Stepping Out Diaries- red shoes

Friday, April 20


so recently i have been wonderfully challenged.
to. step. out.
to posture myself in the desperate.
to truly need Him.

it all started a few weeks ago when Francis Chan spoke at a concert kevin and i went to.
Francis recalled the story in 1 Kings 18 when Elijah the prophet is on mt carmel
and pitted against elijah are 800 other prophets of false gods also on mt carmel
and they want to kill elijah and prove that their god is more powerful than elijah's God

elijah
800 false prophets
those are bad odds

elijah asks God to move, to show the people that HE is
THE ONE TRUE GOD
and bam
fire from heaven
things literally heat up

Francis became so fixated with the idea of God moving and showing himself
that he prayed and prayed that when he spoke, God would do something crazy to display His power
Francis wanted the earth to shake or people to feel God's power in crazy ways. 
and when it didn't happen like he wanted it to, he asked God "why not show yourself like you did to elijah and the prophets?" 

and simply, God spoke this...
"francis, i moved powerfully because elijah put himself in a place where he was desperate. he was going to be killed, the odds were against him. you speak at churches and concerts, no one is looking to kill you!! you see, i move when you step out. i move when you put yourself in desperate places" 

and so kevin and i, we began to realize that we want to be desperate for God to move. we don't want to be spectators in a church. we want to taste the kingdom of God and participate in the spontaneous work of the holy spirit! 

and so yes...last night it began. here is the story of red shoes. 
{right before we left for the service, my sweet neighbor J}

every third wednesday, our church has an organic service where we pray and worship and just listen. at the end of the service our pastor just felt like we needed to prayer walk around our church. he asked us to listen to the Lord to see if we felt anything in particular to pray for. 

and i heard RED SHOES. 
weird, right? 

so we go outside, and we're plodding around talking and chatting
and then
Colby spots a lady on the other side of the street wearing bright red shoes. 
awkwardly kev and i sprint across the street and start to follow her
but then when we were almost caught up, i looked at kev and said
"what the heck do i even do now? what do i say?" 
the whole time i'm thinking "i'm just going to scare this poor woman half to death"

"hi" was all i could manage. i figured that was a good way to start a conversation. 
turns out, i was right. 
so we start to chat. her eyes light up, and she's not as weirded out as we were anticipating
much to our delight (whew!)
in fact, she was excited. we stood there, the three of us at 9pm at night and chatted. 
her name is Klara. 

i asked her where she was walking to. she said "home". 
where is home? i ask. 
i live on Garnet. 

my heart skipped a beat
kevin and i live on Garnet. 
we are neighbors. 
red shoed Klara is our neighbor. 

we talked and laughed and kev and i pathetically tried to speak spanish.  
that was the other miracle of the night, let's just say kev and i are no-bueno when it comes to espanol. 
and then we exchanged numbers. we invited her to dinner, her and her family. 

so next week, 
red shoes is coming to dinner. 
and i KNOW Abba has something in store. 
ohhhh i'm SO excited because i know that this wasn't an accident! 
and now i get to step back and watch the holy spirit move. 

And so...i'm going to start these blog posts called the "Stepping Our Diaries" because how cool would it be if we all intentionally took risks to step out and watch the Holy Spirit move in our desperation? 

let's challenge ourselves to step out of comfort
and into a place of truly. utterly. needing. him.
where we feel awkward and unqualified. 

no more spectating in church. 
no more fluffy talk of kingdom living, when we are not living kingdom values.
risk. NEEDING him. prayers on knees bended. open hands. 
"use me" kind of talk. 

desperate. 

excited, yes. mmmm yes, it's going to be awesome. 
and you are a part of this adventure. 
let's share stories together. 

love Katie 
happy weekend! i'm taking kev on a surprise birthday adventure. can't wait to share more with you next week:) 

7 comments :

  1. woah- that's crazy! i'm excited to see the way the lord moves in your life through that! have fun on your adveture!

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  2. This was so convicting and inspiring that I shared it with hubby at dinner about who I want to be (more like). Thank you, new friend for following Him with fervor. Love, Anna

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  3. Wow!! Amen. I really needed to hear this. I can't wait for more of these stories!
    Also, I am so excited that you found my blog!! (Mainly because it let me to your adorable blog!) I read your love story...ahhh it is just so beautiful! I love how God is not limited to our very narrow ideas of what the "perfect love story" is because His ideas are always so much more creative! I love it.

    Megan

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  4. I LOVE Francis Chan's heart and messages!! I've read Crazy Love and the Holy Spirit book (I can't remember the title of it. . oh Forgotten God, silly me!)
    Crazy Love is one of my favorite books.
    Your church sounds so amazing. I really wish my church were more gung-ho about outreach and missions and it bothers me that only a select few step out of their comfort zone. I want to be a missionary badly and have a martyred uncle who was in captivity for 17 months then killed while proclaiming Christ to the Colombians and the Guerrillas who captured him and I long to do the same (and have been praying my husband is willing to do so). That's so great about Red Shoes!!!! I love how God works!

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  5. wow. humbled heart. excited passion. and I am thankful that my desperate cries for a generation, exist. Here's to KINGDOM LIVING. Excited to Kingdom Live alongside you, well at least in the blog world ;)

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  6. I love this story.Thanks for the reminder to always listen.

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  7. Francis always brings new perspective to things and I always appreciate that so much. This is SO beautiful. When the Lord calls you out of your comfort zone it's a mixture of the worst thing ever and the BEST thing ever!!! :) I'm so proud of y'all for answering his call and doing the uncomfortable!

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