One of the things that I love about Virginia is the weather. The weather, just like any other place, has some of its own unique qualities. One of those qualities is a deep abiding fog.
In almost every season a thick fog can settle on the ground canvassing everything in view. The fog is usually accompanied by mist. The combination of the two is so thick that it seems as though you can ‘feel’ it as you are passing through.
Riding down the highway it feels more like you are a sailor passing through ‘the mist’ than a driver in a car (‘the mist’ being used by sailors to refer to what is actually a combination of fog and mist). You can barely see what’s in front of you. And ‘the mist’ seems to have attached itself to everything.
Interestingly, this type of mist is defined as "that which dims or darkens, and obscures or intercepts vision." And life can be just like the weather. In any season of life you can wake up and find yourself lost in the mist.
Sometimes there are things that hover over our lives trying to dim or darken, trying to obscure or intercept our vision. You can’t see what’s in front of you. And your whole sense of direction seems to be lost.
Life is full of times where you must journey through the mist. Its times like these where we are really forced to grow and exercise our faith. Sailing through the veil of life’s misty moments, we learn to truly trust God.
Here are some things about traveling through the mist. You need to pray more and listen harder. When we feel disoriented, we can often make the mistake of retreating from God. But this is exactly what we shouldn’t do.
Ancient sailors would shout or sound some type of bell repeatedly as they journeyed through the fog or mist. They would listen carefully and use the echoes of sound that they heard back to help them navigate through a place where they couldn’t use sight to orient themselves.
Some times when you are going through the mist you need to start repeatedly sounding the bell of prayer. Get loud. You’ll hear the sound of your faith echoing back to you. Sometimes when we are going through a rough spot, we need to rise up in prayer and remind ourselves that God is still in control.
Ancient sailors would also tell stories about spirits of phantoms that would appear in the mist and either guide you through or send you to your death. Beware of phantoms in the mist. Times of low visibility are moments where you are at risk for spiritual attack.
In moments like these, you need to make sure that the right Spirit is guiding you. Make a conscious decision to worship, get alone with God, and specifically ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Retreating from God’s presence is the worst thing you can do in the fog because there are other things in the mist looking to steer you off course.
Remember that the fog is temporary. As long as you keep sailing, you will eventually find its end. Even when our visibility is the low, the eyes of God never dim or darken. And there is no one with the power to obscure or intercept His vision. God is never lost and He has the power to guide you as you journey through the mist.
Cheers,
Jeremiyah
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Razor's Edge
Life is a journey. And there are essentially three types of travelers.
The first group of travelers is stationary. They are travelers in name only for they never step out and put forth the effort to make the journey. They stay locked in the past because they aren’t willing to endure the strain, work, and effort required to break away from the past and step into the future. They were put here by God to participate in Life’s journey, but they never choose to partake.
The second group of travelers is mediocre. They recognize that there is a journey. But they only put forth a limited effort to break away from the ordinary. As soon as they are challenged, they withdraw. The extra ordinary destinations that God has waiting for them in the course of the journey are never reached. They aren’t willing to pay the price for something great and so they remain mediocre.
But this is not you. This is not me. There is a third type of traveler. This final group of travelers live on what I call the razor’s edge. They live in the aggressive pursuit of destiny, their mission is to travel, and they are relentless in their passion to not only to recognize but to ‘realize the journey.’
Destiny is achieved as we reach the milestone destinations that God has laid out for us in the journey of our life. And as long as we remain in hot pursuit of those destinations; destiny is a present reality and not a future hope. This is how God operates. Because you have fully committed yourself to the journey, God fully credits you with destiny.
Romans 4:17 says that God, “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” This is the powerful reality of the third traveler. Destiny is yours by virtue of faith and not by virtue of merit. The moment you step out in faith and fully commit to the journey, God, by virtue of your faith, gives you ownership of your destiny. Even though destiny may not yet be naturally realized, it is already yours by virtue of your faith (or more aptly by virtue of God’s grace, God being willing to reward you when you have nothing else to offer but faith).
