New Grooves for New Territory

There is a GRACE on this season to EMBRACE the process of cutting NEW GROOVES in patterns of thought, habit, and relationships.

These NEW GROOVES are necessary to move into the NEW TERRITORY God’s calling us into because familiarity and cruise control will always forfeit pioneering for expediency.

This cutting of new grooves requires a DAILY DYING to the familiar paths we often cling to for safety, convenience, and ease. This season requires our perpetual and intentional YES to God and HIS ways over our own.

When the Lord spoke this to me in prayer this morning, I saw the pioneers who left the familiarity of their established surroundings and well-cut roads for the dream of open meadows and the mystery of what they didn’t know firsthand. It took a courage and grit that only grows through experience, but more than that, it took a willingness to forfeit the comfort of familiarity for a messy journey with no controllable guarantees.

I believe we’re being called to COUNT THE COST. And if we’ve already counted the cost, to count it again. (Luke 14:27-30)

This kind of yes is lived from the INSIDE OUT. The ALTAR of the heart becomes the oil released to forge relationships and do life in an ALTERED WAY.

It’s a continual invitation to relinquish earthly wisdom and expectations for the heart of God lived out in the moment by moment.

These are the days of REAL TIME EXCHANGE.

Immediate gratification for generational legacy.

Arbitrary timelines for seasonal understanding that stewards the next right thing with an eye to long-term fruitfulness.

Tidy linear plans for the start-stop dance of cutting new paths through varied terrain.

Neatly paved predictability for messy mystery.

Will it be hard? Yes.

Will it be worth it? Yes. He’s WORTH EVERYTHING.

And in the pressing, oil will flow. In the cluster, new wine poured out. And we will go places in our families, relationships and regions we couldn’t have gone on cruise control.