Joy

This is a new blog...mostly thanks to a wonderful, encouraging lady named Marisa, who told me the other day in the bathroom at church that we needed to keep each other accountable on the blog updating ;-)

One of my spiritual mentors is a janitor. I often have to wait after work for my ride to show up, and sometimes I feel the inclination to do something out of the ordinary routine of sitting on the rock wall waiting. Almost every time I have decided to stray from routine I run into my custodian friend, and every time he has some words of wisdom for me that apply exactly to what I have been going through.

Today was one of those days. I walked down to the lower building and sat down on one of the benches to read the Bible. Not trying to sound super spiritual here, I just needed to read it. It guides my way. When I have big mountains to face in my life, I've learned the hard way where to go. My mentor came up to clean the doors and peeked out to ask what I was reading. I told him, and then he asked me about my Cambodia fundraising. I told him that it was still coming slowly but surely, but that as usual, I still felt a peace about it.

-On a side note, I have been realizing lately, that God has never spoken to me in dreams or visions about Cambodia. I had an intense time of God speaking to me lately in a prayer session, and He spoke to me about every other thing in my life that I needed to know about right now EXCEPT for Cambodia. However, everything He told me, I just knew that it was to prepare me for leaving. It was a given. I guess this is because Cambodia is the one thing in my life that I haven't doubted. I have this unexplainable peace that when it's my time to go, I'll go. I've already said yes, and I just have to wait.

Back to the story...he started telling me some really great God wisdom about God's timing, and Moses, and the Promised Land. All very applicable to my situation.

But then he started talking about David. I don't even remember how the conversation shifted, but it did. He said that David was called a man after God's own heart, but he failed...several times, and pretty messily. He said though, that if you read Psalm 51, which he wrote when during his repentence, it says, "Restore to me the joy of my salvation..." not just his salvation, but the joy of his salvation. He said that David never lost his salvation, he still pursued God, but he strayed away and lost his intimacy with God. He had to ask God to restore the joy that he felt when he first knew him.

I was dumbfounded at how this absolutely and totally spoke to something that had been on my mind. It speaks volumes to a problem a friend of mine has been facing lately. He messed up, big time, and he's in the process of repentence. He told me that he knows he needs to do it, he even desires to do it...he has always desired to live for God, but he's struggling because he doesn't feel God. He still feels dry. He has nothing to fuel and propel him and keep him going forward. Yet. When my mentor was talking about David it dawned on me, that my friend needs to be restored to the joy of his salvation. I am praying that God will do so, in His perfect timing. My mentor said that He believes David had an even deeper relationship with God after he fell and repented. I pray that also for my friend. I pray that the richness of his restored joy will spill over to the rest of us who have become complacent and taken it for granted.

So I say to you...you never know who God will speak to you through. This particular mentor of mine has been very misjudged by a lot of people who haven't taken the time to really talk to him and find out what's going on in his life. Never underestimate, and never judge a book by it's cover.