Life can be a hodgepodge, an ebb and flow, a maze – of inspiring, enabling promises and, broken ones – of fulfilled dreams and shattered ones – of successes and failures – of carefully planned and achieved hopes and seemingly random, often cruel, perversions of what is good. Life is a journey that reaches for a destination, but the journey may be detoured, or abruptly interrupted. What do we do when that life is our own? Most of us walk forward rather nonchalantly when our world is quiet, even if it may be busy, intense with pursuing or at least, meeting the expectations and plans we once laid out. Even as believers, we gain a theological stance, a set of beliefs we are comfortable with, a God who fits nicely into our well managed lives. But then, shattered, broken pieces intrude on our calm. Marriages are threatened. Finances can no longer be stretched. Mental health or physical health perplex both us and the doctors trying to help us. The child we love lies cold in a grave. Or, the child we love makes choices contrary to beliefs we have always rooted deeply in our hearts. What do we do when that life is our own?
The church is learning that real people living in the reality of a real and broken world need a real God who loves and cares and provides. And we are learning how to face the reality of our needs, acknowledge the effects of those needs on our lives, and we are learning how to journey forward with our very real and caring God and asking Him to do what we cannot do. We are learning it needs to be a journey of utter dependency on our God, waiting for His leading and His enabling. There is an element though of courage that must still permeate the journey, because although courage too is a gift from our God, there is still a choosing on our part that embraces the gift of courage.
When we embrace the gift of courage, we choose to walk forward when confronted with loss, pain, emptiness, inadequacy, personal challenges, the darkness and insecurity of the unknown. The gift of courage chooses to walk forward even when I know that in myself I have nothing to give. It knows that I must find something, someone, bigger than myself to cope with the waves, the triggers, that want to engulf me and smother any resources I thought I had.
Courage is really faith in action because faith too is a choice, and faith chooses God in the middle of all the muck, reaches for His hand, responds to His heart, and chooses to put all the pain, the inadequacy, the darkness, and the emptiness in His hands, and leaves it all with Him. Courage is wise enough to know when the rawness scrapes again and courage is wise enough and dependent enough to know that the over and overof courageously choosing to stay with God is okay. It’s more than okay. It’s essential. It’s vital. And that courage helps me continue to walk forward on my journey, finding others who will journey with me, but more importantly, continuing to choose my God and let Him hold me, keep me close, comfort my broken spirit, and saturate me with His hope that gives light and purpose for all of my tomorrows.
God has not promised days without pain, laughter without sorrow, nor sun without rain, but He has promised strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way. When we courageously choose to walk forward with our God, we make the choice not only for courage, but also for faith, and our faith becomes a vibrant, courageous choice for God.
(Related Bible reading: Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:9; Psalm 31:24; Isaiah 57:15; Matthew 14:27)
The church is learning that real people living in the reality of a real and broken world need a real God who loves and cares and provides. And we are learning how to face the reality of our needs, acknowledge the effects of those needs on our lives, and we are learning how to journey forward with our very real and caring God and asking Him to do what we cannot do. We are learning it needs to be a journey of utter dependency on our God, waiting for His leading and His enabling. There is an element though of courage that must still permeate the journey, because although courage too is a gift from our God, there is still a choosing on our part that embraces the gift of courage.
When we embrace the gift of courage, we choose to walk forward when confronted with loss, pain, emptiness, inadequacy, personal challenges, the darkness and insecurity of the unknown. The gift of courage chooses to walk forward even when I know that in myself I have nothing to give. It knows that I must find something, someone, bigger than myself to cope with the waves, the triggers, that want to engulf me and smother any resources I thought I had.
Courage is really faith in action because faith too is a choice, and faith chooses God in the middle of all the muck, reaches for His hand, responds to His heart, and chooses to put all the pain, the inadequacy, the darkness, and the emptiness in His hands, and leaves it all with Him. Courage is wise enough to know when the rawness scrapes again and courage is wise enough and dependent enough to know that the over and overof courageously choosing to stay with God is okay. It’s more than okay. It’s essential. It’s vital. And that courage helps me continue to walk forward on my journey, finding others who will journey with me, but more importantly, continuing to choose my God and let Him hold me, keep me close, comfort my broken spirit, and saturate me with His hope that gives light and purpose for all of my tomorrows.
God has not promised days without pain, laughter without sorrow, nor sun without rain, but He has promised strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way. When we courageously choose to walk forward with our God, we make the choice not only for courage, but also for faith, and our faith becomes a vibrant, courageous choice for God.
(Related Bible reading: Deuteronomy 31:6; Joshua 1:9; Psalm 31:24; Isaiah 57:15; Matthew 14:27)
