So much more to tell you…

That’s my sweet Henry.  And that has been my summer so far.  Lots of swimming and swim team.

Most mornings and some evenings we have suited up, lubed up, picked up a few strays along the way and headed off to swim practice or meets.

It is not as simple as it sounds.  Undoubtably, someone has lost their goggles , another has lost a shoe, one has returned the sunscreen to some unknown place in the house safely hidden from anyone who might need it, one child is in the car ready to go while another has wandered off to a neighbor’s house.  And this is all before 8:15 am.

But it is worth it.  They are worth it.  I love them, and I love raising them.  God keeps pressing into me…raise up a generation!  But that’s only part of it and it leads me to my point.

While sitting on a lawn chair, after above stated chaos had ensued, with echoes of swim drills in my ears; I dug into Holy Spirit by John Bevere.   And there it was.

““I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
‭‭John‬ ‭16:12-13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I am sure over my 30-year relationship with God, I have read this verse more than once.  But that day it stood out in a new way.  It stopped me in my tracks.  I thought, there is so much more he wants to tell me.  There are truths, secrets, deeper revelations of Him and His will for my life, God wants to reveal to me.

And then I read the next part, but you can’t bear it now.  It seems I am the self-limiting factor into these revelations from God.  My ability to bear it.

Which as a parent I can understand.  I look at my sweet Henry.  This is his first year on swim team.  At the start of the season he could not go more than 10 feet without needing to grab a wall.

If we would have told him within three weeks of starting swim team, we were going to throw him in the middle lane of the pool and tell him to swim back stroke to the other side while racing against his fellow teammates, I am confidant he would have refused to get in the pool the first day.  The thought of swimming from one side of the pool to the other was overwhelming.  The thought of swimming from one side of the pool to the other without grabbing the wall was even more overwhelming.  The thought of swimming from one side of the pool to the other without the presence of a wall, just in case, was almost inconceivable.  And the thought of doing all that, but now on his back doing a stroke he had never really been “taught”, would have been too much.  He would have quit swim team before he ever started.  He would have refused to get into the water the first time.  The truth would have been too much for him to bear.

I laugh because I am the same way.  God tends to leave out a lot of the details and just gives me a glimpse of the end result.  Kind of like me telling Henry, You’re gonna love it!  And by the end, you will be one of the fastest 6 year olds out there!  I told him the truth and gave him a glimpse of his future, but I left out a lot of the nitty-gritty details.  Especially, the part about throwing him into the middle of the pool on his back.

The truth is God has big things in mind for me and sometimes He gives me a glimpse into it.  Sometimes, He gives me a hope in my spirit or a dream in my heart of something to come.  Thankfully, He leaves out a lot of the nitty-gritty details that would tempt me to quit before I ever get started.

God encouraged me to start.   Get in the pool Dana.  You’re gonna love it!  By the end, you’ll be one of the fastest 6 year olds out there!!

Lord, get me to the place I can bear what you have for me.  I want you to reveal yourself and your will for my life to me.  Strengthen me in the inner man and prepare me to hear all you want to say.