This is the razor’s edge, the environment of the third traveler. Life is lived in a state where the space between ‘destiny granted’ and ‘destiny realized’ is thin and ever decreasing. And as we pursue the destinations that lead to destiny, we continue to keep that margin between us and destiny narrow (thin as the razor’s edge).
There is a cost for this type of lifestyle. The razor’s edge is too narrow for us to carry the baggage of our past with us. In order to balance on such a thin space, we have to discard everything that doesn’t belong on the journey.
And the razor’s edge is sharp. It trims away the unwanted flaws in our character. As we press on, believing God for something greater, we are challenged to conform our lives to the very destiny we are asking God for.
On the razor’s edge stress is high, but so is energy and enthusiasm. Pressure is mounting, but faith is growing. Sacrifice is great, but so is the reward.
And the greatest motivation for this third traveler is not reward, not the destination, or even the destiny but rather the revelation that God is the God of the journey. The journey is the place where we meet with Him. And in the journey our ultimate purpose, to live with God, is truly realized.
All thought of the cost fades from view. The tormenting voice of doubt is cast aside. And on the razor’s edge, we realize that God is for us. And if God is for us than who can be against us?
Cheers,
Jeremiyah
The first group of travelers is stationary. They are travelers in name only for they never step out and put forth the effort to make the journey. They stay locked in the past because they aren’t willing to endure the strain, work, and effort required to break away from the past and step into the future. They were put here by God to participate in Life’s journey, but they never choose to partake.
The second group of travelers is mediocre. They recognize that there is a journey. But they only put forth a limited effort to break away from the ordinary. As soon as they are challenged, they withdraw. The extra ordinary destinations that God has waiting for them in the course of the journey are never reached. They aren’t willing to pay the price for something great and so they remain mediocre.
But this is not you. This is not me. There is a third type of traveler. This final group of travelers live on what I call the razor’s edge. They live in the aggressive pursuit of destiny, their mission is to travel, and they are relentless in their passion to not only to recognize but to ‘realize the journey.’
Destiny is achieved as we reach the milestone destinations that God has laid out for us in the journey of our life. And as long as we remain in hot pursuit of those destinations; destiny is a present reality and not a future hope. This is how God operates. Because you have fully committed yourself to the journey, God fully credits you with destiny.
Romans 4:17 says that God, “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” This is the powerful reality of the third traveler. Destiny is yours by virtue of faith and not by virtue of merit. The moment you step out in faith and fully commit to the journey, God, by virtue of your faith, gives you ownership of your destiny. Even though destiny may not yet be naturally realized, it is already yours by virtue of your faith (or more aptly by virtue of God’s grace, God being willing to reward you when you have nothing else to offer but faith).
This is the razor’s edge, the environment of the third traveler. Life is lived in a state where the space between ‘destiny granted’ and ‘destiny realized’ is thin and ever decreasing. And as we pursue the destinations that lead to destiny, we continue to keep that margin between us and destiny narrow (thin as the razor’s edge).
There is a cost for this type of lifestyle. The razor’s edge is too narrow for us to carry the baggage of our past with us. In order to balance on such a thin space, we have to discard everything that doesn’t belong on the journey.
And the razor’s edge is sharp. It trims away the unwanted flaws in our character. As we press on, believing God for something greater, we are challenged to conform our lives to the very destiny we are asking God for.
On the razor’s edge stress is high, but so is energy and enthusiasm. Pressure is mounting, but faith is growing. Sacrifice is great, but so is the reward.
And the greatest motivation for this third traveler is not reward, not the destination, or even the destiny but rather the revelation that God is the God of the journey. The journey is the place where we meet with Him. And in the journey our ultimate purpose, to live with God, is truly realized.
All thought of the cost fades from view. The tormenting voice of doubt is cast aside. And on the razor’s edge, we realize that God is for us. And if God is for us than who can be against us?
Cheers,
Jeremiyah
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