Coming out of the forest...

Oh my, it's been a while.

So much has happened in the past couple months that it's hard to know where to start... 

but it'll be worth the wait while I work through it all ;-)

These last weeks and days have seemed to last forever.... I've found myself in a fog of holding my breath, waiting, and withdrawing.

And withdrawing while you're waiting and holding your breath just never makes things any easier.

I've learning something huge about myself recently...

about my faith...

or lack of faith.

My heart knows from experience that when things get tough, running into the arms of Jesus is the only way to keep yourself from drowning... from sinking into whatever trap of uncertainty, anxiety, depression, or flat-out hell that Satan is pulling you toward.

Jesus.

He saves... He's patient... He's all-knowing...

He PUT you RIGHT where you ARE!

Imagine...

You're headed into a deep, dark forest with hundreds of strangers.... never met them, don't know their story, and you don't really care to. ONE person organized the trip... the ONLY one who knows the safest, most secure, single-handedly successful way out of the forest...

he never promised to know the easiest or quickest way out...

just the safest.

He created the path... he's the only one who knows the way out.

Who do you follow? 

The strangers? The one's who rely on what they 'know' and what they 'sense' to get them home?!

No.

You follow the one who just knows.

Jesus.

You follow Him because HE created the path you're on... He's the only one who knows the safest, most secure, single-handedly successful way out of that forest that threatens to swallow you whole.

But then there's me...

I've learned that when I face a forest... a path of uncertainty and terror and unknowns...

I'd rather disappear... hide... than follow the one who knows the way.

I've lost so many precious things along the path that Jesus has perfectly designed for me... sometimes the risk of losing more preciousness just doesn't seem worth putting myself out there and trusting Him, as backwards as that sounds... and as many blessings as I KNOW wait for me on the other side.

Have you ever felt that way?!

In your desperate attempts to protect yourself and the preciousness you hold so close to you, you choose to try and do it all on your own...

forgetting the One who designed that path and how perfect it always ends up looking on the other side.

Following Jesus, as many unknowns and uncertainties that that entails... following Him always means rough waters ahead. It also means unknowns and uncertainties. It means believing and surrendering to the simple fact that you have no control over HOW you get out of that forest.... zero.

But disappearing... disappearing, withdrawing, isolating yourself makes the world feel somewhat safer. Sitting quietly in your cocoon, waiting out the unknowns and uncertainties somehow makes the other side seem closer...

but it's not.

The other side never gets closer, though at times it might feel safer, because there's no way out when you don't know where you're headed.

Following Jesus.

Unknowns, uncertainties, fear... they're there.

But the other side is, too.

Always.

I've learned that my cocoon, my 'safe place' is denial... avoidance... withdraw... 

and when the path turns to a scary place, it always seems easier at first to follow the crowd into more 'what ifs'...

than to face the inevitable unknowns that following Jesus requires for me to get to the other side.

At the end of this cryptic post that will make so much more sense soon...

I'm on the other side.

My forest is still close behind me... fear threatens to suck me back in at any moment, at the first sign of hardship that is sure to lie on the other side...

because even when we find ourselves on the other side...

hardship still awaits.

It's there so we never have a chance to rely on ourselves...

we must rely on Him...

even on the other side.

Even though I walk through the valley of deep darkness,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4

I'm excited to share more with you about my most recent forest adventure...

but first, a few fun things coming down the line;

* A special baby girl who needs our help finding her forever family

* My very first Mommy's Spring Fling Fashion post

* The outcome to our On Loan From Heaven CD giveaway!! (You can still enter here) 

* A Hunter update

* A fun announcement

Stick with me, friends... and no matter what forest you're stuck in, and no matter how much easier it seems to disappear and hide, follow the One who knows the way...

you'll never regret it...

and you'll soon find that the other side is closer than you think ;-)

~ Vince Antonucci