Balanced, Nutty

It was my birthday 2 weeks ago and a lovely parishioner gave me a bag of coffee (she knows my love for it J). I looked at the flavor and it said, “Balanced, nutty.” I know that this particular woman picked this out just for me. She is one of those wonderful kind and compassionate people who I know is praying for me. She always says that she doesn’t know how I do it being a pastor and a mother (especially when I was a student as well). When the Sunday morning came that we introduced our little foster baby “Z” to folks at church, she looked at me with her mouth wide open. She said she didn’t know what to do, whether to hug me, or slug me, was I crazy?!  We received many similar comments. I admit that it probably did sound a little crazy to “add one more thing to our plate.” BUT God has an awesome way of making things possible when you step out in faith.

I wanted to share with you the story of where my blog name “God Will Make A Way” comes from. Back at the end of2004, I received (ok, caved) to my call to ministry. I would be starting seminary (Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary) in the January 2005 intensives. Now at this time I was a stay at home mom with Gracie who was 3 and my little Mikayla had just turned 1. I had never been to Chicago on my own. I would be taking a mixture of buses and the el train to school (1. Because I do not like driving on the interstate and 2. This would allow me to study as I traveled: there is not a lot of quiet time with young ones in the house!).  Now mind you the only other “experience” I had of Chicago’s public transportation system was through watching “Adventures in Babysitting” over and over when I was younger. So here I was leaving my children, sure I was going to be mugged or attacked by gang members on the el. It was the Sunday before I was supposed to leave for school and I was at church having a conversation with God. I said, “God there is NO WAY that this is going to work. I don’t know how I’m going to leave my kids, I don’t know how it will be possible to do all the school work needed (did I tell you I received my first syllabus for the class and had to use the dictionary to read it!), when I looked at the financial costs of seminary as well as the travel and childcare, it just doesn’t seem possible. God, I’m doing this but it’s just to show you that this cannot work, there is just too many obstacles…there is just no way!” I had been in my own world having this conversation with God and didn’t even notice what was going on in the service UNTIL I no longer got these words out (silently J) in my prayer that the Praise Band began to sing “God Will Make a Way (where there seems to be no way)!” I felt like God was answering my prayer, telling me to simply trust, to let God work out the details. God was so faithful during that time (and continues to be). It was not always easy but with God, even those things that seem beyond our ability to understand how it  could possibly all work out, is possible with God.

Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

I spend my prayer time asking God to transform me to be the person God wants me to be and to live out “his good, pleasing and perfect will” in all areas of my life. Sometimes, what I sense God asking me to do feels a little “nutty” I must admit J but the lesson that I have learned over and over again through my life is that if God desires for me to do something God WILL make a way for it. So, yes I try to be balanced in my life (and sometimes wish I was more balanced) and sometimes I feel like I’m going NUTS with everything going on BUT God works in that nuttiness as well and does some pretty awesome things. Blessings on your balanced and nutty lives!