How to Tell You’re Not Following

I scurried across the room during our homeschool community’s morning assembly at the request of the sweet lady in the doorway. One of those ladies who knew my Mama by her maiden name, bearing a gift for Blake. We chatted for a few minutes and she talked about how she’d been praying for Blake:

“I think I’ve told you before, I like to pray, ‘Lord, Your will be done, but let me tell you how you need to do it.'”

We giggled together at that.

I returned to the meeting with the bright and thoughtful package, and some food for thought at the same time.

One evening while Blake was in the hospital, I was praying and asking the Lord to help me rest in Him, and follow Him, and walk with Him as Blake’s journey continued. And I was so struck by a thought, I had to scribble it down immediately, where I found it in my prayer journal this evening.

If one of Your followers tried to walk ahead of You, he would no longer be ‘following’ and would not know the way to go. Let me be covered with the dust of Your feet as You lead me, Rabbi Jesus.

We love to go for walks and hikes with our children, and the Hero Hubs and I are often frustrated by their desire to run ahead and lead the way… when they have no idea where they are going.

Skipping and picking up pine cones and stopping to examine interesting artifacts, I often wonder where they might lead us if we decided to let them just go ahead and blaze the trail. We frequently have to reel them back in, and Mark often makes the declaration: Walk beside me or behind me, please!

And yet I imagine we so frequently want to blaze a trail ahead of Jesus. I picture an eager disciple on a dusty road from one village to another, lifting his tunic a bit to stride on ahead and prepare the way, only to discover Jesus headed in a different direction and he will have to backtrack and catch up.

The momentum of our sweet boy’s recovery has been incredible, and we are eager to do our part to keep things moving. But there is a difference between walking alongside the Rabbi — where you are close enough to hear Him teach — and forging ahead of the Rabbi, hoping you’re plowing your way forward in the direction He intended to go. 

So if we can’t make this therapy session or that appointment happen with a phone call or five, perhaps we need to make sure we are not trying to run ahead of the pace, and we must trust that the Author of Blake’s healing, and Blake’s story, has this in His hands, too.

Lord, show us, your sometimes over-eager children, how to be faithful.

How is it in your life right now, friend? Are you perhaps unwittingly praying some “Your will be done, but here’s how You need to do it” prayers?

Soak in these words again for a moment:

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday. {Psalm 37:3-6}

Trust requires relinquishing control. Committing your way to Him means You’ll follow Him down the trail.

We’ve enjoyed some long walks by still waters, and we’ve endured some steep climbs and tough trails together. But we’ve led our kids to places where they’ve seen waterfalls and sunsets and beauty they would never have seen if they weren’t willing to follow us on the trail.

God can do beautiful things. Trust in the Lord. They take place in His beautiful timing. He can bring it to pass.

The best choice you can make is always?

Follow.

xCC

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Update on Blake:
We hope and pray that this Friday will mark the end of a season of adventures at Vidant Medical Center for Blake. He is scheduled for a CT Scan (to reexamine the state of his AVM) and an arteriogram (to get imagery of the AVM’s exact status and location) and possibly, if necessary, he will also have Gamma Knife Radiation to “zap” the AVM away. {If you need a reminder, “AVM” is an arteriovenous malformation — the little cluster of vessels in his brain that were formed improperly and caused the aneurism on September 1st.} If the AVM has completely disappeared (which is what we are praying!) the Gamma Radiation will not be necessary.

Blake is doing incredibly well at home. He is enjoying his siblings and able to play with them inside and outside. His balance continues to improve and going up OR down stairs seems to be just about “no sweat” for him. His left arm and hand aren’t 100% yet, but we continue to see such wonderful improvements we feel so sure they will recover completely! He is not sleeping particularly well, but we are seeing improvement in that regard. Our main concerns at the moment are his vision issues and his short term memory loss. We continue to pray and hope we can do our part to help him recover. He is a laughing, giggling, joking, reading, walking, talking, jumping, running miracle!

Please pray for our sweet boy’s 100% recovery! We look forward to sharing the good news of his progress again next week! And please mark your calendar for November 23rd. We plan to Raise a Hallelujah in downtown Washington that afternoon to give thanks for God’s goodness to our family! Please join us!