Living With Both Joy and Sorrow is Living Full

 

In this world we have sorrow.

In this world we experience joy.

I once really struggled with how to live with both. How can I smile when I am hurting, physically or emotionally or both?

How can I say I am well when I'm not?

I thought I had to choose until I couldn't.  Because choosing meant that one reality needed to be discarded in lieu of the one I chose. Choosing one negated the other and both were very much a reality.

That's when I discovered the peace of living with both at the same time. And I realized both can coexist together. Both can be held with an equal right to be present and living with both made my life full.

Full of today.

Full of the presence of Jesus. 

Full spectrum of life's emotions. 

I can sing and cry.

I can laugh and mourn.

Picture with me one of those surveys that have a line and on one end there's the number one and on the other is the number ten.  One end says needs improvement and the other says excellent. You are supposed to rate the product you purchased or the experience you had. 

It captures and gives place to rate the spectrum of one's experience. 

So it is with joy and sorrow, pain and healing, storms and sunshine... to live with one on one end and the other on the other end; you live with the full spectrum and a life that experiences a peace which passes understanding.  

To encompass both is really to encompass the full of life.

A visual that helped me tremendously is the posture of two hands... to hold out both of my hands.  In one is placed what is hard, what hurts, and what emotion I am feeling.  In the other is placed the Greater Truths of Jesus and my choice to believe Him and if I can't in the moment, I say I want to.  In this hand is placed the choice to trust and in faith, stay with Jesus.  Then either lift them both up as an offering of praise or fold them together in a prayer for strength, for eyes to see Him, and a heart to trust.

For Jesus was fully man and fully God.  He came as an infant, born of a woman, life, flesh and blood, with feelings.  And yet, He embodies full divinity.  It's a mystery and a paradox that is the way of Jesus still today.  His ways are beyond ours but to live with both/and is to live fully alive in Him.

To experience pain is to know and experience healing.

To know disappointment is to realize there is hope.

To experience loss opens the way for comfort.

To know darkness is to experience the gift of light.

To be dead spiritually is to realize and experience the gift of our Saviour, Jesus and His life.

So the wrestle continues not in a new way of believing Him, but in a way each time something happens to choose Him again.  To choose to stay with Him, now, today and to find Him again in this both/and.

The Voice of Light

 

The morning light filtering through the trees, illuminating.

I've always been fascinated with the highlights of light. 

Light exposes. Light reveals. Light pierces through. 

Light pushes back darkness. Darkness fades and disappears as morning dawns.

Jesus is the Light.

"I am the Light of the world; He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John 8:12

Jesus came in night, all was dark, not only physically, but dark with Roman rule and 400 years of silence with no voice from the Lord through any prophet. 

Waiting. Silence. Pain and hard.

But there were those who held on to the promise of a Saviour, a Messiah. 

Simeon, Luke 2:25, this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel. 

Anna, Luke 2:38, And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. 

And there were those whose hearts were open, looking, waiting, anticipating, to receiving the promise. Simeon and Anna are two of more that received because they were open and looking. 

Mary, not only opened her heart to possibilities, but also opened her womb and then her arms to cradle, to house the very Promise itself. 

We have the written promises of God and we too can choose to hold on to the promises He gives.

What promise speaks into your story today? What promise of God's truth would anchor your drowning heart in Him?

Find it. Claim it. And speak it over your heart.

Light a candle in defiance of darkness. Jesus is the Light. He is the Victor and in Him we too, can be overcomers, victors!

Let's keep our eyes on Him, the Light!

The Gift of Abundant Life

We all want life. There's something within us that wants to succeed, to make an impact, to bear fruit.  We really do want to live, even though many times we may want to give up. Grief and pain disturb us, it's not what we were meant to experience.

God breathed into us His breath of life and life is what He still wants to give us.  He tells us in John 10:10 that we can have life abundantly. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly."

We have an enemy, a thief.  He comes only to steal the life away from us.  He wants to kill it within us.  He wants to destroy life, because when he does, he destroys and gets at God.  He takes something away from God and that is the gift of life.

