6: The Chase
Sometimes I don’t mind the rearranging, when I know the outcome. I’m happy to run forward, knowing what I will encounter something good. Other times I wonder why the heck I am running.
A friend was recently accepted into the graduate school. Celebration ensued. I’m a hard-core logistics girl, so the thought that chased congratulations, in my mind, was the rearranging – moving across the country, the years of hard study and long hours away from family, and the wife homeschooling the kids, on her own.
My friends, they know all of these logistics, but they still celebrated.
They celebrated because, despite the rearranging, they could see the outcome.
They could feel the nearness of the degree, the career, the path, the stability? They know what they are chasing.
In the same way, we congratulate women that are pregnant. They will bear incredible pain, there will be a tremendous trial that their body undergoes, but we know that the baby is at the other end…that life will be the product of her trials.
What of the trials that don’t have a new life or a degree in view?
I can’t say that I celebrate these…the struggles that have no end in sight, no promise guaranteed.
But what if I had eyes to see? …ears to hear The Promise?
What if I could see –
the incredible fitness these rough “workouts” create?
the skill of perfect dependence upon an outlandish love?
Won’t these be ours at the finish line?
And much more?
What if I could see the beauty that would come in this marriage that teaches me daily how to love better,
to lean in more,
to slow and eventually stop this forever striving to be my own isle,
to rest in this calm that defies understanding,
to find contentment in this ebb and flow of the tide, the contentment that is – faith?
Trials and the seed of God’s love are the food that nourishes this faith.
What if I had the eyes to see this beauty – this life that will be born at dawn?
Lord, give us eyes to see.
Thank you for the glimpses in the moonlight,
for this mirrored light that gives testimony to the ever burning light of your love,
that you are working us toward this glorious dawn –
the dawn of our true birth, where we get see, face to face, the product of our your pain and striving on our behalf,
and how small our trials really were,
in the light of your love!
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
a Rearranged Life 
Loved this. I needed to hear this today. As my life gets rearranged by the painful long process of saying good/bye to family before moving overseas long-term, I’m choosing to trust God in my moments of sadness and in my family’s sadness. I’m fine most of the time, but it was a rough weekend as I reunited with family after only being gone 1 month! What’s 3 1/2 yrs gonna be like?! I’m choosing to trust Him, beyond my understanding… Knowing that the outcome of obedience is best. In that there is joy 🙂
Amen, sister!!! You have such a beautiful heart! Praying for you in all of this transition!!
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