So.
Over the weekend, I’ve been thinking about how funny life
can be. It’s ironic, isn’t it, that
sometimes it takes a little wake up call to really smack you upside the head
and make you really stop and think. Each
of us has undoubtedly had enough crap happen in our lives that we should just
be able to be HAPPY and THANKFUL without the repeated need for said wakeup
call….
But we aren’t!
Ugh. No matter what
your story is, somehow we all are guilty of occasionally getting stuck in the
blah blah blah of life, and totally lose sight of what’s truly important. Then….
WHACK!
Wake up call, Party of 1.
Your table is now available.
I told you last week about the death of a classmate of my husband’s, and how it really made me think
about life, death and just enjoying my days rather than worrying about things I
cannot change anyway. This epiphany (one
I have had numerous times before, but always fall back into the same ole slump)
carried into my weekend. A weekend that
was filled with laughter, friends and family as we celebrated my birthday, my
son’s birthday, and silently remembered where we were 11 years ago on August 10th
as we were thrown into a whirlwind when our son died unexpectedly.
So, here I am on Monday, feeling revived emotionally after
having a great weekend….and I wanted to share a little something with you.
How many of you watched the new Disney Pixar film Brave with
your kids this summer? Great,
right?
Independent, stubborn Merida, a fiery red-headed princess,
battles her parents through the whole movie for her independence and the right
to choose her own suitor.
Perhaps my favorite part, though, was not so much the ‘I am
woman, hear me roar’ approach Merida took at defending her own rights. While that is very important, and a good lesson
for young girls; it wasn’t the part that touched me the most. What I immediately noticed in the movie, and
what many others probably didn’t even bat an eye at…were the wisps.
Huh? No, I didn’t
just have a cat walk across my keyboard and type jibberish! If you recall, in the beginning of the movie,
a young Merida was practicing with a new bow and arrow and had to run off into
the forest to retrieve an arrow. There,
she encountered a small glowing orb that led her further into the forest. She followed this orb, referred to as a wisp,
and it essentially led her to safety as her father was attacked by a bear. When she tells her mother about the wisps,
she learns that folklore says that the wisps are meant to lead you to your
destiny.
Throughout the movie, she comes to rely on the wisps ,
faithfully following them when they appear.
Watch a clip of the movie here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M71lI-0NB8
This really resonated with me. It occurred to me that if it were this easy
in real life to follow our destiny, to see the path chosen for us, we would ALL
be so much more likely to arrive at our proper destination! Wouldn’t we?
I mean, if God gave us little blue orbs when we were in
need, and all we had to do was follow them through the forest….seriously, that
would be AWESOME!
Like Merida, we all have our own struggles. We have times when all of the lights go out,
and we are left alone in the dark. We
cry, because we are so scared, hurt and alone.
We feel so abandoned, so wrought with pain, and it feels impossible to
ever find a way out of that darkness.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a painful divorce, the death of a
spouse, child or parent, a battle with cancer or the loss of a job…we all have
been there, or will find ourselves there at some point. How cool would it be for God to just toss us
a few wisps to lead us out? Like Hansel
and Gretel and the bread crumbs?
Well….
What if He is doing just that, but we don’t see it? Sending little blue orbs is a little TOOOOO
easy, and we all know He wants us to earn it.
But, what if He was speaking directly to your heart, but you were too
caught up in your own plan to hear His?
What if He were offering you little signs, little nudges, little sparks
inside of your soul to encourage you to get up and follow Him…and the only
catch was that you had to be observant enough to catch on, and courageous
enough to follow Him?
You see, that’s the thing.
Sometimes His route is different than the one we had planned. So when we run into a brick wall following
our own path and doing our own thang, we get pissed, right? We can’t find a solution, we can’t seem to
get over the hurdle, and we are too stubborn to turn around and start
over. So we pout. We cuss.
We scream, we cry, and we get downright ugly. The whole time, He is there, and undoubtedly
laughing at the hissy fit that we throw because we absolutely refuse to admit defeat.
All the while, He is standing there holding the map with the
big giant X on it that marks the correct spot.
He has the plan, He knows how we can get there, and He has the best
route all mapped out. We have to earn
it, though. We have to be patient
enough to wait for Him to offer the solution, and then brave enough to actually
follow Him despite the fact that His route doesn’t match the one that was in
our head.
He DOES, indeed give us wisps…they just aren’t little blue
lights that light the way. Instead, they
are gentle nudges that many people blame on coincidence. Those little things that happen in life, the
ones that make you say, “Holy Cow! I
can’t believe the irony in that!” Yep.
What if it wasn’t irony at all? What if
it was YOUR wisp?
If you could get out your decoder ring, put on your thinking
cap and stop for a minute and reassess everything you thought was coincidence
and happened by chance….perhaps you could find the X that marked the spot in your
own life before God had to whack you upside the skull with yet another wake up
call!
Believe me, I know it isn’t easy. Sometimes He coaxes you out of your comfort
zone. Sometimes He makes you ride with
the windows down, hair blowing in your face and getting caught in your lipgloss
and He turns up the radio so loud that you can’t stand it. He creates a diversion so that you don’t get
all caught up in the fact that He is driving so erratically that your seatbelt
is no consolation, because you certainly do NOT feel safe. Suddenly, WHAM, He slams on the brakes. You look around, realizing you are totally
NOT where you expected to be. Nothing
looks familiar, this was not the picture you painted in your head, and you are
thinking this guy is nuts because surely He has you confused with someone down
the street and this is all just a honest mixup. Electing to NEVER get out of the car, you
stay there, buckled up and door locked.
“Uh, uuuuuh. No way, I’m not
getting out.’ You declare. Refusing to take no for an answer, He calmly
gets out and walks around to your side of the car. He opens your door, and puts out His loving
hand. The look in His eyes is enough to
make you melt, and you suddenly feel more at ease. The human part of you wants
to think this is stupid, and you are grasping at straws. It is completely irrational to trust someone
you don’t technically know, and surely you must have had a momentary lack in
judgment for thinking any of this made sense.
The spiritual part of you, though, knows deep within your heart that
this is EXACTLY what you should be doing, but you have to be brave enough to
pull the trigger.
DAMN! Which one do
you listen to?
If you can just be courageous enough to put your hand in
His, and allow Him to lead you….if you can just take off that safety belt that
you think is protecting you, and trust that He only has your best intentions in
mind….AAAAAND He did NOT confuse you with the person down the street with a
similar last name….
You will undoubtedly wind up RIGHT where you needed to
be. Even if it isn’t where you THOUGHT
you needed to be!
This, my friends, is the whole point. He’s not just gonna hand you a golden pass
for a free ride to happiness and glory.
You have to work for it! Like
everything else, if you don’t earn it, you don’t fully appreciate it.
So, if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch Brave. Let your mind wander enough to consider that
maybe we ALL get wisps when we need them most…we just have to LEARN to see
them, because ours are a little more discreet than Merida’s. Then, when you find yourself in the car with
that crazy guy driving, and you are scared to death…
Take a deep breath, and TRUST THE JOURNEY. He’s got this…if you’ll just let Him drive!
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