I dont know if I told you about this picture I got about 6 months ago but I am going to tell you about it now; I am about a cm tall in my picture. I am standing on a giant stair case. Its so big that in my picture I can only see about 3 of the steps. I have just climbed a step. I can see the little pegs on the step I just climbed that had to be put there in order for me to climb them like a ladder and make it to the top of the step. My little self is jumping, just so stoked that I made it to the top, I'm cheering and whooping and pumped about life. In my little eyes I have climbed a mountain in life and I am living on top of this step with God. Everything is amazing because Im on the top of the step. But then something changes... I feel a tug and I have to turn around and when I do I see another massive step in front of me. It seems just as big or even bigger than the last one. And my cheering stops replaced with determination. I know God is asking me to go back into battle and fight and work to get to the top of that next step, putting in tiny pegs as I go to help me reach the top again. Part of me is disappointed because I feel like I've just made it to the top, and I wanna stay there , I don't wanna leave my happy, comfortable place. But that isn't an option for me, I can't live on the mountain. I have to live in a place where I have to work to put in those pegs, and put in so much effort to cling to the safety of the side of that step.
That was my picture 6 months ago. That was what I began six months ago and now Im putting in those pegs painstakingly slow, with an immense amount of effort. I am clinging to the edge of the step and I am missing the top. I am missing the easy, comfortable way that I got to experience living on the top of the step. But I this morning I read this and God showed me something that you need to know too. He didn't create us for the top of the step, he created us for the side. Not for the mountain but for the valley.
I read Psalm 77 this morning;
"When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
indeed, the deep trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies gave forth thunder;
your arrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lighted up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
20 You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron."
God's way leads through the sea. Just like when the Israelites crossed the red sea. We have lightening and we have thunder crashing all around us and our worlds might be shaking and the water is trembling and there is a path ahead that looks scary. There is water being held at bay on both sides and were crazy if we take this path, because it means trusting that whatever force holds those waters back wont let them crash down on you when you are in the heart of that river valley. It means trusting that that thunder and that lightening wont touch you. That path is not an easy one. But its where we live life. Its where God builds us. If we cannot live in the river valley then we cannot live on the shore. If I cannot live on the side of that step then I cannot live on the top. The fighting and the miserable is where I test my faith, its where I fall back to what I know and have practiced. In battle you revert to your training. And I cant wait for the battle to be over but in the mean time I have to trust Gods unseen footprints through the heart of the scary, and the difficult, and the frustrating.
Im convinced after years of mountains and valley's, and tops of the step and sides of the step, that where God created us to live is on the side. The high places are meant for inspiration and everything else is meant to make us into something, and not just anything , but to turn our character into everything He is. So Im living on the side, and Im looking forward to the top, but until then Im trusting that in the thunder , lightening, and waters on every side , that God is leading me just like He led Moses and Aaron.
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