Yesterday was a nostalgic kind of day for me. 15 years ago yesterday we hosted our very first gathering and called it a retreat. It was the most unimpressive, duct taped together event you’ve ever seen, in the basement of Joplin, MO city hall. Looking back it’s almost embarrassing … But it was the beginning.
I spent yesterday going through photos of every retreat since then. For the first time, I made a list and numbered them. Would you believe we’ve hosted exactly 100 retreats? Some of those retreats have been the best days of my life … and some of those early retreats you couldn’t pay me to go back and do again.
What a ride it has been and what a story we now have to tell. It’s not always a story I would have chosen, but it’s a story God has orchestrated to build what we get to do today. Just this year at our retreats, we’ve baptized 39 precious souls in total commitments to Jesus … all while having an absurd amount of fun in the most beautiful places in the world.
When God’s word says in Ephesians 3:20, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” – well it’s absolutely true. God can do so much more than we could ever dream up on our own. It’s bigger than you imagined and greater than you think, but you have to partner with him in the story and decide to trust him enough to join him on the ride.
All glory goes to God, only he can do it – but how totally awesome that he invites us to be part of the story!
God gives us a story to tell. A story of how he saved our life, turned it all around, and made the impossible happen on the daily. He’s writing a story with your life and it’s all unfolding day by day.
Think about the things that make for a great story. It’s never the comfortable, easy, guaranteed stuff. It’s the ups and downs, the twists and turns, the suspense and climax that make for a great story. And our God is the greatest writer of all. I wonder what he’s writing for you?
A few years ago on my husband’s birthday, I surprised him with a ride in a WW2 bi-plane. I requested the “loop-d-loop tricks ride” over the coast for the full experience. He went on the first ride and returned so dizzy he could barely walk. Then it was my turn.
I’ve never experienced anything so thrilling. It made sky diving seem like a total bore. It’s an open cockpit with 2 tiny seats and you truly feel like you’re flying. At one point we’re high up in the sky and suddenly it gets very quiet. The engine goes dead. Like motor OFF. Y’all we’re flying in an 80 year old airplane controlled by 2 foot pedals and one hand lever and the engine cuts. Boom, we go into a spinning nose dive. It’s like the wildest roller coaster ride you’ve ever been on … without a track. Then the engine starts trying to crank. It puts a time or two, then fires up and suddenly we make a 180 and start climbing straight up.
My son was in town so it was the ultimate experience to share with him and his wife. After we’re all on the ground safely, my husband strikes up a conversation with the pilot. He says “wow, so how long have you had this airplane.” The pilot smiles and says, “One week! How in the world did you all find me?” I said, “Well I saw you flying over the beach a few days ago and I wondered if maybe you offered rides so I googled you.” He said, “Well, you saw me on my first flight.”
I swallow … hard.
Y’all if I would have known this was a new experience for the pilot, I wouldn’t have strapped myself into that plane and squealed with delight as he let it fall in a nose dive from the sky. Nor would I have encourage 3 other members of my family to do the same.
Funny – looking back I remember the pilot saying, “Hey, no videoing up there because we’re supposed to have parachutes on and those haven’t arrived yet.” I thought he was joking. No, he wasn’t joking. The parachutes had not arrived yet and we were doing it anyway.
Here’s the point: SOMETIMES ALL THE INFORMATION WILL ONLY KEEP US FROM EXPERIENCING THE GREATEST THINGS IN LIFE.
If I would have known the details of building BIG Life and hosting 100 retreats over the past 15 years, I would have never planned the first one. I would have dismissed myself from my calling and purpose. I would have sat that out in overwhelm. How sweet of God to keep it a mystery from me.
We get so wrapped up in gathering the details, doing the research, making our lists and planning the next steps for 10 years, and we miss the experience God is offering us right now. You know why God doesn’t tell you everything in advance … because he knows you wouldn’t buy into the ride if you knew everything.
What experience has God had available for you, but you’ve been gathering information instead of diving into where he’s leading you?
If you really knew how painful childbirth was going to be, you probably wouldn’t have been so excited about being pregnant.
If you knew what life with a hormonal teenager would be like, you would have never taught that child to speak.
But you didn’t know, and you weren’t supposed to.
You don’t know how God is going to lead you where he plans to take you, and you’re not supposed to. If he gave you full disclosure, you wouldn’t show up.
Isaiah 55:9, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”
This means you just have to trust God. He knows what he’s doing and he’s actually really good at his job. The story he’s writing for you is one you could never write on your own.
Sharing that bi-plane ride with my family was one of the coolest experiences of my life and we will all remember it forever, but if we would have known the details in advance, we would have missed that opportunity. Imagine his website offering the truth … “Come fly in an 80 year old airplane for 2 with a pilot who has owned the plane for 1 week and flown it a few times. Buckle up for this adventure as we barrel through the sky and see what tricks we can pull off … before the parachutes required by law arrive.”
I wouldn’t have bought the tickets … and I would have totally missed out on this experience.
If I would have known the full journey of the past 15 years with all 100 retreats, it wouldn’t have happened. There are a few of those experiences that would have overwhelmed me so much that I would have forfeited everything else and passed up those tickets.
And if you knew all the details about where God is taking you and the journey required to get there, you wouldn’t buy the tickets either. So guess what, he’s not going to give you the details, he’s going to ask you to trust him and go any way.
Will you trust where God is leading you? Will you trust what he is doing? Will you show up every single morning and partner with God in the adventure and follow his lead? Will you give up the continual need to gather all the information and plan the details before you’re willing to take the first step?
If you’re waiting for the details, you’re going to wait your entire life because God knows you wouldn’t move forward if you knew everything in advance.
Jesus walks up to 3 fishermen standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and he says to them “Come, follow me.” There was no detailed travel plan revealed. No itinerary or even explanation. Just an invitation to follow Jesus. Their whole world changed with that first step.
And so will yours. Jesus is asking you today to come, follow him. But you don’t get to know the details in advance.
He has a ticket for the ride of a lifetime for you … won’t you just go?
Now, here’s the really fun part. After our ride and my husband’s little revealing chat with the pilot, who I should mention had a real leather bomber jacket with his name on it, a real-life Tom Cruise look, plus over 30 years experiencing flying planes in the military, we walked to our car and relived our thrilling experience.
Our son says, “Guys, in the middle of the ride I look down and realize my seat-belt had come undone.” Well, it was an 80 year old all original plane. The seat-belts were a bit pre-historic. Then our daughter-in-law says, “Well we were up in the air for a few minutes and then the pilot says ‘I’ve made a horrible mistake. The worst mistake you can make. I forgot to get more fuel.” They had to make an emergency landing and fuel up.
And you know what all these things make …. A BETTER STORY.
That bi-plane ride was my gift to my husband for his birthday. My 50th birthday is next week – guess what he bought me … tickets for a sea-plane!
God is writing a better story for you. It may include a few hairy moments without a seat-belt, and running out of gas along the way. But these are the things of great stories.
Your story was created before the dawn of time. He began thinking of you and the story you could live before he ever spoke the first word that created light in the darkness.
Psalm 139:16 “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
That means God knew about today since the beginning. He’s not surprised by this, he’s using it.
Oh what a story he is writing for you.
Don’t miss this experience because you’re trying to gather all the information before you move forward with Him. You’re not supposed to know how this is all going to work out. You’re just supposed to show up every day for the unfolding.
Follow Jesus.
Day after day, just follow him.
Jesus says in Matthew 4:19, “Come, follow me.” What is your response?
Buy the ticket he is offering you daily and buckle up as the story unfolds. This is the story of your life, and Jesus loves thrilling stories! Just follow him!
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