daily devotional

Are you waiting for the details, then you will get started? Waiting for assurance it’s all going to work out perfectly before you dive in? Well let me tell you what I’ve noticed about our Almighty God … He loves the UNFOLDING. His power is best displayed in the midst of uncertainty. As you’re waiting on him to assure you of the plan, he’s waiting on you to trust his plan enough to show up without the details.

Yesterday morning my husband and I went to an Easter sunrise service on the beach. Y’all, if you’ve never experienced church on the beach at sunrise, you absolutely must add it to your lifetime bucket list. We currently live in the Florida Keys and my favorite island is Islamorada. A local church was holding a service on a little sandy spot in Islamorada, so we showed up in the darkness before dawn and watched the team set up. Speakers were positioned, microphones were plugged in, chairs were aligned. Soon, the chairs began to fill with local islanders and vacationing families alike. A young man with a guitar steps up to the microphone just as the sky was beginning to show glorious colors of the coming dawn, and begins to sing.

Nothing.

His lips were moving, but we could hear nothing.

Tech guys come running to the front and scramble to fix the issue. They check every plug in, every cord, and every connection. The sky is getting lighter and lighter and there was no stopping the sunrise. You could feel the discomfort in the crowd. This wasn’t going as planned.

But I sat in my chair knowing something. Knowing God was right there in the middle of it all. Knowing he had the absolute power to make that microphone work in an instant if he wanted to. I immediately thought of Jesus teaching a crowd of 5,000 without a microphone. They heard him. God’s got this.

The seasoned pastor stepped forward and made the motion to go with it. The young man with the guitar yelled as loudly as he could, “can y’all hear me?” Then he began singing. The crowd sang louder to carry the song. Suddenly, the microphone began working and the rest of the service went off without a hitch.

And to me, it was just perfect. It was perfect to see God making it work after his people decided to just do what they could with a broken microphone and bad acoustics. I have a feeling if we would have delayed service until everything was perfect, we would still be sitting on that beach delayed by technical difficulties.

God’s not interested in perfection, he’s here for our participation in the unfolding.

Where have you been waiting for all the details to come together before you get started, but God is only asking for your first step of obedience into the unfolding?

You have no idea what COULD WORK that currently ISN’T WORKING, if you would only get started.

The microphone wasn’t working. They started singing anyway. And the timing was better than anything we could have possibly planned, just when we’re signing “Oh, how he loves us” the sun breaks above the cloud bank with glorious hot pink rays of light and you could hear every soul on that beach respond in awe.

The rough start made for an even better reveal.

Maybe you’re having a rough start. Maybe things aren’t working for you. Maybe what you thought would work isn’t working and now you’re discouraged and ready to call it quits. May I just encourage you to stand right here and dare to see what will unfold? May I encourage you to be so bold to start anyway?

God has an unfolding waiting for you, but it will require you to get started before you ever know how it’s going to work out.

God told Noah to build an ark. In Genesis chapter 6 we read of God giving Noah very specific instructions for a boat that would be 7 stories high and the length of 1.5 football fields. This project took 120 years to complete. Now, imagine Noah, building a boat for what is now far longer than our entire lifetime, all during a drought. There was no rain. In fact, some experts believe the earth had never seen rain before, only watering through streams running, but not water falling from the sky.

But Noah trusted God enough to get started before it made sense.

Genesis 6:22 “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”

If Noah would have waited until it started raining to get to work, it would have been too late. His entire family would have been lost. All living creatures would have died. But God knew he could trust Noah to show up and get started before it was all revealed. God knew he could trust Noah in the unfolding.

Can God trust you in the unfolding? Does he know you will show up and do what you can do, even when what you can do doesn’t seem like a lot? Does he know you will be faithful with little right now, and therefore he can bless you with much in the future?

Or are you here trying to make sense of it all, delaying your progress, perfecting your plan, and honestly wasting precious time on this limited journey?

God doesn’t need you to stall, he needs you to start singing. He’ll take care of the microphone at just the perfect time.

He doesn’t need you to figure it all out, he needs you to be busy doing what he last instructed you to do and trust when its time to do something different he will reveal the new plan.

We can get caught up in this endless cycle of searching for greener pastures in life, jobs we would enjoy more, houses we would be happier in, husbands that would be a better match, and we abandon what God told us to be doing. We grow impatient because change isn’t coming when we want change to come, so we bail thinking the next thing will somehow make us happier and make things better.

This is a process honey. Noah was building that ark for 120 years in a DROUGHT. And after the ark was built, he gathered 2 of every kind of creature onto the boat … and it still wasn’t raining. 7 days later it began raining. THAT IS FAITH. THAT IS PERSISTENCE. THAT IS WHAT GOD IS LOOKING FOR.

Start singing before the mic works. Start showing up for work with a good attitude before the work situation gets better. Start cleaning that house before its remodeled. Start investing in that marriage before you’re sure it can be saved.

What will God do in response to your obedience … oh girl, I don’t know, but I trust in the end you won’t be disappointed. I trust one day when you look back you’ll see God’s greater plan was well worth it.

I’ve learned to go totally unsure. To show up uncertain. To get started when my voice is still shaking, my heart is racing and I can’t see 5 feet in front of me. And I’ve learned this is where the good stuff happens.

I’m now excited when microphones don’t work, the power goes out, or the rain begins to fall because my mind immediately goes to “ahhhh, I wonder what God is doing here?”

I wonder how God is going to show up here for you. I wonder what he has planned that you cannot see?

Show up for the unfolding my sister. Take the first step and trust he will guide you into the one after that. God may make this whole thing work out just the way you thought, and it will be great. Or he may not … and it will simply be a different great.

Make friends with a “different great.” It is our rigidness that keeps us from experiencing the unfolding of God’s better plan. You just think you’ll be happier when things are different … and you will be … temporarily. But the new wears off everything, and that new job will become an old job you dread going to. The new house will become the old house you just wish would sell already. The new and exciting relationship will lose its shine and all you’re left with is habits that annoy the daylights out of you by a totally imperfect person you promised to love forever.

Choose to be happy right here. Choose to be faithful right now. Choose to be busy doing what God last told you to do and do it the best you can with a good attitude. He has you here for a reason. You’re in the middle of the unfolding. Take the next step knowing God will either make it work out to be great, or he will bring a different great. Either way, your participation is required.