When I was maybe
11 years old (My mom and I have been working to try to figure out the exact
year, this is our best guess), my Mom started reading a book aloud to my
siblings and I. Then, for whatever reason (It might have been becoming too
in-depth for the younger ones), my parents let me take it with me to camp to finish
on my own! It was the first adult book I ever read! And pretty soon, I saved up
my money and book #2 was the first book I ever bought myself! I don’t have
specific memories of the rest of the series – except #4. It came in one of
those clothing boxes like you get from Younkers or JC Pennys as a Christmas
gift along with a Precious Moments pendent on a lavender ribbon. Whenever the
other came though, I was hooked. Each book fascinated me. I proudly displayed
the entire series on the top shelf of my one bookshelf for years. It was one of
the first things moved to the new house when my family moved when I was 14. I
always appreciated them, but not until growing up, did I see the real value in
them.
I have recommended them before due to their impressive spiritual content.
I don’t always agree with the author’s theology, but every point of theology I
DO agree on, I am impressed with how he handles – and there’s a lot more I
agree with than I disagree with! As I re-read the series recently, I found
myself fascinated all over again.
But one conversation between the main
character and her stepmother particularly caught my attention. It’s an issue I
have somewhat wrestled with myself lately – how can I know what God wants of
me? What does walking in His will look like? How do I follow His direction? This is the question Corrie is wrestling with in Sea To Shining Sea, book
#5. She has been asked to write more articles for the newspaper about the election,
specifically working to help get Abraham Lincoln elected. She’s also been asked
to start doing speech making for the cause. Not everyone around her believes in
the cause though. Some are strongly opposed. What is right? What does God want
of her? Here is the conversation she has with her stepmother about it:
“You see, that’s what I am getting at. Both my heavenly Father
and Mr. Parrish together contributed to that remaking process in me. But
eventually I did change. Eventually I learned the new ways. And now, after all
these years I am truly an altogether new and changed person. I have matured in
many ways. As a Christian, as a daughter of God, although He is still with me
always – inside my heart and right beside me – I no longer require the same
kind of training I did back then. I am God’s daughter, I am also a grown woman.
I think God treats me in many cases like an adult rather than a child. Whereas,
as first He had to show me everything and had to take my hand and literally
g
uide me through every step of life, He doesn’t have to do that anymore. He has
trained me and in the same way that a parent gradually releases a child to walk
on his own, I think God begins to release us – not to walk independently of
Him, but to walk beside Him as He has shown us without His having to direct
every single move we make. In obedience to Him, we walk along the path He has
given us to walk without having to stop to consider every step. Does that make
sense?”
“I think so,” I said.
“It’s very difficult to explain what I mean,” Amelda went on. “I
don’t mean to sound as though I think I want to walk independently, or that God
isn’t there with every step I take. I do try to bring Him into all aspects of
my life, even more than I did at the beginning. But the more we mature as
Christians, the more of our decisions He leaves in our hands – knowing that we
are walking along the road He has placed us in, and according to the ways and
habits and attitudes that He has trained
into us.”
“In other words,” I said, “He might be leaving part of the
decision of what I should do in my hands?”
“Exactly. If He didn’t want you to write, I am confident He would
let you know it very clearly, and I am equally confident you would obey His
voice. But since He has led you into writing in the past, I think He will very
often let you make the decision yourself as to what specific things you write
about. He may give you a stronger sense of leading at some times than others.
But there will also be times when He will trust you to go either way when
you’re facing a particular decision, and He will make either one work out for
the best”
“Hmmm…that is a new way to look at it.”
“God is our Father of course. We must look to Him for everything. We can’t breathe a single
breath without Him. We can’t take a step without Him. Yet it is one of the many
paradoxes of the Christian life that He also entrusts us to a sort of
partnership with Him. As we walk along with Him, keeping our hand tightly in
His, it is as if He says to us, ‘My son, my daughter, I have trained you and
taught you and placed my life and spirit inside you. Now go… walk in the
confidence of your sonship. I will always be at your side; if you err or
misstep, my hand will be right there to help you up and guide you back into the
middle of the path. But until then, walk on with the boldness that comes from having
my Spirit inside you.”
“Do you think that applies to big decisions too?” I asked.
“Things like whether or not I should get involved in this election?”
“I think we always have to pray and ask the Father for His
specific guidance,” replied Amelda. “Then the time comes when we must make a
decision.”
“And if we don’t seem to hear a definite answer?”
She thought a minute, the answered. “There are two ways, it seems
to me, in which God can answer our prayers and direct us. He can open doors, or
He can close doors. If we’re standing still, facing a fork in the road, facing
a decision to be made, He can either open a door going in one direction or
close the door going in the other. Or, if we don’t happen to see the fork, or
don’t see any possibilities clearly, it has always seemed best to me to keep
moving and praying until He either opens or closes a door. I’ve even prayed
something like this sometimes: ‘Lord, I don’t know for sure if this is the way
You want me to go. It seems to be best right now, and I think this is what You
want, so I’m going to keep moving cautiously ahead until You say otherwise.
Please Lord, if this is not what You want me to do, slam the door shut in my
face.’”
“Is that what you did before the election four years ago?” I
asked.
“I suppose it was something like that, although there was, as I
now look back on it, an ample supply of my own wishful thinking involved in
what I thought was God’s leading. Yes, I thought I was going in the right
directions, so I moved ahead. But then when God made some things clear in my
thinking about my relationship with your father, I knew He was closing the
door.”
“And so maybe Cal Burton’s coming like he has is the Lord’s way
of opening the door to what I’ve been in doubt about all this time.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me a bit,” said Amelda
“I’ve been thinking about Davy Crockett’s saying, ‘Be sure you’re
right, then go ahead.’ Maybe I’ve been expecting the Lord to be more direct
than He wants to be.”
“There’s wisdom in that motto,” said Amelda. “Yet, on the other
hand, we don’t always have the luxury of being absolutely sure before we have
to go ahead. In the absence of any possible leading by God, sometimes we have
to launch out according to what circumstances seem to be saying, and
prayerfully trust God to open and close doors as we go along.”
See? That’s why I recommend this book,
this series, this author! If you want to be made to THINK deeply, to be
challenged, pick up a Michael Phillips book!
Book: Close Your Eyes So You Can See by Michael Card, Illustrated by Stephen
Marchesi, Harvest House Publishers, 1996
Summary: The narrator of this
story is a polar bear reading to their cub as it goes to bed. The cub doesn’t
want to go to sleep so the mom explains how the brain has to rest to get rid of
the trash in it so it will be ready for the next day. She then tells a story
about a bunch of animal friends having a day at the beach. At multiple points
through their day the characters rest and relax. At the end of their day they
are so tired they can’t even keep their eyes open or talk without yawning. This
is supposed to make the polar bear cub relax as well. 
