Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My Very Old Friend

She doesn't have a name, she's a woman, she's a widow,  she's a mother,  she's a neighbor,she's a woman in need, she's a woman with a crisis, and she's woman who can't fix or change her current situation.  With that being said I guess she does have a name.  Her name could be Sue, Linda, or my name for that matter, Kim.  Because we as women can or will be able to identify with most of those descriptive words.

On this day, this woman feels like a very old friend to me.  We have been spending time together for over a year.  Oh her story is just that, a story to most of us, tucked away in seven short verses in 2 Kings chapter 4.  Seven verses that over the course of a year the Lord has been pressing into my heart.  Principles and responses that He desires for me to learn.  This woman and I spent time together as I told her story to a group of women here in Oklahoman and again twice as I have spent time with woman on foreign soil in the past few months.  In each gathering we were asking; what does it look like to trust, and what does it look like to be a woman who responds out of what we know to be true about our God?  

Her story teaches me about posture.  Posture is intentionally placing ourselves in a position.  Her posture was to run to the man of God and to cry out to him regarding her life.  My posture? The intentional position I am to place myself in?  Running to God alone, crying out to Him in my need.  She teaches me the principle of participation.  She was willing to be obedient no matter what it looked like to those around her.  Often God ask us to participate with Him in His plan for our lives, that at the moment make no sense to us, let alone those observing our lives.  She doesn't argue, she doesn't ask for clarification.  She does what is asked of her even though it may make her look foolish.  Something I have learned from this truth? My obedience doesn't look like yours and yours doesn't have to look like mine! No one gets to tell me what obedience looks like except the One asking. This woman and her short story has once again pressed into me the importance of the shut door.  Crazy God things happen behind shut doors!  What happens behind shut doors is the sitting at His feet, Him speaking, the confession, the wrestling, the learning.  and the real filling.  We all want to be filled but often we don't want to do the work required to be emptied.  So when we come to Him we are so full of things that consume us there isn't much room.  The word fill in scripture means to satisfy something.  You can't satisfy something that is already half filled with something else.  No, getting really empty is behind the shut door stuff!  It's hard work....and...it's life work.  Work that goes on everyday behind shut doors with our Lord pointing out the stuff that needs to be emptied so He can fill...satisfy us. What happens behind the shut door isn't for the masses, it's for you, it's for me, it's for Him to teach us and show us what it means to be satisfied.  And when we are those satisfied and filled vessels, then it is the overflow,the splashes that hit and dance off of those around us like sweet rain on dry ground. Those are the splashes for the masses, because they are Him. The oil flowed, it flowed freely, it flowed to it's fullest...until... "she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." and he said to her, "there is not one vessel more." And the oil stopped."  When there ceased to be an empty vessel the oil stopped. Those are sad words to me, and yet all that had been poured into her and those vessels were God's abundant provision.  Lessons to learn and to keep on learning.

While teaching, one very creative woman wrote down these poetic words.

My cup was emptied; I lifted it up.
None could ever fill it just quite enough.

Until...
I met Him - the flowing, living water.
did I find for my soul fountains like no other.

For my part I can choose to thirst no more.
For His part He reminds me that's what empty vessels are for.

And what remains? Splashes for the masses.
Sprinkles of grace.
To make them thirsty - deeper waters await.


My very old friend from 2 Kings 4, her life and story is still speaking and teaching.  What are our lives speaking and teaching?  It's His story and He uses your life and my life to write a few sentences of His continuing and amazing story of grace.

Still learning,
Kim