Day Two: Amazing

     Basements tend to fill up quickly with things that we have no other place or use for than to hide when company comes over. My basement was no exception. It also had things that three of four children and a sibling had failed to take with them when they moved out. I had a dream for this room in the basement. I wanted to renovate it and make it into a small home theatre to use in a small group ministry I believed the Lord was calling me to do. Every once in awhile I felt inspired to go down into this dark pit and contemplate what it would take to get it ready. It was so overwhelming I would run back upstairs and avoid going back down for months.
     The night my son came upstairs and told me the basement was flooding, I waded through the water in tears. Staring at soaked carpet, soggy cardboard boxes of other people's things, and piles of wet clothes I had washed to go to the goodwill I cried out, "Lord, you know the plans I have for this room. I thought they were your plans, too. Why is it every time I feel you leading me somewhere, I feel like you put obstacles in my way?"
    I squished over the carpet to assess the damage and determine where the water was coming from. In the process of containing the leak, my son and I began saving what we could and moving it into a storage room up off the ground. We filled several large trash cans full of  water damaged items and hauled them down to the dumpster. Before I had even determined where the leak was coming from we had completely cleared out the room. Mopping up the water for the last time as the plumber installed a new water heater in the adjacent utility room, I looked at the room and smiled. It was completely empty, floors mopped, and ready to renovate.
   1. When was the last time Christ amazed you? How did it come about? What did it change about your or someone else's circumstance?

   I was devasted when I first saw the amount of water filling up this basement room. It ran along the wall, and out from under the furniture consuming all the items that filled all the floor space in the room. It felt like an impossible task to clean up this overwhelming mess but one box at a time my son and I plugged through. As we pulled out the soaked items, we vacuumed up the water they left behind with the wet vac. I can not tell you how defeated  I felt when that water kept coming back even after the rains had stopped . On the third day without rain, I would vacuum up more buckets of water and a few hours later it just came back until I narrowed it down to the water heater leaking. When the plumber had finished installing the new tank, I finally had faith that my efforts to mop up the water this time would be my last. The water leak had been stopped and  the room was finally clean and dry!
   When I finally realized that God had done something great in three days, that I couldn't seem to get done in over 18 months, I was truly amazed. I stood there thinking, am I really this hard to motivate that it took all that to get me down here and get this room cleaned? But it was done and God had turned my feelings of devastation and defeat into great joy and triumph. That room was ready to paint and refurnish and turn into the Home Theatre I had dreamed of for my small group ministry. And though I had to buy a new water heater, I could have faith that next time it rained the foundation wasn't going to be leaking. God is amazing!!
    Peter, Andrew, James, and John were probably feeling pretty defeated as well when they had fished all night and not caught a single fish. They had to have a little more faith than I did to reap the joy that Jesus had in mind for them. Jesus told them to throw out their nets and I am sure they were thinking, "Whatever. We have fished all night and there are no fish out there." They actually had to take a leap of faith and throw the nets out one more time. "Master," Simon replied, "We worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so I'll let the nets down again." I on the other hand just had to turn around and look and see what had been accomplished while I was frantically trying to stop the water damage. I guess if they hadn't thrown the nets over maybe Jesus would have just flipped the boat over and dumped the nets out for them.
   The point is that it isn't what we do but rather what Christ does with us that is so  amazing. Are you noticing? The disciples sure noticed. They were so awestruck by the number of fish they had caught in their nets that "they left everything and followed Jesus."

Study Outline:

• Follow along in JOHN: 90 Days with the Beloved Disciple by Beth Moore  pages 7-12
• Read Luke 5:1-11
• Answer the following questions in your study guide:

       1. When was the last time Christ amazed you? How did it come about? What did it change about your or someone else's circumstances?
       2. Our natural tendency is to lose our sense of wonder over time. But why? What causes the human heart and spirit to find God less awe-inspiring than He actually is?
       3. Consider where you are in this present season of your life. Keep in mind that even our spiritual practices can become very routine. Also keep in mind that living in what we'll call the Great Adventure doesn't mean you don't have challenges or even times of suffering but it means that you can "see" and take part in the breathtaking work of Christ in your life. What glimpses have you seen of this already? What might be out there waiting for you?

• Share a brief highlight or two from your thoughts and answers in a comment posted to the group. (Read guidelines and cautions posted August 1, 2010 before you post).
• Read the comments of others and share your thoughts and encouragement with them by replying to their comments. Identify which post you are responding to by addressing them and their subject or pasteing a brief portion of their reply at the start of your post.

PRAY WITH ME:

Lord, you are truly amazing and we are in awe of the amazing things you do with us even when we lack what it takes to get it done. I pray for each individual reading this post that you would fill them full of faith in you so they will hear your command and let down their nets. Let them be awestruck by the catch that you put in those nets for them. Lord, we trust you that you have a purpose in all that we do even when to us it feels like a disaster. Keep our eyes open to notice you in all things and keep our hearts open to that sense of wonder and excitement that walking with you brings into our lives everyday!! In Jesus name, Amen.