Unglued: My Kid Placemat Life

Every Thursday, Kayse and I continue to come Unglued. This week we pick up in Chapter 8 Unglued: My Kid Placemat Life.

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Jamie’s Thoughts

This is the chapter where Lysa calls a spade a spade and says she has a pretty good life and the things that bother her and cause her to come unglued really don’t compare to the things that really matter and have eternal significance.

Can I just press pause a minute to tell you that I was having some internal conflict today? The kind where I’m not sure what in the world God is doing because so much is going on I cannot keep up with it. And in case you haven’t picked up on it already, I’m a sloooowwwww processor, and when He moves fast, I want Him to slow the train down and speak very slowly in my ear, “This is it. This is the thing I’m doing in you.” So I very kindly asked Him to explain to me what He is doing right now in me and where we are going together.

Do you know He never fails to answer?

He in me is the miracle. I wanted you to know that was His answer to me and then I read this chapter, and His answer was repeated and reiterated within it.

So let’s get back to Unglued. Lysa’s visits the LA Dream Center and these are her thoughts,

“I went as a woman in ministry. I went to help meet needs. But I also quickly realized I was there as a woman in need. A woman who needed God’s reality to fall fresh and heavy and close and real and too in-my-face to deny. Because sometimes I find myself talking about God so much He becomes more of an identity marker than an identity changer in my life.”

“In relation to my unglued struggles, somewhere along the line I stopped expecting God to work miraculously in me. And I realized that this was yet another benefit of intentionally pursuing perspective-magnifying opportunities. For it’s in such situations, when God’s power is evident, that I start to believe I can experience that power in my own life. Maybe, just maybe, I can change too.”

In summary, God’s power in you is miraculous! Don’t take it for granted. Allow it to change you from the inside out! Apparently I needed to remember this truth today; hopefully you did too. I pray that somehow you will hear His sacred whisper to you today.

Kayse’s Thoughts

Perspective.

That’s what this week’s chapter came down to.

Perspective. It can change our unglued moments.

Kill them before they start, really.

I pray for perspective seven hundred times a day. Perspective is all that keeps me from going unglued every five seconds.

It’s an incredibly important topic.

But this quote leapt off the page at me this week. This quote quieted my heart. Made me read slower. And over and over. This quote brought me to His cross.

Lysa says it as she realizes it. She comes to this realization after talking with a man who has witnessed too many miracles to NOT put His whole trust in God. She says,

“I’ve stopped positioning my life for miracles.”

And as I read that and re-read it and re-read it, I realize.

So have I.

I believed in a God who worked miracles my whole life. I put my whole trust in Him.

And then I needed a miracle.

And He said no.

When I lost my mom, I lost my faith in a God who worked miracles on my behalf. Not miracles in general, just miracles for me.

That’s what I’m writing that book about. That’s what I’ve been working out in my faith over the last five years.

Because, you see, He does work miracles. And He works them for me. I can clearly see that in the way He’s been working in my marriage. Clear miracles. No question.

But I’ve positioned my life to stop expecting them. I don’t look for them. I don’t pray for them in earnest.

I am afraid they won’t come.

I know that’s not a happy spot to leave this post on, but I have to be honest. This is something I struggle with. I’m really trying to learn who God says He is, based on His word and what I know to be true – how He has been faithful in my life. But the disappointments of life put up a good fight, and it is a struggle for me.

Truth: He’s a God who works miracles. Personal ones. For me. And you.

Tough Love Truth: I’ve got to get over myself and my circumstances, and remember that it’s just not all about me. My emotions don’t change the truth.

I love what Lysa does when she’s threatened to come unglued, after she has her perspective shift.

She just wills herself not to.

“Sometimes, refusing to come unglued is the only way to prove to ourselves that it is possible to have a different kind of reaction.”

And after that, she makes a list of things she’s grateful for.

I think, after you count all of your blessings, and think about them in relation to the rest of the world, realizing just how blessed you are, life looks different. You can see the miracles that have been working in you.

And you can position your life to be looking for the next one.