When You're Seeking Wholeness
So here I am, back from a three week sabbatical. I have needed a reset for awhile, some time to think and sort things out, get some fresh ideas into my brain, and give voice to more ponderings. :)
~
Most days you know what you're going to get. Life seems pretty predictable and there's a rhythm, even if the rhythm means three people in the family working, six kids being schooled and a whole lot of people needing you to help them live their lives.
Then you have one of those days. One of the days when you've got a friend or a relative in the hospital; when a tire goes out on an old van and you're stuck; when you've got a friend who calls and talks for hours because they feel lost; or one of the days when you're on the other side of that phone.
I knew a woman once who was so glued to her schedule that if anything went wrong, her whole week was ruined. Whatever she had planned to do that day was no longer going to get done. Her life was pretty much thrown to the wind at that point.
But whenever my mom looks back on a day like that, she says "life happened", and there's truth in more than one form there.
There will be days that for better or worse will change the course of your life, and often the lives of others too. Sometimes it's a freak accident. But sometimes it was you who made the call. It was the words said, or left unsaid. It was the misunderstandings, the assumptions, the things you didn't want to have to face but had no choice.
So you said no - or yes, or chose to run and really there aren't any easy decisions when inevitably someone is going to get hurt.
Why does this world have to be so hard and hurtful?
Job felt it - the grief of a broken world. Yet what did he cry out, but:
"Though He slay me, I will hope in Him..." (13:15)
Somehow that man nailed it.
Maybe He is killing us in order to heal us?
Maybe we need to live out the hurt to really know the Healer?
There is no resurrection without ruination - "Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead." (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
It's one of the mysteries of the Christian faith, yet one that can be understood: by dying, we find life. By dying to self every day, we become more like Him, and begin to reveal more of Him to the world. Forget about modern "life-giving" solutions, this is a call that raises the dead and changes the world.
We develop it on days like this - the hard days. The days when God takes a match to our schedules and says "Guess Whose will you'll be living out today!?"
Life happens on days like this. Hearts are rended, tears may flow, dead souls are raised to life and we have the opportunity to praise Him through every day.
Don't be afraid to step into the darkness, even if you're the only light in sight. There is breath in your lungs - you are here to change the world. Don't you dare forget that.
~
Most days you know what you're going to get. Life seems pretty predictable and there's a rhythm, even if the rhythm means three people in the family working, six kids being schooled and a whole lot of people needing you to help them live their lives.
Then you have one of those days. One of the days when you've got a friend or a relative in the hospital; when a tire goes out on an old van and you're stuck; when you've got a friend who calls and talks for hours because they feel lost; or one of the days when you're on the other side of that phone.
I knew a woman once who was so glued to her schedule that if anything went wrong, her whole week was ruined. Whatever she had planned to do that day was no longer going to get done. Her life was pretty much thrown to the wind at that point.
But whenever my mom looks back on a day like that, she says "life happened", and there's truth in more than one form there.
There will be days that for better or worse will change the course of your life, and often the lives of others too. Sometimes it's a freak accident. But sometimes it was you who made the call. It was the words said, or left unsaid. It was the misunderstandings, the assumptions, the things you didn't want to have to face but had no choice.
So you said no - or yes, or chose to run and really there aren't any easy decisions when inevitably someone is going to get hurt.
Why does this world have to be so hard and hurtful?
Job felt it - the grief of a broken world. Yet what did he cry out, but:
"Though He slay me, I will hope in Him..." (13:15)
Somehow that man nailed it.
Maybe He is killing us in order to heal us?
Maybe we need to live out the hurt to really know the Healer?
There is no resurrection without ruination - "Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead." (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
It's one of the mysteries of the Christian faith, yet one that can be understood: by dying, we find life. By dying to self every day, we become more like Him, and begin to reveal more of Him to the world. Forget about modern "life-giving" solutions, this is a call that raises the dead and changes the world.
We develop it on days like this - the hard days. The days when God takes a match to our schedules and says "Guess Whose will you'll be living out today!?"
Life happens on days like this. Hearts are rended, tears may flow, dead souls are raised to life and we have the opportunity to praise Him through every day.
Don't be afraid to step into the darkness, even if you're the only light in sight. There is breath in your lungs - you are here to change the world. Don't you dare forget that.
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