Becoming

"The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like unto them; so is everyone that trusteth in them." Psalms 135:15-19

When San Fransisco beat Green Bay for a trip to the NFC Championship game, a new craze began. One somewhat reminiscent of an old craze and one that is quickly beginning to replace it. It's called Kaepernicking. When SF quarterback, Colin Kaepernick scores a touchdown he kisses his bicep, and after his amazing game against the Packers, the gesture caught on, quickly replacing Tebowing. In the week following that game, Kaepernick filed to trademark that gesture, just as Tim Tebow had done with Tebowing.
     When I first saw Kaepernick's gesture, I was struck by the total difference between his signature gesture and Tebow's. One acknowledges his own skill and strength while the other acknowledges God's hand and blessing. When I read the reasons why Kaepernick wants to trademark his gesture, I was once again struck by the very different reasons each athlete had for doing so. Kaepernick trademarked his gesture for marketing rights, he wants to profit off of it. Tebow trademarked his gesture to stop it from becoming a vain thing. Tebow's gesture was meant to honor God and he wanted it kept that way. Kaepernick's gesture is meant to honor his ability and he too wants to keep it that way.
     I read the verses quoted above this morning. The study part of my Bible pointed out that the people who make idols become just like them, incapable of honoring God. It warned us as Christians to take care about who or what we worship and what we make idols of because we will become like them. I shared this passage with my homeroom this morning in devotions. I pointed out to them these verses were clear cut verses on why it is so important to have the right role models in their lives, that this is not just something we tell them because we don't approve of their role models or sports heroes.  These verses make it very clear that God doesn't care for their role models either, if they are not pointing them into becoming more like Him.
     The sports world is filled with heroes and role models, regardless of what Charles Barkley once said. Tebow himself has pointed out that he is a role model and he wants to be careful to be the right kind of role model because people will imitate his actions. His actions and his testimony make him an excellent one and according to these verses, I think he's one God can approve of too.
    

That's Not How He Operates

"He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." Psalm 103:10

Perhaps I am the only person who struggles with what God has been trying to teach me lately, but I suspect not. The above verse has showed up three different times in three different places in the past two days...I think maybe, it's time to stop arguing with God and start taking Him at His word.
     On more than one occasion in this journey, I have had it in my head that God will not answer this request if I am not perfectly obedient. Usually that voice is followed by another telling me that's not Who God is, that He wouldn't be that demanding or unmerciful. The first voice always comes back questioning that and pointing out all the ways I am failing. I realize that the first voice is Satan trying to discourage me; trying to get me to give up, because I'll never be perfect. I also realize the second voice, the merciful, comforting one, is the Holy Spirit, it's just that so often Satan's voice is so much louder than God's. Somehow, the loudness makes it more credible.
     As I was getting ready for church this past Sunday, I was talking with God about this request and Satan brings up a battle I have been fighting and not with consistent success. The Holy Spirit did try to speak to me, but as I said, often, Satan's voice is so much louder. The message that morning came from Psalm 103. The verse quoted above leaped off the page at me. God does not deal with us as we deserve and does not reward us based on how sinless our life is. Yes, I know this is the very thing the Holy Spirit has been trying to get through my head and I guess He finally did. Today, Psalm 103 was in my daily Bible reading, a second reminder that just because my life is not sinless doesn't mean God won't bless me. When I turned on my KLove radio ap afterwards, the verse of the day posted included the verse above. Makes me wonder who's shouting now?!
     God is very understanding of our sin nature and very compassionate about it, practically any Psalm will tell you that. God is well aware we will loose some battles with sin. He is not looking for me to live a sinless life, He's looking for me to strive for a life with less sin. God is looking for my obedience, not my perfection. God wants to bless us, He wants to answer our prayers, several Psalms say He delights in answering them. If I had to be perfect, if I had to be sinless for His answers then God would never have any joy.
     This does not give me an excuse to stop fighting the battle. If I give in to the sin and let it become a habit, God may very well withhold His answer, but just because I struggle to overcome, and sometimes fail, won't necessarily cost me an answer either because that is just not how our loving, compassionate and merciful God operates.

Why Didn't I Think of That?!

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think..."
                                                                                                                                          Ephesians 3:20

Let me begin this post off with a disclaimer. At this point, I have NO idea what direction God is leading in what I am about to share. It APPEARS He is leading in a certain direction and it's definitely the direction we are praying, but God's plan may not be ours.

