When God Moves..."Checkmate"

Many people around me the past few weeks have passed or are passing through significant mile markers on their life journey. Change of job. Loss of a loved one. Birth of of a new baby.

All of these things has made me reflect about my own journey, and it certainly is a journey.  With amazing sunrises and moments of laughter and love.

 Also dark nights. When the way isn't clear.

On the journey, God often will make a move to let you know He's with you. 

And it seems like for me that at some of the darkest and most challenging moments- these have been the times when God has made a move.

When God moves or works in your life it can often take you by surprise...His attention to detail...His timing...His power...His beauty...all STUNNING! So much of what I'm writing about in my book are accounts of these moments because they're crazy and wonderful.

 

And in the impossible, at the least expected moment, these are the times I believe are God's favorite to display His power, His sovereignty. 

 

It's like He says: It's not over until I SAY. The final move, the final report, is MINE.  When others say you've lost, you're done, I'll change the tide, I'll change the outcome, in a move only I can pull off- I will say CHECKMATE.  

Of course we just celebrated the biggest one of those with Easter!

 

God can open up a door that wasn't even there. He can bring supply from a source that you didn't even see. He can put money in the mouth of a fish or use a donkey to get your attention. (With so many donkeys passing by m here in Ethiopia daily, I'm really expecting at some point that God will think it's funny to have one talk to me. :-)

He is able!  His arm is not too short. He is God.  I love how He moves!

Check out these reminders in scripture:

Isaiah 50:2

...Was my arm too short to deliver you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert...

Ephesians 3:19-21

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory 

Isaiah 55:8
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 

 

Luke 18:27

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 

 

I remember so many times with jobs in particular, God would open things up at the right time...

After I graduated from college, I felt God was leading me to spend extended time in Haiti. When I made that jump instead of getting a job right away, I remember many stunned at my decision. Including me. Eight days in that country on a prior trip had almost killed me.  What would four months do? Against the advice of college advisers and just sheer logic, I jumped out of the job market and into one of the poorest countries in the world. 

It was there that God became more real to me than ever before. He humbled me and showed me how small I am and how big He is. Those months changed how I wanted to spend the rest of my life...no longer would my life be about making money and being a big name sports reporter...but it would be about advocating for the poor with my speaking and writing, it would be about telling the "good news" globally and helping be a voice for the voiceless....a journalist of the Savior-King who came to set the oppressed free.

 

During the end of my four months in Haiti, I remember beginning to feel stress about NO JOB for my return to the U.S. And literally days before I came home, a Christian radio station ended up interviewing WHILE I was in Haiti and hiring me before even meeting me. I flew home from Haiti with my first full time paid job landed, I began the very next morning. God said, you obeyed Holly. You trusted. CHECK MATE!

God LOVES to honor barbaric leaps of faith you take in His name and for His glory, honor.

Since I'm sitting in Ethiopia now as I write this, I can't help but think of when I sat in my youth ministry office in Ohio in 2008 and felt God say- I want to change your course. I want you to use your life for Africa. Africa, what? The dark continent? Lions, tigers...it seemed like an odd call to me, I'd never stepped foot on the continent. 

But I began knocking on doors. None opened. People said- you have no experience. You're not qualified. I kept knocking. Literally, the DAY I had my resignation in hand after FIVE YEARS in youth ministry...I was sitting in my office and had an stress moment. How could I resign? I had NO DOOR to Africa open. This was crazy. But God told me to jump. I prayed GOD PLEASE show me you've got this leap of faith...!And RIGHT at that moment an email came in my inbox...a JOB OFFER FOR AFRICA landed! CHECKMATE!!!

Less than a month later I was on a plane to Africa for the first time in my life as a "field reporter."

And for the past almost four years- I've been using my life as God directs for this continent. And it's been the adventure of a lifetime!

Kenya, 2011

Some my students, Ethiopia 2012

When God moves- it leaves your mouth hanging open. Chills running down your back. And it can bring you to your knees in the wonder of it all. 

