all new terrain: where God increases our capacity

the august 2022 newsletter

Here’s a summertime formula: Little Boys + Playing Outside = Dirt on Their Bodies Like a Topographical Map.

I got Kav in the tub, and muddy swirls began clouding the water as he moved his feet. By the time he came out of the bath the water was a different shade, and even though I’d shampooed his hair I’m pretty sure he was still carrying a couple ounces of dirt on his body.

This is what summer is like though, right? We go outside as much as we can, and then bring as much of it right back inside as we can just to wash it off again. The floors are dirty and you can barely keep up with laundry, but that’s fine because there will be plenty of time for those things in a few months when it’s only ten degrees out there and dark for most of the day.

Taking advantage of the waning summer is not that different from this season of life with little kids (although, for the record, we have been in this “season” for 21 years now). People tell you that you will miss these days – the toys everywhere, the messy faces, the silly phrases, the hilarious and aggravating things they do with sanitary napkins – and they’re right, there will be time enough later to have a clean house, enjoy the quiet, and organize your feminine products without their assistance.

So we take advantage of it while we can. This is the season to get dirty, to do all the things, to go all the places, to try something new. It’s getting toward the end of summer and there’s a sense of urgency that there’s not much time left – it’s cooler at night, some leaves are falling already – and whatever needs done before winter better get done fast, whether it’s those hikes we wanted to do or all the firewood that needs chopped before the snow flies.

I still haven’t finished our paperwork for the new school year, and normally it’s done by mid-August. But this year there’s just too much: Too many new responsibilities, new things to learn, new situations to handle, and old prayer requests we still need breakthrough in. This year I’ll be getting the forms in under the wire (Just like this newsletter, she muttered to herself) and I still don’t know how Reagan’s is going to go anyway because we’re finally having that assessment later this week and like so many things in this season, it is all new terrain.

Now, I like change as much as the next person (which means I don’t at all, thanks) but I’m pretty tired of all the new terrain. These aren’t the hikes I wanted to go on. They’re steep, and full of roots to trip over, and sometimes the view really sucks. I was hoping for something more like the gorgeously rustic Rippy Trail with its gentle curves up and down, a few cute streams to cross over, and a breathtaking view at the end after not too much effort. But instead, the last few years have often felt like one of those cliffside jaunts of wobbly rope bridges with the tensile strength of cheap dental floss, and by the time you make your way across you start to breathe a sigh of relief only to find yourself facing an ROUS in a fireswamp (or a bunch of RINOs on the ballot, same thing).

Really, God? we ask. I could really use a break, and things just keep ramping up.

It seems like the season of going through hard things often intersects with a season of learning a lot of overwhelming new things. Maybe one begets the other. However it happens, we are stretched beyond our known capabilities and into the realm of unknown capacity that God is growing us into.

If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

– Jeremiah 12:5

In the tension of this in-between stage, we often feel like we’re failing because things are just so hard.

And messy.

And unfamiliar.

We know He’s told us of promise ahead, but this precarious stage we’re at does not look like it leads to it. So many things are pointing in the wrong direction, and we are running out of energy and strength to keep dealing with the twists and turns. Every time we finally think we’ve figured out the rules to the game, the rules change, and it feels like we’re stuck in some demented level of Jumanji.

And we need to be careful here. This is where sin can creep in if it hasn’t already, because this is where we’re tempted to flirt with fear and despair.

But wait, is fear sin? Oh, yes – fear is the most pandered sin in the Church, and we’ve seen it in vivid display since 2020. If the Lord says “Do not fear” all throughout His word (and He does) but we still entertain it, that’s sin, plain as day.

I was at this juncture a couple weeks ago though, in some hard, depths-of-despair days, asking all the deep questions. Here’s what the Lord told me:

You laid down the mantle I gave you. When did you start listening to the liar who says you aren’t good enough, that you can’t hear Me, that it’s not working out? This is the mantle I laid on you: Speak My words. Pray for the people. Expand the Kingdom. If I laid that mantle on you, what God has joined together let no one separate. You are not to be separated from this calling. So stop listening to the liar. When the enemy is bluffing, he can only take things from you if he’s convinced you they aren’t yours in the first place.

We are repulsed by the dirt we find in ourselves, but it doesn’t go away by denying or ignoring it. Confessing and addressing it is how we take the land inside us, so we can take the land He calls us to.

For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.

– Jeremiah 7:22-24

Here’s something the Lord has reminded me of many times about the messes He’s assigned us: Surrendering to those missions protects us from something even harder that He doesn’t want us to have to handle. This is the season to get dirty, to do all the things, to go all the places, to try something new, because our surrender comes with an anointing and covering that obedience brings, even when the view sucks. Disobedience and rebellion generally remove that covering...and then the view really sucks.

