3 Most Vulnerable Times When Shadows Live

It had been a long day.  I wind down the country road, past pastures, and down the long stretch where most of my neighbors speed.

It is these streets, it’s easy to detach.  Knowing home is at the top of this large crest..not far in front of us.

Usually, this is the road I worship on…wildly.  Because there are no stop lights for people to stare. Eyes to peer hands lifted, mouth wide open as if I am showing the otolaryngologists my tonsils.

There can be no “fear of man” when no one is around.

Could it be that is why the most timid, the most self focused hide?  Is that why I once hid, was isolated, preferred not to socialize…prior to my deliverance, this redemption, the freedom that He gave…the one only He can give?

However, this day, I let the silence drown me.  I make the mistake of not drawing upward, after this long day, but letting the steam of good works drain me empty….like a boiling pot on the stove ready to burn.

I sink into my thoughts, into my “me” world.

And sometimes analyzing can be good…but most of the time I have found, it can just be the vessel the enemy uses (in the guise of knowledge, wisdom, psychology) to spiral us down to self-doubt, criticism, judgement, and fear.

I let the heaviness draw me into the drivers seat I am sitting in; content, rested…seemingly happy.

However, as we disassociate from the God of the Universe, when otherwise He has been with us…something happens.  We slowly start to drift.

And it was here.  My mind drifts.  My body takes root in the chair I am sitting. While aimlessly driving…up the same road I drive upon, every day, in the same way, with the same houses, and horses, and fields flashing along the road.

The sun gets low.  But it’s still light. I drive, seeing something in the road that appears to be a big brand lain across the road.

It is not uncommon that trees fall, limbs crack, branches lay strewn across the street like this.

So I stop.  Quickly.  Breaking the momentum of the trip to the comfort of my peaceful home.  I break that momentum….putting the brakes on forcefully to where I am going.  Heart starts to race.

But when I get there.  Arriving to the place where I stop forcefully for the “branch” I had seen laying in the road….I see nothing. It’s just a shadow.  

I had stopped my journey, let my heart race, feared running into, braked for something…that was nothing at all.

And instantly I think…

How often do we do that?  When the sun is high, the road is clear…home is near.  Do we stop for what is simply shadows.  Brake for illusions appearing to block the path in front of us?  When what lay there is just a lie?

And for me, my most vulnerable times to see shadows out of nothing is when I am…

• Tired
• Hungry
• Isolated

We see this same example, these times of vulnerability in the story of Jesus, when He went upon the mountain and was tempted by the enemy.

And…

• How I want to have scripture ready. 
• How I want to have discernment to see, what is, and what is not a branch guarding my path…stopping me.
• How I want to be in communion, constantly with my Father, like Jesus was with His, so we know are never really, fully alone.
• How I want the wisdom to know a tree, a tangible object, from a shadow in the road.
• How I want to go down my road alert, connected, not too contented in my earthly seat, my drivers seat…thinking I am controlling where I am going.
• How I want to do ministry, but be aware to the tactics of the enemy….

So when shadows come, we need not fear.  When obstacles try to block the way we are going, we will know.  We will have the eyes to see, the freedom, and the power to drive right through them.  To our destination…

Home.

(Linking with Barbie, Michelle)

• What has been blocking you from going where God has called you?  
• Is what’s blocking you real?  Or small, minute….a figment of your imagination?