Hand-Tied Freedom

Have you ever had something on your mind that wouldn't go away unless you got it out?? Here's mine these days...

Throughout the Bible we hear the stream of thought that we are free in Christ, right? See Exodus 20, Romans 6 and Galatians 5 below: 

² “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

God's up to something in our life right now with these verses. The backstory: we were set to close on our FIRST HOME on October 31. Everything was going perfectly; we were submitting all documents organized, on time, and even numerically coded. Perfect. Too easy. 

Then, on Friday, October 4 we get a call from the bank that the government shutdown has halted our loan processing. We are currently on hold until the folks who lead our country decide to behave. (Essentially we're hog-tied to the government right now)The ramifications of this for us is a hefty penalty every 2 weeks that our loan goes past "activity". A hit to the Carscaddons is an understatement.

Here's where God's working. You see, up until that phonecall on Oct. 4, I have felt like this was too easy of a process, that I've got it.  That's just the problem. I seemed to think I was in control of this house buying process. Boy was I WRONG. 

Through this process of realizing just how little I do control and how this whole process is out of my hands, Jesus has reminded me that when we find our hands tied, with nothing left to do, that's just when He gives us freedom. Yes, our hands are tied right now, according to the world. But I have experienced unexplainable freedom from knowing the Christ is ahead of us in this process (and throughout our lives) and He doesn't want us to be bound by [the government]  or by the world. 

With all this, it's been beautiful to see that despite our hands being tied by the world that Christ has set us free and gives us freedom in Him daily. Right now and especially up until this home is officially ours, I'm walking in the Spirit and knowing the freedom of Christ is what really sets us free.

 

Being engaged > #engaged

As I sit here beginning the day at work, I always take a few minutes to catch up on the world and what's going on in it. Today, amidst the chaos of the government and its ridiculousness, I came across a refreshing article on the topic of engagement and marriage.

Let me start by saying this. I am in no way perfect and am guilty of idolizing a wedding more than a marriage at times. However, at the end of the day, I can confidently say that throughout mine and Z's engagement, I focused on the end goal: MARRIAGE more than I did a 16 hour day of fun and partying.

When I was a little girl my mom was a florist. I grew up sitting in on weekly meetings with brides for my mom to discuss the flowers for numerous couples' big day. Something that has always stuck with me is how my mom approached the first meeting with the brides. She would always ask them, "Are you more excited for a wedding or for a marriage?" As a child I never knew what that meant, but boy do I now!

That's where this article comes in. READ THIS!!  Talk about hitting the nail on the head of my thoughts of how our culture has made marriage a mockery and getting engaged the highlight of your 20's.

I write this as a reminder to myself why we got married. Yes, of course, I wanted the magical engagement, big party that's all about me and hubby, dancing all night, beautiful dress, and all the pink puffy heart things associated with being engaged and wedding planning. BUT I also wanted a marriage that's more beautiful than our wedding.

As we get further away from the day when I became a Mrs., I am seeing more and more that the gift of marriage is far more than just one day of celebrating, it's creating a life together that glorifies God, and shows the world a tangible example of Christ's love for us. As any girl does, I do miss the fun and exciting time of wedding planning and anticipation of becoming a wife, but I find comfort knowing that we are now really living out what God calls us to and the example we're to follow as husband and wife.