 

One of my former students in youth ministry has been making barbaric leaps of faith for God the past several years. (and when I say "barbarian or "barbaric"- I'm not referring to caveman like activity...it's more of a reference to one of my favorite books called the Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus- talking about how the call to follow Jesus is really a radical tribal call that changes your whole course of life). Anyway, Sam has been on the barbarian way.  Sam had the grades to get into medical school after college, but no medical school door opened. Instead of wasting time and being idle, Sam started serving. He has impacted hundreds of young people as a result. 

Sam spent this past serving serving in Kenya and there our paths crossed again. One night, Sam was sharing with a group of us about the crazy road he has been on and how he still desired to be a doctor. He said looking back he could now see why the time before wasn't right for him to go to medical school. His heart and life and focus were not in the right places. Now they were. He gave thanks to God, trusting God's timing, and asked us to pray for him. I believe God was deeply moved by Sam's testimony, as was I and others listening. Because in the morning, to our utter amazement....God said CHECK MATE. A medical school wrote Sam an email ACCEPTING him- he would start in the fall. WOW!!!!

Sam is now in medical school And guess what- my barbarian brother is still serving. This summer he will intern once again taking hundreds of students into the inner city of Dayton. He will also travel back to Africa on a medical mission trip to one of the hardest places and most dangerous to serve on this continent!

 I'm excited to see what God does in Sam's life as the journey continues. :-)

All this to say, if you're up against a wall. If there is no door. If you've received a bad report. If you're sad. If you're lost. If you're confused. If you're tired. Remember Who has you in His big Hand. At the perfect time, He can turn the game. He can calm the storm. Bring down the walls. Part the sea. Blow open a door. Give provision, protection, comfort, peace, joy, hope, something new. 

He can say: CHECKMATE!!!

Romans 8:31-39

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Think about the Red Sea parting. The manna falling the sky. The storm calming. The lame walking. Lazarus busting out of his grave. The disciples running to find the tomb was indeed empty.

God is able!

 

I don't want to write all this without noting though that things don't always "work out." Seas don't always part. Doors don't always open. Relationships don't always mend. They can. But we're not promised a miracle cure. That the outcome or result will be what WE WANT. God's "win" often looks very different than our "win." The person who mistreated you might not always get a lighting bolt in the backside. Or the physical pain you're experiencing, you might continue to have to deal with. Paul wanted the "thorn" he had to be taken away, but God said no.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God might not say CHECKMATE in the way you want.

What we know though is He is ABLE and He is good. If He doesn't open a door, He will give you strength to stand. He will never leave you. You have a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Whether in plenty or in want, He can teach you to be content. He is all you, I, we need.

Philippians 4:11-13

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength

My sister is another who lives by barbarian faith.  God called Noel to be a full-time missionary when she was in college.  But it literally took YEARS for God to open up the big field jump He was preparing her for.  She's now been serving in the Czech Republic since 2005.  God taught her to be content in the waiting.  And she wasn't idle as she waited.  She has touched many lives globally  because of her faithfulness and trust in God as she continues to faithfully follow God on the journey.

Noel serving globally, 2011

Whatever mile marker you're at on the journey, you can have joy, peace, hope. You can feel confidence that you have Almighty God with you and for you.

 

God's movements make me smile, Chuckle. Whistle. Well, I can't whistle- but if I could...I'd whistle. He's so good. Sometimes you have to be years past a circumstance or situation to see what God was up to in you and through you. Sometimes you'll even have to wait until eternity to know.

But don't lose hope.

God is with us and for us, able to do so much on our behalf and He's eager too.

Matthew 7:10-11

Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 

May we continue to trust Him.

Onward with you on the journey. Thank you for your prayers and know I'm praying for you as well.

Blessings from Ethiopia,

Holly 

Praises

-for our sovereign God- that He is moving in our lives ahead of us
-for a great first full week back to school and good classes
-for continued good health
-that my Dad received a good second opinion from a doctor

Prayer Requests

-For classes continuing- that God will use me to be good salt

-For a community carnival some of our students are organizing to raise money for our scholarship students- that details will come together

-For new babies that have arrived and more incoming, for good health for the moms and babies

-For those who have lost loved ones, that God will be their peace and comfort
-For those in job transition time, that God will open the next door in a mighty way

-For those Satan is picking on- that discernment and protection will be there

-For my family- for my Dad, Mom and sister- for good health and healing, provision and protection...I love this tribe of mine