Once upon a time...
Once upon a time there was a girl who was twenty-eight years old, but she liked to pretend she was twenty-five. The girl was kind of prideful knowing that she had given up a lot to move to a foreign kingdom. One day that girl had a very important decision to make, "should I stay or should I go?" So the girl thought and pr, and thought some more. She thought about how her prince charming probably wasn't going to find her way out here and how that little cute house she'd always wanted to rent near Covington street with the white fence and her little dog in the back yard and her jeep parked out front probably wasn't going to happen either. She thought about how having a diamond on her left hand would be wonderful but since the prince was lacking, it would probably not appear either. As she thought about her decision she needed to make and all the things in her dreams, she watched them begin to disappear like in a photo from "back to the future."
"The will of G is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it's going to be a lot better and a lot bigger." Elisabeth Elliot
So the girl knew that she couldn't make the decision to go home back to her kingdom in good conscience, but it hurt the girls heart as she watched her dreams disappear. She made the decision to stay but began to be sad, jealous and bitter in her heart. And it seemed like as soon as the girl in the new kingdom made the decision to stay a ugly curse was unleashed. Life for the next several days became not fun, ugly, confrontational and her freedom was gone. The girl was still watching the picture disappear but now a new picture was forming...a princess locked a way in a castle for two more years. So the girl became even more angry..... Her life had become very ugly and her dreams had been torn away.
One day, locked in her tower high above the kingdom castle, she decided to search the Internet for a bit....yes this fairy tale has Internet. So she went online and noticed one person had connections to several blogs of people the girl had once met. People who had all journeyed to far away kingdoms to love people and share stories, just as the girl once had. And as she began to read of all the others in far away kingdoms, the young twenty-five year old..he, he, he,... realized that the ugliness she was seeing was in her. She had become ungrateful, unwilling, and unloving. Yes, she was still in the tower, still far away from the kingdom she loved, and 'her' dream of the house, dog and the diamond wasn't going to happen the way she imagined. But as she began to look at her "back to the future" picture where all had dissolved, new things began to appear...things she had never imagined. Dreams so much bigger and better than anything she had in visioned. The girl smiled as she began to see that this was going to be a fairytale different from most, at times it would be hard, tears would fall and dreams would be stripped away, but new ones would come, there would be good times and she was hopeful that the picture would turn out just fine in the end.
I would be lying if I said the decision to stay has been easy. I'd also be lying if I said that I haven't been the girl in the fairy tale. As you look at your life, sometimes its hard to see all that He is asking you to give up, it's easy to become bitter and ungrateful. But He has always been faithful and I will cling to Him during a time that seems so uncertain and feels like everything I ever dreamed of is crashing to the ground. The last several days I've really focused on other people and their flaws, I've focused on my unhappiness and just all kinds of things. As I read some of the other blogs from people all over the world, I realized how ungrateful I had been. I've lost focus of the things I started out with in the beginning as my vision and goals. I've lost my excitement for the people around me, my job. If you are ever having a pity party of a day, read a blog from someone who lives everyday with their life in danger simply for the cause. I have one friend who lives in the middle east...we will call him T. When my days are bad, I read his blog...he is a true encouragement and inspiration to me. Thanks T!!!!
Don't forget to hang onto your joy and no matter what is going on around you, turn you eyes upon J and the things of this world will grow strangely dim...I love it!! Thanks J.C.!
Beautiful Feet
Comments