I live near the tourist town of Sedona, Arizona. It’s where we go to the grocery store and where my doctor’s office is. The main attraction of Sedona is the huge, red rocks. They form towers and arches and mountains. You know the movie The Martian? Sedona kinda looks like Mars in that movie, with less sand and more rocks. I honestly hadn’t seen anything like it before moving here.
But we’ve been here for a few years now, and it’s no longer very exciting. The rocks rarely take my breath away, and I no longer pause to glance at them as we drive through town. They’re just . . . there.
We laugh at the tourists who pull over on the side of the interstate to take family pictures at their first glimpse of a boulder. We know that if they would only drive five more miles down the road, they would be even more in awe, surrounded by the rocks in their full beauty. But they’re delighted at just a glimpse of red peeking out.
I think sometimes we treat God’s promises and blessings that way. We drop everything at the first glimpse of them, not even considering how much bigger and better and more beautiful they might be five miles down the road.
You know what? I think that’s a good thing. Even just a glimpse of God’s love, promises, and blessings are worth stopping everything to admire and praise God for. Even a small taste is worth celebrating and getting excited for. Because His gifts are good and His love is wonderfully beyond our comprehension.
The thing is, if those tourists had stayed right there on the side of the road just because of the one glimpse they got, their vacation would have been so much less than it could have been. So while you should take the time to enjoy the gifts God has given you, it’s important that we don’t forget to keep pursuing the promises and blessings God speaks of in His word.
We need to keep driving down the road, following His guiding. This has been a theme with my health lately. I’ve been healing so much, and it’s easy to grow complacent. As strange as that sounds. I’m able to sorta-kinda function right now, and it’s easy to stop striving for full health — as much as I want it. I subconsciously slip into complacency because I know continued healing will take work and possibly pain.
But then I imagine what I would be able to do with complete health, and I realize that this half-healing isn’t all there is to seek. Contentment is an admirable, godly trait that we should strive for in every situation. But complacency that makes us stop growing is not how we should live.
C. S. Lewis famously wrote, “There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” He was talking about Heaven, but both on earth and in Heaven, we should continue to seek more of God’s grace and goodness. His love endures forever.
God alone knows what is best for us when and what blessings need to come in disguise, no matter our personal desires. But He does love to bless His children. He also tells us in the Bible to ask Him for things (see Matthew 7:7-11). And often, some of those blessings require work on our part. We must prepare for what we’re praying for and put in the work.
As I’ve been getting rejection after rejection from agents lately for my next book, I’ve been thinking about this. I’m a bit discouraged and honestly kinda scared. Just like I was scared to go on a ministry trip this past weekend. So I’m praying about them both, asking God to bless each endeavor for His glory.
That doesn’t mean I’m off the hook. I still have to send my book proposal to more agents, and I still needed to carefully monitor my health for the trip. I still have to take the steps in faith even when it’s scary and wait in faith for God to work, surrendering it all to Him.
But you know what? The trip went well. I’m exhausted (bear with my brain fog in this blog post today ;)), but God taught me so much through it. I want to encourage you today to stop being complacent and to lean into God’s blessings, asking Him for more. Do your part, and step in faith (with God’s guiding!) even when you’re scared.
It won’t always go the way we want and I was not promised a good trip or a successful book. But God does pretty amazing things through people who are willing to try crazy stuff for His glory, in His guiding, relying on His grace.
In case you missed the conference reveal last week, you can register for Diamonds 2020 for free here.
I’m learning this truth this week as well! Just the other day I went for a walk up our hilly road, and what would you know, I forgot I even went because I didn’t crash afterwards! It was amazing. It’s just a tiny glimpse of a functional life but it is so good to have just a glimpse, if nothing else. It’s the little things that make all the hard work of healing worthwhile. 😀
Exactly! 🙂 So true.
Good Morning! I just recently heard about your conference through a posting by Anna Pustai’s father, Dave. We all attend the same church. I am fascinated by the concept, and have passed the information along to another member of our church, whose teenage grandson has significant chronic digestive issues. My question though is: “Is this conference just for teenagers or can anyone listen in?” Personally, I deal with fibromyalgia, Lymes symptoms, and Graves Disease. But I am far from a “teen.” I wasn’t sure because I saw one of the topics mentioned spouses. Could you please clarify this, because I know other post teenagers, who might also benefit. Thank you so much and may God bring healing and strength to all who struggle with physical, emotional, & mental challenges.
Hi Ellen! Thanks for reaching out. I’m so sorry to hear that you have to deal with those things, it’s not easy. To answer your question, no, this is not just for teenagers, this is for Christians of all ages who deal with chronic illness in their lives. (And honestly, anyone who wants to come or faces hard things.) Though Anna and I are teenagers, the majority of those who are speaking are from all walks of life and are all ages. And as you noticed, we have sessions focused on topics for various ages, like the marriage one. 🙂 I hope you can come! 😀