30 Day Scripture Challenge

Well, it's official, I'm a slacker and apparently blogs are hard to keep up with. Nevertheless, my small group is starting a 30 day scripture challenge and emailing our thoughts on whatever we read that day to each other. It's only been one day and it.is.awesome. I love hearing what my friends are reading and the lessons that they're learning from it. In the spirit of sharing and accountability, I thought it might be good to post what I write to them on the blog, it's sad and needs some love.

Day 1:

This morning I read Genesis 13 - 17, part of Abraham and Sarah's story. I'll be honest, I'm confused a lot when I read the Bible only because there are a ridiculous amount of names I will never be able to pronounce and a majority of the time I feel like they're talking in circles and giving me unnecessary information. Nevertheless, underneath it all is a great story, it just takes me a while to process.

There were a few things that struck me while I processed this story.

1.) I can't believe a 90 year old woman is going to bear a child and a 100 year old man is going to circumcise himself.

2.) the amount of faith both of them must have had to be able to hear those words from God and not go running to the hills. I wish I could have been there to see the look on their faces upon hearing that news. I probably would have had trouble not laughing.

Somewhere in there is a story of hope. Whatever their lives were like before this, they could have never dreamed of what was to come. Putting myself in Sarah's shoes, I can't imagine not being able to have a child. God created women to be able to recreate, and while I know that there are women who don't necessarily have that desire, those of us who do would be devastated to find out we couldn't. She wanted to give Abraham a son so badly that she told him to conceive with her maid...I can't imagine this decision came lightly, void of prayer and calling out to God, so I can only assume that she was feeling a lot of doubt and confusion. But God's covenant to Abraham tells me that he hears our cries, knows our desires, and will do the impossible to make our wildest dreams come true. They're not always what we thought they would be, they're better.

I have an extremely hard time remembering this on a daily basis. I also have a hard time remembering that God is the ultimate comforter and knows when we need to be reminded of his love, and that's what this story was for me this morning. Yesterday was a really difficult day...what's funny is that work was relatively drama-free (with the exception of a few people getting on my nerves and my coworker having a personal crisis) but by about 3pm, I was ready to walk out the door and not come back. I was sitting at my desk, not do anything (because there's only so many times you can re-organize, clean and pretend to be busy), when I just had this overwhelming feeling of "WHAT AM I DOING HERE?" There are so many contributing factors to my general disdain for this job, but overall, I come into work and think about how much I don't want to be there. It's not a great feeling. ANYways, I'll stop complaining and get to the point...I know God hears me, I know that he loves me, I know that he has something better for my life, but I just might need to wait 90 years to get it. In the meantime, I need to be obedient and faithful to where he's called me to be at the moment.

"Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed; no, it is far greater than that. It is a zany, unpredictable dependence on a God who loves to surprise us out of our socks and be there in the flesh to see our reaction." - Max Lucado