Undaunted + How God Used These Words In My Life
I've given myself a huge undertaking. With my desires for diving back into a life of reading, I've given myself 29 books to read this year. When I set out to make my 2017 Reading List, I didn't venture to add so many books. It just happened. The sheer number of it, kind of scares me as it begs that I won't be able to finish. In fact, to date, I've only read three of those in their entirety.When I saw that Christine Caine was starting a book club for those reading Undaunted: Daring to do what God calls you to do, I figured I'd sign up. It was on my list anyway. Y'all, this book wasn't on my list. The author isn't even on there with a different book that I planned to read this year. This has to be God's timing. The words I have read this past week and over the weekend have cut deep into places that I know He spoke directly into using Christine's words.The words 'rallying cry' are evident and were placed on my heart as a summation of her words. With every chapter, Christine pleas for our generation to step up and step outside of ourselves. For us to know who we are in Him and to throw our fears aside to follow Him. To live undaunted.
Her Stories
Australia has long been a fascinating place for me and more recently, Greece has captured my interest. It's funny that Christine Caine, a Grecian girl who is from Sydney, Australia would write words that would land in my hands and even more so into my heart. She's filled with wit, draws from personal moments from getting lost in a rainforest to the very moments God placed A21 on her heart in the most unlikely of places.Christine's tales suck you in as she shows you how God's hand has been evident in her life. Her gentle yet fierce words beckon the reader to look at where God has been evident in their own life and where their relationship with Him is currently. She speaks of the fears, disappointments, and unknowns she has grappled with and yet overcome. Her ability to overcome with God at her side invites and imagines for us to have the same in our lives.Undaunted. That's a word that escapes me. It's a word that I'm not sure if I've ever had roll off my tongue. I know what the feeling of being daunted is - full of fear, unknowns looming in the future, a general yucky atmosphere up ahead. What about undaunted though? Undaunted is a word brimming with courage, an unstoppable force as it faces challenges head on with the confidence and faith that God will help you overcome them.That's the way I'd like to live. What about you? So often though, it's a life we're wishing for rather than the confidence we are living in.
Her Use of Scripture
Christine laces her words with scripture in a beautiful, captivating way that makes you want to read more, to read deeper. It's a way that is uniquely her own. I read a lot of Christian Living books. While I absolutely adore this genre, sometimes I feel that God's words are standalone next to the author's own. They flow in and out, yet keep their words separate as they relate them back to the scriptures. As a fellow writer, it's hard to not admire Christine's gift for writing. Her use of bringing the scripture so vividly in front of her readers not just in a way to reference but in a way that it dances on the page in front of you and leaps into your heart. It's like reading it for the very first time even if it's the millionth.
Words I Needed + Maybe You Do Too
Rick and I decided to spend some time in our hammocks this weekend. We spent hours relaxing, reading and just resting in two different parks over the weekend. The most surprising this to me was God choosing that time to meet with me. I'm not sure if you've ever had intentional time with God in a hammock, but I'm now convinced there may be no other way. In a world where distractions are constant and loud, there's something about a hammock that seems to block them all out.Christine Caine's words are so God breathed, I want you to read them for yourself. These are words that hit my heart in the best of ways over this weekend:
"If you allow those labels to loom larger in your heart and mind than the promises of God, they can fool you into missing God's truth about who you are, into not pursuing the purpose God has had in mind for you from the beginning of time... You need to return to the truth of God's Word that will last forever, not meditate on circumstances that will change and fade."
"If we allow other people to tell us what we are and are not qualified to do, we will limit what God wants to do with us."
"When you let fear run your life, you close yourself off from anything that might hurt or cost or make you uncomfortable - including opportunities to serve God and claim his promises."
"When Jesus asks, Do you love me? he is also saying: Then keep your eyes on me. Keep believing in what I have created you to do. Turn over to me your fear, and hold fast to faith in me. Replace that fear - fear that I did not give you - with the love, power, and sound mind that I have given you. Know that my presence is your antidote to fear."
Words for the Weary
Lately in our home, we've been discussing work versus play. Mental health and self-care are frequent topics. This weekend our hammock time served to be a complete separation for us. After so much talk between us over the past week, I thought it was interesting that Christine discussed it. In the midst of a book calling us to live undaunted in our faith for ourselves and to reach others, she devotes time and words to slowing down, recharging and rest.
We can get worn down by the needs in this world, and wearied by them, God knows. We need sleep, rest, restoration, recuperation. That's why God gives us the end of a day, and he doesn't begrudge us our rest. He doesn't want us to come to the end of ourselves and be defeated and enslaved in a spiritual Auschwitz, tormented, thinking it is the work we do that sets us free, so that we have to get back up on the treadmill and do more, be more. No, he doesn't want us to burn the candle at both ends so that we end up lethargic, fatigue, burned up, and burnt out. To do that is to walk into the lie that was wrought in iron over the arched entrance of Auschwitz - to be held captive by the idea that work sets us free. This is not what God meant when he said in Isaiah 1:12: "Why this frenzy of sacrifices?" (MSG).
Working ourselves into a frenzy of tormenting others by working them to death is not freedom. It is enslavement. But we are not slaves; we are free. And we have been freed for a purpose: to share what we've been given. The Bible tells us, "he has shown you, oh man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8 NKVJ).
It's easy to work, work, work. Even now, in a season where I have slowed and am working on different projects than traditional 'work', I find myself working a lot. I research, I stay current, I do housework. (Although, I just realized that I started laundry several hours ago and now have wet clothes in the washer. Oops!) It's tough to pause and separate from what we're doing but it's so very necessary.
The Story That Stuck Out The Most
I tend to overwork. In fact, the other night I literally had a dream where I was working to prove my worth to work. I fell in love with the story that Christine breaks down for us in It's Not Business - It's Personal. She reframes a story from Luke - the man on the side of the road and the good Samaritan.
Nowhere in Jesus' story does it say that the priest or the Levite were bad people. But they were busy people, religious people. They were so consumed with keeping their schedules, appointments, and commitments that they ended up walking past someone they should have helped. The man lying on the side of the road was an interruption to their ministry, rather than the object of it.
These are words that having been in ministry, just kind of shakes me up. It begs me to wonder what could have happened if, "x program had happened", if "x told her idea", if "x really embraced God's leading instead of brushing it off", if "x truly cared and went out of their way". The what-ifs don't have to be what-ifs. So much of that is buried in busyness, personal agendas and fear.If you're reading this, I pray that you don't allow the interruptions to throw you off. I hope you choose to submit and embrace them. I know that I will be more consciously on the lookout for those God-given interruptions in my life. Moments where He has plans and a purpose greater than myself.
Worth it?
Oh my goodness, yes! Even though this wasn't on my Reading List, I am so glad I worship a God that intervenes in the smallest of ways for my good. I know He set this book club in my path this past week. I needed to read these very words this weekend. This is a book that I would definitely recommend. In fact, I'm passing it off later this week to one of my best friends.I'd strongly urge you to read this, especially if you're struggling with disappointments, past labels, knowing who you are in Christ and who you could be. Even if you're not struggling with those very things, I recommend you read it. You can find Christine Caine's Undaunted here. Order it today, her words are so worth it. You will not be disappointed. Especially, if God is leading you to hear these words!