Our Story is His Story

I saw a t-shirt today that said "write your own story".  At first glance, I thought to myself that it was a pretty cool t-shirt.  But the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like it. 

I am a strong believer in the power of story.  We all have them.  We all have the classic story elements in our lives.  Every person we meet, every place we visit and every decision we make becomes a part of our story. 

Sometimes, whether through a fault of our own or the fault of someone else, we have elements of our story that we would like to edit out.  Parts of our story that are hard to deal with.  Parts that break our hearts and bring us to our knees. 

But it is during those times that I am thankful that each and every chapter in our lives is part of a much greater piece of work, with a much greater purpose than we could ever imagine. 

Today, I am grateful beyond words for the God who knows the ending of my story.  Who has it covered.  Who can redeem it and mold it and rewrite the parts that need to be revised.  Not for any other reason than that He loves me. 

Horses, Paint and Comort Zones

Comfort zones.  We all have them.  We all love to be in them.  For most of us, it is difficult to move out of our comfortable places.  Often times, we don't even realize how long we have been comfortable until someone or something challenges us to make a change. 

This summer, I spent some time doing two things that pushed me out of my comfort zone.  The first activity involves horses and the second involves painting. 

My dear friend Jeannie has started a horse ministry called Freedom Path.  She gracioiusly invited me to attend.  I agreed mostly out of my deep affection for Jeannie.  Not because I love horses.  Until the first meeting, I had very little exposure to these amazing (and big) animals.  I literally cried with fear at the thought of getting on a horse.  I had no clue what I was doing.  With help from Jeannie, I was able to ride around in the ring without falling off.  The next week, I was a little more confident, until I saw the horse was getting on.  Thunder was 17 hands tall!  In horse speak, that means huge!  I was nervous to say the least.  However, by the grace of God and help from my friend, I rode around the ring and didn't fall off.  By the third week, we were settled at a barn and I was given the honor of riding Jeannie's horse, Candy.  Now, at the end of the summer I love horses.  I am able to do all the tack for Candy by myself.  I am only unsure when it comes to tightening the saddle and getting the bit in her mouth.  I not only learned a ton about horses, I also learned a lot about myself.  I like things to be well thought out and planned.  I am not a risk taker.  Although I did do pretty good running up hills with Candy.  The story of my growing love for horses is way too long to share here, but I will say this ministry opportunity has been one of the best things I have done in my life thus far.

The second out of my comfort zone activity I did involved painting.  My mom and I took a class at  Paint By the Glass in West Chester.  You pick a painting and everyone in the class works on the same one with direction from the instructor.  Part of my personality is that I don't like to do things that I am not fairly certain I will be good at.  I already know I am not artistic.  My brother got all those gifts.  I sat in front of the blank canvas and felt very nervous.  It took me several minutes after the initial instruction to put my paintbrush on the canvas.  I did not want to mess up.  At the end of class, I stepped back and tried very hard not to compare my painting to every other painting in the room.  I decided that I liked what I produced and am proud to have it hang in my house. 

Now, I didn't fall in love with painting the way I fell in love with horses.  However, I did enjoy trying two new things that were definitely out of my comfort zone.  You know what?  It felt good.  It felt good to challenge myself.  To not be good at something and develop a skill that is very hard for me...humbly asking for help.   

So try something new.  Do something that stretches you and maybe even scares you a little bit.  Find some supportive friends to help you through it and give stepping out of your comfort zone a try. 

Taking Flight

I have an old beat up watering can sitting on my back deck.  Most years, I plant a small flowering plant in it.  This year, however, a wren decided it looked like a safe and cozy place to build her nest.  We discovered her nest on Easter Sunday.  Everyone in our family was really excited to watch what would happen with our little friend.  We quickly discovered that our 3-year old lab noticed the newcomer also, so we blocked the nest off with one of our patio chairs.  Every few days, we would sneak up on the nest and check on our wren and her progress.  I will admit to screaming my head off at least twice when I didn't see momma bird in there and she flew right out at my face.  Yikes!  One day, we happened upon an empty nest and counted 5 eggs!  Waiting and watching, we eventually spied baby birds!  Not wanting to disturb the nest, we ignored it for about a week. 

This past Sunday morning, we got to witness one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in nature.  All the baby wrens were leaving the nest and learning to fly for the first time.  We quickly and quietly gathered around our back windows to watch the scene unfold.  Momma wren was flitting all over the back yard, encouraging her babies to take flight.  One hopped up on the railing and immediately took off, making the long flight to the trees in the woods behind our house. A second baby followed suit but only made it to our playset.  It sat there resting a bit before it took off for the trees.  A third bird divebombed right into the grass, walking around in a daze before trying again.  Then, we noticed one baby sitting on the leg of the over turned chair.  Nervous and waitng.  Finally, he made it up onto the railing.  Anxiously, we all held our breath waiting for him to gather up his courage to take off for the trees.  His little brother and sister birds were successfully flitting all over the back yard, trying out their new wings with courage.  After what seemed like an agonizing amount of time, our little late bloomer finally took off.  He made it all the way to the trees without falling from the sky.  We cheered and clapped, so proud of him. 

I cannot help but identify with this Momma wren.  We have four sons and we have been since the minute they were born, teaching them to take flight.  Their first steps, riding a two-wheeler, getting on the bus, taking the big test, dealing with peers and most recently our journey into the teenage years. Sometimes, they jump right off the railing and have miraculous success.  Other times, they crash and burn.  Then there are those times where we hold our breath waiting for them to gather the courage to fly.  We are anxiously hoping they make it to the trees safely.  We help them up when they fall and we cheer them on when they make it.  We encourage, we instruct, we watch, we wait, we pray.  The goal is flight.  The goal is four young men who will have integrity and honor and faith.  We give them a safe, cozy place to try out their new wings before they go off into the world.  It is both a privilege and a challenge, every single day. 

Incidently, birds don't return to their nests after the babies leave.  It is this Momma bird's prayer that her babies don't take after our wrens.