God Stories

God Stories

A couple of months ago, Jeff, a long time business associate, friend, and amazing Christian, stopped by the salon for a few minutes. When Jeff spotted me, he broke out in this huge, toothy, “cat-that-swallowed-the-canary” grin, vigorously shook my hand, and said “Sam that was another great post! I can’t believe that you’ve done eighty-five of those things! Where do you get the ideas? I would’ve run out of ‘em a long time ago.”

Good question Jeff, and for the longest time it was one that I would often pose to myself. As a matter of fact my biggest fear when The Seed of Hope was launched wasn’t saying the wrong thing, or feeling qualified to share my thoughts, but running out of things to say (the number is up to ninety-six, which is almost unfathomable for me). How would I possibly come up with enough “O.C.” material (my friend Kris’ term for original content) to write something that was meaningful every week?

There’s actually more than one answer to mine and Jeff’s questions…

Change

Change is inevitable, you know? Change is gonna happen in your life; every day. There’s no avoiding it. If you were to wake up tomorrow morning and make a decision to do nothing, absolutely nothing, all day long to bring change into your life, it would still happen. Don’t believe me?

If nothing else, the day after tomorrow you’re gonna be another year older! And of course, the world around you is gonna change, which will, in some fashion, have an effect on your life. What I’m saying is that change is gonna happen, whether you like it or not!

Some of the changes in our lives seem to come with “easy” buttons. (I’m reminded of the Staples commercial in which the voiceover simply states “That was easy!”) It has been my experience the easy changes in life were the ones that I didn’t have time to prepare for. Not physically, but mentally. Give me too much time to think about making changes, and my brain turns to Jello.

I believe that we face the majority of changes in our lives with skepticism, doubt, resistance, and fear. We’re predisposed to the idea that change is a bad idea, that it’s for other people, and that nothing good will come out of it. We’re so convinced that the outcome is gonna be bad that we don’t allow ourselves to see or receive the blessings that quite often accompany change!

I’m gonna share a little nugget of truth with you that took me fifty-seven years to discover:

One of the most important things to realize is that it’s not what you receive in life, but what you do with what you receive.  

I walk with this thought ingrained in my mind each and every day. Of course, if I had a vote, I’d opt for receiving nothing but the good stuff! But life doesn’t work that way does it?

I don’t know about you, but my life, and what I receive in it, seems to run in seasons. There’ll be a stretch of prosperity that lasts for months, and just when I’m getting a bit comfortable, something happens that reverses the trend. There have been periods of time when our hair salon has been filled with peace and harmony, and seemingly out of nowhere, I’m standing in the midst of chaos!

I find that my walk with God, or better yet, my spiritual life, runs in seasons as well. A few weeks I wrote about a spiritual dry season that I was in, and had been for several weeks. As it turned out, I was the one responsible for that one; I had done something that wasn’t the right thing to do, and God let me work through it until I realized the error of my ways.

There have other times when I felt as if I were standing on a spiritual mountaintop, as close to God and the heavens as humanly possible, only to wake up the next day in what seemed like Death Valley, wondering what had happened to me! On each of these occasions, I’ve just gone after God with all that’s in me, believing that a new level of spirituality was in store for me.

This is where it gets good.

I’ve said many times on this blog page that God is faithful to those who love Him, to those who seek His face, and to those who serve Him. I’ve said that because that’s exactly what He is.

He’s gotten me through all of the seasons; every one of them. And here’s the thing…I had good seasons because He gave them to me; He allowed me to have them. I had bad seasons because He gave them to me; He allowed me to have them. And He gave me the strength to get through them. For years I didn’t realize that it was His strength, and not mine, that got me through all of the rough spots. You can bet that I know it now.

It’s that “knowing” that allows me to receive everything in life with the expectation that the outcome is gonna be good, regardless of how bad it may seem to be. Call me a fool. Call me blinded by my faith. Call me whatever you like. It really doesn’t matter. I know what I know, and I know that He’s all that I need.

Most of what I share with you on these pages is from my journey through life and towards God. They’re what I call God Stories, and I call ‘em that because they’re stories of what He has done in my life. I love to tell them because they quite often impact people’s lives; not because of what I’ve done or received, but because of what He’s given! (I hope that made sense. What I’m trying to say is that it’s all about Him, and not about me.)  

Here’s the thing: All of us have God Stories. Yes, all of us; even you. I don’t care what you’re going through right now. If you look back over your life you’re gonna see some times when it was His strength, and not yours, that got you through a rough spot.

You need to share your God Stories with people that are willing to listen. If you’re willing to try it a few times, I have a feeling that you’re gonna discover a couple of things:

·         There are a lot of people in the world today that have heard about God, but don’t know the first thing about who He is, or what He can do. You start sharing what He’s done for you, and you’re going to open some eyes and some hearts. You’ll be sowing some Seeds of Hope, and you’ll know why I do what I do!

·         God’s gonna be listening too. If you give praise to Him, and you turn those eyes and hearts to Him, He is going to bless you abundantly. You’ll be receiving His Seeds of Hope, and you’ll really know why I do what I do!

See you next week!