HOLDING ON TO LOVE IN THE STORM

We are enjoying another day of winter's wrath as the storm blows through our region, the children have even found the snow day calculator: plug in your zip code, current days off from weather, and then you have prediction power. I wonder if there is something like this for our spiritual lives? Can we submit the trials we have been through, our current stamina and then get a guaranteed calculation for what will come?

Instead of being like a, "tree planted by streams of living water," Psalm 1:3 we are uprooted and oftentimes completely undone by the storms in our lives. Piles of flakes accumulate, our hearts break with the weight of the world and our lives crumble. Pain, bearable and unbearable, crashes upon us like the roar of the ocean, as if a Nor' Easter was let lose in our soul. How do we find our footing, clean up the wreckage, make our way to rebuilding when life has crushed our very soul?

There is a way, debris removal: take each piece of your hurting, wounded soul and hold it up to your Maker and ask, "Is this life-giving and true?" We find we are furious with God for all we have lost, and we ask, "God?"

"Yes, My child, you are angry at Me for your situation. You have needed this anger to survive and now it is time to let it go. Bring your hurting heart to Me. Allow My love to heal you. Accept that My ways are higher than your ways. Isaiah 55:9 know that I will fulfill My purposes for you and that My love endures forever."Psalm 138:8

Need help cleaning up after the storms of life? It won't be easy or quick, but God can help.

Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge." Ephesians 3:19

SURPRISED BY LOVE

Life is hardly ever about the surface, what's happening on the level of conversation and conflict, emotion and response; we long to know we're loved. Like a constant ever-flowing stream under our lives is one truth: we are loved. How do I know this, how can I be so sure? It is written in my heart when I wake in the morning and splashed over the life that I live. His Word tells me, "Great is His love towards us and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever." Psalm 117:2  I have only to ask for the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

"Be still My Child, and know I am God. I come to you, but you are not available to hear Me and know Me. I am Love. You will be purified by my love; I sit as the refiner of your soul."

I want to argue, "I don't know what you are talking about God." I know exactly what He's referring to. I read and pray and God hardly gets a word in edge-wise. He wants to quiet me with His love, but I don't want to be hushed, I want to understand. He only guarantees He is faithful and true, like a stream of love and mercy running in the depth of our souls.

Ice floes cause such devastation, ruining ships and lives and expeditions. Endurance chronicles Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton's encounter with ice packs; amazingly no lives were lost on this voyage, but much misery was suffered and countless cargo lost. I wonder if the same is true for us?

Living in the love and grace of God allows us to maneuver water and challenges that might not be so simple. Far less damage is done in my relationships and my heart when I walk knowing I am loved. God's love is like a rudder to guide us, an anchor to ground us, like a life-jacket, that when all else fails and we are thrown into deep water, even then we will be saved because His love embraces us. And if , "God is love,"  as 1 John 4:16 says, then Love is actually our Pilot and He will see us safely through.

Been in rough waters? If you want smooth sailing rest in His love.

Medicine from Sacred Writing:

"The Eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the Everlasting Arms." Deuteronomy 33:27

THE INVITATION

Set deep in the woods near our home an icy bridge makes a path over the frozen stream; sunlight sends an invitation, "Come this way." Laughing through the snow I realize I haven't been listening or following lately. Sure, on the outside I appear fine to most, but inside the joy and dancing has dwindled in the darkness and doubt.

The shadows of the trees still fall across the path, but they are from without, not within. And this is my challenge: to find a place within my crowded heart and mind to hear the Voice of One saying, "I am with you, I am mighty to save; I take great delight in you, I will quiet you with My love, I will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17 It's as if my soul needs hearing aids because my life is so full it cannot hear its Maker.

He knows how I'm wired and helps; silence and nature are essential components as well as the joy of laughter and friendship. Solitude and stillness allow my soul to dance and sing. I wonder, will you and I heed His call and follow, will we take the opportunity to listen as He longs to lead?

Need Someone who knows you to guide you?

Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"The sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him." John 10:3, 14

LIGHT

In the early morning glow the day stretches out before me while the moon still hangs on the western sky, as if the sunrise waited for his permission. I have been up for hours sitting with the darkness, unable to see the fringe of the trees for the thickness of the night. Ever feel like you are in the waiting room of the dawn?

  I saw the sky peppered with stars and the moon holding onto its realm of glory, but I don't have a lens on my camera to catch the details. Looking at this picture I am so disappointed, you can see none of the deep beauty, the glorious darkness giving in to the coming day; it was tangible, the movement of darkness and light giving way, one for another.

