Room In The Forest

Room in the Forest

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. Romans 12:4-5

I love what Chuck Swindoll said once: “If God made you a duck saint, you’re a duck, friend. Swim like mad, but don’t get bent out of shape because you wobble when you run or flap instead of fly. If you’re an eagle saint, stop expecting squirrel saints to soar, or rabbit saints to build the same kind of nests you do.” There’s plenty of room in the forest, he said, for each individual one of us.

Just as God has different work for each of his children to do based on how he’s designed them, he provides many different ways to meet him in the forest of life. Some believers feel more connected to God when they kneel to pray. Others like to put their hands up in adoration. Some feel closer to God in a formal sanctuary with stained-glass windows. Others connect better with him in a small house church. Still others are like the woman I met who meets God on the hiking trail. Hearing the sounds of the birds, feeling God’s wind rushing over her, smelling the honeysuckle along the path, all of these things contribute to her ability to connect more intimately with the Lord.

While one person experiences God’s presence best while praying in a group, another’s pathway is through quiet study, spiritual retreat, and solitude. Since the Lord is the One who created our individuality, he has a purpose for each of these individual styles and spiritual pathways. He made us the way we are. As long as our focus is God, he gives us much freedom in our methods of connecting with him. Our part can be to find out how we are wired, how we most easefully relate to and experience God, and then work in harmony with those bents to draw close to him.

What unique spiritual pathways bring you closer to God? —CHERI

Lover of my soul, I am so grateful that you invite me to come out of the patterns I’ve boxed myself into. Thank you for freeing me from the tendency to compare my own spiritual pathways to others’ spiritual methods. Show me how to best connect with you in the midst of the unique circumstances of my life and in terms of the way you’ve designed me.

The finger of God never leaves the same fingerprint.

—STANISLAW J. LEC (1909–1966), POLISH POET