Thursday, June 7, 2012

The Turnip Squeeze

My grandmother used to say, “You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.” I know, you’re thinking, “what exactly does that even mean?” Well, even if you don’t know anything about turnips, you’ve probably felt “the squeeze”!


The overwhelming demands that on occasion life has brought my way are not easily forgotten. It seemed as though I would suffocate under the weight of them. Sitting in a chapel service during one of these times, listening to the speaker as he expounded on Jeremiah 18 about the potter and clay, I literally felt as if I were being crushed! I thought I would explode before I got out of that room and alone with God to “unload” on Him! The heaviness was too much, the demands too great; I couldn’t hold up under the weight of them anymore. Yet, there was an overwhelming sense of knowing God was at work. I might be crushed in the process, but I would come out on the other side a more beautiful vessel if I would not resist or become impatient and bitter in the waiting.


Another season brought financial burden, emotional stress, family and ministry demands, personal sickness. I was taking a full college load of classes and working 20 hours a week. (My boys used to tease about my free time…that was between 2 and 5 in the morning! Little did they know how literal that often was!) I was taxed physically, my time, my energies all expended but I had to keep going. On another occasion, housing was an issue. We could not find any! We were living over the kitchen at the church in two rooms they prepared for us; full-service commercial kitchen, our own personal showers (gym shower/locker room), the entire gym for the kids to play in, it was…interesting. We were grateful, and blessed to be invited to use the empty space while we looked for a house, but it was hard and the pressure to find something was ever present. I sat at the top of the stairs with my open Bible one morning, asking God once again to please let this be the day we would find a place to live. Summer was almost over, and while the arrangement had worked for this time it would not work as well once school started (the church had a Christian School that also used the facilities). And how did He answer me? I turned to the devotional for the day, Psalm 90, and verse one loomed large before me: “Thou hast been my dwelling place in all generations.” I laughed out loud at first, then, just began to cry. God was not taunting me, and even though I am convinced He has a sense of humor, this was not an instance of it being displayed. No, it took a moment, but I realized He was directing and encouraging and comforting…He was still at work and I had to hang on in trust until all was made plain.


My mom called that afternoon. She wanted to know if we were open to making a move out of state to Virginia. I told her at this rate, if God opened up a house on the moon for us, we’d go! She had already found one for a more than reasonable price. Roger and I had already sensed during our “church mice” stay that God was changing our plans and redirecting us. And later it was confirmed that He was actually protecting us from some major changes that would take place in the church we had been in that would have impacted us in a great way. Roger was able to go back to school and finish His ministry degree, I was able to be near home with family (parents and grandparents) at a crucial time, and we eventually connected with a missionary pastor that God used to direct us to a pastoral ministry in North Carolina. The former pastor had died and the church needed to heal. When doors had been so tightly closed for so long it was amazing to see how quickly things started to fall in place.


These times have helped us determine that our home would be an open home. He is our dwelling place, not just the structure we reside in. God’s home is that way. Heaven is His home, and He invites us to share it with Him through all eternity. He welcomes us with delight and not only says “what is mine is yours”, but Christ has been preparing a place just for us. This welcome is intentional. We have tried to model that open invitation as He gives opportunity and shows us He is sending people our way.


Regardless of your physical residence, if the Lord is your dwelling place, you’re where you need to be. He has a way of opening and closing doors, directing and protecting, providing and guiding that is sometimes hard to grasp until you experience it.

We have, and He is!