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Dec 22, 2021

 

There are three ways to reach us at Dunamis Drove and all three of them end in dirt roads. One path is less dirt road but contains a steep hill (on the dirt part), another is a longer length of dirt road, and the final (officially our main road based on address/mailbox) is a narrower, through the woods, crossing the creek kind of dirt road! That path is my favorite, but it is also the path that at first seemed most intimidating. 

 

I took this route the night we moved in, yes – night as in after dark. It was a cold, rainy evening in March, and I missed the driveway turn from the steep hilled dirt road. As a result, I was circled around and up the long dirt road and back down the creek crosser. I covered every possible way in that night and all I could see at the time was how each one carried some form of potential difficulty. In fact, my sister-in-law was behind me in a not equipped to cross the creek kind of car and all I could think was…what have I done? The roads, the mud, the being in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the woods suddenly became extremely weighty feeling.

 

To make matters worse, someone (no specific name mentioned) drove the U-Haul, pulling the trailer, down the creek crossing road and further around through an area where the road had become part of the creek due to rain and, as I’m sure you suspect, got stuck! It was a lot, a whole lot. As I stood there praying and believing for the Holy Spirit to lift that truck up out of that creek without damage that would cost us thousands, my faith faltered ever so slightly. Later that night after things had settled down and all was moved in, I sat on the front porch trying to refocus. That was a mistake because it had been some years since I last lived in the country and never had I lived in a house set this far off the beaten path. 

 

Now I don’t know if you have ever had the pleasure of experiencing the many woodland sounds that occur in the boonies at night, but when they are not familiar, they too can inspire quite the set of nerves. As such, for a few weeks I had my share of jitters about creatures that might be lurking in the unknown waiting to eat one of the dearly beloved individuals in my house, and then one afternoon my grandson Lucas was playing by the side of the house when he simultaneously lifted a tarp and stepped directly on a rattlesnake. Now this nature encounter brought a mix of questioning, claiming, and praise. I could see the evidence of protection, the truths found in Psalms 91 were jumping out at me left and right, “You will not fear the terror of night […]no harm will over take you[…]you will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.” I gave praise while claiming the truth of this scripture being evidenced before my eyes as the Lord kept the mouth of that serpent shut, he never attempted to strike. He merely rattled his warning and it was heeded. 

 

Sorry, I digressed a bit, my point however is that the unknown and uncertainties in life can bring about a great many moments of unnerving and in many ways that is the current place we find ourselves living in, the unknown, the uncertain, and while I know that what is certain is who holds tomorrow and that we are called and covered, that doesn’t mean there aren’t moments when the enemy (or man) tosses something our way that attempts to (or at times does) shake the core a bit. The bible says we are to “walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Corinthians chapter 5), which is what we are doing, but until you have truly walked blindly you don’t realize just how big and weighty that can feel. Don’t get me wrong, the wonder and awe and beauty far outweigh the moments, but I feel the need to be transparent about the fact that there are moments. So then, what are we to do in such moments? That, I believe, may be a huge part of the point. Our shaping in the fire is as important as our ministry to others; becoming who we are created to be while helping others find who they are created to be and all the while remembering that while we may have an enemy that goes around roaring, his bark is bigger than his bite, because “greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4) and “He commands His angels concerning us to guard us in all our ways” (Psalms 91) and, as Pastor Jarod has been reminding us, there are legions standing at the ready. God is faithful, He has already put in place exactly what we need for every need/battle, the question is will we march forward and live as though this is true or just talk about it?

 

In the moments when I try to look beyond the day and figure out what, where, and how, I become overwhelmed, but when I remember to rest in the one who literally created all things with the breath and spoken word of His lips, and I remind myself of the literal miracles I have seen him do, then I feel settled and empowered. We find ourselves in a place and time in history that carries many unknowns and uncertainties, but the reality is that has always been the case, we are just more keenly aware of that now due to things like Covid and shifting storm centers and so on. We can look at those things and become unnerved by what the darkness seems to highlight, or we can choose to remember that we are on mission and that these reminders are meant to mobilize us. Soldiers aren’t given the full battle plan because it is not theirs to ponder over, that is above their pay grade as we like to say. It is their job to simply follow commands and trust the one in charge to have a plan. So, I suppose the questions are do we, and will we? Do we trust the one in command to have a plan, and will we follow orders?

 

Until next time, marching in the Lord’s army…even when my knees knock!

 

~ Jen