Sacred Mundane: The Blog

• Just so crazy showered by God’s generosity. It’s like ever since the day we finished our employment we have not needed one thing. No joke, it’s like we have not had a single need that’s not been almost immediately provided. Crazy. Just crazy.
• Cheese on sale!
• Butter on sale!
• Free grocery bag full of organic applesauce brought to our door!
• $.88/lb. peaches!
• 100 lbs. of free plums!
• Food dehydrator humming night and day.
• Apple chips, banana chips, prunes!
• Free coffee, potatoes, pancakes, meat, produce galore, organic broth, can’t even list all the things! Really, God? Really?
• Free double date at Stanford’s with our mentors. How on earth do we get to have such amazing people in our life????
• Afternoon boating. Watching the kids take such brave steps!
• My man on the wakeboard. Love him!
• Grubbs. Words just can’t express…
• Kellie.
• Pam.
• The Seifers serving Renew Kids so faithfully every single week.
• Our new roommate. 🙂
• Our car running again!
• Early morning runs with Danielle.
• Putting away summer clothes and pulling out the sweaters and jeans. These are a few of my favorite things!
• Free (really cool) cowgirl boots.
• Checking out a rental house that turned into a field trip at the farm! Cows, chickens, goats, lambs, orchards, gardens, kids chomping on red apples and chasing chickens and kneeling down by the goats. Who could have planned such a day for our kids? Only God.
• So, so, so, grateful to be where we are.
• Slower season.
• Space to breathe.
• Freedom.
• Blessed opportunities to teach, share, rub shoulders with God’s beautiful women in different areas. Such. A. Gift.
• Renew women popcorn night and getting to know each other.
• Melody’s garlic and Parmesan popcorn. Who knew??
• Eating and drinking together.
• God’s Word.
• Resting and relying.
• Sleep.

“As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Col 2:6

I’ll never forget the first time those words echoed in my heart. College, probably sophomore year, Pastor Mark read them slowly. So walk… the room stood still.

So walk in Him. Of course!  Why hadn’t I understood it before? I was striving, struggling, trying trying trying to live a life of faith. I was frustrated, defeated, discouraged. What was I doing wrong? No matter how early I rose in the morning or how long I prayed I still seemed to struggle. Ready to raise the white flag, I came to Bible study.

As you have received Christ …

How did I receive Christ? As a child. A 5-year-old child. Did I have anything to offer God? Nope. Did I have to rise at 5am to earn His love? Did I try really hard and pray exactly the right words and sweat my way into His kingdom?

No.  How did I receive Christ?

I bowed. I clasped my starfish hands and …

asked.

I asked. I brought empty hands and bowed my head and bent my knees and asked God for the gift of grace.

So walk in Him…

Why do we think that we continue any differently than we began?

Sinners are not only saved by grace through faith, but the saved sinner lives by grace through faith.

Grace is the way to life and the way of life.

Paul would say to the Galatians and me,

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (3:3)

Would we really receive God’s glorious gift of salvation and then push His hand aside, “Thanks, God, but I can take it from here.”

Are there any areas in our lives that are, essentially, saying those words?

Let’s continue how we began… amen?

{Think today of how you received Christ. What would it look like to walk in that manner today? Practically, what would that look like, if you lived that way today? Thank you, as always, for reading.}

I love little stories, like we talked about yesterday. The pink Toms, the cleats, the little things that God does to show us His tender care. But one of the things I’ve struggled with is the natural conclusion we sometimes come to. I know I’ve said it, perhaps you have to.

“God even cares about [insert whatever thing that He provided]!”

For example, let’s say your daughter needs a prom dress. You pray about it, which is awesome, and you go shopping and you find the perfect dress, on sale, and you go home remarking, “Wow! God is amazing — He even cares about prom dresses!” Ok, that’s cool. Or, I’ll be really honest and embarrass myself because that’s usually what I do best in this space: I remember when we were building our “dream” home and I was so excited about the colors and woodwork and all the details, and something happened that basically made the builder give us $10,000 worth of rockwork on the front of the house for free. I don’t know if I said it or not, but I might have said,

“Wow! God even cares about the rockwork on my house!”

My dad always prays before he buys a new car. That’s cool. Does God care about new cars?

Hmmm…. Does He?

Yes and no.

One of the reasons I really battled two years ago when we decided to sell our house was that there were so many “God stories” that had accompanied it. I mean, He gave us free rockwork, right? Obviously He wanted us in that house so how on earth could He then want us to give it all away?  (I’m smiling.)

And then, as I wrestled in prayer, He impressed so gently on my heart:

Providing you a house was simply loving you in a language you could understand best at the time. 

I don’t really care about the house …

I care about you.

Does that make sense?

The truth is, I don’t really care about Dora shoes. I don’t really care about shoes that light up. In fact, I think they are sort of obnoxious-looking and probably not my first choice.

But I knew my daughter would be delirious with joy. I knew she would look up at me when I gave her with the sparkly shoes and I would show her how they light up and she would beam and hold them to her chest and she would say, “Mommy thank you so much for getting me Dora shoes!! I love you!”

And that’s exactly what she did.

Do I care about Dora shoes? Not really.

I care about her.

God is so gracious that sometimes He even provides things that are probably a little excessive. I did not need rockwork on my house. In fact now I feel sick to my stomach over how much money we spent on that house. BUT. God used it to show me His love during a time I needed it, and then He drew me even further into His love by letting me give it away.

Was it because He no longer cared about my house?

No.

Because all along the only thing He really cared about was my heart.

That’s what God cares about.

{Oh I pray you know His crazy love for you today!! Bask in it, receive it, enjoy it! Bless you, friends. Thanks for reading.}