Mountains and Mercy

Lord let your mercy be on us as we place our trust in you. Psalm 33:22

As I sit here typing, I’m staring out a giant airport window at the beautiful mountains and I am captivated by the view.  I’ve been in awe of these mountains since I arrived here in Idaho on Friday.  Each time I left the conference room and found a window I’d be surprised all over again; the view just never gets old.  As my flight leaves I’ll be sad to watch the view disappear through the airplane window.  I think the fine folks here in Idaho appreciate the beauty but I’m sure they aren’t as taken by surprise when they look out the window as I am.  The only thing more beautiful than the Idaho mountains is the Idaho people I’ve met.  It was a spectacular weekend from beginning to end and I’m heading back to Michigan with a full heart.  

Gods grace and mercy, like the mountains in Idaho, is amazing to me.  Strong, beautiful, surprising, massive and sometimes taken for granted.  Who am I to get to do this work…to see so many beautiful places…to meet amazing people who let me into their lives and share their story…to tell HIS story and invite others to love him more.  I’m a big ole sinner and yet he still works through my brokenness to spread his love and his light. I need his grace and mercy like the flowers need the sun and the rain.  This weekend of beauty reminded me that the more I trust, the less I think and fret.  If I’m not busy fussing and fretting my eyes and heart are open to the surprises that stand before me as clearly as these beautiful mountains.

Each time I leave my classroom, the middle lovelies pray for the people I will be working with and the message I will give.  I’m always surprised at how overwhelmed audiences are to discover that a group of kids in Michigan is praying for them.  It gives the kids a window to the world and there is great power in the prayer they offer.  They always pray that the Holy Spirit will come upon the group gathered and  work in a mighty way.  This weekend I found out one of the ladies at the conference had had a dream early last week that a big group of children was praying for her so when I told the crowd gathered at this weekends conference that the students had been praying for them she was overwhelmed.  Gods merciful love allows a few dozen kids to impact the life of people they will never meet. This weekend their prayers encouraged a woman who had been living on the outer fringes of faith to take a full on dive right into the merciful arms of the Father.  She was broken and bruised from a life of “hard stuff” and she said the moment she heard there were children praying for her something in her heart just softened and  for the first time in decades she was able to think of herself as God’s daughter and not his renegade, rebel child.  That revelation in her soul led  her to trust and weep and feel like she was His Beloved child.

I’m many thousand feet in the air now, looking down at snow covered mountains and I am marveling at the change. Twenty minutes ago I saw green, flowering trees and freshly sprouted leaves.  Now I’m looking  at a giant blanket of snow.  It’s like a change of seasons in a matter of minutes.  It is a beautiful reminder that our relationship with the Lord has seasons too.  We go through seasons of great change, new life and beauty and we go through seasons that seem dark, dry and maybe even a little barren.  The beauty of the seasons lies in the changing…no one season lasts forever but each one offers the earth or the soul something it needs.  If I lived in perpetual spring, I would miss the color of fall.  If I lived in the peaceful quiet of winter snow I’d miss the warmth and green of summer.  Each provides something necessary at the appropriate time.  Our spiritual walk is much the  same.  Sometimes we need seasons to sit quietly and just be, other times we need to move, be actively seeking, growing and changing in our walk with him.  His mercy allows us to pass through each season and our trust in him allows us to know we are right where we need to be.  The greater the trust, the greater the peace.  The greater the trust the bigger the surprises.  The greater the trust the more beauty we see in each season of our life.  It seems so simple but yet I goof it up again and again.  Thank goodness for God’s mercy that faces me with as mighty a presence as an Idaho mountain reminding me again and again that he’s just waiting for me to trust.

A Seed To Plant:  Sit for a while and think about what season your relationship with Jesus is in.  What are the things he’s trying to show you that are as big as a mountain but still hard to see?  Ask him for the grace of trust and see what he reveals to you.​

Blessings on your day!