Made Like Glass

“We all need space.  We were made to have breaks.  So even though it’s busy, come find your rest.”

Loren Thornburg

I am learning the hard way that glass doesn’t handle temperature change very well.  I have broken multiple glass dishes forgetting that glass doesn't adjust to differing temperatures quickly.  Apparently, it has to do with the lack of elasticity in the makeup of glass.  This means they need time to transition from one temperature to the next.  I am finding that much like glass, I need time to transition from one thing to the next.  Although some people are able to move easily from one thing to the next at some point we all need space to transition.  We are not without limits.  For most of us our limits are comparable to glass: fragile and easily broken if not given enough time and space.  I hate to admit it but I need margin in my life.  We all have a little glass in us.  Embrace your limits and enjoy some space.

“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, 'Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.'”

Mark 6:31 NIV

In the midst of the chaos Jesus called his disciples away.  In the middle of needs there was a greater need for rest.  It wasn’t because things slowed down that Jesus called them to a quiet place, but simply because it was time for some rest.  God created us for rest.  He made us to need quiet spaces in our days.  Often we miss this finding activity of greater importance.  We dismiss rest as for those who are lacking.  Yet, what I’m finding is that rest actually requires more strength.  It requires me to step away from doing and it asks that I relinquish me as the one who is in control.  Often we fear we might miss something in this quiet place of being, but what I’m finding is that the greater loss is what I miss by not being in the quiet with the One who created me.  So let us accept our fragility of design and enter into the quiet place of rest. 

You Are Here

“Let it be okay to be where you are, needing no more and embracing no less."

Loren Thornburg

As one who is navigationally challenged I appreciate the maps with the big star representing where you are in relation to the map. When I enter a mall the first place I go is straight for this map.  I often wish my life had this same map showing me where I am and how to get where I want to go.  Yet, even if I had this map it’s not what I really need.  Although it’s helpful to know how to get where I want to go and have it seem as easy as a map in the mall, what I really need is to be present where I am.   Life is constantly begging us to look ahead to what’s next and where we need or want to go, but rarely is it enough to look at the map of our life and see the ‘you are here’ mark and let that be okay.  What if it was enough to be where you are without wanting or needing to be somewhere else?  For the truth is: Where you are is enough, no more and no less.  So don’t stop dreaming, don’t stop moving toward your goals, but stop needing to be somewhere else.  You are here...and that’s enough. 

“...What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.  People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.  Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.  Don’t worry about missing out.  You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

Matthew 6:31-34 MSG

Sometimes it’s hard for us to be okay with where our lives have taken us.  We had dreams and visions of it looking a certain way that didn’t happen.  It’s there that we can start blaming God for these things.  It can sound ridiculous in theory, but I have found myself in this spot too.  If He is sovereign and in control is He not at fault for the disappointments and hard spots of my life?  Yet, I find that as soon as I start playing that game I have to also allow Him to be ‘at fault’ for all of the good things as well.  As I start looking at the lists of all the ways He has taken care of me and given me so much it’s hard to stay in that place of blame.  It reminds me that He is bigger than I give Him credit for in my place of blame.  So we don’t have to get worked up about where we are or where we aren’t because He is the God who knows us, sees us and has plans for us.  Get worked up about that.  Become consumed and preoccupied with Him.  As you do you will find He is already meeting you there.  Give your entire attention to where you are and what God is doing there, letting go of needing to be farther along or on a different journey.  Where you are is enough because God is enough for you right here.  

It Takes Both

“Life is…pits and peaks, blessing and suffering, giving and receiving, working and playing, rejoicing and grieving, overcoming and struggling…it takes both.”
Loren Thornburg

You’ve all been there listening to an argument where you realize there are two sides to the story.  You can’t get the full story without both sides.  There are two sides to every story...including yours. There are both really good parts and really hard parts.  It takes both parts and all sides to accurately view the events before you.  The new year is a great time to look back and reflect on what has happened in your last year.   Yet, we have to remember to see both sides.  There are both good parts and hard parts.  Sometimes our tendency is to only see the hard parts, especially when we are in the midst of them.  Each story requires both rejoicing and grieving.  So wherever you find yourself remember that life is both pits and peaks.  The trick is learning how to enjoy the ride.  

 “Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.”
1 Peter 5:7 MSG

God is careful with you.  Do you believe that?  I can’t say that I always do.  His careful looks very different than mine.  Yet, even in the midst of all the ways I wished His careful looked different than mine it still remains true: He is careful with me.  It’s hard to see sometimes in the middle of hard spots but then I look back and I see how well He has cared for me so many times.  I see how He used so many hard spots before to care for me so well.  So then I can believe that he is being careful with me even here.  Then, I see it really does take both good and hard, pits and peaks, blessing and suffering for God to be careful with me.  In remembering that and in knowing it’s truth we can live carefree.  It’s in trusting Him to do what He has always done so well that we can enjoy the ride.  Each year is a ride full of both ups and downs.  Oh what joy to live carefree whichever direction it takes you because you know He is taking you and He is most careful with you.