This is true in my spiritual life; when I cannot see it may be that I do not have the proper lens to detect the deeper realities. "Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the Name of the Lord and rely on His God."Isaiah 50:10

 

Looking through a glass darkly will change the quality of what is captured; be careful of what you perceive in the dark, it may not be the whole picture. Stepping outside, steeped in the frigid air, waiting for the tree tops to be illuminated, I found the best photo. The moon appears like a blurry star,though, instead of a crescent of hope precisely placed by the Creator's hand. We cannot know if our perceptions are accurate until we have more light.

Trust the Mover of darkness to guide you.

Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"For with the Lord is the fountain of life; in your light we see light." Psalm 36:9

SO DOG-GONE EASY

Our rescue mutt is untrainable; he has taken to eating whole apple pies off the counter, stealing from the bread drawer and now opening the pantry shelves to help himself to granola bars and uncooked oatmeal. An "indoor fence" with a shock collar might become part of his near future. (He looks so innocent, doesn't he?)

It isn't difficult to obey; we provide all he needs for life and all we ask is that he keep to his own food and not follow his instincts to eat everything; there's the rub. It is just like our obedience, God provides all we need for life and godliness 2 Peter 1:3, but it seems hard and narrow; we are called to act a certain way, love a certain way and become more and more like our Master, trouble is we have so many survival instincts and natural pulls towards fun and ease that we sometimes end up like our pet Wilbur, with a face full of pleasure and a heart full of shame. (He won't look when he's ashamed).

What are we to do when life seems burdensome and our responsibilities more like obligations than opportunities? To face the world able to bear what is required of us, to be fully ourselves, using all our gifts and talents, free from survival instincts and raw sin, is challenging indeed. Maybe we need a shock collar too; instead God gives us gentleness. "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28, 29

How gentle are you with yourself and others?


Medicine from Sacred Writing:

"Fear not, nor start away from the yoke that lightens you from  many things, but put yourself under it with all forwardness, then you shall know the pleasure of it. For this yoke does not bruise your neck at all, but is put on you for good order's sake only, and to persuade you to walk well and lead you to the royal road, and to deliver you from precipices on every side, and to make you walk with ease on the narrow way. Since then so great are its benefits, so great its security, so great its gladness, let us with all our soul, with all our diligence, draw this yoke that we might find rest for our souls.

John Chrysostom Fourth Century

REFUGE IN THE STORM

This week's brooding winter weather turned into a tiny dusting, even though preparations were being made and provisions stored; we were all a little disappointed. But I am weary of storms ~ inside and out; I want Spring and joy and lightness of heart, even though there is pain and suffering and brokenness all around. People, marriages, countries, families, they bend and break under the weight of sin and lack of mercy one for another.

Even the tiny bird's nest in the yard is weighed down by the ravages of the season. There is a Divine Springtime, though, an endless melting of all we know so that God might recreate and make new all that we are and all that we see. Perhaps deeply connected to my desire for the storm to end is the belief that Someone comes to, "make all things new." Revelation 21:5 I cannot avoid the storm, I must be made new in it.

Just as Peter, we must learn to walk on water because of our desperate desire to be with Christ; in our challenges we come to an end of ourselves and seek the One impossible to reach by our own effort. It is the seeking and reaching for God that changes us.

There's a hedge of protection in the Father's heart. Found it yet?

Medicine from Sacred Writings:

"But is there no one to lead you? Come to me and I will show you the places of refuge of holy men...for they, as being strong, are able even in the midst of the raging waters to enjoy a calm; but you, who are leaky on every side, have need of tranquility, and to take breath a little after the successive waves."

John Chrysostom Fourth Century

FROZEN

Narnia? A friend recently suggested our world, wrapped in winter's robe, looks like C.S. Lewis's land where the White Witch reigned and it was always winter and never Christmas. We have a lamp post out our front door and I couldn't help being reminded of Lucy's meeting with the fawn.

The unknown terrifies and opens our hearts all at the same time.

The fountain I love is frozen solid; no little bird could grasp for a quick drink here, no refreshment in sight, not for months to come. The icicles drape the edges like the trim on an unworn dress, and I wonder. Is this how we make it through the storm, the cold, the days of, "always winter and never Christmas," by patiently waiting for the thaw?

Driving home recently I received this message on the dashboard of my husband's car. I immediately thought of my fountain; I must take care to look inward if I am to survive storms and such harsh conditions.

Child, 

I will come to you 

in glorious light.

Streams of living water

fill your soul.

Here you are to drink,

to feast, to refresh yourself

for a weary world.

Do you need to refuel?

Medicine from Sacred Scriptures:

"Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear, come to Me, that your soul may live." Isaiah 55:2-3