Wednesday's Words ~ 10,000 Baby Steps

HA - what do you do when things are so busy that you miss Monday Musings and you are not quite to Thankful Thursday?  You combine them into Wednesday's Words!  So many thoughts have been rolling around in my head of late that I just haven't been able to put them down in a way that makes any sense.  God has been stirring me up in many ways.  He is speaking and transforming and challenging and loving me in such huge ways.  I'll do my best to try to communicate something that makes sense!

I have changed.

I am different.

I will never be the same.

These phases have been echoing through my head over and over again as of late.  It's funny - I didn't see it happening.  In some ways, it snuck up on me!  

It just dawned on me like one of those 

light bulbs lighting up over your head.

The Lord has had such purpose for me here in Chicago.  I could tell you story after story about amazing opportunities I have had and the many ways that I have seen the Lord work in people's lives all around me.  It has been one of the most incredible times of my life.

I just didn't realize that perhaps what the Lord was really up to was changing me.  

He has grown me up.

He has broken down places in my life 

that didn't "need" Him.

He has done a work in my heart, 

my mind and my soul.

Honestly, I'm pretty astonished.  I shouldn't be.  

He is only doing what He says He will do.

"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."  Philippians 1:6

He is getting bigger in my life and 

everything else is getting smaller.

He is digging a well of trust in my heart and 

it is getting deeper and sweeter as time goes on.

He is assuring me that there are big things in store for me.  I have no idea what that means or what it may look like -- but I am beyond excited to see it.

It has taken a 10,000 baby steps to get here, but I have moved forward without even realizing it.  That happens when my focus is on Him.  As I take one step at a time, I eventually find myself many, many steps down the road.  

WOW

What a faithful God to continually be transforming us into His likeness.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I have a long way to go.  My portrait only has the faintest hint of the image of Jesus at this point, but it is clearer than it was 3 years ago.  I am so grateful for that.  

I so desperately want to be more like Jesus.

I so desperately want to fulfill my purpose here and to honor the One I love most.

He is changing me.

I love the saying, "You can't step in the same river twice."

Things are changing around us all the time and in turn, we are also changing.  You may be in a very similar set of circumstances or in the same town that you have been in for quite some time -- but it is not the same.  You are not the same.

“Do not call to mind the former things,
Or ponder things of the past.

Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert."

Isaiah 43:18-19

Jesus is always doing something new.  

Will you not be aware of it?

How are you changing?

Where do you see the Spirit working in your life?

Is God getting bigger and everything 

else getting smaller?

I love my journey of baby steps with the occasional giant leap.  I love waking up each morning with the question, "Who are you going to live for today?" gently whispered in my ear.

I love that I have a plan for the day, but it may not end up looking like that at all because the Lord has something better and more purposeful for me to do.

I love that I have so far to go - 

but that I am not who I used to be, either.