31 Days of Hindsight: Day 1

(Rica gets photo creds! I truly didn’t know she was taking a picture but thought this one captured the hindsight theme perfectly!)

I am inspired by a dear friend of mine, Toya Poplar, who started a blog series “40 days to 40”, in which she is writing everyday until her 40th birthday.  Although I am well over 40, I too have a late December birthday, December 31st, to be exact and I decided to write consistently every day for a month, while letting the gift of hindsight be my teacher.

Hindsight is a humorous, humbling and honest teacher. Let the class begin!

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31 Days of Hindsight: Day 1

As I pull out my journals from 2016, I am reminded of the power of “21 Days of Prayer.”  My church kicks off each new year with 21 Days of leaning into God.  It is a time of rest and revival for my soul.  Our church does this twice a year, in the fall before a new school year begins and in January.  I can honestly say that I  have had a fresh revelation of God in each of these corporate prayer seasons.

One of my major take-aways as 2016 kicked off was a clear reminder of:

Experiences with God trump human understanding every time!

In Matthew 1, we see Joseph’s merciful character as he is about to privately divorce Mary, instead of publicly disgracing her for showing up pregnant.  Joseph is using all of the human understanding and integrity that he has to make this decision, choosing the most merciful and just course of action,

BUT GOD

sends a messenger to him to give him “super” natural information, or to tell him

THE REST OF THE STORY!

Joseph chose to do what the angel suggested. The world around him totally didn’t understand his decision but he had a “GOD EXPERIENCE” that trumped anything and everything this world had to offer.

The next thing I wrote in my journal on 1-7-16 was this prayer:

Lord increase my faith. Help me to use my brain and the skill set you’ve given me, weighing decisions wisely,

BUT

ultimately, keep me open and help me be obedient to ANY DIRECTION YOU LEAD, even if it appears ludicrous in the eyes of the world.

Lord I trust you 100%, the problem is that I don’t trust me. I don’t want MY PLANS or MY FILTER to muddy up YOUR PERFECT WILL!

I DO TRUST YOU WITH me HOWEVER!

Therefore,

WHITE FLAG UP!

I surrender all of me and my decisions to you Today! Please give me intimacy with YOU above all else! Give me wisdom to know what is YOUR WILL and strength to walk it out in obedience!

Amen

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31 Days of Hindsight: Day 1

Hindsight really is a great teacher! I am thankful to have logged that in my journal so I could pen it here as a memorial stone and life lesson to share!

What experiences are we having with God and are we allowing them to trump what the world rationalizes?