Past Dead Ends

“God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.”

– Colossians 1: 13 – 14(MSG)

He is asking me to walk past dead ends. I’ve lived safe; etching Crayola color borders on construction paper. A dream, 27 years in the making, is taking shape. There have been no words. The tender wet, the flint and steel lost. But, I linger on the precipice of merriment.

I am standing on a hillside with Him. The break of day touches the horizon in a low pink glow that feels strangely alive. The sun rises over the mountain range, glistening over a river that cuts a deep swath through the valley dotted with wildflowers. He looks at me and says, “this is what I have for you, Melissa.”

When we come up against a dead end our first reaction is to turn around. We feel there is no way around, out, or over.

What if?

What if, past that impossible dead thing that has stopped us from dreaming the dreams He has for us there is so much more.

But now, God’s Message,
    the God who made you in the first place, Jacob,
    the One who got you started, Israel:
“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
    I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
    When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
    it won’t be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,
    The Holy of Israel, your Savior.
I paid a huge price for you:
    all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!
That’s how much you mean to me!
    That’s how much I love you!
I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,
    trade the creation just for you.

Isaiah 43:1-4 (MSG)

We have a beautiful woman at the Hope Lodge right now. Rose is terminal. She will tell you, straight, that after she is done entertaining people down here He is going to take her home to entertain those who have gone before her. She is delight! I belly laugh with her. She lifts others from the mire. Like a moth to a flame, other guests gather around her in hopes that the “something’ she has rubs off on them.

Our dead ends are God’s beginnings. Each of us, no matter our circumstance, can be flames that others gather round…

Tiny steps past dead ends, Lord – this is where I am! Beyond my crazy, insane ridiculous brain into pastures & even rocky sod with you… I don’t want to be selfish! Make me open. Make me a prayer warrior – one that will pray for those I deeply love and those I struggle to. Lord, you are calling your people to more. You are asking us to be more to those we meet! May I simply show love. I am taking this tiny step of faith. I cast my net on the right side & pull up Your bounty. It is what I’m asking for in the big and small things! Guide me, every step, to do your great and wonderful will. I’m scared & excited! I love you SO MUCH! I am ever thankful that you love me!

Isaiah 55 is likely my favorite passage of scripture. Oh, thank our Lord that His word will not return void, but will accomplish what He intends…

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands…” – Isaiah 55: 10 – 13(NKJV)

One of my all-time favorite artists, Andrew Peterson, put Isaiah 55 in a song (which is pretty much perfection)! It is well worth the listen: SOWER'S SONG