Soaring in the Heavens.
A couple of weeks ago I had to go to an early morning meeting and as I approached my destination I saw a beautiful hot air balloon sailing along. I chased the thing down and pulled some iffy traffic maneuvers so I could get a picture. There was just something calling out to me about the beauty of starting the day riding the air currents. Now, the part of me that is a control FREAK, gets a little antsy at the idea that you have no control over which way the balloon goes, only how high or low you ride in the sky.
Then on Tuesday we took my girls and met a friend and her daughter at a local kids museum. Right smack in the middle of the museum floor is a replica of a hot air balloon with information on how the balloons work. I watched the balloon as the air was heating up and then suddenly the balloon lifted off. It started the wheels churning in my mind.
The last few weeks have certainly been weeks of growth for me. God is really working on my heart in a tremendous way. I have had to confront some issues in my own life that need addressing and they have been very painful. One of the things that has come to my attention is the fact that while I like to control things I am saying to God, “I do not trust You to do this. . .” I’ve been attending a women’s bible study on Wednesday evenings. We are using the Beth Moore study, “Get Out of the Pit.” In this weeks video she spoke of how when we have that one thing that we don’t trust God with, we set ourselves up as our own god. I don’t know about you but I don’t particularly like that idea nor that accusation, but hey, if the shoe fits. . .
I know that God has a purpose in everything He does and all things work together; I am especially seeing that in my life right now. For the past two weeks I have been stuck in Galatians Chapter Five. My heart is being truly bound up in God’s word here. The part that has just pierced me to the core is the following verses from The Message: 19 – 21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods, magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. . .
What I have learned while I am camped out here, is that even though I may not put a check mark beside every, single one of the things in this list, there are enough that qualify that my heart is crushed and my soul shaken. All of these transpire because I am striving to always get what I want. As I have contemplated these things this week it brings me right back to the hot air balloon.
If our lives are like that hot air balloon, we are lying on the ground a shapeless, inadequate mess until God’s hot and holy spirit moves in. When His spirit fills us and we begin to heat up for Him and we give Him complete control of our lives we can leave the enslavement of these earthly bonds and soar into the heavens. But what strikes me the most is that it is our choice as to how much we choose to let him heat up our lives. BUT we are directed to let Him have control of where that ride goes. And the coolest part is that he confirms He has that under His control in in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Let me see. . . think that says He has a plan for me. Not, I have a plan for Him. He has given me His word repeatedly from all kinds of different directions. He has given my feeble, distrusting heart a visual image to reassure my heart that He loves me and I can let go! Trying to let that message sink into my very core this week. How about you? Are we gonna soar with the currents of His winds or just stay mired down and in bondage to our wants?
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