There are things in this journey that I have asked God for. Things, that when I share them with people, make their eyes pop and head shake in doubt...and that's okay because as I figure it, the worse God can do is say no.
     One of the things I have regularly asked God for is that Stephanie and her family be with us when we meet Tebow. I have discussed many ways that God could allow that to happen. I've mentioned them winning a trip to Hawaii, I've brought up someone out of the blue offering to pay for a trip for them to Hawaii. I've even asked God to burden Tebow's heart to bring them himself. When Tebow went to New York, I began to pray that we would get to meet him somewhere in between us and New York, a place that would allow Stephanie and her family to travel to be there. Recently, I have begun to pray that God would somehow work out a way for us to meet him in Chicago, that way Steph and her family wouldn't have to go to any expense to be part of God's answering. Not once in all my praying did it occur to me that God could take Tebow to the Bears. Not once, in all the news surrounding what would happen to him in the very likely event he is released by the Jets, did it occur to me that he would wind up a Chicago Bear...even though I was praying for our meeting to take place in Chicago. But it seems that it DID occur to God.
     Last week I got a text from Steph saying that rumors were beginning in Chicago of the possibility of the Bears new head coach bringing in Tebow. The next day, she posted a link on my Face Book page to an article in the Chicago news about that possibility.  This is one of those things that makes me shake my head and ask, "why did I not EVER think of that?" It seems so simple and yet, it never entered my mind as a way to pray for God to answer.
     Several months ago I had come across the verse in Ephesians quoted above. At that time, God pointed out to me that He could do so much more than I was asking for, He could dream so much bigger in this than I could and I began to pray that the Holy Spirit would add to my prayers all that I wasn't asking for and all that I didn't even know to be asking for.  Today, I see that verse as a reality because, apparently, He's doing just that. I surely never asked God to open the doors for Tebow to go to Chicago, and yet, there seems to be that possibility. That HAS to be because the Holy Spirit did know to ask that and was asking on my behalf, simply because I asked Him to do so.
    

A Week of Awesomeness (and It's Only Wednesday)

"Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things thou knowest not." Jeremiah 33:3

There is a song set to this verse and for the last few minutes it has been running through my head. As I was typing out this verse to begin this blog, I noticed that this verse contains a promise to answer the prayer, a promise to do amazing things, a promise of things that we've not witnessed, but it does not promise a specific time frame for the answer. God may answer the request immediately or He may wait for a short time or He may wait for a very long time, but the verse does promise He'll answer. I know that God is waiting to answer our meeting Tebow, but I am glad that in the waiting, He does answer some of the other things we bring to Him on behalf of this request.
     This week God really convicted me about not sticking to the time I set aside long ago to pray over this request, so I determined to get back on schedule and meet with Him at our appointed time. This was Monday. Immediately on Tuesday there were three different articles on Tebow posted on MSN, each one containing specific information I had requested of God. Then, even better, as I was posting the news of an article, I accidentally tagged someone who was not a part of our prayer group. I apologized to her because she probably had no clue what it meant and told her if she wanted to find out and begin praying with us, she could. She commented back she was interested. After much annoyance with Face Book, I was able to give her a skeleton sketch of what the posts and this journey meant. She whole heartedly jumped in and has committed to praying with us and may even be able to manage to meet with us on Fridays at school. A few minutes ago, she texted that she had read the most recent blog and was excited to be a part of this and to see all that God has done.
     Now, what I didn't mention was that in one of my prayers this week, I asked God to bring any one and every one He wanted into this group and He used an accidental mis-tagging of a person to bring her in. That's pretty great and that's pretty mighty if you ask me.
     Yes, it has been a week of awesomeness. It is amazing to see God draw near to this as I draw near to Him through this and may the awesomeness of our God continue on.

p.s. Sasha, I couldn't be more thrilled that God brought you into this, especially at this time. You're enthusiasm for this and excitement are just what these kids, especially the original 7 teen members, need right now. God's timing is perfect.

A New Year, An Old Vow and A New Resolve

"...and unto Thee shall the vow be performed, O Thou that hearest prayer..." Psalm 65:1b-2a

In the words of Rodney Dangerfield, "it feels like dejavu all over again." Denver has once again been eliminated from the play offs in the divisional round. It's incredible to think that a year ago, God used that elimination game to bring about one of the most incredible prayer journeys of my life.
     I most definitely did not think that a year later we would still be praying for the opportunity to meet Tebow. I certainly thought it would have been accomplished long before now. Of course, I also thought that we would be meeting Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos starting quarterback, but God had different plans, very different plans...for us as well as him.
     The start of a new year always brings reflections of the year just ended. We remember the good things as well as the not so good and this journey has been filled with both. I have seen God move in some amazing, spine-tingling ways. Stephanie and I have seen the moving of the Holy Spirit in our prayers numerous times. I have witnessed God move in the hearts of my friends to join us and cause this thing to grow much bigger than I ever thought it would. I have seen God draw my teen agers into a closer walk with Him. I have learned, rather painfully, how to submit my will to His, to keep going when I would rather quit and to wait in the agonizing silence when He didn't appear to be working. I have also learned to turn my prayers over to the Holy Spirit and to allow Him to guide them. I have had to endure the heartbreak and humbleness of telling my kids I did not know why God didn't answer when it seemed He would, but I have also seen those same kids learn that God's timing is more important than ours and have heard them pray for His timing so that He gets the most glory and honor.
     New years bring with them new resolutions as well...what promise did I not keep last year that I will this year; what can I do differently in this new year or what can I accomplish this year that I was unable to in the last. God impressed upon me in my prayer earlier this week that the new year in this journey should be no different. I witnessed and learned a lot about God last year, but what new things do I want to see, what new things can I learn?
     God brought a second year to this journey for a reason. There are things I still need to learn and there are still things God wants to do. I am not sure what those things are, but I have begun to pray for them. And after getting over the disappointment that we are indeed in a second year of praying for this, I even find myself excited at the prospect of what those things are. God is still in this. God still has big plans for this or we would have met Tebow by now.  If you have faltered along the way, let the new year bring new determination and a renewal to your commitment to pray with us. If you are still praying with us, resolve to continue on with us and be determined to be a part of God doing something utterly impossible and completely amazing.