What does this life look like in your mind?  Bearing fruit?  Being successful at something you enjoy?  Good relationships?

Winter will be following this season of autumn.  Is that life?

What really is life and on top of it, what is the abundant life?

The way of Jesus is a way of paradoxes.  To fully know one thing, we must experience another.  And something I'm starting to see over and over, is that, life isn't always visible.  Actually, I'm realizing, the truest of life happens within.

A tree, when stripped of all leaves, is left bare, naked and vulnerable, is still very much alive.  Winter is a season of rest from producing to replenish.  Roots go deeper in search of nourishment.  Life is happening within.

Just like the tree, we too, have seasons of what feels like we're being stripped, left bare, open, and vulnerable.  

In my own journey, I've come to realize that these seasons are for Jesus.  They are the space He wants us to go deeper with Him.

Have you stopped to wonder why?

We get mixed up a bit, off course in what life is or at least I so easily can gauge my life in what "I am producing".  It's easy to define our success and life with what we do.

These moments of being stripped, finding ourselves bare and vulnerable are moments of grace and an invitation back to the heart of God.

The life within is the truest life and the life He wants to give is deep within our souls.  For when the harsh winds and storms of life happen to us, sending us bending and careening, it's only His love that anchors us.

For me, in my deepest and darkest season, I learned to know God's love for me just as deeply.  Actually deeper, for His love is greater than darkness and hard. It is the abundant life.  It's one that cannot be contained and is not stopped in the face of adversity.  It enables one to see beyond and it is an anchor when the harsh winds blow.

It is knowing loss that we see what is truly important.  It is knowing rejection that kindness shines brighter.  You see, for me, I discovered that when I was stripped, then I discovered what was really of value, what is the most important thing.

And that is simply Jesus.  "The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe." Proverbs 18:10.  His love is not hinged on me, doing good nor is it altered when I take a misstep.  His love doesn't change, it only changes me.  Deep within and abundant life takes root.

It's life that can't be taken away because it's not hinged on something that can be lost, but it's tied, anchored in Someone who is faithful, Jesus.

When His love grips us deeply, it grounds us, frees us, and gives us our voice.  Ephesians 3:17-19 (NASB) , "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth, and to KNOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God." (emphasis added)

In any season, in any joy or hard, let Him whisper His love, unconditional love, in your ear and let it go deep.  Search for Him.  He has told us that when we seek Him, we will find Him.  You may need to wait, but you will find Him. Lamentations 3:24, "The LORD is good to those who await Him, to the person who seeks Him."

And the life you find when you do, will transform you.  He may or may not change your storm, but He will change you.

Sometimes He calms the storm in your heart and other times, He will calm you, so that  you may know Him even deeper.

Friend, fellow-sojourner, I wish you Jesus.  For when you have Jesus, you have everything.

An Exchange That Reorients the Soul

Autumn is a season that invites us to let go. As the leaves let go, they enter a season of rest to find a restoring.

Autumn is season of letting go to find something more (or greater).  For if we keep hanging on to what we think we need or want,  we can't receive something else.

You're in a group of people and it feels unsafe for some reason. Different opinions. Different beliefs.

It's dark outside and it feels scary. 

Stories from days past that leave their mark in our limbic brain. Stories that are stored there and resurrected in a moment. 

We have these moments, occasions, happenings that unsettle our hearts. 

Those trigger moments that leave us reeling, staggering at times under the weight of their intensity. 

I have plenty of these moments and I venture to say you have them too. And I wonder what you do when these moments strike and pierce the very depths of your heart? 

For me... well, let's just say the short version, my responses are varied. 

Sometimes I remember who I am in Jesus and rise above, but far too often they keep me in their grip. 

I would love to sit with you, holding a cup of tea, and dialogue; giving voice to what is happening or has happened, so we can hear the one Voice that matters most. 

Because we can rise. We can heal. Memories can be rescripted, rewrote by the Master. 

