RELEASE YOUR SUPER KUNG-FU GRIP!

"Do not despise humble beginnings..."  That's what I heard this morning as I was sitting on the deck in front of our chimnea, drinking coffee and staring at the birds.  My initial thought was, "What do you mean, 'humble beginnings'... I've been on top for a long time.  I'm just going through a little speed bump here... that's all.  I'll recover from this little set-back and keep climbing!  There IS no humble or small beginning... I've already begun!"  

The revelation I had next was hard to hear but it was true and needed to be meditated on.

Sometimes it may appear that something you did that was "once great" has ended in an epic failure.  That all of your blood, sweat and tears were for nothing.  When the truth is that God has been trying to bring you out of a season and into the next.  But because you are holding onto that "once great thing" with a super-kung-fu grip, He's had to allow the inevitable cave-in to happen.  

The journey of this life is ever-evolving and ever-changing as we grow spiritually and emotionally.  

If you allow Him to... God will always do BIG things in your life.  He will use you in a BIG way to do something significant for Him.  But in order for Him to do that, you have to be willing to let earthly things that you no longer need to slip through your fingers like sand when He directs you to.   That "once great" thing may have been pretty cool, but if you did it on your own steam and He wasn't a part of it, you are truly selling yourself and God short.  His ways are not our ways and sometimes things happen that are hard to understand but the minute you let go of YOUR thing, He begins to do a New thing.

Matthew 3:12 says His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

The word chaff means, "the husks of grains and grasses that are separated during threshing.

So in essence God wants to burn away the husks (useless parts/baggage) of your life so that the grain and grasses (useful parts) can emerge afresh and be used to take you to something GREATER! It burns a little, but when it all heals up... it's a beautiful thing.