(Keep in mind, hard situations He has called us to should not be confused with messes that are not His will for us, such as those that were sinfully created by ourselves or others, or those we’ve encountered as a result of the Fall, like sickness. Those situations should be fought, not surrendered to, but those are not the hard paths I’m referring to here.)

Surrendering to the hard path is easier when we know He’s in the midst of it and is actively bringing great purposes out of it both for our good and for the advancement of the Kingdom. We can stop overthinking (Hear that? she preaches to herself) and trust that God is able to make His will and direction known to us as we abide.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

– Romans 4:16-17

Our expectations can throw us off because He is not working in us according to a predictable pattern. He is growing us, and we experience and feel things differently than we used to — and that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re doing it wrong. It means new wine for new wineskins. He’s taking us somewhere we’ve never been before and it doesn’t have to make sense, it doesn’t have to look like it’s working, and we don’t even have to feel like we’re good at this particular hike. We just have to surrender to it and let Him do the crazy thing He’s promised.

In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

– Romans 4: 16-25

The enemy hammers us with lies and shame and feelings of unworthiness, but God just wants repentance and proximity again. So we go back, and His presence burns off the sin...which is why the enemy tries to keep us from returning at all. Unloaded of it, we walk lighter and finish faster.

Ironically, it is the mess we surrender to that protects us, prepares us, and trains us for the challenges ahead. Because we would like to get ahead someday, yes? Well, stewarding the mess we are in now is how we get there.

Forgive me for bringing poultry into almost every post lately – I tried really hard not to this time, but I can’t help squeaking it in here at the end – but the chickens already know this: They’ve dug a dirt pit in the corner of the yard to dust bathe in, and they wallow and roll in it to stay clean; it keeps off parasites and other bacteria and cooties. Surrendering to the dirt they’re meant to revel in protects them from the messes they’re not supposed to live with.

Almost everyone I am close to is dealing with major life upheaval right now. These are hard paths that He’s sanctifying us through, but living in this tension is how we learn to manage the complexity that feels so beyond us right now. Some days are better, some are worse, but even the worse days are progress because, hey, it’s one day forward. Give us a little time and we’ll look back, missing these hard days, because He is increasing our capacity for missions that will make these days look easy. Surrendering to the process of learning and growth in everything He calls us to now is what will make the days ahead easier, too.

Praying for you,

Shannon

If you believe in a God who controls the big things, you have to believe in a God who controls the little things. It is we, of course, to whom things look “little” or “big."

– Elisabeth Elliot

P.S. Links this month:

• In the middle of some hard days? Here’s the soundtrack I’ve been listening to – see if you like any of these: It’s Gonna Be Okay, God, Turn it Around, Be Alright, Breakthrough, Waymaker, It is Well, Lion, Graves Into Gardens

• I’m taking a break from podcasts for a while (to work on a book! Yeah!), but here’s what came out in August: If it seems like it’s taking too long, If you need more faith to move those mountains, and Praying for elections and righteous reform.

• A newsletter from the archive that is timely for a lot of us right now: If you are looking at desperate times, laying out a fleece, and finding yourself at a new level of surrender, you should probably listen to this (or read it; the transcript is at the bottom). I posted it originally for premium subscribers but lifted the paywall because it seems like a bunch more of us need to hear it.

• This is one of the most informative, helpful, applicable, well-done teachings on natural remedies I've ever seen. By Barbara O’Neill, and worth every minute.

• We’re starting to talk about the next book for Gaining Ground – join us on Telegram and vote here if you want in on deciding what it is. (To Tolkien or not to Tolkien, that is the question.)

• If you feel like you’ve been treading water forever, there’s a good word for you here.

• Interested in prepping? This is a good start (and the beginning is hilarious), and this other video has a great perspective on prepping sustainably for the long term without relying on parts or other things that may not be available.

• When was the last time you read the US Constitution? If you prefer audio, I’m doing it for you – just listen in and keep the dictionary handy. And also, this is a fabulous, free course from Hillsdale.

• This is a terrific, insightful look into 4 types of narcissism, which has come up a few times in our conversations lately – if we can recognize it, we’re less like to fall victim to it or perpetuate it in our culture.

• If you are looking for a terrific history supplement for your middle schoolers or high schoolers (or yourself!) this a fun, fascinating course that Mr. Guerra does every year. (Alaskan students, this is fundable through your allotment and Vince is a vendor with IDEA.)

• Got health issues you’re trying to overcome? Food grade diatomaceous earth might help – do your research, there’s a ton of info here.

• Want a new way to support our ministry? (You guys are my FAVORITES. Thank you so much.) We are now affiliates with My Pillow and Tuttle Twins books, so you can do your normal shopping through those links and we will make a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you!