On the day of writing this blog I woke up at 5am. To give you a bit of context, we are an early rising household but even for me 5am is early. I felt refreshed, I felt as though I had genuinely had enough sleep, but I also had a slightly unnerving thought running through my mind. Deep within my heart, at 5am in the morning, a time when our hearts are often most unedited I heard “…too much time has already been wasted!“
I am in a stage of my life when there is much change on the horizon. I think, for many of us, we are living through days that will continue to present us with much change, and though time and tide has generally waited for no man, in these days it feels like time is an even more precious commodity.
Earlier I read these words from John Eldredge: “All change feels like loss at first, but especially this year because our recovery is still tender. When we pass through a series of chronic disappointments like we have in the last eighteen months, we are sensitive to anything that feels like more disappointment. It’s a good idea to check in with your heart…“[i]
I like that “…it’s a good idea to check in with your heart.”
So, at around 5:30am I got up and went into our living room. I sat down with my Bible and I read from Genesis, the Psalms and Matthew. They were the chapters in my daily reading plan for the day. I prayed and I asked God the questions that were so easily presenting themselves to me:
“ Father, how did I arrive at this moment in time?”
“Where do I go next?” What do I need to check in on within my heart?“
Now, none of these are questions that generally get answered within a few minutes. And, if my experience of following Jesus has taught me anything it is this; sometimes I have to get comfortable hanging out with the questions for quite a while. The answers mostly come, but there is that ‘be still…’ part to the disciple’s journey.
But, I do know something immediately. None of us have come out of the last eighteen months unaffected. But, we are all coming out! There are new opportunities on the horizon, God has a plan for every one of us. The master of the feast is still saying “…but You have saved the best til now!“[ii]
If you are reading this blog, and you don’t quite know how to get everything moving in the right direction again, you are in good company. I feel a bit like that myself, and there are many people who I speak to who tell me that they feel that way too.
But as Billy Graham once said “if you are walking with Jesus and your story has not turned out well, then it is not the end of your story. I have read the last page of the Bible.”
Friends, let’s not kid ourselves, we are living in very unusual times. There is a future hope that Jesus is offering to us all. That hope is found at the end of a very narrow path, but it is there for all who will trust the fact that Jesus has always known that we would arrive at this moment and whatever this moment looks like for us, He has not been caught off guard!
“The offer is [still] fullness of life for you and those you hold dear. It is available. It isn’t cheap. It isn’t easy. It isn’t quick. But it is worth the cost.” [iii]
Photo supplied by flickr.com: https://flic.kr/p/EtYdXL
[i] Wild at Heart Blog: https://wildatheart.org/blogs/john/keep-recovery-and-resilience-front-you
[ii] The Gospel of John 2:10
[iii] Morgan Snyder, Becoming A King, p.XXI
