Recently, while praying with someone, God showed me this picture. I thought it summed things up so well that I'd share it with you.
There was a lump of clay on a wheel that God was shaping. As I was watching, I suddenly thought I'd figured out what God was making. Hastily I pushed in front of Him and tried to form what I thought He was making. Pretty soon, however, I was just left with a bit of a mess.
Two things became very clear (1) I have a very poor understanding of exactly what God is making and (2) even if I knew exactly what God is forming, I am completely incapable of producing that result.
This really highlighted for me that trying to plan the future and make things happen in my strength is really pretty futile. God's plans are so much more beautiful than what I can imagine, and full of so many intricate details that I could never come up with.
I guess, as with so many things, it comes down to trust. Am I willing to leave the clay in God's infinitely skillful hands and amazingly creative imagination? Do I really trust that His plans for me are really perfect, designed with total knowledge of what I really need? Am I ready to let go of control, and allow the Creator to form my life into what He has always dreamed it could be?
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Dancing
A few weeks ago someone told me that God wants me to know that He loves it when I dance for Him. While I probably kinda knew that deep down, it was still pretty amazing to hear. Now to be clear, I'm pretty sure I don't have a lot of natural talent for dancing. But I do really enjoy worshiping God with dance, although that hasn't always been the case.
It all really started about a year and a half ago while I was in Oklahoma. I was at a 24-hour BURN in - essentially 24 hours of worship. After about 4 or 5 hours of just worshiping, I felt God tell me to dance, and I knew He meant 'floaty' dancing, that kinda 'un-cool' sort of dancing. I had little intention of doing that, so I tried to dismiss the thought. The thought just kept coming though, along with reminders of times I'd told God I'd do anything for Him and even one time I'd told God He could even take my dignity! I was at the front of the church building, and I knew I was about to look like an idiot.
Eventually I saw I was fighting a losing battle, so I gave in and made up about 10 seconds of generic 'floaty' dancing, finishing nicely on my knees. God then told me to dance some more, so I got up and danced again for maybe 30 seconds. One more time God said the same thing, so I then just completely surrendered and danced freely for about 5 minutes or so. I've rarely felt that free, it was an amazing feeling. So since then every so often I've had the opportunity to dance in worship, and sometimes I've lost the battle with my self-consciousness, and other times won.
Now clearly I love to worship with music - it's probably how I express myself best, and it can be so much fun to play and sing. But there's something about dancing for me that is a little bit different. I guess it could be because when I dance, it's completely for God, I really don't dance apart from to worship Him. And when I play music, others may enjoy that, but I'm fairly sure my dancing isn't great to watch. David's example in 2 Samuel 6 inspires me, where he said “It was before the LORD". He simply didn't care what anyone else was thinking of him.
So now sometimes in the prayer room here in Jakomäki I put on a cd and dance before God, knowing that He loves it when I dance for Him. Recently I've been dancing along to 'JOY' from IHOP Awakenings, and yes, it is great fun. But I'm dancing in adoration for the Eternal King who delights in me, why shouldn't that be fun?
This is the first song from that album
It all really started about a year and a half ago while I was in Oklahoma. I was at a 24-hour BURN in - essentially 24 hours of worship. After about 4 or 5 hours of just worshiping, I felt God tell me to dance, and I knew He meant 'floaty' dancing, that kinda 'un-cool' sort of dancing. I had little intention of doing that, so I tried to dismiss the thought. The thought just kept coming though, along with reminders of times I'd told God I'd do anything for Him and even one time I'd told God He could even take my dignity! I was at the front of the church building, and I knew I was about to look like an idiot.
Eventually I saw I was fighting a losing battle, so I gave in and made up about 10 seconds of generic 'floaty' dancing, finishing nicely on my knees. God then told me to dance some more, so I got up and danced again for maybe 30 seconds. One more time God said the same thing, so I then just completely surrendered and danced freely for about 5 minutes or so. I've rarely felt that free, it was an amazing feeling. So since then every so often I've had the opportunity to dance in worship, and sometimes I've lost the battle with my self-consciousness, and other times won.
Now clearly I love to worship with music - it's probably how I express myself best, and it can be so much fun to play and sing. But there's something about dancing for me that is a little bit different. I guess it could be because when I dance, it's completely for God, I really don't dance apart from to worship Him. And when I play music, others may enjoy that, but I'm fairly sure my dancing isn't great to watch. David's example in 2 Samuel 6 inspires me, where he said “It was before the LORD". He simply didn't care what anyone else was thinking of him.
So now sometimes in the prayer room here in Jakomäki I put on a cd and dance before God, knowing that He loves it when I dance for Him. Recently I've been dancing along to 'JOY' from IHOP Awakenings, and yes, it is great fun. But I'm dancing in adoration for the Eternal King who delights in me, why shouldn't that be fun?
This is the first song from that album
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Week in Ruurikkala
A couple of weeks ago I was at Ruurikkala, a YWAM base in Evijärvi, which is about 5 or 6 hours north of Helsinki. I was there for a 5-day conference over the Easter weekend called 'Going Deeper', having been invited by my friends up there who run the YWAM base. I arrived a couple of days early just to spend some time there and find out about the plan for the gathering. Ruurikkala is a guest house set in pretty beautiful surroundings, right next to a lake, and it's one of those places where God seems to speak very clearly through His creation.
The conference itself was pretty awesome. There were about 90 people there, pretty much all aged between 20 and 30, and from all over Finland. The 5 days consisted of worship, some really great teaching, great food and time getting to know each other. I was helping to facilitate our times of corporate worship (in a combination of Finnish and English), which was really great. It was amazing to see how people became so much more free in worship over the course of the 5 days, some of whom clearly weren't familiar with a more 'free-flow' approach to worship.
We had some wonderful teaching, on stuff like identity in Christ and living in the rest of faith. Over the five days God did so much in people's lives, especially inner healing. Many people shared stories at the end of the gathering of how God had brought healing to some area of their heart. God's really given me a love for Finnish people, so seeing what God was doing in these people's lives was really amazing.
Another highlight of the time for me was getting to meet and get to know a number of really cool people. I've found that Finns, once they open up to you, will be completely open, which makes it quite easy to connect on a deeper level with them. I also enjoyed to talking to people who didn't speak much English, forcing me to use my Finnish. It seems I've got to the point where I don't worry too much about making mistakes and just try to talk, which obviously is quite important in learning a language.
So yeah, I had a great week there, and can't wait to see more of what God is clearly doing in this nation.
The conference itself was pretty awesome. There were about 90 people there, pretty much all aged between 20 and 30, and from all over Finland. The 5 days consisted of worship, some really great teaching, great food and time getting to know each other. I was helping to facilitate our times of corporate worship (in a combination of Finnish and English), which was really great. It was amazing to see how people became so much more free in worship over the course of the 5 days, some of whom clearly weren't familiar with a more 'free-flow' approach to worship.
We had some wonderful teaching, on stuff like identity in Christ and living in the rest of faith. Over the five days God did so much in people's lives, especially inner healing. Many people shared stories at the end of the gathering of how God had brought healing to some area of their heart. God's really given me a love for Finnish people, so seeing what God was doing in these people's lives was really amazing.
Another highlight of the time for me was getting to meet and get to know a number of really cool people. I've found that Finns, once they open up to you, will be completely open, which makes it quite easy to connect on a deeper level with them. I also enjoyed to talking to people who didn't speak much English, forcing me to use my Finnish. It seems I've got to the point where I don't worry too much about making mistakes and just try to talk, which obviously is quite important in learning a language.
So yeah, I had a great week there, and can't wait to see more of what God is clearly doing in this nation.
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