Last night I started watching a show on Netflix called "Russia's Toughest Prisons" in which they detailed a prison near Kazakhstan called "Black Dolphin." I did not watch more than 10 minutes of the documentary but I began to meditate on something that I thought I would share. I began to wonder how I would walk with The Lord in a situation in which I am totally isolated from humanity or in a situation that I did not control. When we lived in our former house, I had a routine in which I would get up early and go into my office and commune deeply with The Lord. These became times that I deeply enjoyed and reveled in. I began to see how you can have hours alone with The Lord and still find yourself wanting more and more. This was a tremendous time of growth for me.
Yet this month has found me in a small house (for which I am incredibly thankful) and no places to withdraw to. Then we have been iced in for a couple of says in which driving to a Starbucks or some other place has been prohibited. So watching this documentary was something The Lord began to reveal to me how much "location" and "structure" has become what I have relied on for my walk with Him.
When I have my location and routine then I see that I have tremendous blessing but when that routine is interrupted I find I am struggling. Yet we see Jesus retiring to the wilderness to be with the Father only to see Peter interrupt him to tell Him people are looking for him. (oh, How He understands me!)
What God has called us to in Berlin and beyond requires that the forms and structures look different from what we are accustomed to. Yet I find that as much as I thought I embraced that concept I am still tied heavily to the old.
For a while now I have felt as though I could hear from The Lord while I am quiet and in prayer but I have struggled when in the hustle and bustle of day to day life. I would see how Jesus was walking with and in the Spirit while there was a TON of stuff going on around Him. This became my prayer that God would teach me this.
Now I see that this is exactly what He is teaching me. May the lesson not be lost on me.