Great Adventure

"…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Hebrews 12:1-2

Now to some, my story may not seem like much of an adventure but for me it was a divine appointment.

Over the years, I have been one to be easily defeated by circumstances. If I found an obstacle in front of me, I would back down and walk the other way. Over the past year, I have grown in my faith, which has allowed me to be more aware of things that are taking place around me.

Now the adventure I experienced is not some huge miracle that took place, but for me more of recognizing how far I have come. I woke up Sunday morning determined to make it to church on a time. There were two churches that I really wanted to visit and had decided on one the night before I went to bed. I had calculated distance and how much time I would need in order to make it on time and made sure that we were up with plenty of time to get there.

As I was drying my hair, I began to smell something burning and looked to find smoke and sparks coming from my hair dryer. Panic set in but not because of the smoke. I stood there wondering what to do because not only did I need to dry my hair but so did my daughter. Now in the past, this moment would have caused me to throw in the towel and say forget it, we are staying home today. Not this time. Something inside me recognized the battle that had begun that morning. Satan did not want me at church. I felt it in such a strong way and became determined to make it not only to church, but also to church on time.

I hopped in the car with my kids and drove to the neighborhood CVS where my 12 year old purchased an inexpensive hair dryer. We made it back home and were all ready on time. We headed for our destination. Looking at the clock, I realized we would get there with plenty of time to settle in before the service started. I was feeling quite pleased until I pulled into the parking lot and realized that the church was not meeting at the location that it had claimed on its website. Immediately I became frustrated. Again, in the past, I would have thrown in the towel and headed home but I was not going to be defeated.

I took a few moments to regroup and started searching the internet on my phone. There I found the address as well as service times for the second church I had wanted to visit and found that I had plenty of time to get there before the next service.

What I found?? An amazing morning of worship and God speaking to my heart. I had come off a crazy week and knew I needed to be church but so did Satan. He did not want me there and threw those obstacles in my path. I could have found myself discouraged and defeated, but chose to stay the course.

Now, I know that my adventure may not have sounded like much. You are probably thinking she would have only missed church. True but there is SO much more to it than that. It is about growth. It is about not allowing Satan to become an obstacle in what God is doing in our lives. You see last week was a hard week but I experienced God in a special way and I wanted more. Again, Satan knows that we need that fellowship as well as growth and does not want us to partake. In order to grow, we must be fed and in order to stay on track, I needed to be there yesterday.

I do not always recognize those moments when there are obstacles before me and at times find myself really messing up. This time, I paid attention and recognized the Spirit tugging at my heart. The point of this post: we will not always get it right because we are human and we sin but when we listen for His voice and obey, there is great reward and blessing in the end.