I Give Up

Do you want to give up on something?  Do you ever think that telling God you give up is a good thing?

I was talking with a friend today and he was telling me a story that happened a little while back.  In the story, he told me how he had come to a time in his life where he didn't know which direction to go anymore and he was feeling that God had something else for his life so he prayed these words...God, I Give Up.

You see, my friend had come to a point in his life to where he was tired of trying to write his own story.  He was tired of trying to be the orchestrator of his life.  Like a child, he cried out to his heavenly father and asked him to take over.  God, I give up.

I wrote those four words down as soon as I heard them because I think a lot of us need to come to the point in our lives where we lay everything down in front of God; our fears, our dreams, those nervous feelings in your gut that you get sometimes when you know a change needs to happen, and just say God, I give up.  I cant figure it out on my own anymore.  Show me where to go.

The Bible says to 'Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take.' -Proverbs 3:6. Seeking his will means giving up on your own will, reading the Bible, praying, and listening for God to tell you his will.  By the way, his will is good and it's perfect.

 Give up?

Stretched

Nine months is a long time in blog world.  That's how long it has been though since I last wrote.  The last time I wrote I was living in Central Arkansas.  This time I'm in South Florida.  The last time I wrote I was ending a seventeen year career in banking.  This time I'm about nine months into being a full time Pastor.  The last time I wrote I had a smoking hot wife.  Well, at least some things never change!

God rocks.  That sums up the past nine months.  Flash back to July, 2011.  Me and Mel talking to our two daughters..."Girls, I don't know what God is doing in our lives right now but I can tell you that he's getting ready to lay something so big on us that we can't even begin to imagine what it could be."  Now if this me could have gone back and talked to the July 2011 me and told him what was going to happen in 2012, I would have told this me to lay off the crack and go back to the future.  God does crazy things though when you fully surrender to him...and to say that he laid something so big and unimaginable on us would be the understatement of the year.

S T R E T C H E D.  That word also sums up the past few months for me.  My faith has been stretched.  My mind has been stretched.  My gifts and talents have been stretched.  Life as we know (knew) it has been stretched.  I know now more than ever what it means to truly give your cares, worries, anxieties and life one hundred percent over to God.  You come to a point in your life and you realize that this story you are in, this best-selling adventure story that you are in, is God's story for you.  He's the author.  Let go, and let him continue to show you the next page, the next chapter, the next adventure.  It won't all be easy.  It all hasn't been easy during our transition.  Twists, turns, dead ends, and feeling like you're going Mach 3 with your hair on fire seemed like an everyday occurrence for a while.  But with God in front, we took everything head-on and are all the stronger because of it.  Thank God for an amazing wife and two amazing daughters.  I could not do this without them.

There's so much on my heart and so much that I want to say but I'll end this post with this...Happy 2013!  Let this be the year of no more "what if" questions for you.  Spend time with God and ask him what's next in your story.  Then do it.  There are people out there waiting on you.  God is waiting on you.