Stretched

I am currently experiencing a season of life that has far surpassed any previous on the subject of stretching. I have preached it, taught it, and even lived it on smaller scales, but it has gone to a new level since we embraced the call to church planting. I know it is for the best, but it sure hurts when you are in the midst of it.

It is easy to lose focus in the midst of the fog of the "stretching process," but I have found that I must keep my eye on the prize or I will perish. When you are severely stretched it is easy to focus so much on the stretching process that the vision gets dimmer and dimmer, and this creates a "fog" so to speak that attempts to rob the initial vision from us. But the vision is sometimes all we have to hang onto, and when we keep our eyes focused on the vision amidst all the question and strain, we show that we truly trust God, and I am beginning to learn that "trust," or in other words "faith," is truly the reason for our stretching in the first place. God stretches us through difficult situations so that our faith is big enough to handle the next portion of our destiny.

I guess the most encouraging concept about my stretching is the fact that I am not being stretched for me alone, but for all of those who will be edified by a stronger leader down the road. Hang in there, God has bigger plans for us. We just have to be stretched to fit into it.