daily devotional

God gives us a story to tell. A story of how he saved our life, turned it all around, and made the impossible happen on the daily. He’s writing a story with your life and it’s all unfolding day by day.

Think about the things that make for a great story. It’s never the comfortable, easy, guaranteed stuff. It’s the ups and downs, the twists and turns, the suspense and climax that make for a great story. And our God is the greatest writer of all. I wonder what he’s writing for you?

On New Years day I surprised my husband with a ride in a WW2 bi-plane. I requested the “loop-d-loop tricks ride” over the coast for the full experience. He went on the first ride and returned so dizzy he could barely walk. Then it was my turn.

I’ve never experienced anything so thrilling. It made sky diving seem like a total bore. It’s an open cockpit with 2 tiny seats and you truly feel like you’re flying. At one point we’re high up in the sky and suddenly it gets very quiet. The engine goes dead. Y’all we’re flying in an 80 year old airplane controlled by 2 foot pedals and one hand lever and the engine cuts. Boom, we go into a spinning nose dive. It’s like the wildest roller coaster ride you’ve ever been on … without a track.

My son was in town so it was the ultimate experience to share with him and his girlfriend. After we’re all on the ground safely, my husband strikes up a conversation with the pilot. He says “wow, so how long have you had this airplane.” The pilot smiles and says “one week, how in the world did you all find me?” I said “well I saw you flying over the beach a few days ago and I wondered if maybe you offered rides so I googled you.” He said, “well, you saw me on my first flight.”

I swallow … hard.

Y’all if I would have known this was a new experience for the pilot, I wouldn’t have strapped myself into that plane and squealed with delight as he let it fall in a nose dive from the sky.

Here’s the point: SOMETIMES ALL THE INFORMATION WILL ONLY KEEP US FROM EXPERIENCING THE GREATEST THINGS IN LIFE.

We get so wrapped up in gathering the details, doing the research, making our lists and planning the next steps for 10 years, and we miss the experience God is offering us right now. You know why God doesn’t tell you everything in advance … because he knows you wouldn’t buy into the ride if you knew everything.

What experience has God had available for you, but you’ve been gathering information instead of diving into where he’s leading you?

If you really knew how painful childbirth was going to be, you probably wouldn’t have been so excited about being pregnant. If you knew what life with a hormonal teenager would be like, you would have never taught that child to speak. But you didn’t know, and you weren’t supposed to.

You don’t know how God is going to lead you where he plans to take you, and you’re not supposed to. If he gave you full disclosure, you wouldn’t show up.

Sharing that bi-plane ride with my family was one of the coolest experiences of my life and we will all remember it forever, but if we would have known the details in advance, we would have missed that opportunity. Imagine his website offering the truth … “Come fly in an 80 year old airplane for 2 with a pilot who has owned the plane for 1 week and flown it a few times. Buckle up for this adventure as we barrel through the sky and see what tricks we can pull off.” I wouldn’t have bought the tickets … and I would have totally missed out on this experience.

And if you knew all the details about where God is taking you and the journey required to get there, you wouldn’t buy the tickets either. So guess what, he’s not going to give you the details, he’s going to ask you to trust him and go any way.

Will you trust where God is leading you? Will you trust what he is doing? Will you show up every single morning and partner with God in the adventure and follow his lead? Will you give up the continual need to gather all the information and plan the details before you’re willing to take the first step?

If you’re waiting for the details, you’re going to wait your entire life because God knows you wouldn’t move forward if you knew everything in advance.

Jesus walks up to 3 fishermen standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and he says to them “Come, follow me.” There was no detailed travel plan revealed. No itinerary or even explanation. Just an invitation to follow Jesus. Their whole world changed with that first step.

And so will yours. Jesus is asking you today to come, follow him. But you don’t get to know the details in advance.

He has a ticket for the ride of a lifetime for you … won’t you just go?

Now, here’s the really fun part. After our ride and my husband’s little revealing chat with the pilot, who I should mention had a real leather bomber jacket with his name on it, plus over 30 years experiencing flying planes in the military, we walked to our car and relived our thrilling experience. Our son says “guys, in the middle of the ride I look down and realize my seat-belt had come undone.” Well, it was an 80 year old all original plane. The seat-belts were a bit pre-historic. Then our son’s girlfriend says “well we were up in the air for a few minutes and then the pilot says ‘I’ve made a horrible mistake. The worst mistake you can make. I forgot to get more fuel.” They had to make an emergency landing and fuel up.

And you know what all these things make …. A BETTER STORY.

God is writing a better story for you. It may include a few hairy moments without a seat-belt, and running out of gas along the way. But these are the things of great stories.

Your story was created before the dawn of time. He began thinking of you and the story you could live before he ever spoke the first word that created light in the darkness.

Psalm 139:16 “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

Oh what a story he is writing for you. Don’t miss this experience because you’re trying to gather all the information before you move forward with Him. You’re not supposed to know how this is all going to work out. You’re just supposed to show up every day for the unfolding.

Follow Jesus. Day after day, just follow him. Buy the ticket he is offering you daily and buckle up as the story unfolds. This is the story of your life, and Jesus loves thrilling stories!