Stepping Out Diaries- red shoes
so recently i have been wonderfully challenged.
to. step. out.
to posture myself in the desperate.
to truly need Him.
it all started a few weeks ago when Francis Chan spoke at a concert kevin and i went to.
Francis recalled the story in 1 Kings 18 when Elijah the prophet is on mt carmel
and pitted against elijah are 800 other prophets of false gods also on mt carmel
and they want to kill elijah and prove that their god is more powerful than elijah's God
elijah
800 false prophets
those are bad odds
elijah asks God to move, to show the people that HE is
THE ONE TRUE GOD
and bam
fire from heaven
things literally heat up
Francis became so fixated with the idea of God moving and showing himself
that he prayed and prayed that when he spoke, God would do something crazy to display His power
Francis wanted the earth to shake or people to feel God's power in crazy ways.
and when it didn't happen like he wanted it to, he asked God "why not show yourself like you did to elijah and the prophets?"
and simply, God spoke this...
"francis, i moved powerfully because elijah put himself in a place where he was desperate. he was going to be killed, the odds were against him. you speak at churches and concerts, no one is looking to kill you!! you see, i move when you step out. i move when you put yourself in desperate places"
and so kevin and i, we began to realize that we want to be desperate for God to move. we don't want to be spectators in a church. we want to taste the kingdom of God and participate in the spontaneous work of the holy spirit!
and so yes...last night it began. here is the story of red shoes.
every third wednesday, our church has an organic service where we pray and worship and just listen. at the end of the service our pastor just felt like we needed to prayer walk around our church. he asked us to listen to the Lord to see if we felt anything in particular to pray for.
and i heard RED SHOES.
weird, right?
so we go outside, and we're plodding around talking and chatting
and then
Colby spots a lady on the other side of the street wearing bright red shoes.
awkwardly kev and i sprint across the street and start to follow her
but then when we were almost caught up, i looked at kev and said
"what the heck do i even do now? what do i say?"
the whole time i'm thinking "i'm just going to scare this poor woman half to death"
"hi" was all i could manage. i figured that was a good way to start a conversation.
turns out, i was right.
so we start to chat. her eyes light up, and she's not as weirded out as we were anticipating
much to our delight (whew!)
in fact, she was excited. we stood there, the three of us at 9pm at night and chatted.
her name is Klara.
i asked her where she was walking to. she said "home".
where is home? i ask.
i live on Garnet.
my heart skipped a beat.
kevin and i live on Garnet.
we are neighbors.
red shoed Klara is our neighbor.
we talked and laughed and kev and i pathetically tried to speak spanish.
that was the other miracle of the night, let's just say kev and i are no-bueno when it comes to espanol.
and then we exchanged numbers. we invited her to dinner, her and her family.
so next week,
red shoes is coming to dinner.
and i KNOW Abba has something in store.
ohhhh i'm SO excited because i know that this wasn't an accident!
and now i get to step back and watch the holy spirit move.
And so...i'm going to start these blog posts called the "Stepping Our Diaries" because how cool would it be if we all intentionally took risks to step out and watch the Holy Spirit move in our desperation?
let's challenge ourselves to step out of comfort
and into a place of truly. utterly. needing. him.
where we feel awkward and unqualified.
no more spectating in church.
no more fluffy talk of kingdom living, when we are not living kingdom values.
risk. NEEDING him. prayers on knees bended. open hands.
"use me" kind of talk.
desperate.
excited, yes. mmmm yes, it's going to be awesome.
and you are a part of this adventure.
let's share stories together.
love Katie
happy weekend! i'm taking kev on a surprise birthday adventure. can't wait to share more with you next week:)