23 Aug Guest Post: Truths From My Husband

Hello friends! I am excited to be kicking two weeks of guests post while Colby and I are traveling. And yes, Colby, my husband, is the first one posting for me. It’s always an honor to have him on the blog as this isn’t his first time to share. I asked him for a title and he just said he was sharing a bunch of random truths, so hopefully something sticks with you as you read. Also, I have linked up his other posts below and I hope they all encourage you if you decide to read them. If you want to follow along on our travels, I will be sharing over on instagram.

Truths From My Husband

Inspired by the recent post about our amazing niece, I wanted to revisit some essential truths that we all need to understand and remember.  Many points below are summary statements taken from sermons and books that I attempted to weave into a coherent bit of writing. If you are coming to the conference in October, you’ll do well to have these in mind and be ready to grow and be encouraged!

1. Our current circumstance and what we are seeing in our life does not dictate our joy. Our peace and contentment are found in God’s character – knowing, believing, and trusting that he is good and that he loves us. This the foundation of our lives and our existence – it’s not about us, thankfully!  God commands us, especially throughout the Old Testament, to remember.  Remember who he is and what he has done for us.  Thankfulness, gratefulness, optimism, unconditional love, and trusting God are not human nature (complaining, doubt, blaming others, and fear are), so they need to be practiced daily, and our heart condition needs to be transformed through prayer.  Contentment does not mean accepting the forms of brokenness  in our sinful and fallen world (physical, mental, relational, financial).   Jesus died to free us from all of these.  It means trusting that God is in control and working through us for our good to restore all these things.

2. Achieving your next station in life (education, career, spouse, house, kids, kids’ education/career/spouse, kids’ grandkids!) is not the source of your hope and joy. If you do not have joy and peace in your current station of life, you will not obtain it through achieving your ‘next’. The world will pressure you to achieve status and ‘keep up with Joneses’, which causes comparison, coveting, and making an idol of ‘the next thing’.  The pain of those heart conditions rob you of joy and cause you to lose sight of God.

(The Shack by William Young is an amazing book and now a movie – both highly recommended)

Jesus paid with his life for our freedom and unlocked the prison cell door of our pain.  We still have to stand up and walk out of that prison, but we get comfortable with our pain and live there.  Watch a couple of minutes into the video below about taking those first steps forward (at 15:28).

3. My last point comes from a summer blockbuster movie, “Wonder Woman”. I can’t resist the biblical parallels our culture unwittingly can’t avoid, because deep within every person is a thirst for the love and truth that is our savior, Jesus Christ. I’ll quickly break down one powerful scene that really struck me as applicable to this fertility  journey.  The movie is set in World War II Europe, and the scene shows ally forces in a trench opposite of the enemy forces.  The group has a goal to reach a city that is still days away, but moved by compassion for this community under siege and the ally soldiers stuck in the trench, Wonder Woman insists she must help them and reach their goal now.  Her counterpart argues in disbelief:

Steve Trevor: This is no man’s land, Diana! It means no man can cross it, alright? This battalion has been here for nearly a year and they’ve barely gained an inch. All right? Because on the other side there are a bunch of Germans pointing machine guns at every square inch of this place. This is not something you can cross. It’s not possible.

Diana Prince: So… what? So we do nothing?

Steve Trevor: No, we are doing something! We are! We just… we can’t save everyone in this war. This is not what we came here to do.

Diana Prince: No. But it’s what I’m going to do.

Image Source

The ground that they want to take is an impossible war zone that is unreachable because of the power and attacking force of the enemy.  In a savior-moment, Wonder Woman climbs the ladder out of the trench and begins to advance into the hostile ground.  The enemy attacks but has no power to stop her.  Her four followers (believers, a.k.a. us!) see what she has done and are encouraged to follow her out of the trench and move forward to take the ground.  Finally, ally soldiers (the world) see their advancement into the impossible territory and move forward to follow, battling to reclaim the land.

I won’t spell out the application any more.  See the movie and be encouraged.  What the enemy has stolen, God has made a way for us to retake through Jesus when we trust and follow him.  We personally feel like we have been stuck in waiting for years and haven’t budged an inch, but despite our current circumstance, we know our God is faithful and able, and that our breakthrough and victory is certain because Jesus has already won the victory for us!

Colby’s other posts:

The Path to Pregnancy
Communication
Diet
Thankful
A Better Way

PS. If you are going through infertility, please head over to my ministry to join my support group!

PPS. Have you picked up a copy of my book? Buy In Due Time, a 60-day devotional for hope + encouragement in the waiting.

PPPS. I created a group on facebook as an extension of my book + blog to discuss anything + everything. Women only! Come join us!

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