. 1 Peter 5:8, "Keep your mind clear, and be alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion as he looks for someone to devour." In fact it says several times in the NT to "be alert": Mathew 24:42; Mark 13:37; Luke 21:36; Acts 20:31; 1 Corinthians 16:13; Ephesians 6:18. Our process wasn't limited to Preston's prognosis.
Looking back I can understand now how easily the Israelites would falter after experiencing the mighty power of God and after receiving the blessing of God. They fell into the trap of having lazy faith. Being human also means we can tend to be short-sighted thinkers. We think that life is a sum of circumstances we have to endure one by one as they come rather than understanding that it is about being an active participant in God's plan. That's why Proverbs 3:4-5 says, "Trust the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING. In ALL your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths smooth." It says "ALL," not some. Not just the bumps in the road...."ALL!"
But we didn't fully understand that coming out of that rough season, and unfortunately, we fell into misguided faith. We went back to serving God, loving people, doing what we thought we were supposed to be doing, but left out earnestly seeking God's active, daily direction in our lives. So, mid-May comes around, during a random self-breast exam.....life got "lumpy".....AGAIN!
Of course, the old thoughts were present and the lurking "uh-oh's" and "no, it couldn't be." We even thought, "Well, God wouldn't let that happen because He healed Preston, so there's no way its THAT! Not again." I mean afterall, we were doing God's work! We were being faithful doing what WE knew to do! Right? Didn't we "earn" a continued healing? :-P (Cuz that works right? Yeah, not so much!) So, we developed a false sense of confidence as we started walking that out by speaking to the obstacle and using wisdom and having it checked out...you know, just to be sure!
And this is how our current story started. This was our mentality going into the pre-season that followed--between finding the lump and getting the diagnosis. Looking back, we see it for what it is. I take the time to include this in our story because this is the most vital part of the story that can make the difference later, when the big heavy hits, and you need to decide what you're going to do about it. And perhaps you're going through something and you're in a pre-season. If you can learn from this part of our story, and make different choices than we did, even if it just means being more alert than we were, then it's worth telling.
**This blog was written in October 2012, but chronologically happened in May 2012**
