Tag: rachael pitts

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New Year, Same Me

Oops, I did it again.  I’ve already failed at my new year’s resolution.  Most years, I make resolutions.  My resolutions are the usual suspects: weight loss, exercise, read more books (for information, not just pleasure), etc.  2019 is similar to most other new years for me.  I plan to lose at minimum the weight gained between October and December, read for personal development, but this year I added a different resolution.  I want to take more pictures. I want to mark the experiences my family has so for years to come we can look back and reminisce about all the good times we had as they’ve grown up.  This seems like a reasonable goal, right?  Well, it’s January 5.  My family took a mini-vacation to Florida.  We went to Universal, the Mall at Millenia, and visited with family.  Any idea how many pictures I took?  3.  I took 3 whole pictures in 5 days.  My resolution is off to a great start.

A few days ago, before the dawn of 2019, our oldest girl was poking fun at all of the social media posts about “new year, new you”.  They are all over this time of year advertising things from weight loss products to organizational items to time management products.  So, she coined the phrase “new year, same me”.  This sparked a thought for me.  A new year is meaningless.  Just because the calendar now reads 2019  that changes nothing in me.  I am still who I was.  I still have the same habits.  I still have the same job.  I still have the same family.  I still have the same stress.  I still have the same friends.  I still have the same God.

My family went through some major changes in 2018 and in 2017. Change has been our middle name for a while.  Yet, God remains the same.  He is unchanging and he is faithful.  The Old Testament book of Malachi tells us, “For I am the Lord God, I change not”.  How thankful I am that He doesn’t start every year or month or every Monday with the thought of “new day, new me.”  He is unchanging.  He is reliable.  He is unwavering.  He is steady.  He is God.

There’s security in knowing who God is and knowing who I am in him.  He can produce change in me that I never can.  He can be unwavering in who he is while he is changing me to be like him.  I’m still going to pursue my health goals for this year and my resolution to take more pictures.  However, it’s not a new year, new me mentality.  I want to rest in the stability of who God is and hold on to him through every change and know that he is working in me and that he is working all circumstances for my good.

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Turnaround

laettner

I love basketball.  My jump shot is terrible.  My dribbling skills are worthless.  But, I love the game.    In my house, all sports were a part of life. We watched everything, even Nascar (which I don’t consider a sport, but maybe it’s like marching band, those who participate in it consider it a sport).  I was probably the only 9 year old girl who could tell you about Freddy Couples’ putting struggles or about Spurrier’s challenge to find a good QB1 until Danny Wuerfel came on the scene when all our prayers were answered.  I became a fan of certain teams because of who my dad was a fan.  He liked the Celtics, I liked the Celtics. He liked Dale Earnhardt, I liked Dale Earnhardt.

Then, sometime around 1990, I really discovered my favorite game.  My cousin had become a fan of Duke.  Coach K had been there just a few years and was really beginning to build a great program.  So, my dad started paying a little more attention to Duke Basketball.  Even though we are Florida fans through and through, we became Duke basketball fans.

A couple of years later, Duke had made it to the Elite 8 in the March Madness tournament.  Kentucky was the team to beat.  They were a powerhouse at the time.  The game was close the whole way.  Then, in the last few moments it was tied.  With 2.2 seconds on the clock, Duke had the ball.  My dad was on the edge of the couch, my mom was intently staring at the screen, I was standing on the couch, perched with anticipation.  There had been a turnover, Duke was getting the ball at the opposite end of the court, Grant Hill passes the ball to Christian Laettner where he’s standing near the foul shot line.  Laettner catches it, turns around, shoots, and nothing but net.  Duke wins the game and advances to the Final Four and ultimately to win the championship.  Kentucky fans are still bitter about this.

The elation in my house was unreal.  We were all ecstatic at what we had witnessed.  The simple turn around shot of Laettner changed the whole game.  I was reading the book of Esther the other day and got to the point in the story that there is what Bible teachers call divine reversal.  The story is headed one way, then it completely turns.  In the climax of Esther, the story is Haman has built gallows to hang the queen’s cousin and made plans to annihilate the entire Jewish population from the Persian Empire.  But one night, Esther has invited Haman and the King to dinner, she reveals the plot and suddenly Haman is the one hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai and Mordecai is made the king’s trusted adviser.  In what seems like a split second, the whole story changed.

Have you ever sat with what seems like limited time on the clock?  Where it seems like 2.2 seconds are all that is left and if someone doesn’t make the basket, you end up like Kentucky.  Lost and headed home defeated.  I have.  We as Christians say God is not limited by time.  He has no shot clock.  That “he’s on on-time God”.  Which is true but often our circumstances are controlled by time.  There are decisions to be made.  Pending actions of others that require our action.

Esther fought the clock.  She knew time was limited.  Mordecai even says to her, if you don’t do what you need to do, God will find someone else.  It’s like Coach K saying to Laettner, if you’re not willing to take this shot, I’ll get somebody else.

I sit in a place waiting on a divine reversal.  It’s like life has been on a timeout and suddenly the timeout is over and there’s a clock that has 2.2 seconds left.  Somebody’s got to pass the ball and somebody’s got to turnaround and make the shot.  I need God’s turnaround.  I need his divine reversal for as the book of Genesis puts it “the saving of many lives”.  This situation is pinnacle and it seems there is only limited time.

