Maybe there’s something poetic about hiding in plain sight.
Or maybe it’s weakness.
Or maybe it’s strength to stay composed while the world crumbles and stirs around you.
Maybe it’s survival. Maybe it’s faith.
Maybe I’m not hiding at all! maybe I’m standing.
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job 13:15
Have you ever had a season of life when the ground shakes beneath every step? You hang on for dear life in the waking, and doings, of your day, and wonder if it will ever get better and, “What in the world is happening?”.
In the seasons when the, “can go wrongs”, become the “going wrongs”, can we find the light? Or are we blind? Maybe it’s all about perspective.
I’ve had a time recently! It’s been one hit after another, then another, to prove that maybe I should just lay down and give up. But I’m not one to give up!!!
I can’t help think tonight about the pain and sting of it all. Not even necessarily my pain, but the pain I see happening around me also. I wonder where the line blurs between humanity and God. What are we capable of handling and what should we bury ourselves in prayer and tears over? Life isn’t always easy!
I wish I could be optimistic all of the time, but some days bring more sting than others. It’s humanity. It’s life. It’s a brilliant saga lived out in skin.
Still, when God seems distant or hope seems a memory, there is this subtle joy that can spring out of nowhere. The key is finding the romance in the midst of the chaos. Maybe that is my mission. Maybe I can be a beacon for the lost and waiting.
We wait for tomorrow while clinging to today or some other distant day.
We wait for light when the sun has set.
We wait for inspiration and hope when the world screams, “failure”.
And in the waiting, we are better.
There may not be a rose garden awaiting us on the other side of the briar patch. Still, what we learned in the dark, we carry to the light.
Never underestimate the power and potential of your struggles.
Fight when the world has knocked you flat.
Get up when you don’t know how to open your eyes!
Be you! Authentic and unapolegetic!
I can’t help but believe that a God who sees all, knows who I am and what I face, and has equipped me for a moment like this.
Don’t let anyone steal who you ARE!
SHINE!
Tomorrow is another adventure in YOUR story. What are you going to do with it?
The truth is…
There are too many thoughts rolling around in my head to make anything fully coherent
The truth is…
I’m watching the things I’ve worked so hard to build crumble around me
Knowing still, it will all be okay and we will rebuild
We will be better than before
I live in hope
I am an optimist
My glass is half full always
Still I wonder, why does it never seem to be full?
Maybe that’s just life
Maybe the trials of this present time aren’t worthy to be compared with the joy to come
Maybe light and love trump darkness every time
Still I watch in helplessness
Water dripping from my broken roof
Drywall sagging and stained
The beauty of a home remodeled in need of restoration again
Irma was a punk
It hasn’t been fun
I haven’t complained…at least not really
A call from others pulls my husband away to make another roof blue in the aftermath of the storm
It temporarily stops their further damage but mine remains
As so often is the case, we are last on the list of our priorities
So we wait
Dinner cooks in the pan near the spot where the water pours
My kitchen a wet, sopping, disaster zone
My living room in disarray as the furniture sits in foreign places avoiding the inevitable spill
Why is it still raining?
Why does the sight of the trees fallen and dead all around my yard bring me sadness?
We are alive
We are whole
We are grateful
Still my patience runs thin
Oh how spoiled I’ve been
Oh how I long to be more than I am
To be who I was made to be
To leave behind the mundane and steadily place my hands to the plow and sow
But here I sit in a kitchen cooking dinner and maybe that’s enough
Photo Credit: Reuters
The thing about being in the Potter’s hands (Jeremiah 18, Isaiah 45) is that we don’t always know what he’s forming us into. Sometimes it might even seem like we’re sitting on a shelf and waiting until He’s ready to do something with us. Isaiah 45 taught us not to argue with the Potter about the final outcome, but what should we do while we wait?
In I Kings 19, God tells Elijah to go anoint Elisha as prophet in his place. God has a mighty purpose for Elisha. We have the benefit of being able to read the whole story so we know that Elisha will do mighty works for the Kingdom of God. God will use him to perform miracles, obliterate wickedness, speak the word of the Lord. His ministry will be great.
I’m sure Elisha knew God had called him too, even before that day when Elijah showed up. He was quick to recognize the mantle and anointing of Elijah and follow him when he called. He didn’t just follow him, he gave EVERYTHING to follow him. That shows me that he was already following the Lord with his whole heart. He was waiting for instructions and activation in his ministry. God was faithful to give it.
But what was he doing while he waited?
I Kings 19:19 “He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair.”
When Elijah found him, he was plowing the field, tilling the soil, planting seed. He was already using what he had to make something.
When it feels like you are waiting around for life to start, for God to use you to do something big, why don’t you use what you have in your hand to make something beautiful. Start plowing. Plant a seed. Speak words of life to those around you. Be a smile to a hurting heart. Be a willing ear to someone who needs to let it all out. Help carry someone else’s burden. Pray with a neighbor. Talk to a stranger. What’s in your hand? What can you do now?
Don’t wait around for something big to happen, start spreading life NOW. The big things will come but even if they don’t, your life is about right now. Today always impacts tomorrow so spend it wisely. Make like Elisha and grab a plow!
INSPIRED BY THE COMFORTER 