Greener Pastures

In response to Your Secret Name by Kary Oberbrunner, Chapters 10 & 11:

I just have to say. I loved the author's honesty within these chapters. I mean, have YOU ever felt a bit like a pawn? Ever been confused about why things are going down the way they are? Ever thought to yourself you'd rather not be a part of whatever it is God is doing with your life? Certainly, tough times can lead to some of these thoughts and feelings. Today a gentleman at church shared with us some of the hard times he had faced in his life. But those hard times, while...hard (duh), are some of what God uses to make us who we are today.


AND to get us from one place to another. Because we often don't even realize what all He has in store for us down the road. Especially when all we can see is the mess by which we're currently surrounded.

Look back on your life. At least for me, at almost any given point, there was always somewhere it seemed I wanted to go. Some other place I wanted to BE.  How about you?

I wanted to grow up.

I wanted to be through with school. Have a job.

I wanted to be married. Have a home. Have children. 

Move.

The list could go on and on. Partially because there's really no end to our discontentment.

There's always a greener pasture somewhere. Is there not? 

But, honestly, as I look back on MY life, I can see that each and every time I noticed that "greener pasture" and developed a desire for it, it was really God all along who had given me the desire for that other place.

However.

He didn't give me that desire so I'd take my eyes off of Him--a God who provides for me, loves me, and has a plan for me. He never intended that I should spend all my time transfixed by some really green grass growing (over yonder) on this very temporal earth. Why ever would He want me doing that?!

So then. Why give me the desire in the first place? A desire which seems to consume me (each and every time I get it)....especially since not ONCE has He ever just simply made it happen for me?

I love Mr. Oberbrunner's take: "God wasn't leading me into green pastures by the most direct path." (emphasis mine)

Yeah. No kidding!

The winding path. The obstacles. The distance. The dangers. The uncertainty. And, therefore, the questions. The impatience. The tears. The struggles.

Life. 

This life God gave me--is a gift of JOURNEY. What a boring trip it would be if my life became a story of a bunch of straight lines from point A to point B, point Y to point Z. And not only would it be boring, monotonous, and ordinary, but it would not do much for WHO I am. Or WHO I am to be.

It's like those of you who exercise. (Weirdos.) Without some regular challenge to your muscles, to your cardiovascular system, etc., those muscles and organs grow weak and turn to mush. (Don't ask me how I know this.) Pretty soon, you get tired just LOOKING at your exercise equipment. 

So, now...imagine the path before you as being your exercise equipment. And you're oh, so out-of-shape. Even when it looks like a straight and easy path, you look at it (your life) as one giant reason to give up and go to bed. Exhausting!

But that's not the journey God has for us. His is one of adventure, heartache, joy, victory, challenge, miracles, GROWTH, grace, and praise.

Those greener pastures? Let's be real here. Getting to them is great. But. They're often reached by way of a vast, scorched desert...or a rocky, treacherous mountain...or a narrow, winding path in the dark! Sometimes we can't even see where we're going...much less how we're going to get there! But going--walking with God--means stronger muscles and a healthy heart and lungs: dependence on God to provide, honor for His wisdom, focus on His guidance as our compass, contentment (patience) in His timing, and comfort in His steadfast love.........Even as we stumble, stop too long to rest, get sidetracked, disobediently go a different direction, and persist in asking "why?" about every bend in the road, every pebble on the path.

Why?

So we'll get there!! To that place for which He put a desire in our hearts in the first place. So we'll get there and be stronger and more beautiful for it. So we'll be ready for the next journey. For the next "greener pasture."

This post is part of a Read-Along with Marla Taviano, but I missed the linky because I'm slow (and behind). That's okay. These things take time.