Road Map – the big reveal

I promised to reveal my road map from our activity My Life is Gospel so without further ado…

Voilà. I am no artist, but this picture does tell quite a story. What about you? Did you take time to create your own road map answering the questions and playing cartographer? Click here to find the instructions so you can join us.

Oscar Romero (1917 – 1980), martyred El Salvadorian archbishop wrote, “It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts: it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is the Lord’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.”

I love the imagery of taking the long view. Perhaps because that is where the Lord placed me in my wilderness experience this summer. For days, 68 days to be exact, I was in deep waters reading the Old Testament. Wrestling with the stories of a people and of a nation that just didn’t get it. Story after story, generation after generation God’s people struggling in disobedience and disregard for their need and dependency of the Lord. Trying to go at it alone, the Old Testament reveals stories of hardship and discontent, setting the stage for the coming of a Savior. Yet throughout every story, indeed every word, of scripture God is faithful to His people — even in the unimaginable struggles the Lord never forsakes His people. “Return to me,” is the Lord’s plea. And our merciful and gracious God is relentless in His pursuit of His people. Then, and now.

It’s easy to read stories thousands of years old and fail to see the relevance in our modern lives. To see that God is still relentlessly pursuing each of us into relationship with Him. Wooing us, daily, in ways that only by His grace we hear His timeless plea, “Return to me.”  On this side of the cross, we know that the only way to the Father is through the Son, who also calls, “Come to me.”

Maybe you hear it? The soft whisper or nudge spoken through a friend or a song? Maybe you’ve heard His plea in a time of utter discouragement and hardship? Maybe there were times on your roadmap where God was so silent you convinced yourself He wasn’t even there? Maybe there have been times of such joy and gratefulness you can’t conceive the source was anything but Divine.

I’ve made pitstops in everyone of those places and I’ll share them with you in upcoming posts. Like the people and stories in the Old Testament, I  had a life BC. BC = Before Christ. My road map reveals the places where God was pursuing me, wooing me, faithfully providing for me even when I didn’t attribute any of it to Him. My road map reminds me of the place I accepted Christ and chose to live life on this side of the cross, free from the past and expectant of life everlasting that is the promise of His death and resurrection. My road map tells me where I still struggle to live in faith. And my road map gives me hope by remembering the places of great joy.

Why am I doing this? Trust me, I’m not super excited about sharing some of these pitstops.  And, it’s certainly not because I think my life is all that interesting. But, come on, aren’t you just a little curious to know what the bathing suit – sin – hell pit stop is all about? I’m sharing because maybe in my stories, you’ll see something new in yours. These stories are not about Kristin. They are all about God. A God who cared enough about an ordinary girl, to transform her life, not because of anything she did or continues to do, but solely for His purpose and His glory.

If that’s not good news, friends, I don’t know what is.

So, finish up your road map! You never know when you might need it. And, I’ll be back soon to tell you about that poorly illustrated gift box on my road map. Just to tease you a little, it involves God. And Oreos.

Love,