Impossible Things

Living in a story and walking by faith

Impossible Things.

I feel like I am living in a story. Where the heroine is being asked to do impossible things, and you know she will do them, because those are the only kinds of stories worth writing or reading. You are rooting for her, you are believing in her, you are trusting that she will make it through. Reading the story, you have complete confidence that it will all end well.

But living the story and reading it are two different things.

Living the story means you don’t know how you are going to do it. You don’t know where help will come from directly. Will it rise up supernaturally from within you? Will there be a guide that steps in at just the right moment and gives you the phrase or the lost key or the yellow-papered letter from someone from your past that will show you how to proceed when it looks like you are at the complete end of the road?

Living the story is walking by faith. You trust the ending will meet all expectations—with an ever-after that is happy, all loose ends tied up neatly, and all questions answered. However, in this moment, you may be looking around at the rising action wondering what in the world you were thinking. You could have had an easier life. You could have made choices that would have taken the heart-stopping drama out of this scene. Where everything wasn’t at stake. Where the risk was small. Where the obstacles were difficult, but not impossible.

But nobody likes to read those kinds of stories. And that isn’t the life you signed up for when you willingly turned your pen over to the author and asked him to use you, to make a good story of your life. Of course, you didn’t see this exact moment coming. How could you have known you would be asked to do something that, short of a miracle, cannot be done?

And yet, when you look back over the previous chapters, can’t you see what a good story it has been? How many times, by all human reasoning, there was no escape? And yet, here you are… How help has always come. In ways you didn’t expect. When you were too tired to go on, when you were overwhelmed beyond belief, when you had nothing, when you were a huddled mess crying on the bathroom floor, when you lost things that you thought you could never live without, when you were asked to face the monster that had repeatedly tried to kill you and fill you with unspeakable dread… Those chapters are already written, passed through, lived out. They do not ever have to be repeated. And here you are, your life spreading out in text that is being written now, as we speak, across the blank page of this book. And it is a good story. And you want to know how it is all going to turn out.

But you will have to live it to read it. And so, God, one more day of faith. One more day of waking up to a thousand questions of hows and whens and whys and knowing that ultimately and finally they will all be answered by one word: Emmanuel.

God is with me. He is writing my story. He is authoring my life. He will never leave me or never forsake me. He can tell it any way he wants. All I have to do is listen for his voice and live it out. And I will do impossible things, because those are the kinds of stories he like to tell.

From the family archive:

I found this old video of a song I wrote during my 6th pregnancy. Here I am, 42 weeks pregnant, wrestling with and praying through fears about birth. Posting this now, 7 years and 4 births later, I can see clearly that He has carried me through.

Family News:
Local Friends!!! Our family is playing a show at The Clarkesville Library next Thursday (July 13) at 11:00 as part of The Summer Reading Program. We are going to be bringing lots of kids and instruments and playing some fun music for the whole family. We’d love to see you there!

From the podcast:

For anyone who is waiting on God to answer prayers for a way forward… Anyone who is at the end of their own resources… Anyone who, like me, needs a boost of faith this morning… Today I am reminding myself of God’s goodness and sharing stories of how He has miraculously met the needs of my family. He cares about the details of our lives. I pray this conversation will encourage you and renew your faith as your heart is waiting and longing for answers.

My Book:

My book is now available for purchase! Buy it on Amazon or wherever you buy books online, or purchase a signed copy from my website.

Friends, thanks so much for being a part of the story of my life. It means so much to me that you are still reading this letter, all the way to the end.

Sending love and the first tiger lilies of summer,

Mackenzie