Patience in the Moonlight

I wonder what would happen in my life if I more often responded to the gentle nudges of His call instead of turning to distractions and running to hiding places.

I wonder what would happen if I turned this year to the subtle things He brings to my attention instead of making the excuses of the urgency of my to-do list, because I fear what He will ask is too difficult.

I wonder what would happen if I didn't snap into "fix it" mode, in whatever recipe that happens to be in my life with my fears, and let Him have more room to resolve an issue His way as I followed Him on that path.

I wonder what freedom could be found, what peace could be mine, what gifts there would be to share if I entered the waves with Him when He rolled them gently my way, trying to get my attention to something He wants to say, something He wants to heal, something wonderful He'd love for me to discover about a greater depth of who He is.

I think He is asking me to sit with Him in the moonlight, waiting for His pace and the turning of the seasons more patiently.  The sunlight can be dazzling, but it can sometimes also be a scorching place when He has also provided me a cool of the night and the glimpse of the stars and wants me to rest quietly with Him there, seeing in new ways the galaxies of His heart of which I've barely scratched the surface.

Blessed Contractions

I am a created being, set in time and space by His design.  I am in a relationship with the God who envisions and unfolds, though I see it so thinly, and I am filled with His Spirit who brings joy and purpose into the years and days and moments for Him to catch them and tenderly hold the most precious things we can give—our true selves shattered though we may be.  I, WE, have received the invitation of the King, an endless treasure waiting to work His beauty and strength into us and into the world.

But the message is somewhat in disguise, and certainly challenging to our human tendencies of self-preservation.  We are asked to take part in the great things He imagines and empowers to be.  In the midst of this amazing opportunity to live in His company, I am vulnerable, wounded, broken, and sometimes disappointed.   Living hurts and I can only see both the things of earth and of heaven in part.  And right in the middle of that perspective He asks me to be willing to trust Him. He knows it is in the rebirth from the shrouded womb of veiled understanding and foggy eyes that gains me glimpses of the light of truth, the breath of His Word and call, and the ability to stretch and move and play and twirl that can only be discovered when I am free from former prison bars.  This journey often feels like death.  It too often feels scary and constricting and harsh, until we have progressed through the birthing canal of obedience and perseverance and trust, and finally feel more tangibly His warmth and muscular arms holding us and celebrating our life on the other side of these particular contractions.   

Remarkably, old wounds can be healed in new time.  Lost days can be redeemed in these new calendar pages.  Years that the locusts of our lives have consumed can be restored as we sit with Him and let Him tell us the stories of all that He sees for the coarse fabrics of earthly life and the damage that we, and others, have done. 

As I consider time and the passing of years, blessings He has given, and missed opportunities, I realize again that He IS the beginning and the end and the One who is equally present in all, through all, over all.  A day or a moment are only limited for His glorious fingerprints by the width of the doorway I offer Him.  But when I will believe and welcome Him in, I feel again the power of His nearness, the deep assurance of His delight, the beauty that is HERE that fear would have had me miss.  

He has brought back to mind twice recently a word and vision that made a significant mark on me back in the fall of 2000.  “Come play with Me,” He said.  And it is in trusting the One I discovered in that moment, a Savior who delights in our companionship, that He really is a God of resurrection work.  The tomb of Lazarus, the burial place of Joseph of Arimathea that He briefly borrowed, and the seeming deaths of our own lives are not barriers for Him if we will come out of our tombs when He calls our name.  He is the God of “never-too-late”.  When He is present, anything is possible.  

January's Emanuel

We open our eyes to a new morning and a new year.  Most of us probably reminisced a bit as December scrolled to its splashy finale, thinking about good things we experienced in the past year.  We are now probably focused on fresh beginnings and hopes that “better” will come in all the “not yets” of our lives.  But scroll back just a week to Christmas dawn when we celebrated His arrival.  As we may now be inclined to lean in to our list of resolutions, our successes won’t likely be found in renewed efforts to improve ourselves, though it is certainly beneficial if our wills are alert. 

The Christ of Christmas is still with us, astonishingly close, ever present, still the Anointed One ready to pour out His oil on us as we open space in our minds, hearts, and wills to receive, ready to live out the calling for our lives.  If He is already a week away from your thoughts, pause for a moment to refocus and sit again at the side of the manger.  Let your heart swell again in the realization that a majestic Prince of heaven thought you were worth coming for.  And though He is reigning once again, He hasn’t forgotten you, and He isn’t far away.  He isn’t blind to how your year finished or what the new one will hold.  He is devoted to you.  He sees every need.  He will not be absent in a moment of all that will be wrapped up in whatever 2015 unfolds to be in each of our small stories and His immense one, all of them somehow miraculously woven together.

I pray that the eyes of our hearts will see Him more clearly this year.  I pray that these eyes will see those around us as He sees each one.  I pray that we will also see ourselves more closely to how He sees us.  I pray that we will attempt to look at our circumstances through His lens.

I had a couple of hours of conversation and coffee this week with an old friend I don’t often see.  One thing I noticed, and was so grateful for, was that in the midst of all we discussed of some difficulties we’ve experienced and the faithfulness of our God who is good, the eyes across from me were able to reveal both the glistening of a tear and the dancing light of hope.  Denial isn’t a noticeable part of my friend’s mindset, but cynicism hasn’t been given room to dwell there.  

