life beyond the well…

Category Archives: Faith


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clearing out and cleaning up

Usually when I start posts here, I have an idea of what I’m going to say. I can’t say that’s the case this time. I just know that the title completely describes what needs to take place in my life.

I feel like one of the biggest challenges I face is to not let ANYTHING completely take over my life. For the last few weeks, I’ve been somewhere between working ALL the time and/or at church ALL the time for various meetings and commitments. I have a ridiculously long list of things that I need to do (laundry, cooking, going to the dry cleaners) and I never feel like there’s enough time to get them done. On the nights when I’m not overly committed to something else, I’m usually too tired or unmotivated to do anything meaningful. I want the professional success and it’s important to me to serve Christ in the ways that I’ve been called to do so. I don’t feel that I should need an extra 2-3 hours in the day to do so.

While I’m feeling a bit over-committed in some areas of my life, I feel that I’m really not doing well with dealing with people. I’ve gone through phases since being in Athens where I’ve felt lonely and homesick, and I kinda feel that way now. But there’s also a different component to this, where I actually just crave an inner circle; people who know me and understand me and love me for me. While I love and appreciate being on my own, I wish that I could have the opportunity to do cocktails with the girls or have a movie night. I guess I feel detached from everything and everyone…including myself.

At the end of the day, I can live with myself- the mistakes that I’ve made, the regrets, the hopes for the future. Trying to navigate it and understand it is much more difficult. I feel like there is a severe need to clear out some things and reorganize my life. I wish I knew where to begin…

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” ~Matthew 6:33

“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” ~Psalm 27:13-14


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faith.

I get between 3-5 devotionals in my email everyday, each for a different reason. The goal is to try to read them in the morning, when I first wake up, or when I first get to work so that I can have that good foundation for the day. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. One of the devotionals that I receive is from Proverbs 31 Ministries, and it’s a devotional especially for women. I LOVE this devotional, and the ministry, because I feel like the women who write the devotionals are authentic about their worship and their relationship with God.

Today’s devotional was about having faith in the things that God has called you to do. This spoke to my situation, as I know that God is in the process of taking me to a higher level; however, I’ve been constantly questioning and being unsure of what’s to come. Here’s what the devotional said that really spoke to me:

This past year God called me to “step out” in a variety of ways in my life. His callings took me into unfamiliar territory. I, too, had a choice to make. I either had to stay where I was, or cross the Sea. To stay where I was meant that I wouldn’t fulfill the “hope of my calling,” or enter my “promised land”. This is where God’s blessings would flow fully and abundantly to me and through me as I allowed Him to be Lord of my life. There’s much reward in obedience. I knew that crossing the sea was the way to go. I knew it was best for me, and yet I stood on the shore saying, “Do I cross or not cross?”

Put yourself in the place of the Israelites. Picture yourself standing by the Red Sea. The Egyptians are hot on your trail. Moses raises the staff and the waters part. You’re standing on the shore looking at that. You have to run down a hill to the bottom of the sea. Can you imagine how high the walls of water would be on each side of you? What about the noise of the wind holding the water back? You’d be thinking, “If I run into this, will the waters stay back until I get across? Can I make it before the waters come crashing back in?” “By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land.”

Even when God is offering deliverance or a good path, it still takes faith to accept it!

The good news is our God is so faithful to us. He doesn’t stand on the other side of the sea shouting, “Hurry up and run!” He gently and lovingly stands by our side, takes our hand, and says: “Beloved, don’t be afraid. I will not leave you nor forsake you, I have summoned you by name, you are mine. When you walk through the waters I will be with you, they will not sweep over you, for I am the Lord your God and I love you…together, let’s cross the sea” (adapted from Isaiah 43)…

Whatever sea of circumstances you might have, may you, by faith, cross the sea as though on dry land.

So, I have been encouraged as I venture to this higher level in being reminded that God is faithful, caring, loving, and able to do EXACTLY what He said.

Wishing you God’s best!

“Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
~Romans 4:20-21