Not Be The Same.

I was talking to a friend on my way home from work tonight and we were re-counting our last year together and everything we have seen and done and the people we have met, etc. We realized that it was exactly a year ago today that we sat down and really talked for the first time over coffee. My what a difference a year can make. One week after that initial coffee-conversation she received a telephone call that literally turned her life upside down in a matter of 7 weeks. I will never forget the text message she sent me and to my exaggerated astonishment I had to respond, “Excuse me WHAT?!?! You are moving WHERE?!”

Wow.

When we met for coffee one week before the said texting conversation she was looking at her other options. One, in particular, held the most draw at that time: Texas.

I know.

I had the same thought as you did.

But, alas, when that phone call came for her Texas was no longer plan A.

As we were chatting tonight she said, “I don’t know what comes next for me! And all my other options aren’t really that appealing anymore. I don’t even know if I would still want to move to Texas!”

In her astonishment I heard myself say, “Well, console yourself with this: don’t be upset that your desires changed that much, just realize that it was a different person who wanted that a year ago.”

I know it wasn’t really me saying that. Sure, it sounds like something I would say, but I will be the first to admit that most of my good ideas aren’t mine, and the same holds true for a lot of my “phrases;” I don’t come up with them they just fly out of my mouth.

The reason I say it wasn’t me saying that is because that phrase was such an encouragement to ME! I felt like it was not just for her to hear, but myself as well.

Isn’t that such glorious truth?! Who she was a year ago is NOT who she is now. Who I was a year ago is not the same girl who types this.

What grandeur, let me tell you.

Is there any greater comfort than knowing that He is not only the Author but the FINISHER of our faith? Or that, apart from ourselves, in the life of the believer, the indwelling Holy Spirit is shaping and molding us before our very eyes? I think not. I remember a time in my life when I would wake up in the morning and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was a different person than when I went to bed the night before. It was so thrilling.

I want to be a Christian who continually LETS him mold me, one who pushes the process along. I don’t want to stay where I am; I want to keep moving.

Bless the Lord, O growing soul. We’ve got some ground to cover.