The Path of Waiting

Dear Reader,

Oh, how I wish I could tell you that this month has been full of passionate work or rivetting adventure for me, that the deepest longings of my heart have finally learned my name and are in my hands, but I cannot for that would be a gross exaggeration of a much simpler truth; I am on the path of waiting and God is revealing.

I honestly don’t know where to begin. I’ve written you a dozen times, but the words nor the timing ever seemed quite right, still begin I must.

This current portion of my story is just as nuanced as I am and has kept me either on the edge of my seat, on my knees in prayer or letting my tears pair with groanings to do the praying for me. Not just this month, but this season has been different from every other page before it because I’ve come to see the sacrifice of death differently.

I am no stranger to suffering or to a type of rebirth as I have lived more than a dozen lives because I have died more than a dozen deaths. I have learned to suffer well and how to carry a burden or wear a scar in a way that only the chosen would recognize. I do not look like what I’ve been through.

The irony of that is I look exactly like what God has guided me through.

I am the breathing evidence that God is Good and I wanted to tell you about the things I have overcome or to encourage you to hold on to God’s promises because indeed He is faithful in the most ridiculous way, but all that keeps coming up right now is how, in light of the promise, soon doesn’t come soon enough.

And that’s where I want to draw your attention because that’s the gift of this season; waiting. Ugh, it’s been the slowest death, but the Lord reminds me His blessings are weighty and the waiting is not for nothing. You can’t imagine what is really in store for you because until your deepest wounds have been healed there will always be something of the past obstructing your view. You can’t fathom what God is doing because His ways always confound the wise and are intentionally inconvenient, still they never waiver from being good and perfect.

Here’s a truth; You can only wait on what is already determined as yours and that only comes by a word from God - everything else is a matter of hope and while hope is not a bad thing, this letter is to tell you You are never waiting on God, He’s been waiting on you all along.

Wherever you are in your life with Christ I encourage you to ask God to remind you of His word to you. Ask Him for the strength to surrender and the strength to do the hard yet necessary things as He brings your life into alignment with His perfect will. Ask Him to restore whatever was abandoned, naively traded, lost, or damaged in your life. Know that I pray His spirit of wisdom be with you and new beginnings for you in every area.

The wait is weighty because the gift is valued even more.

Grace & Peace,

LORI LaChelle

Tomorrow’s Walk Today’s Treasure

Dear reader,

It is currently after sunset and as I sit here, in my chair, contemplating what to share with you I am also thinking about the details of tomorrow. I find it interesting that with all the tomorrows I’ve been blessed to touch, there have been no two alike. This means I can know about tomorrow, but cannot know it fully until I am there experiencing it. By the time I settle in, it will have already begun drifting into yesterday.

This is much like the soul that does not yet know its desperate need for God. Unaware that He is the only source of life, blindly keeping Him at a tomorrow’s distance from the heart. This position is close enough to appear familiar to those who have not entered into intimacy with God, and yet it is known as deathly distant by those who find their home in Him.

Knowing about I AM is not the same as knowing Him just as knowing the stats of every MLB player doesn’t mean you are in a close relationship with them. You might be able to say you know God, but would His testimony be that you know Him? Being aware of God can point you in the direction of hope, but it is not enough to live in the freedom and authority we have in Jesus. Knowing about God may even be enough for you to believe unto salvation, but it is not enough to enjoy the abundant life Christ came to give us.

We should make it a practice to walk daily with and by His Holy Spirit because as time changes so do your needs and so does His desired self-expression. How you wanted to engage with those you loved when you were 14 has evolved over time as you have discovered more about yourself and how you want to experience the world. What you knew about the Lord before has to be built upon and your capacity for Him has to increase because it is quite possible to have known someone at one stage of your life and know them no longer in the current stage. ‘To know’ is a declaration of intimacy and intimacy is living and growing.

So, today and every day hereafter I urge you to draw closer than you ever have before to the Father’s heart. Do not get comfortable or complacent with your knowledge of our infinite God, nor with your prayer life, nor with your ability to simply sit in His presence and be, but rather put forth the effort to know Him more. Where you seek you will find and where your treasure is there you will discover the truth of your heart.

The most amazing thing happens when you walk in intimacy with God our Father; you begin to see yourself and the world around you through His eyes and this changes everything for the better.

Take His offered hand and never let it go.

Grace & Peace,

Lori LaChelle

Valleys for Mountaintops

Dear reader,

I finally felt it break. The weight of the valley I had been trudging through, holding onto God’s word, encouraging myself through, keeping my focus locked in because anything my eyes gazed upon seemed to repeat the tauntings of my enemy. I finally felt it break.

And it was as good as I needed it to be when it happened.

At this point in my life, I recognize that anything worth having is going to cost you something. Peace is not free, my sense of security is not free nor is my ability to fly. It has all cost me dearly, but you might be surprised to learn that the price demanded of me were the fears, provoked by the unknown, that had long been my journey mates. How had I made it this far with such companions I wonder? God’s grace and his grace alone that’s how.

My story is not one for the faint at heart. I have lived through things I wouldn’t dare ‘do again if I had the chance.’ And even now I can still taste the char of a broken heart, still baffled by the way the thing I thought would ruin me became the thing God stood in, called me forth, and spoke my blessing through. That’s the mystery of each chapter in my story. At first glance, you could drown in the shallow end, but see it with spiritual eyes and you’d not get past the first line before you’d realize that God has always been upon me and the presence of God has always been with me.

Perhaps that is what I want to draw your attention to with this letter. As He is with me may you come to see He is with you.

I’m sitting in the breakthrough, covered in the journey, and yet rest has consumed my heart as the sweetness of victory fills the air around me. It is impossible to value the mountaintop without knowing the pain and the struggle of the climb. It is impossible to drink deeply the crisp, cool air if you are not acquainted with the piercing agony lack of breath brings. It is then that the most valuable of experiences is not found in the place of rest but in the moments of surrender. When my heart cried things my lips could not utter, when the pit I needed rescue from was one my own internal fears dug, the Lord was there revealing to me that not even the darkness I tried to avoid could do anything, but bow before Him.

Once again, God has done what only He can do; delivered me from it all into the next.

Oh, how I pray that you enjoy victory as I do, that your strength be renewed, that you come to know the texture of breakthrough and the overwhelming comfort that comes from hearing the Father say, “That’s it, kid. That’s good!”

Grace & Peace,

Lori LaChelle