Little Lesson 14: Your World, Your Way.

SCRIPTURE:  All the earth is mine. Exodus 19:5 ESV

THOUGHT: We humans have gotten carried away with ourselves. Like artificial intelligence, we draw conclusions with the data we have, unaware that it’s not all the data there is. We’ve overlooked, conveniently, that God says “all the earth is mine.” Until we bow a knee to that truth, our human intelligence functions on logic that is incomplete.

This contest of wills was what led me away from relationship with God into doing things my way. I was convinced by culture and education that I owned myself. I had a right to that – and technically, it was true. Paul once said, “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up (1 Cor. 10:23 ESV).” We’ve been given freedom, and what we do with it reveals character. In the end, the fissures in my character – some due to other’s sin against me, some due to my own – became cracks and I broke up like the Titanic (a feat of human intelligence that was supposedly unsinkable).

Out of brokenness, I began to listen again. To God, and others who taught me what God said about human flourishing, truth, brokenness, and redemption. I used my freedom to choose a different path, one that required faith, not just feelings, not just logic. I saw that God had good plans for his entire world, and I could be part of what he imagined if I just stopped the contest of wills. So, I bowed a knee, giving the Creator back what was his all along.

The canvas of my life is changing, taking shape, and looking more beautiful now that the tug-of-war with the brush is over (most days, anyway!).

You can paint me like a sunrise that steals away the night, in a
Beautiful redemption, moving toward the light
You can paint me like an eagle so high above the land
Or a common little sparrow, trusting in the painter’s hand.

You can paint me like the mountains, all brown and green and gray
Or every color of your rainbow – a perfect mix of sun and rain
You can paint me like a flower growing wild in rocks and sand, maybe
Unseen by the world, but trusting in the painter’s hand

The artist in me tries to make the brush and canvas mine, when the
Truth is they belong to the hands that authored time, so to the
Painter and the carpenter and the sculptor of all days
I’m learning all I really want to say is your world, your way.
This is your world; your way.

Amy Clemens “YOUR WORLD, YOUR WAY” 5/1/22

PRAYER: Oh God, your plan is so much bigger and better than mine was. I can see that now, and I trust your good work.