You have circled this mountain long enough
It may be in a month that’s little noticed when the earth moves under you. And God says, “You’ve stayed here long enough.” And something within you shifts.
It may be in a month that’s little noticed when the earth moves under you. And God says, “You’ve stayed here long enough.” And something within you shifts.
The challenge in any time of seasonal shift is not to let the messiness keep you from ending what needs to be ended and starting what needs to be begun.
Long ago, God designed three times of celebration, times when his people, still today, can say to the press and the stress of life: “You wait a minute, while I delight in the Lord.”
At times in this world, all eyes turn toward what seems most important, invincible, extraordinary. If we look further, the Lord will remind us what actually is.
During the volatile months before our Moscow trip – and during the intense days when we struggled to reach another hemisphere and to connect with the people we were sent to serve – it seemed we would never get there. But we did. And it was so, so worth it.
Tanks rolled through Moscow’s streets – the very place we were supposed to distribute thousands of Bibles in two weeks. “I don’t plan to beat down any doors,” I wrote. “Or even to push hard against those I find closed. But what God opens, I will walk through.”
“You may come more than once to the place where you despair of life, where it looks as though everything has come to an end and there is no more. But – believe it – God does not mean it as an end; God means that there shall be more life than ever.” – T. Austin Sparks
The Proverbs 31 woman shows us what other Scriptures teach us: When we fight fear of the future with the fear of the Lord, our God becomes to us a sanctuary.
How often do we Western Christians inhabit the natural, and remain oblivious to the spiritual? Seeing only the “seen,” we deeply fear what lies ahead. But Jesus died, rose and ascended so we can live in two worlds at the same time - the natural world we can see with our eyes, and the supernatural one we can see only by the Spirit.
The woman described in Proverbs 31 could look ahead, and smile. I longed to do the same. Even in hard times, especially in hard times, I wanted to experience: The laughter born of faith in him who is faithful and true. The joy of those who smile because they see.
When Jesus calls you to walk on the water to meet him – GO!
Most likely, none of us would choose brown and gray all year long. But if we don’t stop to appreciate what God has made beautiful in this time, we may get all our presents and miss all our moments.