Life in the Fast Lane

When I look at my life, there’s a clear separation line. Before 40 | After 40. And not just because carbs had to be a thing of the past, but because of how God came through, invaded my life and heart in such a way, life has never been the same. At 40, when the life I’d chosen for myself came to a crashing halt, I decided to quit trying to drive the car and as the cheeseball expression goes “let Jesus take the wheel”. I don’t know about you, but that expression brings to mind an old two-door car driving down a country road. What I’ve come to realize, is when Jesus has the wheel, it’s not on a slowpoke car moseying its way down the road. It’s attached to a supercharged race car. One that comes with a 5-point harness and a helmet.

You may be thinking, “how is this woman comparing her faith to a race car?”. I get it. It sounds a little nuts. Three things that have made this analogy a reality:

1.     Faith moved from a belief to a relationship.

2.     God speaks. As I ask him to guide my day, he not only takes me up on the offer, he places me out of my comfort zone 99.7% of the time. 

3.     The more available I make myself, the more he takes me on the race of my life.

I grew up believing in God. But that’s all it was. I believed He was there, he listened to my prayers, and would occasionally answer them. (My prayers a wish list of what I wanted to happen in my life and of course, I knew best.) At 40, when my life was flipped upside down, God put people in my life who knew what it was like to be in relationship with Him and taught me all the ways God was looking to speak with me. How prayer was meant to be a conversation, just like talking to a friend. How my dreams, and in particular my reoccurring nightmares, were actually God letting me know there were things in my heart that were hurting and he wanted to talk to me about them, to take the pain and heal me. I learned the Bible was alive and active. That it wasn’t simply a book, but rather God’s living word that God would use to speak to me. 

Realizing God’s plan, His desire, was to have conversations with me and be in relationship with me blew my mind. And yet the evidence was there. I pressed in. I went to Him in prayer and made space for God to speak. I would ask a question and wait for Him to respond. God, you’re pointing out in your word “let not your heart be troubled”. What do you want me to know? What are you saying to me about this? What’s amazing, listening to God and hearing his voice wasn’t a strain. His voice often came immediately, almost before I finished asking the question. What he was showing me in the Bible, the words/phrases he was having stand out more than the other text, was a conversation starter. He was inviting me into a conversation he wanted to talk to me about.

Friends, having conversations with God is awesome. One. In my experience, God has been funny. I think this is probably one of the most surprising things I’ve experienced with him, humor. I remember I was having a long day with the kids and exasperated, lifted my eyes and asked “God, is it always going to be this hard?” Immediately I heard “No. One day they’ll go to college.” Friends, I immediately started laughing. God didn’t miss a beat in answering this one. And as only God can do, he speaks truth and does it in love and sometimes with a wink. Two. God is love. His voice is the most wonderful, loving, encouraging voice you will ever hear. When I say there’s nothing better, I honestly mean it. I’ve never left a conversation with God feeling anything other than better than I was before the conversation. His voice anchors me, fills me with love, gives me peace and purpose that simply don’t exist outside of those conversations.

So as not to make this blog post too long, I’ll save the stories about taking me out of my comfort zone and the race of my life for the next post. In the meantime, I encourage you, carve out some time today and enter into conversation with God. He speaks. I promise. I give you my word. But so much more important than my word, is God’s word. In it, you’ll find again and again that God speaks. As you enter into prayer with Him, trust that He’ll speak to you in a way that you can hear him. He may give you a picture in your mind, a song, a verse from scripture, or it may sound like your own voice or thoughts in your head. He created you, knows you intimately, and wants to speak His love over you. He will speak to you in the perfect way for you to hear him. He wants to be in relationship with you and change your life in the most joyful, profound way.

For more resources on hearing God’s voice, two books we love are Can you Hear me? Tuning into a God who speaks by Brad Jersak and Prayer by Timothy Keller.

Blessing you with joyful, wonderful, abundant conversations with our Father.