I love to flower garden. Or I should say I love the planting and the reaping, the work in between I could do without. 😉 

The wandering in among flower blossoms, walking the trails through wooded land and seeing the filtered light through leaves on extended branches, brings a calm as I inhale the scent of the air around me. I sense a calming as I breathe deep. A settling among the turmoil that sometimes disrupts my soul. A reorienting of the teetering balance of my heart. 

There is something that happens in the world of plants, trees, and flowers. 

Exchange. 

There is a physical exchange between us and plants. 

We breathe out carbon dioxide, they breathe out oxygen.

We inhale the oxygen they give, they inhale the carbon dioxide we give. 

We release to absorb.  We let go to receive. 

Exchange happens in the garden. In a world of 

creation, in the very air we breathe. Exchange happens in connection. 

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

We were not created to be an island. Nothing is solely dependant in and of itself. 

The stone thrown in the water causes ripples that go on. All of nature is part of a cycle. What we do leaves a mark somewhere. 

And so my mind comes round to my anchor, Jesus.

Jesus wants to be our Exchange. He actually invites us to that many times. 

Come to Me and I will give you rest. 

He says,  Cast all your cares on Me and I will care for you. 

He gives us peace as we fix our gaze on Him, right in the middle of our storm. 

As we repent, He gives us salvation for our failures. 

His Truth, His Greater Truth, His promises are  what He offers and invites us to believe instead of what we believe to be true and even what may be true.

His promises are unending and new every morning for us to inhale.

Exchange our worries for His care. 

Exchange our failures for His grace. 

Exchange our weakness for His strength. 

Exchange our striving for His rest.

Exchange our painful stories for His rewriting of the script. 

The list goes on.

I don't know what hurts and aches are deep within your soul. But I do know the One who does. 

So, I pause and invite you to shift your gaze to Him and do an exchange with Him. 

Let go, for what He wants to give you.

It is His Voice we want to hear. 

His Voice that invites us to exchange.

Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Go wander with Him who cares most for your heart and soul.  Allow His presence to invade and saturate , filling you with His very breath. His breath of Life and promises of His peace, joy, and love. His promise of Himself.

Living a Life Emptied

 

I wonder what thoughts came into your mind as you read the title?  I wonder what living means to you?

For me, in my humanity, I want to have so I can give.  I want to attain so I can help. I want to be important and have something worth giving. We humans think to live we need to be full and to give, we need to have.

And in reality, that is oh, so true, for we cannot give what we do not have.  But the key is, what are we full of and what do we have?

Philippians 2:1-8 (NASB) has a message for us and because it is so connected I'm simply going to type all the verses.  

1)If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 

2)make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

3)Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;

4)do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

5)Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

6)who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7)but EMPTIED Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

8)And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This is a paradox, a bit radical, to live is to empty ourselves.  We find life after being emptied.

Jesus is our greatest example.  Verse 6 impacts me, He did not regard His royalty, His equality with God, a thing to be grasped.

Oh, how many times do I grasp something, I hang on, thinking I need this... to ....! (fill in the blank)

Jesus left it go, He laid it down.  He emptied Himself. Why??

He let it go for life.

He let it go, laying it down, so He could die to give us life, here and eternally.

He let it go for something greater, to make His love tangible.

Now let me clarify, He did not lose His royalty. He did not deny heaven.  He chose to lay it down, and yes, leaving heaven, to take on the form of man for a greater purpose, life!

This, my friends, brings me to my knees, causing me to bow before my Father in awe and reverence of who He is.

This one life we have to live can get quite complicated at times as we navigate living.  Satan wants nothing more than to destroy God and the life He wants to offer us. Satan will use anything, even good  to destroy God's breath of life within us and among us.

In the first verses, Apostle Paul was calling the Philippians to be united and intent on one purpose and he explains the mindset of Jesus.

Relationships get quite messy and broken a lot of the time.  Our own brokenness and distortion colours our view of what matters. 

And one of the ways to navigate living, is to start with verse five, having the attitude of Jesus.

1 - We cannot grasp on to something, even that which may be good and perfect, like royalty.

