"It's Game Time" : Your Convictions Are Rarely Convenient
It is an incredibly busy time of year. Holiday parties, Christmas Shopping, and "Year End" Business responsibilities. Throw in preparations to move first of the year, potentially buying a house, and fostering relationships, and you find your self stretched to your limits.
Time has become a limited resource, the "budget" becomes a daily topic as we make big decisions, and work deadlines are stacking up. In previous seasons, this combination would have me running for the hills or hiding under the covers. However, there has been a strange peace in the midst of the stress.
It's the same kind of feeling I would get right before playing a rival Basketball game as kid. Adrenaline running, knees bouncing up and down as I sent on the bench for a pre-game pep talk.
"THIS is what we have prepared for Coach Adams," would declare. The dribbling drills, shooting stations, and play running would all come down to THIS moment.
“The teams energy level would continue to rise and peak with the words of “GAME TIME!” We would jump up, hustle out of the locker room and out onto the court.”
Because we had put in the hours of practice and preparation our rival game (most likely against Four Oaks) wasn't stressful, it was exciting. Though we were surely the underdogs, and most likely going to lose. We were pumped for the opportunity to "Prove ourselves."
It's all kind of laughable now. How seriously we took ball as 13 year-old's, but at that moment, ball was LIFE, and we were ready for The Game.
At 4:30 this morning I was woken up by way of migraine slowly creeping in. My reaction was "Seriously!" I left my warm space in the bed to get water and medicine, in hopes that I had caught it early enough that I could sleep it off.
The signs of migraine slowly faded away, but my mind began to race as I began to pray. Earlier Faithe emailed me in the midst of work craziness about going back to South Africa. We had discussed it a couple months ago, but I hadn't been sure if it was going to happen. When we originally talked about the trip I had become so excited. I had felt the tug of my heartstrings to get back to SA, however, as time as passed I have grown more weary of the trip.
I want to get back to SA and help Living Hope with many different things, but my mind kept going to "It's just not a good time." We will fly out for the trip the day after one my best friends wedding (New Years Eve), and return just two weeks before we are deemed to move to Tennessee.
"It's not a good time." I told God. As if, He wasn't aware of my calendar or current situation. I tried to reason with Him. "I can go once I get settled in Tennessee."
He was silent.
I went to sleep last night praying for discernment, and woke up to a migraine and God whispering, "It's Game Time."
THIS is what I have prepared for. THIS is what I have been practicing before, and my Coach was telling me to "Quit making excuses and get in the Game."
I have learned that my greatest convictions are often in the most inconvenient of times. The storm of life is swirling with craziness, but God brings me to the center, the eye of the storm, and gives me the peace to "handle it."
Is God calling you to get off the bench and "Get in the game?" Are you doing the work and preparing for whatever the next season could look-like? I'm not sure where you are at, or what your season looks like, but I do know God is working in your life.
Life is crazy. Life is busy. Time is short. Those things won't change, but neither does God.
The same God who gave Elizabeth a baby (in old-age), made virgin Mary a mother (to the Messiah), and sent a star to the Wise Men; is the same God who calls us to do works on His behalf. God isn't looking for perfect people. God isn't looking for perfect situations. God is looking for available people.
God is looking for people with a heart like Samuel saying, "Here I am, Lord, send me."
This has been a terribly difficult lesson to learn. I am stubborn, Type-A, and "busy." I have learned to release my calendar to God and ask Him to direct my steps, but only after he wrecked complete havoc on the on the one I had meticulous made. I have learned to prepare a little each day by being in the word, connecting with the "right" people, and praying before I move, but only after I completely failed by doing it my own way. I have learned to "Sit Down & Shut Up," but only after God striped away my words and confidence so I would listen.
I hope you don't have to go through a season like mine in order to be prepared for God to call you off the bench, but if He does you are in good company. If you are celebrating the Christmas season through advent, you know this few weeks before Christmas is about Preparation and Anticipation, just like middle school basketball ;).
As we prepare for Christmas, I pray you find yourself centered in the storm, and anticipating the birth of Christ. After all, I think that was the ultimate, "It's Game Time," from God to the world.
I look forward to sharing more with you about my upcoming trip to South Africa, and how God is working through Living Hope, but until then, I hope you take time to search your heart for the convictions God is calling you to act on.
The timing might not be convenient, but that might be an even better reason to act because our God makes incredible things happen out of inconvenience.
Go forth, it's "GAME TIME!"
OXOX,
Kendall Mariah
p.s. It is not lost on me the irony that my greatest "fan" would be celebrating his 71st Anniversary today to my Grandmother. I'm sure he had something to do with my early wake up call, after all, I know he and God are in cahoots.