Black Pearls

I spent some time with the Lord this morning and asked Him for a picture.  It's been a very long time since I've taken the opportunity to sit in His presence, ask a question and actually wait for an answer.  At first I thought He was showing me a blueberry and I was thinking "Lord, really?  Does this have something to do with spiritual antioxidants?!?"  But as I waited I realized that it was a black pearl and the phrase "pearls of wisdom" came to mind.

As I thought about it some more I asked God "Why a black pearl and not a traditional cream-coloured one?  I sensed that the reason was because the pearl of wisdom He was going to give me would come in the form of a trial or something that may seem negative or difficult.

This makes a lot of sense with what I know about pearls and how they are formed.  A natural pearl forms when a foreign body such as a parasite or or other object lodges itself in the soft body of an oyster. The oyster attempts to protect itself by secreting pearl nacre, a smooth crystalline substance that surrounds and ultimately encases the object. As layer upon layer of nacre is added, the object becomes larger and a pearl is formed.

God wants to use the "irritants" in our lives to bring us pearls of wisdom.  At first it may seem that what we are going through is negative and not from God. But he uses these situations, relationships and challenges to refine us and make us wise.  Looking back on the last few weeks I can see a few difficult situations that really made me upset at the time.  However I realize now that through them, God was bringing my weaknesses to light to be refined.  I can either ignore it as a bad day, or embrace it and allow Him to make something beautiful in me.

When it Just Clicks - Spiritual Friendships

There are times in life when you meet someone and you just click with them.  It can even happen that you see someone new and know right away there is a connection.  I can't put it into words, but it has happened to me in the past and I believe it happens for a reason. One of the times this happened to me is when I met my dear friend Alisha.

I graduated from high school with an awesome group of friends and had a few close ones that really got me.  However I had only just scratched the surface of amazing friends God was going to bring into my life.  In January 2002 I traveled across the globe to New Zealand to attend Capernwray Bible School and my first day in New Zealand I met Alisha.  After over 30 hours of travel I arrived at a hostel and met three girls who were also going to Capernwray.  Alisha was one of them.  They were on their way out to the mall and invited me to come along.  I decided to go.  Somehow Alisha and I struck up a conversation and it has been going ever since.
What happened that day over 8 years ago was God brought me a spiritual sister - someone who spoke my language and was on my "wavelength".  Over McDonalds fries and burgers, in a food court in Auckland, NZ we forged a new friendship.  At first we thought each other was "alright" and didn't really understand the connection we had.  But a week or so later, we realized that we had just met our best friend.
I tell this story because I really believe that God wants to bless us with spiritual brothers and sisters (brothers for brothers, and sisters for sisters...), and sometimes He waits even until after high school to do it.  We need to be on the look out for these people.  They are people who we may not have everything in common with, but somehow they just click with us.  They are people who are interested not only in our lives as they are now, but in God's calling and destiny for our future as well.

Amanda, another spiritual sister of mine taught me that God brings people into our lives for "a reason, a season or a lifetime".  This is another lesson that I've learned over the years...not every good friend is going to be for "a lifetime" and that's okay.  Sometimes we'll be close to someone for just a season of life.  This often happened to me when I worked at summer camps.  One summer I was so close with a few girls and the next summer there were new people I became attached to.  And though I still love each one of them, few of them are my closest friends today.  It has brought me a lot of freedom to allow friendships to serve different purposes in my life and let go of them when that purpose has been accomplished.
Who are your spiritual brothers and sisters?

Who is in your life for a reason? a season? a lifetime?

Take some time today and tell those people how grateful your are for them.
If you feel you haven't met that friend yet, pray and ask God to bring that person along that you click with.  He wants to bless you in this way.

Proverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

Living and Believing based on Knowing, not Feeling

I went to church yesterday and literally felt nothing.  It was a beautiful Easter service and the congregation was rejoicing, smiling, crying and praising God with real and raw emotion.  I felt empty.  I reflected on this while driving home and began to feel really horrible about myself.  Why is it that I can hear the story of what Jesus did for me on the cross and still feel nothing?  Does it mean I'm a bad person? A weak Christian? Disconnected from God?

By the time I got home I came to this conclusion: I'm living my life and believing in Jesus based on knowing He is real, not always feeling He is real and I'm okay with this.  Maybe I don't cry everytime I hear about His death, but it doesn't mean I appreciate His sacrifice any less.  Maybe there are days, weeks, even years when I feel disconnected from God's presence, but this doesn't mean he's left me or changed his mind about it.  He loves me even when I don't feel Him.  And I really do love Him, especially for that!