It's Me

Okay,... my post today is not really mine, but the post of a good friend. He's an awesome writer, but more than that, he's an awesome man of God... and friend. He's going through some 'stuff' right now, and he wrote this. It impacted me big time, and I wanted to pass it on. So, thanks Nate for your heart and witness to so many,... especially me.


I have four children, all of them wonderful and unique. They teach me so much on a daily basis about what it means to be a father, son and husband. It is an ever present reminder of how important it is to have our eyes and ears open to see/hear what it is God is trying to tell us.


Last night as my wife and I sat at the dinner table talking our youngest daughter - almost two - strolled up to us and put her little fingers up on the table. She is talking more and more now and calls each of her siblings by name. While she was standing there, fingers reaching up to grab the table, I asked her, "who is that?" She simply responded by saying two sweet words, "It's me!". We've tried to get her to repeat her name as she does with her brother and sisters but each time she just says, "It's me!" There was no need for her to say her name to her daddy. She just looked up at us with those big, blue eyes as if to say, "you know who it is".


We are navigating some difficult times right now, searching for direction and clarity as to what God would have us do. It can be frustrating to not have all the answers - to live day to day and not be able to see past tomorrow. But there is a greater purpose at work in us as we walk this path that seems to be so crooked. "God why do we seem to be wandering from this place to that? Please make our way straight (easy) so that we can give our lives purpose and direction". Some of that is a selfish request on my part. I want to enjoy a certain amount of structure and stability in my life. But I think that these moments we will later relish as moments when God was actively at work drawing us to Himself. Telling us - "Your focus and direction needs to be in Me". I read this poem yesterday that spoke to my wife and I in a powerful way:


He may wait til He explains
Because we know that Jesus reigns
It puzzles me; but, Lord You understandest
And will one day explain this crooked thing.
Meanwhile, I know that it has worked out Your best -
Its very crookeness taught me to cling.
You have fenced up my ways, made my paths crooked,
To keep my wandering eyes fixed on You,
To make me what I was not, humble, patient;
To draw my heart from earthly love to You.
So I will thank and praise You for this puzzle,
And trust where I cannot understand.
Rejoicing You do hold me worth such testing,
I cling the closer to Your guiding hand.

There are times when I bow my head to pray, not really knowing what to say or really even having the words to speak to my Heavenly Father. In these times I think it's enough to reach up and simply say, "Father, it's me".