Faith Stretchers

Many thoughts flooded my mind as I was getting on my gear for my morning run. It is cold and slightly windy which makes for really nice running weather. I wondered if getting on all the foundational gear was important for today. I was just going for a 2.25 mile pace run that would take about 22 minutes. Was it really necessary to wear the compression shorts and the athletic belt under the running pants? Weren't the long pants and long sleeved shirt enough to keep things in place?
A glance at myself in the mirror-the dreaded side view-my frame greatly smoothed out and back well supported by both the shorts and belt. Attempting to remove anything before applying the glide stick would be futile at this point and using up energy before my run could ensure that my silent exhale prayers would become loud cries for help!
Wisely, I keep on all my gear and begin to stretch. I have to stretch to prevent injury and prepare my body for what is ahead. Slowly stretching my legs and arms out I also pray for the strength and endurance to finish the run. I move and start to feel some resistance from my body...almost like my muscles begin to remember what is about to happen and in not-so-silent protest tighten up while I deepen the stretches and breathe through it.
Stretching my body to get ready for a run is always slightly painful and I have to keep moving slowly until my muscles respond and I can move without pain or resistance.  If I decide to run before my body has been stretched I risk getting hurt or having great trouble finishing my run well.
At times, especially when I train regularly, I just throw on my shoes and run as fast as I can. Letting my body warm up as I approach the second mile... and inevitably end up in serious back pain a few hours later. I overestimate what my body run today because of what I have run in the past. Sometimes I forget that it took several months and discipline to train up to marathon shape and that the marathon was in 2010.
My faith journey has been a lot like my running. Sometimes I just want to have instant faith to follow hard after God without the necessary stretching that is required to grow my faith. At the beginning of our adoptive journey, I trusted God to accomplish whatever His Will was for us and our family. I knew it wasn't about me or my abilities. Forgetting that I would be with Him and that my faith wasn't where it needed to be to truly be on mission with Him. I started out this marathon adoptive journey my way, in a sprint with a few after thought prayers...and I got seriously injured. For a while, it even began to look like we'd gotten the message wrong and that God wasn't actually asking us to adopt Hudson.
I skipped the important faith stretching before I took off in a sprint. Now, as we are preparing to travel to consummate our adoption in the next few months, I understand why our adoptive journey has taken the time that it has and how the long and often uphill runs were necessary to stretch and grow my faith.
There are many ways to grow and stretch your faith while on journey with God. He used this adoption to remove my pride of self and to grow my small faith into more of what He has always planned for me to be...faithful, dependent on and running with Him for His glory and my blessing.
This morning as I completed my morning run-further and in less time I had planned I was thankful I had stretched out my body and even more grateful for God's faith stretchers.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Book Review- God Loves Broken People

I just finished reading Sheila Walsh's, God Loves Broken People courtesy of BookSneeze and really enjoyed it. Walsh, has walked through difficult times and many experiences that have led to brokenness. His healing, and a mindset full of God's Word as truth have allowed her brokenness to be used for His glory...and a reminder to others that we all experience suffering and brokenness. Walsh gives a truth-filled reminder of purpose in the brokenness and honest look at a restoration process that makes it possible to be useful again for His purposes. She reminds the reader that many of the heroes of the faith from Biblical times through contemporaries have battled their own times of brokenness. Walsh is very open about her own challenges and the truth of how God has healed and restored her. Her vulnerability gives the reader hope and an example of how God can restore and use a broken person for His greater glory after brokenness. The process of suffering moves and changes us from what we've decided we were to who God has created us to be...and He is still at work, Phil 1:6! 
Suffering is guaranteed in this life. God guarantees to be with us through the suffering. Sheila Walsh reminds us that God will restore, establish, strengthen and settle us.

Her wonderful thought, may it encourage you as you seek after Christ as His beloved and broken person.

"To be broken is to follow in Christ’s footsteps. But to embrace it is to follow His heart."

Pulled Back the Cloud Cover

Saturday's mail brought us a short letter from the NVC. Our agency needed this before the courier can take our docs to the consulate. The letter let us know that our approval was sent on about a week ago so all of our papers should be together for processing in a few days. There is a holiday this week so that may add a few days to our process.

God has brought us to the top of another steep mountain and pulled back the cloud cover. Here I can see where we've traveled from and a little of the trail that is ahead. I am not the same person. Our family is not the same and with The Son as The Light, we reflect His radiance.

The journey is not over and there will be challenges ahead. In this moment my eyes see God and He is beautiful. There is no one like Him. Jehovah shammah- The Lord is there:)