2 - We need to empty ourselves for that which matters more and most.

Jesus came to give.  Jesus emptied and was filled. 

We give what we have or are filled with.

What are you filled with?  What am I filled with? 

I'm either filled with what matters to me or more of God.

We cannot receive or be filled with God unless we first empty our hearts and hands of control, of lies and wrong beliefs, pride, bitterness, hatred, slander, etc. 

We need to let go to be able to receive what really matters.

We need to let go of revenge to find the grace of God is for me and my offender.

We need to let go so we can find God in all places.

Sometimes we may even need to let go of something that is good.

We let go of the striving, realizing that our jobs, getting it right, etc is not what defines us. Our worth comes not from getting it right, but we are defined because God pronounced His creation of us, good.

This is the season of autumn as I write this.  The leaves that were green are turning colours, the process of dying.  The leaves are good, the fruit once hung on trees is now gone. The season of summer is good.

As the trees let go of their leaves they are left bare and that is who the tree is.  Without taking care of itself, emptying itself of what is hanging on, the sap would run dry and eventually there would be nothing left to give.

The moments or times of letting go is hard, but oh, so freeing. It is a way of life and not a once and done thing. Seasons happen again and again. It's a continual leaning into Jesus, abiding in Him to find our life.  It's a remembering that life is not about us, but about God, Himself.

When we empty ourselves of ourselves and find Jesus, we find the truest form of life there is.  We find His abundant life that He so much wants to give us.  

And as we are daily filled with the truest Life we have something to give to those around us.

Humility is a fragile dance, for about the time we think we are, we make it about ourselves or am I the only one who finds myself in this dance??

It requires a daily, and sometimes moment by moment, remembering.  A remembering who I am and who God is.  It's a shift of focus towards God and remembering this is about Him and not me.  He can untangle threads and orchestrate details in ways I never could.

Humility requires me to trust God fully, again and again.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, not me! Humility is a by product of our awareness of who God is and who I am in His presence. Humility is the by product of allowing that to impact me.

Bloom, Right Where You Are

 This summer of 2023, found our family on a 4 week trip heading west. We left with much excitement and for me, it's a trip I'd do all over again. 

As it goes with travel, there is so much to see and learn about the world. To experience it firsthand is a gift I treasure. 

One of the things that stood out to me and I saw over and over again, was the life that exploded in many hard and out-of- the-way places. 

Bloom where you are planted, is a quote that has often been used and quoted. It may be a quote that inspires you but it may irritate you as well.

I don't always like where I'm planted. The soil, the circumstances aren't what I envisioned and to bloom means I need to reconcile that reality. It calls for a letting go of what I envisioned, to receive where I am and the gift of today. 

One particular walk that we did stands out to me. We had literally walked miles and the path we were on was sandy which made walking even more challenging. It was evening and I was exhausted in all ways, my legs screaming, "I'm done!"

Near the end of the trail, here were these little white flowers blooming. I stopped and took a picture of one of them. They were simply offering beauty to my weary heart and I took a moment to inhale the strength that gave. 

This flower, in this spot, is blooming alone. Pure, white, and beautiful. 

Even now as I write, it evokes tears. I remember how tired I was. I remember the exhaustion.

And I remember the vivid splendour and how encouraging this flower was. 

Blooming right where you are is a process. Not a linear one, but one of ever learning to accept today and choosing to see the gifts along our path.

Blooming is a byproduct. The mystery happens in our soul as we learn to trust our Father. He becomes the Voice that matters most to our soul and as we listen to His voice we find a space to heal, grow, and bloom.

When we release the tension and fighting of our circumstances, we find a space that is bigger than ourselves.

There were so many times I saw this. Over and over, experiencing the beauty in out-of-the-way and hard areas. Maybe it was a message that my soul needed. 

And I pass it on to you. 

It's been said many times, life is 10% what happens to you and 90% you're attitude towards it.

Bloom. Right where you are. You may never know what you offer to another weary soul. 

You're out-of-way blooming might be just for in-the-way for another weary traveler.