A weight room experience

Our God is an amazing God and will use any experience to get a hold of our lives. I hope to explain the title of my blog in this entry. It all stared when news arrived on the ship that we were hosting a celebrity............not from Hollywood but from the Kngdom of God. His name is Nick Vujicic. Nick was born with no arms or legs. The doctor's have no idea why. You should google him and read about his story, it is amazing. Anyways, his DVD somehow started circling here in Liberia and so the pastors in Monrovia came together and decided to rent the huge stadium here and bring Nick to Liberia. Mercy Ships is where he is staying. He is such a celebrity had he stayed anywhere else he would have been mobbed with people. Even tonight after the service was over the vehicle he left in was encircled by a huge crowd of people and the police were trying to get the way clear. The pastor on the podium was pleading with the people to "act human and behave." There were probably at least 10,000 people there. Even some of the political figures of the nation of Liberia were there.

I sat and listened to Nick speak on how God will take what seems to be impossible and make it possible and how our life has value. It wasn't until the very end that what he said really hit me. And the whole picure wouldn't come into full view till hours later. Nick was talking about surrendering our whole heart to the Lord, nothing we haven't heard before right. How the Lord wants to be Lord of everything in our lives, no hidden places. I sat there thinking about my life over the past few years and how I felt so far away from the Lord compared to where I had in times past. Nothing more really came of it at that moment.

Several hours later my friend and I were out running on the dock (we have it figured out exactly how many times is a mile 3 laps :) ) and I was talking to her about what happened at the stadium. As I was talking the Lord brought a great revelation to me on what was my "secret" part of my heart. It was my calling on my life and my dreams. From the time I was a small child I have known what I wanted to do and have worked hard for it. However, in the past 3 years I have taken it into my own hands. Even though something is from God, we can so easily take control over it and this is what I had started to do. So I was sharing with my friend all this stuff and still struggling some with wanting to be at home back at my job. I told her that I love being here and I love what I am doing but if someone offered me a ticket to go back home tomorrow I would do it.

We finished our run and decided to head to the weight room to do some weights before calling it quits. Here is where it all came together for me. We had finished our work-out and my friend started sharing her life story with me. For an hour she told about the difficult things she has had to endure in the past few years. My heart broke as I listened to my friend share about the faithfulness of the Lord to her and her family through some of the most difficult times in her life. I didn't even realize what was happening but as she was speaking her words were bringing healing to my spirit. There in the midst of rubber mats, benches, bikes, and weights the Holy Spirit ministered to my heart and brought a healing that I so desperately needed. We prayed together and I felt the Victory of the Lord, I felt a weight was gone (ha ha no pun intended), I felt a "secret" place was opened to the presence of the Lord. Now my calling is back in God's hands and I will go and do what He says and not just make up my own dreams and pursuits the way I think they should be. I looked at my friend and said "Now I would say 'no' to that ticket home" and mean it with all my heart!!!!!

Our God is faithful and my word of encouragement is no matter what you are going through in your life, it matters to God and He will use any situation and place to speak to you if you are willing to let Him. I thank my Jesus for the victory!!!!!