We will all undoubtedly have troubles of one kind or another in 2015, but we also always have a reason to rejoice every day, for the God who cares so deeply is with us.  We will never be alone in our struggles if we let Him be our companion.  He will bring wisdom as we ask, help for each day, and provision as we have need. 

He is good and His love endures forever.

Rooted Mobility

I long to be so ready to respond to the movement of the Spirit that I can feel immediately when He is near, whispering my name to draw me close for receiving all I need in Him, or for summoning me to one of the works He has prepared for me to have a part in. 

It is far easier to be ready if I have set my mind on Him for the day, if I have allowed myself to be unwrapped from the heavy drapings of the cares of the world by soaking in His word and truth and being reminded of His love and His power and His purposes.  It is also beneficial if I haven’t succumbed to the tyranny of the urgent and all that would nip for my focus.

There are many gifts that He brings our way for our blessing and enjoyment.  I am not suggesting we need to create a desert for our lives to be in His will.  But I have found that being ready requires a continual stripping down of all the things that would try to grab my heart and entice me to fill the gaps in my life my way and hold those things out to Him, yielded.  The temptations are vast.  I must lean in to really trust that He will meet me in the needs and longings and sorrows.  I must believe for the unfolding of His best in and through my life as I give Him all the room to guide it for His purposes. 

It is in the waiting and yielding of heart, mind, and will that the seeds of joy are sown.  It is in the trusting, when timing and circumstances don’t go as I would choose, that tiny plants of faith are grown. It is in the resisting of anything but what He says is good for the season I am in that strong oaks and fruit-laden trees will be formed, because they have been planted close to the living waters of His promises, nourished there as I can discover  His daily provision. 

As I end this year with many dreams not yet achieved and some hopes not yet received, I know this is the best life I can live.  It isn’t about my immediate happiness or accomplishments.  It is about all the desires that He has for my heart and life and is utterly faithful to produce if I will live a trusting life, if I believe He is profoundly good.  

Eat and See

After Mary’s new baby had taken His first breath, part of the heavenly announcement was that the shepherds would find Him “wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  This young new mother had dressed Him in His first earthly apparel, simple and rough though it may have been.  Then instead of being physically wrapped in His mother’s protective arms, He was laid in a manger.  Mary obviously was quick to be in the rhythm of God that her son had arrived FOR the world. 

He seemed to be being offered as food to us right from the start as she willingly placed her precious newborn there in the feeding place of the stable. It was her first sacrificial action after He arrived.  She seemed to be saying, “Here He is; taste and see that the LORD is good.” 

We don’t get nourished by looking at food from afar.  We have to pick it up and chew on it.  The breaking down of our literal food into nourishment happens in the quiet hidden places.  So too with the spiritual food we are offered.   Taste and see.  Maybe that doesn’t just mean “taste and have the evidence”, but “taste and have your eyes opened.”

Carrying Christmas

And on we go from the special Holy-days…celebrated to remind us to hold Christmas close and walk in its miracle.

Continue to be a Mary who receives, a Joseph who believes, one who, though our life inn-box is full, makes room to welcome Him and be filled with the wonder of His arrival.  Let us see that He is the ever-green one who continues to work and bless, the twinkling light of hope in our darkest nights, and the great guiding star, hanging there brightly, waiting for us to look up.  He will be faithful to guide us forward, then finally home.  

He is the wisest man who has journeyed to us from Heaven, hoping to walk with us into each of our days.  He is the tending shepherd and the sacrifice lamb who has already done the greatest work for us and now invites us into new days and new years to continue to feel the effects of His strength and care.  Oh, let’s not pack up all of Christmas.  What He offers wasn’t meant to be seasonal.  

Faith Journey

Faith is a journey we are all invited into.  The first shining moment of it is a gift of the revelation we were given when we first got a glimpse of Him and turned His direction.  Faith is the opportunity we have from that moment on, and begins as baby steps, never being developed into a stronger walk and run unless we get the legs of it beneath us, putting our weight on its promises, and actually begin to travel its road.  A great faith doesn’t get built unless we step into the unknown of trust for real messes in our real lives with all the risks and dangers they hold, believing that He will come through as a good and mighty God, actually doing the part of BEING God.  He didn’t walk up the hill of Calvary, through the now-broken gates of hell, and out of a tomb for less than continuing on as Living God for those who desire a relationship with Him. 

We cannot hold back at the fringes of our circumstance and see Him often come through for us if we prefer to meet all of our own needs and figure out the answers by ourselves.  The blessings of the miraculous are more often the reward of those who jump off the edge of the dock of self-preservation, recognizing both their need and His promise to be the provision, and allow themselves to experience His saving work in the sea of faith.  But it isn’t easy.  I’ve realized that there may only be one lesson in life… “Will you trust Me?” and it comes to us day by day in thousands of variations.

He offers us everything He is and has, all the resources of the storehouses that hold all He has won for us.  We get salvation handed to us as an undeserved gift.  Faith is another matter that is built as we walk together with Him and engage with Him as companion and Lord, counselor, shepherd, strong tower, and King.  

We have just celebrated His arrival on the planet.  A real event in real time and space.  He did what the Father asked of Him through thirty-three years of obedience, with perfect timing and a heart that wouldn’t quit.  But faith He cannot do for us.  He cleared the way for us to have a miraculous life.  Only our choices can give us that adventure.