His Ways Are Higher

So this morning I woke up feeling a little discouraged and just walking though some battles in my mind. I was determined not to continue to allow the lies in my head to dictate and control the rest of my day as they had the night before. I knew the first thing I had to do to pursue righteousness was to get in a good work out this morning. I googled some parks around Fayetteville and settled on one about 15mins away with a lake. My GPS took me to some random address that was certainly not a park but for some reason I was determined to find it. It was the like the spiritual warefare had already begun, but I knew I had been given the power to overcome. So finally, I find the park! It had a beautiful lake with a long trail around it, some paved and the rest in the woods, much like one of my favorite parks back home. I started off walking and listening to a Preston Morris sermon about change and after that I decided to run for a while. Since coming home from Australia I have definately taken my time building my milage back up and at this point the most I had run was probably about 2 miles. Turns out the Lord must have just really wanted some time with me because it turned out to be a 5.5 mile trail! As I pressed through the hardest part of the run I thought back to how sweet I remember my time being when Ash and Holl and I were training for the 1/2 marathon and how praying for other people in my life had brought forth this strength and perseverence. So I just started praying...for friends, family, roomates, Australia, school, etc and twords the end I started praying for the Lord to continue to refine certain areas of my life and for Him to just begin to open doors ministry wise...bibles studies to plug into, some different roles in campus ministries, a solid church community, a job, and just some older women to pour into my life and for me to learn from.

I literally was meditating on all the times I'd doubted Him before and how every time He blew my mind with His provision and just how it's always better then anything I could try to "figure out" in my own strength which is always my tendency to try to do, when this woman running in front of me slows down. She turns around a couple times to look and me and smiles. I really didnt think anything of it until I look up to see here looking back at me, this time she was trying to say something. As I stumbled for the volume control on my i-pod, I was thinking to myself how I just wanted more time with the Lord, kind of annoyed that she was bothering me. As has always been true in the past, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. 55:9.

I caught up to her and she started asking me about my running history...how long I'd been doing it, how many races I'd run, etc. This led into what I was doing here in Fayetteville and I explained to her how I came down to go to the U of A, nothing more. I'm not really sure if it's just the fact that I live in the "bible belt" now and this is just normal or if this was just the hand of God from the start, but I'm leaning tword the latter. She asked me where I go to church. I explained that I actually just moved here and am still looking for a church. She said well, I would love to invite you to come to my church...it's called New Heights. Well it turns out New Heights was actually the first church on my list to check out becuase two of my roomates go there! I told her that and she asked me who they were, but she didn't know either of them. One of my roomates is Kelly and when I mentioned her name, this woman said she didn't know her but she did know a "really tall Kelli with curly brown hair that played volleyball for the U of A"....well right away in my heart I was just blown away by the Lord already. As I explained to her, this Kelli is actually one of the few girls I know here in Fayetteville b/c her family goes to my church back home and her mom, Terri has been leading the women's bible study and summer study I've been in this past year and has just played a signifacant role in my life both teaching and encouaraging me spiritually. If this wasn't crazy enough, she goes on to ask me if I know one other girl, and I should preface this by saying that out of 20,000 students at the U of A, I literally know two girls who go there and of course the next name she says is do you know Dani? And it just so happens I met Dani this past winter when she came to STL to speak at a missions day with me at my church b/c of a connection through Terri, Kelli's mom. We both spoke of our upcoming summer missions trips and asked the women to support us financially. That was the only time I met Dani and how crazy that here I am months later, running in the middle of the woods in Fayetteville, AR at some random park talking to this woman I just met, yet feeling as if I have known her for years. We kept running together and talking for the next couple miles. She asked me in detail about how I got here and I explained the crazy story of how the Lord brought me to Fayetteville. We talk about Lightbearers, the discipleship program I'm in and of course she knew a bunch of people involved with this ministry. We started talking about how I was looking for a job and she just turned and looked me and smiled that smile that basically says "well, sweetheart, you've come to the right place!" She went to tell me how just yeasterday she heard of the perfect job opening that would be right up my alley. We kept talking and I was just completely blown away by the Lord's answer to my prayer.

He doesn't always work that quickly, but man do I doubt His sovereignty sometimes. He showed me how I realyl just take for granted the fact that He is GOD! He can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. His word says that if we simply lay our cause before Him, He will perform miracles and wonders our minds cannot even comprehend! Why don't I always come to Him in prayer laying my cause before Him, not just beliving He hears me but EXPECTING to see His provision. Yesterday I was reading in Genesis about Abraham walking up the mountain to sacrafice His son Issac and eventually he finds out that it was just a test from the Lord of his obedience and the Lord had put a ram up there to sacrafice instead but the Lord just gave me this picture of how literally as Abraham is walking up the one side of this mountain with his son to sacrafice, the Lord already has the provision, this ram, walking up the other side of the mountain. So often we forget, or I do anyway, that even when I just seem to be treking up this never ending trail, confused, doubtful, alone with no end in sight, He always has provision, the answer, wisdom, community, divine appointment, His plan, trekking up the other side. And after the test is passed, obedience prevails, in HIS perfect and most beautiful timing I get to experience His provision and just like meeting this woman (an answer to prayers just minutes prior) His ways are always better then anything I could ever think up.

Lord I thank you that you are GOD! How undeserving am I, nothing but a sinner saved by your abounding and overwhelming grace. How meaningless and hopeless my life is apart from YOU!

As the trail came to an end and we reached the cars, we exchanged numbers and agreed to look for oneanother at church. She hugged me goodbye, (despite our gross sweaty clothes) and I know this is just the begining of a beautiful relationship between this sweet godly woman and myself. Though I have no clue how it may play out, one thing I do know....as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts! Isa. 55:9.

So glad I went running this morning! :)