It’s Time

Recently my mother has been sending me photos of her budding tulips. When Rip and I were there on a particular Sunday for dinner (right before Christmas), they were tight within the bud, but come New Years Day, they were opening up beautifully! She has sent a couple of photos to me and my sister to show us how large the blossoms were becoming and then this past Saturday, they were huge! Gorgeous!

The whole growth of my mother’s tulips, brought something to my mind that I’ve learned recently:

I took an online 12-week Interior Decorating course and one of the instructions that stood out to me the most was not so much in “design or decor” but in the way of personal decision:

“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” How many of us are stifled inside our “buds” right now, with nothing but our own fears preventing us from blossoming?

“…our own fears preventing us from blossoming?” That one thought grabbed me.

But it was last night, as Rip and I watched Louie Giglio on TBN share about his own personal time of “Comeback” that I had that a-ha moment! That moment when you know what it is God has been speaking to you for quite a while.

Louie just shared (among 32,000 college and young adults) Passion 2017 with Christine Caine, Francis Chan, Beth Moore, John Piper, Levi Lusko, Katherine and Jay Wolf, Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, and even a surprise performance from Carrie Underwood. The videos I’ve watched of that one Passion 2017 have been … beyond informative. Beyond insightful … and yes, beyond convicting. But the word that is beating so hard and loud and prominent in my heart as I’ve watched video after video is this —

time

Each guest spoke about “time” in some form or another. And it all had to do with not living with a heightened self-awareness, but with greater attention on self-denial. To see that our days and TIMES are in HIS hands, not our own. That the TIME of our life on this earth has such powerful purpose that we choose. We choose how we’re going to invest God’s gift, one of our greatest assets, and that is … our TIME. God taught me years ago that He never gives me 24 hours of time each day,  but 24 hours of opportunity. And what I’ve gathered lately in my own personal quiet times with Him in morning prayer and bible reading is this —

Every second of TIME He has allowed and will continue to allow me to have with Him on this earth has more value in it, is of much greater worth than any. thing. I. will. ever. have. on. this. planet.

Time.

But it’s more than that. It’s choice and decision. Time. It’s experience and encounter. Time is a place after place after place in life that either embraces and embarks or declines and despairs. Time represents the gift of God that He created for this reason – to be with Him. To practice His presence. One moment at a time.

The story usually starts off like this – “Once upon a time…” But here’s the good news. With God, there is no once. There is comeback. “Come home to me again, for I am merciful.’ (Jeremiah 3:12)  It is His mercy that writes the pages of our story, because He promised forgiveness 70 TIMES 7.  It is His grace that pens our life, our days, our times.

Louie shared on TBN about a very real and personal TIME in his life when he experienced a debilitating soul-crisis that felt like “near death” for him. His own brain, (literally) experienced a time of malfunction. He was in the darkest, the deepest pit he ever found himself in. Depression puts it mildly as far as what he was feeling…how he was seeing life. He shares how he was diagnosed with “fear of death” syndrome and how his entire world became void of everything it once was full of. He tells how the enemy whispers …

“it’s all a sham. All this God stuff, it’s all a sham, so you might as well go back to where you came from. Yet, God finds us at the bottom of our self-sufficiency. God wasn’t surprised when Peter failed, and He won’t be surprised when we do either.”

Just in 2006, he was sharing messages of our God, the star maker, our God, the laminin creator Who holds our whole life together. Yet, fast forward just a couple of years and Louie’s life with God radically changed. He hit a …. …. time.  Listen to him share about this time:

So, why did I write this blog? It’s for this reason – and no, I can’t say it as eloquently as those at Passion, I’m sure my grammar will be a mess and any ‘arted theological language’ will be lacking … but all I know to say is what I know God has said to me through His Word, through my pastor, through devotions, and through other spiritual investors of my life.

What I’ve heard the Lord say are these whispers to my heart…

“Comeback. ‘Come home to me again, for I am merciful.’ (Jeremiah 3:12) My Son’s cross is where all your weighty baggage of sin, hurt, disappoint and despair is to be left. Being a victim ended at His cross; being a victor began in the tomb. 

The enemy, our enemy, wants to see you think so small. Think so far removed from My will for your life. He wants you to think in ‘imaginable ways’, not “more than you could ever ask or imagine’ ways.‘ {Ephesians 3:20} He wants to see you hunker down under your sins and under every arrowed thought that attacks your mind. He wants you hidden away in a back corner of your mind, a place that will straight jacket you in self-awareness. But he won’t stop there .. 

If he can create in you feelings of ‘too late now’ …. that “comeback” is not an option for you. That quitting must be the will of God, then he has disrupted My work in you, and that will never be allowed!  

The enemy of your soul prides himself as Disruptor,

yet I prove Myself as Deliverer!  

And I chose to deliver you! The moment you met My Son at the point of your repentance, is the moment I delivered you into My hands! And nothing will ever snatch you from them! My grip is one of grandiose grace!

You are forgiven. You don’t live in the dark, but in the light.

Therefore … You’ve been ordained and anointed. You’ve been chosen, created and called. You are selected and wanted. You are approved and accepted. And it’s because of this always …

You are Mine. {Isaiah 43:1}

So, my child, “come home to Me again, for I am merciful.” Come home to all that I am and to all that I have for you. Come home to your calling, your ministry, your purpose, My plans. Come home to your work, your service, your destiny and your dreams. Come home to hope and promise because that is where your heart finds life! And will find it to the full!! 

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

Will you dare to blossom?

It’s time.