Polaroids
Nathan and I hit Brueggers Bagels after a tough Saturday morning workout. As we munched on our bagels filled with strawberry cream cheese, we talked about how God chooses to give us small glimpses of His will for our lives rather than letting us preview a movie of our future. We also discussed how God allows us to take risks for Him as we step out in faith — which often leaves us with uncertainties and unanswered questions.
Later that day, I picked up Dangerous Surrender, a book by Kay Warren that a friend loaned me. I couldn’t believe it as I read Kay’s words about the very topic that Nathan and I had tackled over breakfast. Here is what Kay, had to say:
Through the years, I’ve found that discovering God’s will often resembles looking at an undeveloped Polaroid photograph. When the camera spits out the picture, the images are gray and shapeless, but the longer you look at the picture, the clearer it becomes.
With the advent of digital technology, Polaroid cameras are outdated. Now we are impatient with such a slow process — we want instant clarity! We don’t want to wait for the picture to develop. When we sense God leading us on a new journey, we want all of the information up front. We want God to fill out the travel forms in triplicate, give us a detailed road map before we start the journey, and guarantee our safe arrival at the destination. We want the rewards of living lives of faith without actually having to demonstrate faith.
For you to become a surrendered person of faith, you will have to be willing to say yes in advance — to give God your answer before you’ve heard the question.
I shared this with Nathan. I don’t believe in coincidence, rather, I am certain that God is speaking to both Nathan and to me. We each committed to search our days for opportunities to dangerously surrender to Jesus… oh, the excitement of the journey! So happy to have Nathan on board for the adventure.
Well… one friend suggested that I run a half marathon. Another friend asked if I would help her train for Thunder Road. And yet another begged me to join her in training for a distance event. What are friends for but to join in their insane running pursuits? There are now 10 crazy friends bonded by our training runs.
My eyes welled up with tears. I wondered what they were thinking. How deep did the loss pierce their hearts? How would they cope? How would they go on? I silently prayed for them — that they would know the comfort of Jesus and His perfect peace.