The new way might be messy but it is right
Deb Peacock
Stepping into the new thing looks a little bit like when we are learning to drive a car. There are multiple phases to this. Firstly, we are driven around by someone else and we see what it is like, we watch them drive. Then we get our learner’s license where we get to sit in the driver’s seat and be on the road just like drivers who are very experienced. In this learning space we often realise we don’t know very much, and it is a bit harder than we thought it would be. We often make mistakes and these are often seen by others and may affect others to slow them down and cause them to have to make special allowance for us.
We learn and we learn and we learn in the learning phase until we step into the new space of having our license. Now we are free to drive the car without a person supervising us closely. By this stage we have driven so much that moving into the new phase of having our license is a small step. We might find that our first drive with our license is much easier and less of a big deal than we thought.
In this new season with the Lord, some of us are getting confused with where we are up to. We think we are getting our license and it is going to be amazing and huge but we are actually getting our learner’s license and so it is huge and much harder than we thought. Or, we didn’t realise just how ready and prepared the Lord has us, and so it is a very easy and natural progression into the new - all of the surrender in the months and years before means you are more prepared and ready than you knew.
Recently I had an experience to function in the new and I stepped out into the new way of moving with the Lord… and it fell flat. My heart sank. Wasn’t this new thing supposed to be incredible and powerful? I didn’t realise that in this space I was just getting my learner’s licence - it was big for me, a big change but I was just entering in first time and would make mistakes. I didn’t know that space well.
Of course when we get our learner’s license and we make a mistake, we don’t stop learning. We get in the car again and we do it again. It is the same with the Lord, the error and realisation I didn’t know much doesn’t mean I don’t do it again. It means I keep going with him and learn.
On another day though I had an experience of God’s new way for me in a different space. It was so simple, natural and easy that I almost thought, that couldn’t be this new thing of the Lord. But it was. God has so gently and gradually grown me in that space that I didn’t even realise the growth and so stepping into having my license in that area, was simple and easy and natural.
The Lord is working in your life and he prepares you for the new phase, the new way, the upgrade. Sometimes it will be a big step that doesn’t seem to go well and that is ok - you are learning. Other times it will be so natural and right that you’ll almost miss it and not celebrate the growth. Keep going with him and he will show you where you are up to.
Blessings,