What a week…on so many fronts!! In fact, what a couple of weeks – in South Africa and just in the lives of so many individuals…
This past Saturday morning (Sat, 14 Sep 2019) I flipped open my journal and wrote the heading,‘Where is God when the bottom falls out?’I had no idea why. Also, I read out of Titus 2 – and I had no idea why…well, someone posted an Instagram story and mentioned Titus, so I felt lead to go check it out…spiritual or not, I don’t know, but I just did it anyway J and I’m very glad I did.
The theme of my journaling that morning was that you and I, we, are called to LIVE. We are called to live in submission, we are called to live with purpose and we are called to rule and to reign. We are called to LIVE, and knowing that you have a great destiny and a purpose will cause that great promise of life to be fulfilled, and you will realize very quickly – that it’s not that the bottom has fallen out, it’s just that sometimes we forget that the bottom is there.
When we feel isolated, rejected, hurt and stomped all over – we feel like all our familiar and our comfort has been taken from us, when the truth is, all that we have done is that we have forgotten – and forgetting whom you are doesn’t just happen overnight.
The actual arrival point of forgetting comes through us constantly ignoring whom we are, whom you were born to be…
Fast forward to this morning (Thu, 19 Sep 2019), here I am jumping out of bed – putting the kettle on the gas stove, quick bath whilst kettle reaches boiling point, kettle starts to whistle and I’m out of the bath – chuck tea bag in mug whilst I blend a quick breakfast smoothie that I chug down whilst getting dressed – now dressed, my Rooibos tea has achieved its optimum strength level, and I’m about ready to run out the door with my tea now poured over into my travel mug and I’m just like ‘Lord Jesus speak’!!
This is a very real heartfelt mixed emotion cry of me just needing something to sustain me during my day (this ritual happens way too much btw)– something to kickstart this significant day, significant because I’ll never get it back again, and all I hear in my head is the tune to “What a friend we have in Jesus”.
Haha, I haven’t heard this song in years, but I was desperate for any kind of insight or encouragement for the day ahead so I found the song on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SCorW9r_Is), 36 million views…that’s crazy…I connected my phone to the aux cable and drove off and this is where it struck me, the words to what I considered to be a very elementary tune turned out to be so intensely profound!! Here is the extract:
“Oh, what peace we often forfeit
Oh, what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer”
Right here…right in the middle of my rush, in my anxiety driven pursuit of hope I’m being schooled – I realize that I give up peace so easily, and in exchange I welcome pain, hurt, rejection, feelings of sorrow, becoming despondent etc. and all because I don’t carry everything over to Him in prayer.
Quite frankly, this was a hard pill to swallow from a song that I thought was nothing more than just a happy feel good ‘Jesus is my friend’ song, but thankfully Jesus must have been preparing me, because I realized that the only way forward in life is really to involve God in my everyday everything!!
Sure…I’m still going to be rushing around like a madman on most mornings, but this does not disqualify me from living a life that honours God and celebrating everything that He is doing in my life and those around me.
I guess my simple encouragement is this, live a life that truly matters – one where you can stand the reflection of the one looking back at you in the mirror.
You are awesome and you were created to live. So live.