Not Even If I Tried

Okay, I couldn't make this story up if I tried, so here goes. A few weeks ago I challenged the teens of UNINTIMIDATED to ask God to show them for themselves that His hand was in this journey. Two of my girls took up the challenge and asked God to show them something they needed to specifically pray over for Tebow. The next morning, both girls heard/read news about Tebow's new girlfriend. This was cause for some concern as the girl Tebow was dating did not appear to be saved. This was upsetting to the girls, but at least they had something to pray over. I admit, it had me concerned too and quite honestly I speculated a bit in my prayers. I know these girls, and I can almost guarantee you they have been praying for Tebow's wisdom in dating this actress and for God to intervene if she wasn't right for him, in my prayers however, I think I judged a little and assumed some.
     It strikes me as odd that Tebow has had very little success in New York, he has not been the savior of their team as he was Denver, not much chance to talk about his faith. As a matter of fact, he has been given very few opportunities to play and the one game where Sanchez was benched, Tebow was inactive due to broken ribs. Yesterday, Sanchez lost the starting job and Tebow was passed up as starter for third-stringer McElroy.
     Ironically, according to the news, Tebow has been interested in this girl since arriving in New York and began officially dating her just a few weeks ago. It seemed to me that God was letting Tebow know that dating an unsaved person was definitely not in His plan for his life. Now, the Holy Spirit convicted me over that, let me know I wasn't Him and didn't know all the details. This could be a time of testing for Tebow for all I knew. So I did modify my prayers. I did sincerely attempt to keep my speculation and opinion out of my prayers, but my thoughts kept coming back to it, perhaps it was the Holy Spirit guiding my prayer, I don't know. What I do know is that I prayed for God to give Tebow wisdom in dating her, that if she was going to pull his heart and focus away from God, that He would intervene and take her out of Tebow's life.
     Today, there have been numerous articles on Tebow (which now that I think about it, I did ask God to move specifically in Tebow's life today and apparently He did). Just as I was about to log off, I was scrolling through the news feed and a new article had been posted. Now hold on to your seats here cause this is pretty astounding...Tebow broke up with his girlfriend. HE broke up with her, not the other way around.
     I just laughed when I saw the article, could God be any plainer, any more direct in His answer? This is crazy...and awesome...and amazing...and well, I'm out of adjectives, but tell me, just how marvelous is our God? (oh, guess I came up with one more adjective after all)

For Themselves

Last week as I was praying, I realized that so much of what my kids are holding to is my faith and my belief that God is going to answer this request. This is not a bad thing necessarily. For the ones who are new to this, it's probably what they need for now, but for the ones who have been at this for awhile, they need some ownership in this prayer, they need to see God work in this for themselves. I began to pray that God would give at least the original seven a heart and a burden for this request; that they would take up a leadership role in this group. From that prayer, God lead me to challenge the teens to try Him and prove for themselves His hand was in this.
     So I did. I challenged them to ask God to do something specific over the next week to help them see for themselves, directly from God that this was His will. I told them if they weren't sure what to ask, to let God know that and give Him a chance to show what they should be asking for. First thing this morning, one of my girls told me she had been asking God what she should be praying for Tebow and would He please show her. On her way to school she heard a news piece about the girl he is currently dating, one that doesn't appear to be saved. She was excited because God showed her she needed to pray for Tebow's wisdom as he pursued this relationship.  Another girl told me virtually the same story at lunch. She was frustrated because she felt her prayers were becoming repetitious and she wanted to know specifically how she needed to pray. She, too, heard a news story about him on the way to school.
     Both girls were so excited to share and to see for themselves that God not only heard, but so quickly answered their prayer. This is really what this journey has been about, getting them to see and experience the power of prayer, to attempt impossible things that only God can answer and then expect Him to answer. I think tonight, at least two of the fourteen have definitely seen that for themselves, and prayerfully, twelve more will before Friday.