Photograph

{If you’re a multi-tasker click on the embedded video below. You can scroll back up and read while you listen! 🙂 }

The hum of air passing at 32,000 feet is making me sleepy. I press the button on my seat and “recline”. Aah, yes. Much better. The quarter inch lean will surely aid my attempt to doze. I close my eyes, head caressed by the hard plastic window. Mercy sakes. “Lord, help me rest.”

Sleep escapes, so instead of using the window as my pillow I decide to honor the purpose for which it was built and look out. I don’t normally. Staring down at the earth from a fragile craft suspended in air is not my favorite past time. I’m from the old school of, “If God intended us to fly he would have…” Yadda, yadda, yadda. But today the view felt different. 

The hills were peppered with dots of houses and barns. Rivers ran around and between them like calligraphy on a page.  The Ozarks were box-stitched bumps on a comforter.

I couldn’t help but marvel at the power of perspective. I’ve been known to say I like my feet on the ground and I do. However…

Altitude is beginning to affect my attitude.

It’s a wonder how from this view things are so tiny, and yet, when I’m face to face with them on the ground they can seem gargantuan, even insurmountable. I sense that a tender teaching from the Holy Spirit is not the only thing on the horizon.

I’m headed home from a speaker/writers conference. My head is full but my heart is fuller still. I’ve grown with regards to my passion for words (spoken or written). The weekend provided encouragement and clarification for what I need to do next, but more than that I learned something about me and God. The me-lesson?

I have a hard time trusting God.

I’ve written about it before. So ya’ll must be bored with it by now. This leaves me wondering if God isn’t yawning as well.

This fact became overwhelmingly clear to me this past weekend. I’ll reiterate. I’ve shared I have a problem with this trusting-God-thing, but this weekend——–the truth went deep. It was a true epiphany. The kind like when for months you tell yourself that the reason your jeans are hard to zip is because they’ve shrunk. One day you realize the jeans aren’t the problem.

I learned I was comfortable with my lack of trust. It left room for my need to be part of the equation. I guess you could call it a cherished sin.

Four day’s ago I pulled on my figurative blue jeans when God decided it was time to call a spade a spade. Exactly twenty-four hours prior to my scheduled departure my tribe ran into trouble. We had a “hiccup” with one of our kiddos. I use the word hiccup lightly because truth be told there’s a whole ‘nother book to be written about that particular journey.

Drinking water upside down was not going to fix this.  Doc was out of town and my departure was impossible. The decision was simple. I needed to skip the conference.

Not so fast. God was determined to rectify my blame-the-blue-jeans theology. Doc got home. Flames no longer lapped the sky. Embers and smoke took their place but it was smoke we could live with.

Turns out the real question was this, “Could I live with it?‘ My husband tried to tell me I should leave, “Reschedule your flight babe.”  but my gut wrenched as my mind wrestled.

Long story short, I booked a last minute flight that required the donning of panty-hose at 2:30 am. I made it to the conference. I attended my meeting and classes. I also met wonderful, amazing, fantabulous people. The weekend was a gift.

The greatest gift was my God-Lesson.

He massaged a message into my heart the entire time, but, the period to the paragraph came when I gazed out this goofy airplane window. I realized that I desperately needed perspective——– HIS perspective.

“Father, those mountains look so tiny.”

“I know. Pretty aren’t they?” He replied.

“Yes, but, the mountains seem, well… so mountainous, especially when I’m down there.”

“I’m certain from your perspective they do.”

What followed was His unspoken invitation to climb 32,000 feet.

He gave me the much needed reminder that His top-down view is reality, even when I think the only reality is my view from the bottom up. I simply need to trust Him.

I’ll close this post with a song and a prayer. I heard the song, Photograph by Ed Shearon, for the first time as I drove home from the airport.

The sweet melody and lyrics prompted me to ask God if He would imprint that view from 32,000 feet in my mind like a photograph. If I ever start to forget what altitude did for my attitude I prayed that the perspective He gave me from that window will be as close as a “closed-eyes-view” in my mind.

If you could use a little altitude to help with your attitude perhaps you’d like to say this prayer with me? Allow Him to enter the conversation. Modify it so that it’s personal and meets your needs.

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“Father, help me to remember. I need a photographic memory, a picture to carry with me of your perspective. I need a  32,000 foot view. I pray for your Holy Spirit to keep me accountable so I can remember that——–

Sometimes I place more trust in my limited perspective than I do in your eternal one.

Father, may it not be so. Speak truth into my head and heart about your faithfulness. Grant me peace as you help me recall that your ways are not mine. There is no circumstance, relationship, or hardship that is out of your knowledge or beyond your power. You are for me and not against me. Your plans for me are good and no mountain or obstacle will ever interfere with the best that you have for me. I can trust you. Replace my limited vision with your grand and glorious one.

May that image be the photograph I carry in my pocket every—- single—- day.”

“The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you.” John 14:25 MSG

“In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust…” Psalm 56:4 KJV

(Linking up today with Kelly Balarie and other encouragers of faith. Be blessed and stop by! You and I are not alone! 🙂 )

{And lest I forget…I’ll be announcing winners of the give-aways this Thursday!! Amy Lively’s book and Amy Carroll’s. Yeah!!}

Your (Grateful for His Photograph) DoAhead Friend,