He won't step out of the ring

Muay Thai by Erik Schlicksbier

I wanted to share an experience I had this past couple weeks. I had met a women earlier in the week who really showed Christ to me in a way I didn't expect. She was a women whom I wouldn't normally spend time with and who made things and conversations a little tense and uncertain in the group I was in. She was someone who might normally be pushed out of social settings because she didn't really "fit in" or at least would be made to feel unwelcome.

There was a point during the group chat that I had to even step in and confront her about things being said and certain behaviors that weren't respectful and that was very difficult mostly because I really didn't want her to feel shut out or unwelcome but it had to be said and I feel that God showed His grace in my words.

The reason why I'm sharing this isn't because of the conflict, because that arises in so many situations everyday, but in what followed and how it effected my heart.

After going home I decided to spend some time praying for her and the first thing that popped into my head was my little sister and how they seemed so similar in the ways they had been lost and even continue to be lost. This thought hit me like a load of bricks and I immediately knew that God was speaking into my heart. As I listened, I thought, one day when my sister reaches this place where she is coming for help and to look for answers and connections, I plead and beg that there will be someone there who will fight for her. No matter how awkward or harsh or broken she seems please let there be someone who will fight for her. Someone who will make her feel loved and welcomed, someone who won't let her go. As I was flooded with these thoughts, obviously from God, I knew he was pointing me to this new woman who I met and I really just felt Him say that I need to fight for her too.

After sitting with this for a couple days God started to tie new pieces into this lesson He was teaching me and I started to think about Exodus 14:14 and how it says, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." How many times has He fought for me? How many times have I messed up and yet He's always fought for me and always will?

I feel like God gives us the opportunity to fight with Him. He says, "Listen I love her, I love her so much but she can't see me right now, but she can see you. So please go show her I love her. Please go fight for her. Please don't let her go."

 I can't hide my excitement when He gives me these little glimpses of His character. We always hear people talk about God's love but to witness it is so precious. To see someone who we so often cast out or turn our backs to because they don't fit our mold and to see how much He loves them is so beautiful and so humbling.

I don't get to make the "mold" and I am so thankful for that because not only is my idea of a mold all messed up because of my sin but I'm thankful that God makes the "mold" because there are so many that I don't fit either. I think about the mold God has made for us and I think about Jesus lying there and God sculpting it around him and how beautiful and perfect it is. And because of what He did for us on the cross we all get to fit into it.