What’s up, girlfriends?!

I love the fall. It is my favorite time of the year, for a few reasons, but the top one is pumpkin spice EVERYTHING! Coffee, muffins, cupcakes, creamer, cereal, bread, bagels and the list goes on and on. It’s a beautiful thing!

Get outside and enjoy the cooler temps and the changing of the leaves…unless you live where there is extreme weather such as the desert or a tropical island. If you live in one of those places, you should go to the beach or an outdoor pool and drink an iced pumpkin spice coffee.

Ok, now on to what else I wanted to share with you today!

We have a brown puppy and his name is Chief. Chief is a 4-year-old, 75-80 pound chocolate lab and he is convinced he is a lap dog. He is playful, rambunctious, and sweet as sugar unless he is doing something naughty. Well, even then he’s sweet, but it’s shrouded in the naughty thing he did. Until he looks up at you through those eyes, then he is back to being sweet as sugar.

Chief struggles with a few issues, like stealing whole pies off the counter and sandwiches out of people’s hands. It’s just an unfortunate misunderstanding and he is always very sorry. Chief also has a struggle with doors; he doesn’t know how to open them and sometimes that is a problem.

A few weeks ago we let Chief out in the side yard around 10pm for his last potty stop and he didn’t come back. We had just moved to the neighborhood and I was certain Chief didn’t know his way and was either lost or kidnapped. My husband and I drove around the neighborhood shouting his name out of the window, looking in backyards, asking neighbors if they had seen a brown dog. After searching for some time we decided to return home and call the police about our lost and missing dog. I was inconsolable. I was convinced he was dead or stolen.

The whole time we were looking I was an emotional wreck. Chief is my late night companion and my early morning buddy. We have a bond, a profound connection, and he was lost. So not cool! As we entered the house my daughter said, “You both forgot your phones and I tried to call. Chief is home. He locked himself on the side porch and couldn’t get out.” Apparently he was trying to alert us to his situation, but we couldn’t hear him over our shouts and my sobs. A very true story.

I was earnestly searching for my brown puppy. It was an emergency.

So, I have to ask myself, do I seek God with the same type of passion?

“My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.”

Isaiah 26:9 (ESV)

I can honestly say that is exactly how I was looking for Chief. But what about my God? How do I chase after Him?

When we seek God it’s not because He is lost or stolen. We are commanded to seek Him! God is not playing some divine game of hide and seek, it doesn’t work like that. In seeking God we are drawn closer to the heart of God. Our seeking becomes more than just a quest; it becomes a lifestyle, a place where everything hinges.

“And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.”

Mark 5:25-27 (ESV)

It was in her desperate place that this woman sought after and ultimately discovered the truth of the power of Jesus for herself.

Think about that. She had only heard about Jesus and didn’t even get close enough to touch Him–just the hem, the absolute bottom, of his garment and she was made whole.

As believers today we can do the same with great passion.

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!'”

Psalm 122:1 (ESV)

We are blessed to be able to seek God in all of His expected places such as Sunday worship services, weekly Bible studies, and daily quiet times to name a few. We expect God to show up and He absolutely does. Growing up, we sang a song with these words, “He’s an on-time God, yes He is! He’s an on-time God, yes He is! He may not come when you want Him, but He’ll be there right on time. He’s an on-time God He is!”

Saints, our God is always ready to be found. In your seeking you will gain the faith of a true seeker because you will always find God. The passionate pursuit of a holy God can only yield good fruit, so do it today! Start looking for God in your desperate place and in the expected places; you will not be disappointed because He has already promised,

“For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

Luke 11:10 (ESV)

I love blogging with my girlfriends. It’s like we are having coffee together! I am looking forward to our last Planting Roots conference for this year. You should meet me in GA, it’s gonna be grand! I can’t wait to meet each of you face to face, around a cup of coffee of course!

Blessings abound to you today!

<>< Claudia