Opportunities

"We can be damaged and heavy hearted but still buoyant and insightful, still essential and useful, just by saying I know."

A few years ago I embraced the idea that summer can be a time to rejuvenate my own soul. A time to nourish myself physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally. Time for me. 

This summer I've read a wide assortment of books. Many of them have been memoirs. 

Reading memoirs is an interesting thing. It's like for a moment you step inside someone else's journey and you walk with them. 

I've been thinking about - what would my own memoir say? 

I've often joked with God that I prayed for Him to show me how to be His hands and feet and he gave me poop. 

Literally. For the last 5 years, my gastro journey has been a roller coaster adventure. As I walked a rough weekend this week, I was reminded that God gave me health struggles to make me compassionate to others who struggle. It gives me a "I know" in. 

You may be surprised by the number of people who contact me every week with their own weird gastro journey. People I get to share my walk and my wisdom with. People I have the honor of praying for wellness for. 

Sometimes you pray for greatness, and God literally gives you crap. 

Who wants to talk about poop? 

I've often wondered this...........and this week I realized that God gave me an uncomfortable challenge to prepare me for even more uncomfortable challenges. 

It turns out I would be faced with more uncomfortable topics of conversations. I'd be forced to question everything I've been taught and believe. I'd be forced to wrestle with big ideas that I never thought would 

And I'd be prepared for those. For, if you can talk bowel movements with folks - you can surely talk anything else right? 

I realized today that I've been sort of frustrating with God for giving me poop when I really wanted something else. Anything else. 

Which makes me like a kid at my dinner table right? Like I'm starving, God fed me, but then I don't like it? I wanted brownies and He gave me broccoli. 

I read this devotion this week:

Have you ever seen the movie Evan Almighty? In the flick, the character of God poses the same interesting question in three different ways:

If you ask for patience, does God give you patience or does He give you opportunities to be patient?

 

If you ask for courage, does God give you courage or does He give you opportunities to be courageous?

 

If you ask for a close family, does God zap you with warm, fuzzy feelings or does He give you opportunities to love each other?

In sports and in life, we often want God to give us exactly what we ask for. Thankfully, that's not the way He works. He loves us too much to give us everything we want when we want it. Instead of fixing our circumstances instantly, He often puts us on a journey to change us, not just resolve our circumstances. God cares about the character and love being produced in and through us just as much as He does about the solution.

Mama Warriors, we serve a God of OPPORTUNITIES not always quick fixes. Let's open our eyes to the OPPORTUNITIES and be ready to grow and RISE!