You Want Me to Do What? The Power of Molting!

Crashing waves from the Pacific call to me, beckoning me to come and play in it’s frothy waters. The beach has always been the place I run to. It’s the place I feel most at home. It’s the place where my heart is refreshed and my thoughts can slow down and be processed.

Strolling along, my fingers find comfort being woven in between his. The sound of his voice is lost somewhere between his lips and my ears. The roar of the waves caries his words off to a distant place. Rounding the corner, I feel like I’ve suddenly stepped into Auschwitz and there are no survivors. Stunned, I stand like a stone statue. Thousands of complete crab skeletons speckle the beach. Speechless, my mind tries desperately to piece together any possible ways this could’ve happened. Was there a crabbing feast and the guests just left them randomly all over? Did some crabbing boat just remove the meat and toss their shells out and they’ve washed up? Like an investigator at a murder scene, I carefully pick up one for closer examination. Crab after crab is exactly the same. I am completely perplexed, so I…..googled it.

How does one get to be 56; grow up on the beach and not know that crabs molt? Yep, you read that right. Crabs molt. They outgrow their skin from the inside out and have to shed it. They wiggle out the back end of their shells leaving it all intact. They are all brand new. Want to watch it? You Tube has some amazing footage.

As we grow and discover new things about our Creator, we are called to leave our old ways behind. I have to wonder if we are called to molt? Just wiggle out of the old and embrace the new. I don’t know about you, but it often takes me a long time after I realize I’ve outgrown my current understanding of God and His ways, to let it all go and fully embrace my new understanding. It’s always uncomfortable for me. I want to hide and protect, unsure of myself. Just like the crab after it sheds its old skin and the new shell is still soft. It takes awhile to adjust and keep a firm hold on the new understandings. Anyone else with me?

If you are feeling like God is growing you from the inside out and need to molt, go ahead. I can tell you, it feels fabulous!

Until We Chat Again,
Crystal

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. - Romans 12:1,2 MSG