The last while, I've felt the weight of so many things pressing down on me. I've been juggling responsabilities at work, at home, with extended family, with my own health, with banks and doctors and insurance companies and more, concerned about friends and situations and so many changes in all of those areas that slowly, I've become overwhelmed.
I didn't realize that this is what had happened until a dear friend put his finger on it this morning during a pre-service prayer time. I have been carrying around a LOT of things, and to top it all off, there's now my schooling to add to the mix.
When I get right down to it, I could knuckle down and push harder, struggle fruitlessly against more than a dozen things that wear away at me ... or I could rest my whole person, my whole weight, on the One who is already holding me up. And He is holding all those other things too; I just need to remember that I can let go of them because HE HAS GOT ME, SO HE HAS GOT THEM TOO.
If my problem is worry, or a lack of faith, and I try NOT to worry or I try to drum up more faith, I WILL FAIL. HE provides that faith through His love for me. His love is the answer.
It's always the answer. His love is the higher spiritual plane, the updraft that catches my wings and lifts me.
If my problem is forgiveness (forgiving someone), and I TRY to forgive, I WILL FAIL. HE freely forgave me AND that person, and His love will conquer all those objections and teach me that it's okay to accept someone even if that person is hurting me ... or themselves ... or someone I love. His love will ALWAYS triumph.
If my problem is concern over so many that I love who are in need of a miracle in their lives, I am powerless to help them. HE is watching them even more closely than I can, and HE will work out all things according to His plan - for HE LOVES THEM.
And He loves ME.
It's not some abstract thing. It's HIM. HIM. Jesus. His Person. His Spirit.
It's HIS love
that rescues, heals, restores, and illuminates the darkest corners, the
most hopeless situations. It's HIS love that swoops down and scoops me
up to the heights, takes my breath away with His wild-at-heart goodness,
like Tarzan saving Jane from the jaguar, and like Aslan saving Eustace from his dragon-skin (in CS Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawntreader), the dragon-skin being a symbol of human nature.
The longer I've been a Christian, the more deeply I am aware of how little power I have of my own, and how desperately I need His immeasurable strength, the power of His Spirit, filling me up, overflowing from me.
There are so many voices shouting in my ear to listen to them. These voices harangue me, beat me down, chew me up and spit me out, tie me in so many knots that I am so sure that there is no way out of my predicament.
Then I hear His voice. It doesn't shout. Not at first, not until I learn to recognize it better. Jesus whispers His tender love to me, softly in my spiritual ears, into my brokenness, into my heart which has been so buffeted by twists of fate, billows of the consequences of my (and others') actions, and whirlwinds of circumstance.
He murmurs, ... and I wonder sometimes if it's Him or if my mind is playing tricks on me. But it's Him. He calls me to rest - calls me to peace, not to turmoil and uncertainty. He asks me to reach out my hand - a simple act of willingness - and He takes it from there. He leads me, gently, by a series of nudges, little whispers ... and when I follow them, I (and others) are always better off.
He Himself is the invisible road to go Higher. It's nothing I have done or ever could do. HE has done it all. HIS LOVE is supreme. There is nothing else.
There doesn't need to be.
I didn't realize that this is what had happened until a dear friend put his finger on it this morning during a pre-service prayer time. I have been carrying around a LOT of things, and to top it all off, there's now my schooling to add to the mix.
When I get right down to it, I could knuckle down and push harder, struggle fruitlessly against more than a dozen things that wear away at me ... or I could rest my whole person, my whole weight, on the One who is already holding me up. And He is holding all those other things too; I just need to remember that I can let go of them because HE HAS GOT ME, SO HE HAS GOT THEM TOO.
If my problem is worry, or a lack of faith, and I try NOT to worry or I try to drum up more faith, I WILL FAIL. HE provides that faith through His love for me. His love is the answer.
It's always the answer. His love is the higher spiritual plane, the updraft that catches my wings and lifts me.
If my problem is forgiveness (forgiving someone), and I TRY to forgive, I WILL FAIL. HE freely forgave me AND that person, and His love will conquer all those objections and teach me that it's okay to accept someone even if that person is hurting me ... or themselves ... or someone I love. His love will ALWAYS triumph.
If my problem is concern over so many that I love who are in need of a miracle in their lives, I am powerless to help them. HE is watching them even more closely than I can, and HE will work out all things according to His plan - for HE LOVES THEM.
And He loves ME.
It's not some abstract thing. It's HIM. HIM. Jesus. His Person. His Spirit.
 |
| Photo "Peregrine Falcon" by Tom Curtis at www.freedigitalphotos.net |
The longer I've been a Christian, the more deeply I am aware of how little power I have of my own, and how desperately I need His immeasurable strength, the power of His Spirit, filling me up, overflowing from me.
There are so many voices shouting in my ear to listen to them. These voices harangue me, beat me down, chew me up and spit me out, tie me in so many knots that I am so sure that there is no way out of my predicament.
Then I hear His voice. It doesn't shout. Not at first, not until I learn to recognize it better. Jesus whispers His tender love to me, softly in my spiritual ears, into my brokenness, into my heart which has been so buffeted by twists of fate, billows of the consequences of my (and others') actions, and whirlwinds of circumstance.
He murmurs, ... and I wonder sometimes if it's Him or if my mind is playing tricks on me. But it's Him. He calls me to rest - calls me to peace, not to turmoil and uncertainty. He asks me to reach out my hand - a simple act of willingness - and He takes it from there. He leads me, gently, by a series of nudges, little whispers ... and when I follow them, I (and others) are always better off.
He Himself is the invisible road to go Higher. It's nothing I have done or ever could do. HE has done it all. HIS LOVE is supreme. There is nothing else.
There doesn't need to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment