It is a beautiful Fall morning as I sit at the kitchen table peering out the window at the colorful leaves painting a canvas on the ground and what leaves are still left on the trees, fluttering with the breeze. I'm here in my pj's sipping some Starbucks and listening to my little girl walk around the house pushing her corn popper.
The Fall is much different here in Indiana than it was in New England. I miss it, however I know that this is a season God has brought us to - a season of rekindling. I am currently 20 weeks along with our second "bun" as I like to call them, and serving on staff as the "Preschool Administrator" at Grace A/G.
When I first took this position at Grace, I thought "I can do this! I've done all of this before!" However, I've never tried to schedule over 100 volunteers for 5 different classes in 15-18 services/month! Of course, this isn't the only thing I do in the office, however it is what involves the most thought and prayer.
For a while, I was trying to manage all of the scheduling myself, until one evening in a class I've been attending at church, we were talking about trying to do things on our own and how we can't do anything on our own - simple concept, yet often forgotten.
I had a dream the other night that I was at war - on the front lines with a rifle. The rifle was loaded, but I had no idea how to use it and as I stood there scared to death, I just started firing as much as possible until all of my ammo was gone. Every shot I fired went up in the air and back down - affecting nobody. I then realized that I was out of ammunition and ran and hid behind a trailer.
As I woke up from this dream, I realized that God was trying to teach me something through it. I'm not big into trying to interpret every dream as something "from the Lord," but I knew that this one was. This whole time, I have been trying to fight the battle before me in my own strength and ignoring the power that I possess through Christ Jesus. He has put strengths and giftings inside of me, that if I don't tap into, I will never be effective. It is completely rediculous as a Christian to try to attempt anything on our own (without prayer) and then run and hide when we can't handle it anymore. When we have the Creator of the Universe living inside of us, why do we walk around defeated?!
God has recently been challenging me in certain areas of my life and I'm excited to see what is going to come of it as I rise to His challenge. Dave and I have had the priviledge of being mentored by our senior pastor and his wife and are also benifiting greatly from that. We are trying to take advantage of this golden opportunity and learn all that we possibly can before our time here runs out and the season changes. I'm so looking forward to what God is going to do in that next season!
