Sometimes It's a Dance

Tuesday will be May 1st! The school year at Bethel is almost over and I still can't believe it. It seems it was only a bit ago that my friend Janelle and I drove into Redding in the wee hours of the morning looking for a place to stay.

Now, school's graduation is in a couple weeks and you can feel the air filled with expectation and excitement over what life will bring for all of those who did the School of Supernatural. Will they do a second year? what will summer look like? Where will I live? In many ways I stand on the sidelines of that, I get to see it from the outside, because my decision is so set: I'm coming back to finish what I started! Translating is no easy task, but it's one that needs to be done. This first "school year" here at Bethel helped me develop the foundations for the work that we've been doing and I've learned so much! I don't mean just work wise, tho' that's been a great field of new challenges as well; but I mean I've learned about God's heart and what some truths really look like. I'm still in such awe at His Manifested Presence in this place and about everything He's brought together for me this year.

I by no means have it together, but I'm loving where it's all going. Exactly a year ago I was contemplating coming here, and it all looked so big and almost inconceivable, could it be?? Could I really make it out here, was that my calling? My plans had been so different, and yet coming to Redding to break language barriers and learn from the culture had been unspoken dreams that I had kept in my heart. Everything
seemed to be aligning so... well, miraculously! Then I came across this verse in Proverbs 16:9, "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps" and it all made sense.

Sometimes it's a Dance; let Him lead! ;)

My amazing Father was establishing my steps and I followed! I recently heard Paul Manwaring add this to it, and it totally made sense: sometimes, those steps are a dance. Exactly! With God there are times to move forward, even times to run, times to be still... and sometimes, the steps He establishes are a lovely waltz, or a joyful salsa! That's were I'm at today, still feeling much like He's led every step of the way, but this year it's been more like a grace-full rhythmic, sweet romantic dance!

6:43

About a week ago I woke up at 6:43 in the morning, then the next day I woke up and it was 6:43am. "God is this you?" I whispered audibly, this time I had been woken up by a noise from my iPod, and when I checked to see what it was it was an email titled: God's amazing love! ha,ha! Totally spoke to my heart.

What I didn't realize as I went back to sleep for a little bit that morning, was that Papa had something else He wanted to tell me with that "unusual coincidence" was a little deeper. I mean 6:43 is a pretty random hour to wake up, and it's before my alarm so.

I've been thinking about the next year at Bethel, finishing the translation project I'm working on and how that's all going to work; where am I going to live? can I afford it financially? How is it all going to work out? ...It was a subtle thing, it wasn't even something that consumed my thoughts, but it was definitely there.

Anyways, once I felt that God wanted to say something, I got my Bible out and started to look for a 6:43 verse... mmmm, genealogies?? I don't think so... most books don't go as far as verse 43 on their 6th chapter... so I did what any good researcher would do. I googled it!

6:43

Mark 6:43 was the first thing that popped out (thank you Google!); "and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish." It immediately took me to those thoughts in my head about how it was all going to work out. I felt that God was telling me: I always make more than enough, that's the awesome thing about true riches, you only need to bring what you have and it will be multiplied. ;)

Guess what time I woke up this morning? I love Him!

Freedom Rain

Sometimes we think the grass in our yard is perfect, and then the rain comes watering everything and we find little weeds that apparently were there all the time, but weren't quite visible before. Ok, so Maybe I'm inspired by the rainy week we had, in this metaphor, but I also learned that this week from the one and only Jack Hayford. 

Mr. Hayford came to Redding this week to speak at Bethel, and I got to listen to him a couple times. The first time he talked about integrity, and how something is whole only when it's 100% there (I know it sounds redundant, but that's the point ;). One percent missing, and it won't do. He spoke on those little things we can let grow in our hearts, or even things from our past that we don't even remember anymore, but that we never accounted for. 

Then this morning in church he talked about 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 that talks about debunking arguments in our minds. He specifically addressed those thoughts that seem to be our imaginations, but that are misconceptions of what someone else thinks about us, or what we think about ourselves, our identity. It's easy to entertain those thoughts, since they can be so sutil. But we need to believe and think truth. For our own sake.

Those two lessons really hit my heart, specially because they seem so sutil, like those little weeds that you don't even see until it rains hard and for days, I feel like I had entertained thoughts in my head that were simply lies. In a culture of so much rain, so much freedom and pouring into your spirit, those things sprout too, and need to be recognized and weeded out. I felt that it's exactly what my Papa did with those sutil thoughts of comparison and inadequacy that had sometimes sprouted in my heart in this season. I feel that specially with the abundant watering that I've been getting in this season, it's important to have a flourishing garden that brings a nice fragrance to the One on High.