So, my question is what’s my role?  Am I Hill or am I Laettner?  I’m Hill and I’m trusting that Jesus is Laettner.  So, in this 2.2 seconds that is left in this particular game, I’m in bounding the ball to Jesus.  My advocate with the father.  I’m trusting that if I pass my control off to him, he’s going to turn the situation around and score with nothing but net.

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Request to Testimony

Have you ever waited in a long line for something you really wanted?  Maybe the latest iPhone or maybe a doughnut.  I have.  Usually while standing there, the anticipation is high.  Oh this (fill in the blank) is going to be great.  It is so worth the time in line.  Then, you finally get that thing you’ve been waiting for and it really is that good (this isn’t a blog about disappointment, but I know sometimes it isn’t as good as you’d hoped).  You feel justified.  Vindicated.  Validated.  You knew the product you were waiting on was worth the wait.  You shift from hopeful to fulfilled.  There’s nothing like that feeling.

Music has this effect on me sometimes.  There are certain songs that I’ve sang in seasons that have been the absolute desperate request of my heart.  Every time I would sing that song, my heart would just plead with God to do the very thing that song was mentioning.  It was like waiting in line for my request to be answered.  Then, that season would pass.  The song would lose consistency or popularity.

Then, I would hear it on the radio or it would come up on my playlist and all of the sudden, I would remember what God had done for me.  How at some point between the last time I sang that song and now, he had answered my prayer.  The song then became a testimony.

I can now sing “Made Me Glad” as a testimony because looking back, he was

My shield

My strength

My fortress

Deliverer

Shelter

Strong Tower

Ever present help in time of need.

He was all of those things and he answered every prayer uttered during those times of worship.  I can now sing Waymaker as a testimony because he has been my

Waymaker

Miracle Worker

Promise Keeper

Light in the Darkness

I can reflect and I can testify that God answers prayer in the seasons that a song someone else wrote may be the only prayer you can pray.  That someone else’s testimony is your prayer.  It’s why we share what God has done.  Someone may need to know that this God that they are asking to bring some sort of miracle is so very trustworthy and consistent.

Songs have seasons.  I like old songs and I like new songs.  Sometimes they’re prayers, sometimes they’re testimonies.  No matter what season you’re in, it’s okay to sing someone else’s testimony believing that God is going to make it your testimony as well.

 

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; “

Revelation 12:11

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Did God really say?

There are lots of journeys in my life that I quite honestly wish I would have never walked.  Some were started of my own decisions and some were started by the decisions of others.  I learned valuable lessons from them in the end, but some days I wish those lessons would have come in another way.

The not-so-pleasant journeys in my life that were caused by my decisions were results of disobedience.  Now, before you go and think that I was some rebellious, wild child, I wasn’t.  I was a pretty good rule follower and Jesus lover.  However, with one decision in particular, I knew better, but chose wrong anyway.  Why did I choose wrongly?  Well, it’s very simple.  I began to doubt myself and God.

I had made the decision to end a relationship.  It was a hard decision, but a right decision.  Then one night, the offer to pick that relationship back up was given.  The decision to pick that relationship back up began the hardest 14 years of my life.  I didn’t make that decision out of rebellion, I made it out of doubt.  There was a voice in my head that offered one simple question…. “Did God really say?”

Oh boy.  Well, I don’t know.  I mean I kinda thought he did.  I asked for him to speak and I kinda turned to that one scripture about Peter taking his eyes off Jesus.  I kinda asked God to forgive me for doing that.  But maybe, just maybe, God didn’t really say.  Maybe that was all coincidence.  Maybe God hadn’t said anything at all.  Maybe God was providing this opportunity because I’ll never have opportunity again.  Maybe this is all God has for me.

Lies.  Just lies.  They weren’t out right lies though, they were simply little thoughts of doubt.  Those doubts led me to make what seemed like a small decision and that small decision altered the course of my life.

Later in life I learned that the number 1 tool of the enemy of our souls is doubt.  It’s his oldest and most reliable.  It is what he uses on Adam and Eve in the garden.  He simply questions them into doubting that God would be truthful with them.  Don’t get me wrong, he will absolutely get you to think wrong things about yourself, full on lie to you.  He will bring fear and shame.  He will accuse.  All of that.  However, his most trusted weapon against us is to convince us that there is reason to doubt God.

Did God really say that you shouldn’t go to that place?

Did God really say you need to end that relationship?

Did God really say you were healed?

Did God really say he saved you?

Did God really promise THAT?

Did God really say____________?”

You can fill in the blank for your own life.  If you’ve ever faced a decision as a believer, I guarantee you that you’ve had the thought, “did God really say?”

I could look back now at Adam and Eve and view them as complete idiots.  Of course God said that! He’s God!  You’ve walked with him and talked with him every blessed afternoon!  What is wrong with you?  Except I know what’s wrong with them, because I am just like them.  They allowed the enemy to plant doubt in their mind, even though  they knew God, they doubted.

We have to stand (sometimes literally) on the word and truth of God and who God is.  He is unchanging.  Unmoving.  Unwavering.  Consistent.  Constant.  Always Truth.  If we don’t, we enter the world of being double minded, which will cause you to lose your mind.  James says this, “… because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” (James 1:6-8)

So my challenge to myself and whoever reads this is simple.  Believe and don’t doubt.  Even when it looks like there’s reason to doubt, don’t.  We serve the very God who created the universe and who defines constant.  God said it, it is Truth.

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