Encouragement From The Studio: Colliding with God

This past weekend was spent at my church’s Women’s Retreat, where I was able to rest, relax and reconnect with God, friends and make new friends. We heard from a wonderful speaker named Willow Weston. Willow spoke to us about colliding with God in the midst of our wounds and pain, about getting back up on the bike and not remaining stuck in an unhealthy place.

I don’t have a big amazing story to tell about my childhood, my past or how God has rescued me, but as I look back across my life; I can tell what I remember the most. I remember the big exciting good things that happened and I remember the things that hurt the most. I think these shape us into who we are. The good things teach us about joy, living life to the fullest and show us how God has provided for us; while the painful things form and shape us.

How do you react to pain? Do you get stuck, unable to move? Do you fall and stay down? Do you go around saying “I am fine” when your really not? Who does God say He came to heal, the healthy or the sick? God sent his Son to earth to collide with us in the midst of our messiest moments. To heal us from the pain and walk with us through life, holding us up each time we are tempted to fall. If we didn’t have pain we wouldn’t see any need for a God so great! We would never run to him and seek his love if everything in life was perfect! God wants to meet us in our pain.

God meeting us in our pain starts with being able to be authentic. “God’s greatest work happens in our authenticity,” Willow Weston.  Are you authentic? If someone asks “how are you?,” how do you answer? Do you feel like you can be honest with one others?

Maybe the bigger question is, do you allow other people to be honest with you? If you ask someone how they are, do you want the real answer? Or are you asking just because it is the expected question in social settings?

The more I think about colliding with God, being authentic and getting back up on the bike, the more I realize it starts with me! I have to be willing to listen to other people’s stories and foster safe relationships with them before they are going to be willing to listen to my story. Being authentic has to start with listening to others!  Then, maybe I will be given the chance to share my story with them.

My desire is to be seen as woman who is colliding with God, seeking Him,  seeking those in need and are hurting, those who need to talk. I desire to be known as a listener.

Can you imagine what it would be like to walk into a room and know its full of people who want to be authentic, people who want to learn from each other, people who want to share in your pain, people who want to acknowledge God and His plan for their life and the lives around them?

Hosea 6:3 says “Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear, he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth”

God calls us to press on through our junk to acknowledge Him,  to get back up on the bike; He will meet us. Just like we know the sun will rise every morning, we can count on Him meeting us. He will water us with his love and affection as we collide with Him.

My challenge to you, don’t wait for someone else to try it first, become the woman in your sphere of influence who is authentic, who asks “How are you?” and really wants the answer, who takes the time to listen to someone else’s story.  Amazing things will happen and God will collide with you as you seek to collide with Him and with others in their story.