Friday, September 6, 2013

Laborer of Love


"I've tried to build a few things in my life. I took what I thought were great ideas, I stacked them neatly on pillars, put them on my AV cart, and rolled them out. I've hit my share of rocks too, and those rocks have sent parts of my dreams hurling. Yet Jesus continues to select broken and splattered people not just as followers but as participants. He called people like me who can't even figure out which end of a plastic bag to open His hands, He called people who trip every day His feet, and He called people who can't figure out which way to turn a screw to tighten it...  the ones who would build a kingdom." - "Love Does" by Bog Goff


When a man goes to build something new, very little of the time does he begin on an already cleared lot. No, most of the time he must tear down something first to start his new project. Sometimes it's a forest that must be cleared... sometimes it's the ancient ruins of past days and dreams in the form of an old creaky house... 

When Papa gave me the word "Build" on a rooftop in Malaysia, in regards to my homecoming to America, the image in my mind matched the image I saw when I looked beneath that very building on which I stood. There, lying in neat symmetrical patterns, were the makings of a new project, supplies organized and ready to go. Simply waiting on the builder to start construction.



Little did I realize that my return to the United States, after 11 months on the road and in the air traveling on my kindom journey with the World Race, would begin in the tearing down phase and would only look and feel by month 4 of being home as if my heart, mind, and even life had been cleared a  small patch towards the open space needed to build as declared in month 10 of the 11 away. As the days and now months have passed by since arriving home seemingly "ready to go," the Lord has humbled me greatly in what the entire process of new construction on a piece of land or simply a heart looks like when the Foreman is in complete control of His project. I am a laborer. That is what I am. I am a valued laborer in this kingdom work but a laborer just the same. The project is so much bigger than I can fathom. 

The phrase "tearing down" can seem drastic or defeating when read point blank but truly, it's an intimate process where excess is done away with and the soil is left as ready for its' greater purpose. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I feel that gratitude for this season, has been the foundation on which God, yes that very Foreman of this life building project, desires to build His new framework. 


As you can see by clicking here, there are many steps to building anything. Some revolve around forethought and planning... others around preparation for the build... and yet others still for the very beginning stages. Good thing life is long because I suddenly feel that it is planned to be very full. Full of new ideas, dreams, and goals that all result in a finished product when I meet my great Foreman face to face. That special greeting will not just be because I'm His daughter but also because I was His obedient and willing laborer along the way. 

If you clicked on that website link I provided above, you'd understand what I mean when I say that I believe that I am in the "flooring" stage of this building project. It's just a lot more about rebuilding me than I ever imagined it would be. It was about His dreams for my future, His planning for my location, His determination in pursuing my desire to be where He wanted me to be, His direction as to how I would build with the identity He has designed me to be as His laborer, and even His kind stripping of my knotted and twisted excess picked up along the way to this day... and now He's laid a foundation of gratitude that will hold up His will in me and through me. 



I totally get Bob Goff, almost on every level. I hope you will read his book and feel the same way. But as this life building project gets off the ground, I realize as Bob has more and more, how ill-equipped I feel and yet how incredibly skilled I am in my Foreman's shadow. I rest in Him and He does the work through my obedience to His call. 

Sometimes when I write about my relationship with God, I feel that a person reading who has yet to experience Him, may find it to be a manipulative relationship... let me say that I have never felt so loved in all of my life... or so free as I do right now while typing this post. Please note that even though this is about Him and not me, this life I mean, He created me to be in a love relationship with Him that only naturally involves service. As any earthly love relationship does only to the greatest degree. I serve Him because I love Him and mainly because He LOVED. me first. 

Now that I've explained the building process that has begun in me, I hope to help you and others experience it all week by week and in ways that change your life to also live under construction and ready to build whatever project or projects He has for you as His laborer. Life is so much better when we say yes to our Foreman's call and labor out of love. 








beLOVED.,
Lauren!<><+

Maybe you are reading this post today and wondering what "your project" is going to be? Tell me your thoughts! Or maybe you desire that relationship with God, the foreman of your life, as I have described? Please click His story to know more about the Father and His Son Jesus now. Lastly, maybe you DO know how God has or is planning to use you to build as His laborer... please share below your thoughts from that perspective! I can't wait to know!

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