Nothing prepares us for lightning strikes stripping the bark off of trees during storms

or seasons of life where it’s hard to focus, as our life takes on new shapes and forms we’ve never seen. Maybe we have less time, or too much time. We may find ourselves pivoting from the path we’ve known. 

A time frame where life throws the unexpected not once, but again and again. When what is familiar is gone and you find yourself grieving what was, maybe more than you expected, and in more ways than you thought you could.

When God is calling you forward and yet, you can’t quite explain it or see it clearly, but you sense His leading.

This requires letting go and leaving things behind by faith. This is not always easy. Especially when you are unsure as to what God is leading you to.

“Storms give birth to things.” – Stasi Eldridge

Watching others step forward as you step back. 

This is healthy and normal no matter how uncomfortable, awkward and hard it may feel to our hearts. More than ever, this is a time to laser focus our eyes on Jesus. No one else can help us through changing seasons like He can, emotions and all.

There is “a time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). May we be sensitive to the new things stirring in our hearts; that spark of excitement and hope that is rising.

This takes faith.

This feels risky.

This is what it takes to move forward with God.

Faith is spelled R.I.S.K. Thank you Pastor David for these words I’ve heard you speak on multiple occasions. None of us know for sure if what we’re embarking on will pan out as we think. However, not trying will leave us sitting in the company of regret, and that never makes for good company.

RISK is better than REGRET. Let’s remind ourselves to choose the discomfort of faith over the grip of fear every time.

If it doesn’t work out, if you don’t like it, or it’s not what you thought it would be – at least you now know. We often uncover our sweet spots, the places in life where we flourish and feel fully alive, by discovering where we don’t thrive.

This can be called failure, or this can be called a gift. I choose to see it as a beautiful gift we’re given.

That nudging we can feel from God to take steps towards the unknown is both familiar and divergent in nature. You can sense God shifting you and yet the path he’s taking you on feels uncertain.

“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them” (Isaiah 42:16 NIV).

You got this friend, because He’s got you!

Nothing is certain when it comes to faith except that God is with you and He is faithful. 

“He is far more awesome than those who surround his throne. O Lord God Almighty! Where is there anyone as mighty as you, Lord? Faithfulness is your character” (Psalm 89:7-8).

Is anything certain with having faith?

God is. His faithfulness is.

The shapes of the individual puzzle pieces of our lives are often strange looking. It’s hard to comprehend what can be done with a protruding, jagged edge. The rounded knob that won’t fit in a square opening. Indents and holes that remind us of what’s missing, where we feel like we don’t fit in, or where we have failed.

We can’t see it. We don’t know how it will work out. The final picture is vague.

What could God do with what we have?

Then the master, the God that gives good gifts, picks up the puzzle piece that we couldn’t figure out, placing it just where it belongs. It’s just one piece of many that is a part of our life’s journey.

There are many interlocking pieces; they are all unique, and yet God has a way of fitting them together in the most unlikely and beautiful ways. 

As sections of the overall picture begin to come together, we get hints of the masterpiece God is creating, and yet, we see only in part. “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears” (1 Corinthians 13:9). What looks like one thing, can end up just a small part of what we never could have even imagined.

In Hebrews 11:13-14 it talks about how so many of the forefathers of our faith never saw their complete and full promise come to pass on earth. I don’t think any of us will see it all in this life.

It starts here. 

We learn here. 

Our gifts are developed here. 

We see many of God’s promises come to pass here. 

“All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 

Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own” (Hebrews 11:13-14).

That foreign country awaiting us in eternity is heaven. The “forever” we have difficulty wrapping our minds around. This is where we will get to witness the fulfillment of ALL of God’s promises!

These lyrics get me every time: “What a day that will be, When my Jesus I shall see, And I look upon His face, The One who saved me by His grace; When He takes me by the hand, And leads me through the Promised Land, What a day, glorious day that will be.” – What A Day That Will Be, written by Bill and Gloria Gather

Go ahead, take that step of faith spelled R.I.S.K. 

Faithfulness is God’s character. 

He’s got your back my friend! Lean in to ALL God has for you. 

With much love and grace,

Joelle Povolni

P.S. If you enjoyed this post I know this one will be of an encouragement to you too, When You Know That You Know.