I've sat down to blog an update about 20 times in the last week.
Each time I sat with a blank screen that wouldn't fill up.
For someone who loves writing and preaching...blank screens don't happen that often.
I just haven't had clarity in what God is saying in me...to me...or what He wants to do through me.
And it is a good idea to shut up when God hasn't given you words to speak.
I've thought a good deal about suffering. About pain. In a week, we launched our first C3 Celebration, had two funerals, saw terror in Boston and death in Texas. We then finished the week at the Cleveland Clinic where the munchkin couldn't have done much worse...flailing like the jelly for her echo was acid burning her skin...and the news is the same news that we've heard for months. It's not great...but she's still here.
And so I've been on a roller coaster...excited...then pretty annoyed...frustrated...disheartened by life.
Then I remembered a line that had come to me in some poetic scribbling I'd done a while back.
Joy sings loudest in the midst of the storm.
Not when the storm is over.
Not when the storm is avoided.
But right smack dab in the middle of it.
And as a wise teacher has warned us...When the storms come...as a promise...a guarantee...it's gonna happen...you're not exempt...not even if you love Jesus and serve Him...
In fact, the more in line your life is with the way of Jesus and His Bride the Church...the more apt you are to be crushed.
But that's the point...Joy sings loudest then.
Joy laughs at crushing.
Joy knows that resurrection is the resounding trump card.
Joy is contentment in spite of circumstances.
And I'm there. I have a lot of issues. I have a heavy heart for more reasons than I could ever share.
But I do not only believe in the cross and resurrection...I'm staking my whole life on it.
And the joy that comes with knowing the worst thing is never the last thing? It is completely satisfying.
Joy sings loudest in the midst of the storm...because it knows one undoubtable, undeniable truth.
The storm doesn't stand a chance.
1 comment:
I have a saying framed that I think fits Ben: "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."
Fits our lives so well as He gives both the storms and the rainbows that follow. As well as the strength to get through it all in spite of ourselves!
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