Victorious Day!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!  I have been overwhelmed by the greatness of the victory of the cross this season!  When Christ defeated death and set us completely free from our sins, a mighty victory was won and we, well we didn't even know it, much less have anything to do with it.  God is GOOD!!

This day also marks our THIRD Family Day...that means that three years ago, we brought Emily home from the NICU and became a true family, living together, for the first time since she was born five long months before.  And we have only been back to stay at the hospital once since then.  God is GOOD!!

We went down to Nana and Poppy E's for Easter and had a wonderful day meeting new friends and, of course, having an easter egg hunt.  Yes, Buck had to come along to help.

Looking at the eggs that are too high for her to reach...

Some of our new friends.

She's never sure when it's a boy driving...

K caught a ladybug that she carried around for quite a while before she was convinced to let it go free.

They are pretty ridiculously cute, huh?!

We spent Saturday making eggs with our new neighbors who moved in across the street.  First it was at our house and then it was at theirs...good times all around.  :-)

Well, in our meandering of this month, I have been informed on a handful of occasions that I have not been writing as much as I should on this my blog, so for no apparent reason, I have found the latest interesting journal entry and I shall share it with you.

I am going to call it, "Radical Obedience."

I keep hearing this term. It seems like wherever I go, that I am told that we as Christians need to be living in 'radical obedience'.  What exactly does that mean?  It's like it's the newest Christian phrase but this one seems to frustrate me more than the rest of the abstract slogans that mean nothing to the random individual.  Do you want to know what's radical to me?  Getting up early every morning - on purpose!!

Wait, I need to give you some back story before I continue.  Several months ago, God told me to start getting up early...again...to have a quiet time with Him.  I immediatley reminded Him just how many times I have tried this and failed; probably every time I have heard a sermon or read David's psalms about how great it is.  And since I grew up in the church and love David, that is often.  But I have failed at this so many times that I was in fact defeated in it not too terribly long ago.

I am certain that I will be incapable of accurately describing to you how hard it is for me to wake up in the morning but let's put it this way:When I wake up, regardless of how long I have slept, I feel like I have been hit by a Mack truck.  I can't move, can barely breathe and certainly cannot open my eyes.  Unlike my husband who wakes up and is actually awake, I seem more like I am still sleeping, only standing up and walking around. I can carry out a variety of activities for close to half an hour before I have a single coherent thought.  So, when I would try to wake up early to read my Bible, I would immediately fall back to sleep on that wonderful Word of God, or the table, or the carpet, basically whatever my head was near.  I tried everything from the floor to the folding chair to ice on my inner thigh. But the day I fell asleep on the cold kitchen tile during my last valiant effort, I declared sleep the winner and officially stopped trying.

All right, so back to my journal: When I reminded God of my history with this fight, He simply shrugged and said, "Just 15 minutes Becky, 15 minutes is all I need." I am sure He repeated it because He knew I wouldn't believe Him.  All I could think was, "Fifteen minutes is going to be worthless but if you want the worthless first 15 minutes of my day, it's yours."  I successfully got up early for only a few days and was still thinking how this could not be worth while when He said, "Why don't you just make it 20 minutes?  You're already getting up, you may as well get some quality out of it."  My response to this was immediate and very much like my oldest little girl, "You Stinker!!  I know exactly what you are doing, this is how I get myself in shape to run!  10 minutes a day until it's comfortable, then 15, and 20..."  But I was accountable to my accountability partners so I couldn't quit, even though I knew where it was headed.

By the time I hit half an hour however, I hit a wall and was starting to fall back asleep again. Discouraged, I asked God if that just meant I could only handle 25 minutes.  I was given no response but the very next morning, I read the verse that says 'do not drink only water', and it hit me like a lightning bolt out of heaven...and boy was that confusing...why would such a strange fragment of a verse stick out to me?  Then I remembered our previous conversation about endurance and I about stalled out.  "Are you telling me to drink coffee?"  I asked in disbelief.  His stone cold silence and an image of my brother was my affirmative answer.

So I started to get up ten minutes earlier so I could make the only form of coffee I can stand, an Italian Cafe my brother introduced me to.  This was like a miracle in a cup!  Not only was I awake, I was alert!  My quiet times took off to a whole new level and I was so excited, God didn't have to ask me for the next ten minutes, I wanted them.  Now I weep inside when I look at the clock and realize my kids will be up soon.  I have thoughts like, "How did an hour go by so fast?"  I really thought only pastors and great prayer warriors could say things like that, but it's true.  My mornings with my Father are now easily my most favorite part of my day.  Sometimes we talk for an hour, sometimes I study for an hour, sometimes I sing praise songs for an hour, it doesn't matter, it's time with my Father and it in itself is the greatest reward I could ask for.

Is it easy to get up?  Nope.  He didn't cure me of that.  I am still convinced a Mack truck has run over me and I certainly can't open my eyes, but I have resorted to rolling myself out of bed so that, unless I want to crawl, I have to stand up.  But then God gives me one coherent thought, "It's morning...God!" and the reward is so exciting, I can do it...I walk into the kitchen and the coffee does the rest. :-)

Other people have a way of making you feel like only the people who do great things that the world can see are truly great, truly radical. Wanna know what I think is radical? Getting up at 6am.  Yes, that's right, voluntarily getting up an hour before I have to in order to have a quiet time (and boy is it ever quiet!!) with my God and Father.  Judge me, shame me, I don't care, it is radical for me and every single morning, I have to choose to be radical again.  But do you remember what my initial act of obedience was?  15 minutes.  That's it.  15 minutes.  And boy did it feel radical!

So what about you? What's your radical act of obedience?  No, it's probably not to move to Africa or give everything you own away or to start a whole new career (although it could be), it's most likely that tiny little thing that God has been asking you to do for months, maybe years, and you know it, but you have never stepped out and followed through - finished it.  Maybe tithing a full ten percent, or committing to prayer for your spouse or kids, or just praying daily for that matter...it could be anything, but the reality is that you know exactly what it is and you've been denying it for a long time.  Just do it.  It's time.  Obedience itself is radical. Here's the bottom line: God will make your life radical because of your obedience.  I hope you choose to embark on your next 'great' adventure.  This ride has been the most adventurous of my life - and I used to live in Africa! :-)

God Bless!!