You don't always have to have all the answers but you have to be willing to keep searching for them.
My path to arrive at the NO HIDING lifestyle wasn't direct, at all! It involved a lot of scavenger hunting for Truth. Without the clues and signs along the way, I'd have probably stopped a long time ago.
It's finally occurred to me: the journey won't ever be over, it's a life-long pursuit.
Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash |
What does it mean to ask, seek, and knock?
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 English Standard Version
The scripture makes it sound so simple, doesn't it? Need something? Just ask! Seek, you'll find it. Knock, doors will fly open for you. But it never actually works that way, does it?
Jesus goes on in that same message to talk about good fruit vs bad fruit, narrow path vs wide path, and he ends by discussing two houses, one built on the sand and one built on the stone.
Notice: BOTH houses endured the same storm.
Building a house on The Rock was no guarantee that storms would not come, in fact, building the house on The Rock was in preparation for the storms he promised would come.
The NO HIDING Lifestyle is a building I keep having to rebuild.
My NO HIDING Lifestyle culminated with this motto in 2017... but it really started in earnest in 2013 and I can see traces of it back further. I've been pressing in for some of these answers for decades.
It often seemed like the bottom was falling out just as I would happen upon another Truth that would lift me back up and take me to a higher place for a period of time.
I noticed that I didn't seek as hard when times were good. And maybe that's one of the reasons they didn't stay as good for as long. Who knows.
Every time a storm came, I could see what materials I'd been using to build that can't last. It would shake loose the trashy construction and I'd be left with the solid stuff I had built earlier. Each re-build was stronger and more durable than the last. I found that with each successive rebuild, the storms caused less damage, even if they were bigger storms.
It seems fitting that I quote Matthew 7:7 today, as I just discovered that today is 17 months and 17 days since I became a Widower and my life was shattered. But the lessons she taught me helped me walk through this season and come out stronger, not weaker.
On January 7, 2020 (late into the evening of January 6, 2017), it will be three years since I began this NO HIDING journey. It was after a season of hardship that we learned this Truth that set us free.
I made a change that involved a friendship on December 7 & 8. It was the end of one era and the beginning of a new era for our friendship. We remain good friends, just differently now as we pursue other things and our journeys diverge. I believe we'll both be the richer for this change.
Special Numbers 7/8
- 7 is the number of completion.
- 8 is the number of new beginnings
There's been a prophetic regularity to those numbers in my life this month. Completion and New Beginnings. The boys and I are even starting a new hobby together this Christmas.
What about you? Comment below:
- What has your path to NO HIDING looked like? How did you have to change to become more authentic?
- What things are coming to Completion for you?
- What things are starting as New Beginnings for you?
Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!
Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)
Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com
Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ
Clifton StrengthsFinder: Intellection, Learner, Ideation, Achiever, Input
16Personalities (Myers-Briggs Type): INFJ
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