Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Show Up

 

Show up

 

I like to read it’s something my parents instilled in me at a young age.  Bible, comics, novels, graphic novels all kinds of things.  I picked up a book at CVS earlier this year not realizing how much I would need it in the coming months.  But I had a 40% off coupon and had been wanting to read it for a while.  It’s okay not to be okay by Sheila Walsh.  Sometimes it’s a book deemed more for women but men and women both can learn from it.  Recently I found something in it that hit me in a unique way.  For about 11 years I’ve been doing this Bible study blog thing in one form or another.  Starting with meeting people at Denny’s at midnight and changing to something online.  In her book Mrs. Walsh talks about the fear Christians deal with in sharing our faith and how God has still called all of us to do so.  I have mentioned many times my passion and that is for just one person to draw closer to God by something I shared and find hope.  I’m going to share with you something Mrs. Walsh wrote because if you share Christ in some form or another you will come to her realization as well.  

 

Her words not mine.

 

“I have a whole new understanding about what you and I are called to do.  We are called to show up!  It’ll never be about us getting anything perfect, but when we are present God can do what only he can do.”  

 

I’ve talked a bit lately about my new dog Arisia and when my sister and niece took me to the humane society to pick out a dog emotionally, I didn’t want to.  My sister described perfectly what kind of dog I needed to the employee.  “He needs a dog he can roughhouse and wrestle with because he’s a WWE fan.”  My mom keeps saying she is rescuing me, and I am rescuing her.  We play and fight and just have fun.  I truly believe when I walked by her kennel and saw her laying on a cot looking back at me that God had a plan by me showing up and seeing her.  

 

A promise I have held onto all these years of doing this blog thing is found in Isaiah 55:8-11

 

“‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the Lord.  ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.  The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground and water the earth, they cause the grain to grow, producing food for the farmer and bread for the hungry.  It is the same with my Word.  I send it out, and it always produces fruit.  It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”  

 

You see if feeble Zac shows up and shares God’s Word, I can trust that God will use it to change lives because it’s not about me but about God accomplishing what he set out for His Word to do and he’s already promised to do that.  Me showing up that day at the humane society for Arisia was part of the plan God had for her and for me.  But like Mrs. Walsh was saying you have to show up and be willing to be used by God.  I share a blog via email and as a Facebook live video.  It doesn’t make any sense, but I trust God to use it to reach that one person.  

 

Luke 12:11-12 

 

“And when you are brought to trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities, don’t worry about how to defend yourself or what to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.”  

 

I show up and I am willing to share what God lays on my heart and some days I feel like it just flopped but I trust God to do what only he can do because it’s not about Zac.  I had a life group leader named Kathy a few years back that taught me something.  In the Old Testament, God is referred to as being I Am.  He is not a God who was or is but he is I Am.  He has always existed and always will.  Ms. Kathy said “I am not, but I know I Am.”  Meaning we as humans we’re flawed but we serve the great I Am.  We serve God and we show up willing and trust Him to do what we cannot.  

 

 

God is Faithful by Sheila Walsh

You are I am by Mercy  Me

Tell me again by Geoff Moore and the Distance 

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