Termites, Traps and a New Perspective

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a different perspective, be encouraged, breaking the enemy's traps, encouragement for the weary, getting the right perspective, God's love, God's Word, how to recognize a miracle, miracles, more love than we could imagine

My husband travels a lot… A LOT.

You would think this makes the time we are together fun, happy and exciting.
What actually has started happening though is a ticking time bomb.

Expectations you try not to have develop anyway.

Stressors you try to eliminate rear their head anyway.

Conversations you wish you could keep putting off must happen anyway.

Get the idea?

All of this played into a really bad weekend in the recent past… a REALLY bad weekend. It was so bad that on Sunday I almost stayed home from church because I just didn’t want to have to fake smile at people and I certainly didn’t want to vomit all of my emotions on friends who had innocently come to church to worship Jesus. I truly wanted the focus to be on the Lord.

I did end up going to church. Yes, I was still mad. I didn’t even want my husband to bump into me accidentally. I didn’t want to deal with him, but I still wanted to worship.

Towards the end of my pastor’s sermon, he stated that God will even break the traps the enemy sets for you. He said it was in Psalm 91, but didn’t give the exact verse. I wrote down the thought in my notebook and decided to look it up later.

A few minutes after the service, my husband and I were on our way home when I asked him if he could give me a few days to be alone with Jesus so He could teach me how to not put up walls in our relationship. I was asking to not have to text, video chat, etc. while he was travelling that week …at least for the first few days. We talked a little bit more about how things were going in our relationship and went home to have pizza in the bed. Yep, you read that correctly. As stated before…it was a pizza in bed kind of a day.

About an hour into the afternoon, a swarm of termites decided to make their presence known. As we were scrambling around trying to take care of things, I told my man I may end up in a hotel that week and he asked me to travel with him instead. I calmly…ahem…explained that we had not scheduled for our dog to be boarded… and it was Sunday. There was no way we could find a place to board Brutus.

He asked, “If I can find a place to board Brute, will you go with me?”

I said, “Sure.” Not thinking for one minute it would really be possible.

That man of mine made one phone call and had our dog boarded within 40 minutes. I started packing and spent the week near Indianapolis. So, instead of a week of turmoil, anger and frustration, we were able to reconnect and set things on a better path. All I could think of for days was the verse our pastor had shared. God had truly broken the trap the enemy had set for my husband and I’s relationship.

A few days later I had a further epiphany. If I had chosen to not go to church that Sunday, I would not have been reminded of Psalm 91.

If I would not have been reminded of Psalm 91, my perspective would have been completely different. When the termites swarmed, I would have thought I was being punished for not going to church. I would have thought I was being punished for not sucking up my emotions. I would have thought I just needed to put my wants and needs to the side when in reality God still would have been breaking the trap the enemy had set for us. Everything would have been the same beautiful miracle, but I would have felt condemned instead of loved. I would have actually fallen into a different trap the enemy had set for me if not for the right perspective of God’s Word.

It really made me wonder how many times I have looked at a miracle, at the breaking of the enemy’s trap, and seen punishment instead of protection. How many times have I seen a trap of the enemy be broken, but I fell into another trap right beside it because I simply forgot to remember what the Word of God had to say about it.

How many times?

I pray in the days ahead we can hear the breaking of the traps easily and realize the miracle it is, realize the love it shows and see the perspective God’s Word shines on it.

Hear the breaking of your trap today.

http://www.seekinghearts.org

Here is the link to the sermon I mentioned… it’s so good….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrIAS8n3sVs

Chasing Perfect

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can perfection be achieved, can perfection be reached, encouragement, encouragement for the weary, getting better, how to get better, is perfection a thing to be reached, practice makes perfect, practicing, reaching perfection

I’ve had the privilege over the last few weeks of leading my local small group through my first book Worshipping God in Every Sense.

Has it been fun? Yes.

Has it been humbling? Yes.

Has it made me cringe at times? YES!!

I have had this study edited and proofread multiple times and there are still errors that embarrass the life out of me. I still believe in the content, but the delivery oftentimes has made me gag. What I am learning though is that I must write to get better at writing. It’s just the way it is.

Perfectionism would have me believe I could never publish a blog, or write a book, or teach a Bible study without everything being “perfect”, but the fact of the matter is perfection doesn’t happen without practice. Actually, I think the better phraseology would be getting better doesn’t happen without practice. I’m beginning to realize perfection is a myth. But I digress…

We know practice is necessary in sports, but I’m not sure we remember this as much in creative endeavors.

Have you heard of James Audubon? Actually, his name was John James Audubon. He was an ornithologist and painter (The Audubon Society is named after him). What I want you to know is that for many years on his birthday he would destroy all the paintings and drawings he had finished during that particular year. Every year on his birthday he would start fresh. Why? His work had not reached perfection.

Wow.

Can you imagine what those images would be worth today? How much would an early work of James Audubon go for at auction? I can’t even imagine.

More than that though…how much encouragement did James miss out on by destroying earlier works?

What do I mean?

What if James had simply placed all of the year’s work on each birthday in a special storage area? Year after year he worked, but instead of destroying his earlier pieces, he simply put them away. What if after five, or six years, or maybe when he was discouraged about not getting a certain bird’s wing exactly right, he went to his earlier works, removed a painting from storage and was able to see how far he had come?

Can you even imagine how encouraged he would have been to keep going by seeing how much he had improved? Instead, he kept looking at his flaws and burned them.

Wow.

I’m realizing sometimes we have to look back to see how far we’ve come.

That’s been the thing with going back to my earlier work… the content I have in my mind about a subject is basically the same, but the way I convey those thoughts on a page now versus then varies. It’s shocking to me, but if I had never written that first study, I would never see the growth like I see it now.

Am I embarrassed by the earlier work?

Some, but I am refusing to take it off the market because I believe in the content, I believe in vulnerability and I believe in not allowing the chase to perfection mar the path I am currently on. When I look back, I am able to see how far I’ve come.

Perfection is a myth that keeps us from practicing.

I must write to get better at writing.

Others must paint to get better at painting.

Others must speak publicly in order to become better at speaking.

And yes, others must dribble a basketball to get better at dribbling a basketball.

Chasing perfect is a good endeavor unless it impedes our progress.

When I think of Mr. Audubon, it makes me so sad, and I actually remember gasping when I heard of his birthday practice. I have to ask myself though… we have to ask ourselves… how many imperfections have we thrown away (either physically or mentally) because of the image we want to portray?

Do I want others to think the first Bible study I had the honor to write is amazing? Of course! That’s why it’s so hard to leave it alone, but if I get bogged down in making the first study “perfect”, I will never move on to the other studies God has in store for me to write.

Will I ever go back and re-write the first study? Maybe, but I am not re-writing it for several years. Purposefully. I think it’s important for me to leave it alone and let God remind me it’s about His perfection… not mine. It’s about chasing the Perfector of our faith, not perfection.  

http://www.seekinghearts.org