I will seek His face

"Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me.  When Thou didst say, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to Thee,

'Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek."  David---Psalm 26:7-8

Sometimes I find myself asking, 'Why did we come here?'.  Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad place.  The people are nice and the air is fresh.  There is no want for cool places to go and things to do.  It's not hard to find great music teachers...they are everywhere!  We've got great neighbors who love the Lord and have kids to boot.  Greg goes to a job where he earns a paycheck for doing what he likes to do and he gets to come home before 4:00 most days and sometimes even earlier. I don't have to tell you, that ain't no small thing!  Life is good here and I am not complaining.

I still wonder why we are here though.  See, it has to do with more than just the job.  From our fleshly perspective, that is what brought us here, but there is more to it than that.  Our country is in economic crisis.  Job security doesn't exist.  The housing markets are so bad, it is very likely we will not sell our house in North Carolina.  That means we will not buy a house here.  We will not be putting down roots here in that way.  That's a new thing for us.  The truth is, we don't know where we will be living a year from now, or who we will be working for.

So, we have a home in NC and we have a transplanted, possibly temporal life here in OR.   

Well, of course our lives anywhere on the Earth are temporal, but you know what I mean.

To top all of this off:  God is sovereign.

That is what I believe,  which means I believe that none of this is outside of His will.  How 'bout that!?

This is our story.  Anyone reading this is going through his or her own story.  I know for a fact that many of you (my friends) are dealing with illness, relationship issues, job loss, financial crises, and other life changes in your own lives.  When you are going through something and the Lord is doing a new thing in you, have you ever noticed the coincidences that mysteriously start cropping up everywhere?  You know, where it seems like life starts taking on a theme.  It's the kind of thing we later call a season.  There are seasons for ministry, seasons of happiness, seasons of sadness...seasons of pruning.  

Speaking of pruning, it's hard work you know.  Especially if you have neglected to do it for some time.  The last time I pruned my rose bushes, it ended up being a monster of a job.  I had scrapes, scratches and punctures all over me.  See, I had not done it the year before (I wanted to see what would happen).  So the branches were very thick and thorny and unruly.  It was a mess.  They had looked so full and thick before I pruned them, but I knew I had to do it, because they stopped producing roses like they used to.  When I was finished they were ugly and bare and cold looking.  Sad little rose bushes that just hours before had been big, green and bushy...though wayward.  

It was not easy work for me, but it's my job to take care of them and that is what they needed.  It was stressful for them too.  You have to be careful when you prune a plant back.  It's got to be the right season.

And so it is with God and us.  

Pruning is hard and some seasons are more fun than others.  

I don't know what we will be calling this season once it's in the past.  As for the pruning, I don't know how deep the cuts will go.  It's anybody's guess, but the Lord knows.  For now, I know there is to be a singular focus in the Liechty family.  We are to raise up our eyes above the unanswered questions to the One who deserves our undivided attention.

"When Thou didst say, 'Seek My face', my heart said to Thee, "Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek".

By the way, the roses looked great this spring!

LYMYWY,

Kara,