Father, May I? – Welcome Home! – May 28th

Father, May I Reside?
May 28, 2021

Welcome Home!

John 1:14, ‘The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.’ (MSG)

The world is too much with me sometimes. I’m working on it. In fact, the many things the Lord has delivered me from in the past two years is mind-blowing. If I were to tell my story of what He has done for me, many would find it hard to believe, especially if they didn’t have a snapshot of the before and after, of my whole life, really.

But even after all He has done, I still find myself in worldly places in my mind…in places of defeat or lounging with my self-doubt or spinning stories or sinking in the sand of unworthiness or wanting back what He has worked tirelessly to remove or manipulating circumstances or destined for distrust in what He is capable of. I can live in this tapestry of me, this new life, woven and threaded finely together, taken from all my raveled seams when I came undone that He has patiently spun into a work of art, and I still sometimes question His capability. I get so frustrated with me.

Take this past month, it’s been a rough one. We battled Covid and it almost won. We were very sick. It’s what many of you have already been through; we were just late to the party and poorly prepared. But even more than the sickness, was the mind games my head tricked me with. It’s been a couple years since I have felt this discouraged and defeated and depressed. Yesterday, after panicking on some bothersome news that I decided to gnaw on instead of pray about, I finally mumbled, ‘O God! I need a new life!’ and very boldly, He replied, ‘No, you don’t. You have a life that you just need to live. So get busy living it.’

I realized then that I had slipped into a (un)comfortable zone of feeling sorry for myself and letting the hard knocks just kind of push me around. I found myself residing at an address that I had deserted a while back. He called me out of that edge of life many months ago and He placed me in a new neighborhood, the neighborhood where He moved into, and it was where I had set up Home. Yet when things got difficult recently, I didn’t have too much trouble finding my way back to that old address for Flat No 1 on the corner of Defeat Drive and Sorry Street.

It didn’t take long for me to hear the tone in His voice yesterday when He spoke to and reminded me I had a new home, one that He had sacrificed for. It also didn’t take me long to pack up my baggage and head to where I belong. I realized how easy it is to get off course and to get lost trying to find the new way home.

I also wanted to encourage you—that is if you have allowed Discouragement to take up residency in your soul, if Forlorn is your forwarding address, if your best friend is Lost and taunting you to stay Confused—pull up your Google Maps and get back on track and come Home too. It’s so nice to be Home and not only have I missed you but He has also!

I want to know the Father’s opinion about everything!
Won’t you JOURNEY with me this month as we ask our Father, ‘MAY I?’’