Last night, I met three friends for dinner and then a Christmas concert at the Orpheum. The dinner was good, the concert was great (Bowfire – a troupe of violinists who put on quite a show!), and three us then went to check out the Christian coffee house (Mead’s Corner) in Old Town. It was quite an enjoyable evening, in and of itself. But, there was more to it for me.
On Time
We were to meet for dinner at 6:00 at a restaurant in Old Town, close to the Orpheum. The first “new thing” for the evening was that we were actually all there before 6:00. The last of our party joined us at our table at 5:59. Now, you may be saying, “so, you were to meet at 6:00, right?” Yes. But, all four us sometimes have issues with being on time. So, with all four of us present and accounted for by 6:00, the evening was already “different.”
New Patterns & New Places
As we began to chat about things, I began to pick up on a pattern of new things happening. One friend, a self-employed professional, mentioned a new project she was just starting that was a shift in the way she had been contracting things since she left the security of being employed by another firm and launched out on her own about three years ago. This project is one that is starting to move her more to what she would prefer to be doing.
Another friend, also a business owner, mentioned a couple of new ventures she is considering. In addition, we discussed how she had recently moved the office for her current businesses to the downtown area – into a particular building to which she had been drawn for several years, even before she was a business owner. Then, when the lease elsewhere was expiring, God opened the door to get space on the 10th floor of this particular downtown building.
There were also new things happening on a personal level. For starters, I had “organized” the evening. My middle name may be “Miss Organization,” but not when comes to organizing a social. I usually leave that to the sanguines to do!
Next we learned that the one who, by her own confession, “has eaten at every restaurant in Wichita,” has recently started cooking dinner for herself and had even done some baking that week. Knowing her better than the other two do, I was stunned – not because she is not capable, but because she hasn’t done that for years. Even as recently as a week or so ago, I was talking with her late one evening and she made the statement that the only food she had in the house was popcorn and cheese (her staples). Now she is cooking dinner for herself and baking for herself and others. She is even going to host a come & go party on Christmas Eve - something she had recently commented to me about "not being her thing."
The third friend also has a number of new things happening. She bought her first house this year, has a new puppy, and her family (parents, siblings & their spouses & children) is planning a big family trip over Christmas.
Later, one of them mentioned seeing a good deal on a trip to Cancun and that she was considering it. I immediately “volunteered” to go. (Anyone who knows me knows my love of a good beach. I would have probably already been there or somewhere similar had I had someone with whom to go. Cruise, anyone?) The topic kept coming up throughout the evening. Before the evening was over, another one was expressing interest in going. Again, you ask, “so what?” So – she does not like to travel, or at least "has" not until now! [There are a couple of reasons for that.] Not sure if we will end up going – but it is sure sounding good. We’re thinking about mid-February when it’s cold here and warm there!
Finally, as the three of us sat and talked at Mead’s Corner, we begin to also talk about what God was doing in His Church – and how He has been “shaking everything that can be shaken” in order to shake away all that is not founded on Him. There’s much that could be said about that – but that would be a topic for a posting or series of postings on God's Simple Truths.
A New Season
To wrap it up … I expressed several times during the evening that it really did seem as though we were finally entering “the new season” that we have heard prophesied for so long. Not just because of the things I have shared here (and there were actually more during the evening), but because of the “feel” of the whole evening. Actually, I had started sensing this sometime in the last couple of weeks. Something has shifted. I thought it was just for me personally, but, after last night, I don’t believe so. One of the three commented today about another sign in her own life that she was shifting out of the last season into a new one.
What’s Ahead
Even as I began to type this, I realized there was yet more significance that God was trying to highlight to me. As I put titles on each section, I begin to sense something stirring further in my spirit. Here’s what I believe the Lord is saying – at least for us. You see if it applies to you as well. :) [Comments in brackets are my “editorial remarks” – not part of what I am sensing from the Lord, but rather my response to it.]
We are on time. We are neither running ahead nor lagging behind of what God is wanting to do in and through our lives. Though each of us can look and, in the natural, feel like we were sidetracked and wonder if we have missed out on something that we will never regain, my sense was God was saying, “No, you are arriving right on time at my banquet table for My next course in your life. Come. Sit, eat, and enjoy.” He will serve each of us exactly what He has prepared uniquely for us. [That comes from a portion of the evening not shared here.]
He is going to establish new patterns in our lives and take us to new places. The patterns will deal with everything from our personal lives and habit patterns to new patterns and new revelations of His kingdom principles. The places refer to both new places in the natural [whether or not that includes Cancun!] as well as new places in His spiritual realm.
It is a new season in our lives. It will be a time of many new experiences, new relationships, a new dimension to some old relationships, and a new way of representing Him on the earth. [I have no clue what that last one means. I suspect it means more renewal to these old wineskins!]
Epilogue
On a final, personal note, the last three years have been a long, lonely, at times very bitter, winter season in my life. It began with mom’s subdural hematoma in November 2006. In many ways, the entire season from that point until now has been a blur.
I believe last night was that first glimpse that you get indicating spring is coming as winter begins to come to its end; springs’s not here yet, but the severity of winter is easing and the earth is beginning to prepare to awaken as springtime blooms.
Even as the natural winter season is beginning here in Kansas, I am ready to move out of this extended winter season in my life and move into a new season, with its new growth and new experiences. Thank You, Lord!
