GIVING GOD AN OPENING


About a year ago, about this time, because I was tired of my life running in the same-old same-old, I made a prayer request of God, that he turn my life upside down. I did put one string on it, and asked that I not lose any ground when it came to income.

God proceded to do just that, turning my life upside down in various ways.

And recently, this week in fact, he brought around what must be the capper of all that upside down stuff. I won't go into the details right now. I'll just say that in the coming months, I'll be drastically reshaping the patterns of my life.

It's sort of scary, in that I don't know what will happen next. But it's also rather exciting. I am really, really trusting God not to drop me through the cracks. But I don't think he will.

But what today I've been musing on is how God really does answer when we honestly give him the opportunity to work in our lives. I was explaining some of this to a friend at church, about how I'd asked to have my life turned upside down, and she said "That's very brave. I don't know that I could be that brave."

It made me wonder why, if we really trust God, making this kind of request should be viewed as "brave". Isn't this actually how we are supposed to be doing as Christians? Yet, even I didn't take the step until I'd reached the point when being stuck in my rut was almost a worse fate that any change God might bring to me.

Of course, it does run against our perception of the world around us. Things are so uncertain in our economy right now, it seems counter-intuitive to be optimistic about drastic changes, starting something new. And yet, my hope is in the Lord, not in myself. I have plans, I mean to pursue them. But God does have a tendency of bringing things from unexpected directions.

Especially when you open the door to him and say "Do what you will."