Clinging to the Constant

Clinging to the constant can bring a beautiful and abiding sense of security, filling us with an awareness of a settled place that all is right in the world.  Clinging to the constant can bring a foreboding and abiding sense of dread, filling us with an awareness of a settled place that there is no option but wrong in the world.  Whether the constant in our life is a source of joy, affirmation and pleasure or is a deliverer of oppression, fear and pain, the constant is not an omnipotent force over life forever more.

Our life may be adorned with loved ones, accomplishments, health, abundance and beauty.  Rejoice for it and celebrate it often.  Be thankful and embrace it fully for in the natural course of a lifetime, there are endings and beginnings and what happens in between may be different tomorrow than it was today.  The future may be a far cry from the past, in time and in blessings. 

Our life may be riddled with challenges and obstacles, pain and lack.  Success seems just over the horizon like the setting sun and it feels like we are bound under the heat of noonday.  Do not lose hope and do not turn back.  Do not be blinded by the glare of the heat for in the natural course of a lifetime, there are endings and beginnings and what happens in between may be different tomorrow than it was today.  The future may be a far cry from the past, in time and in cursings.

Clinging to the constant is a tenuous and a fragile strength, unless the constant into which we lean has the depth and the strength of the Rock of Ages.  Let not the foundation of blessings on which you now stand become a stumbling block.  Let not the bed of adversity on which you now lie become a prisoner’s cot. 

Pouring from the Rock of Ages is grace to embrace the blessings and the cursings that surround us.  Settled deep within Grace, neither the glorious blessings nor the scorching cursings will consume us if to the Rock we cling.  If to the Rock we cling, our path will not become slippery when our lives are anointed with oil.  If to the Rock we cling, we will not thirst when we are led through the desert.

Hope Deferred

Though I love you, and understand that you love me, we cannot be together.  We quote the same ideals and we profess the same convictions, yet when we are together, we tear each other apart.  I have read, and I have learned by loving you that this is indeed true, for “Hope that is deferred afflicteth the soul: desire when it cometh is a tree of life.”  For each hurdle that we overcome and each attack that we recover from, hoping for peace with you and from you is hope deferred.

You have other relationships that are healthy and so do I.  Respect is key and the camaraderie and laughter flow naturally like drops of rain of a spring shower.  Acceptance is a two-way street and joy paves the way bringing warmth and encouragement like the morning sun after midnight’s darkness.  But when you and I come together, face-to-face or across a telephone line, the words become like lightning bolts that slice and electrocute from far across the heavenly skies. 

With fear and with trembling, I am making a decision to keep my distance, in word and in presence.  The choice may feel to you like an action of rejection but in Truth, my heart is sick and I cannot continue on.  The decision does not mean that I do not love you; the decision is a step in the direction of a love that is healthy, like an oak tree richly rooted by the river of Living Water. 

It is true that the heat will come, for your identity thrives by whom and how many are around you.  I know the heat will come, for your family will reflexively attack when the weight of my decision bears down upon them. 

But I am confident of this Truth that a tree planted by the river of Living Water has no worries in a year of drought and will never fail to bear fruit.  Its leaves are always green. 

My desire is that the love that we have for each other will become a tree of life to the other and to those around us; perhaps one day, so it will be.

 

What Brings Peace

What brings peace
is not the absence of conflict,
but the presence of Sovereignty.

What brings peace
is not less of pain,
but more of Love.

What brings peace
is not blissful unity
but grace-filled Truth.

What brings peace
is not a plethora of knowledge
but a mustard seed of Faith.

What brings peace
is not blind and obstinate obedience
but discernment with humble submission.

What brings peace
is not unchallenged authority
but a rockbed of servanthood.

What brings peace
is not what I dream of
but what I long to be an instrument of.