Room for Hurdles

Make space for hurdles, give room for obstacles. 

As I prepare to leave for Southeast Asia for a month I’ve been thrown off by all of the unexpected obstacles.  (That’s my subtle way of letting you know that you won’t be receiving these emails for a few weeks. You can email me if you would like to be included on my updates) In driving school they advise you to leave distance between you and the car head of you.  This gives you time to react to unexpected stops and objects in the road.  As the road conditions decrease the advised distance increases.  So with rain the advised distance increases and then even more with more severe conditions like ice.  The same principles are needed in our daily lives.  Sometimes I pack my day so full that I leave no space for the unexpected.  Whether it’s a friend that stops by unexpectedly or the appliance that breaks life is full of things we didn’t plan.  When we already have space worked into our day we have room for these surprises.  Then they don’t take quite the same toll on us because we have made space for them.  The tricky part is learning to increase the space needed as conditions change.  If the conditions of your life are requiring more of you then greater space is required.  It doesn’t mean we aren’t capable of handling things it just means the conditions require more of us and that means more space.  Either way, whether it’s clear sailing or stormy we need to keep some space.  

“I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.”

John 16:33 The Message

Jesus is preparing His disciples for His departure.  Yet, not only for the actual event but for the years following.  He is also preparing us for that same reality of life.  He says that we will continue to experience difficulties.  So it seems that we should plan for that. This doesn’t mean we do this with a ‘woe is me’ attitude of pessimism but instead with the sober perspective of what is true.  For Jesus doesn’t say to go be upset because of the difficulties but instead to ‘take heart’ because the greater truth is that He has conquered the world.  So everything we are walking through has ultimately been conquered by Him.  Where does that leave us?  It means that yes we can expect life to be hard; Yes, we can anticipate hurdles along the way.  However, it’s also yes that we can be unshaken, assured and at peace when we remember God has conquered the world and everything in it.  

Worth the Wait

“The worth is in the wait

So put your wait in the worth.”

Feel like you’re dying…life is coming, feel like you’re suffering…joy is on its way, feel like nothing’s going your way…breakthrough will soon be yours if you are willing to wait.  Through death comes life, through suffering comes joy, through sorrow comes rejoicing, through chains comes freedom, through sacrifice comes redemption, through…the list goes on and on.   Those who have suffered much appreciate much and find greater joy in life.  It is only ‘through’ that we come to the other end.  It is only when we have waited that we experience the worth.  But while we are in the place of going through, that is all we can see.  It overwhelms us, unless we choose to keep the worth and the good in perspective.  When we are in it, it’s too close to see the big picture.  We have to take a step back or come to the other side in order to look back and see how the thing that seemed to be killing us was actually saving us.  The bad refines us to good if we are willing to wait.  It won’t be easy, but it’s worth the wait.  You are worth the wait.  And worthy of that which you are waiting.  So remember to keep waiting with your eyes on the worth…it’s worth the wait.  

“God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us - an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. “

Romans 8:16-18, Message

I am so quick to forget, so let us together be reminded that Jesus is worthy and worth the wait.  He overcame death after a painful sacrifice (understatement of the century) so that we could be free and live.  People waited many years for Him to come, but it was worth the wait.  So now He calls us to wait even when it’s hard because He knows it will be worth it.  He has given us something worth waiting.  And He believes that you are worth the wait.  So He will keep coming to get your attention until you see that He has created you as His child through the hard and the good times.  You can trust the One through the waiting because He is worth the wait.  

Come Now

Stop waiting until you have it all together.  Come now and we can have it all…together.

We all love to be invited.  There is something about receiving that invitation that speaks to our desire to be wanted.  While I love getting dressed up for weddings and other events my favorite invitations are those that come with no requirements.  They don’t say ‘You’re Invited as long as you look just right’ or ‘You’re Invited as long as you have it all together.’  Instead they just say, ‘You’re Invited.’  This is the invitation, to come just as you are, to come now.  Yet, somehow we find reasons that we aren’t good enough to come.  What I’m starting to love about life is that so much of it is not black and white.  Things are not always all good or all bad but there is some of both.  There is hope in the midst of despair, there is joy in the midst of pain and there is brokenness in the midst of wholeness.  Often we think it’s one or the other and that one disqualifies us from the other.  Instead, we are broken and wounded and yet still loved and still invited.  So come now, brokenness aside and join together with those who are broken too.  

“I shall make mention of the lovingkindness of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord has granted us,  And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,  Which He has granted them according to His Compassion And according to the abundance of His lovingkindness.”

Isaiah 63:7 NASB

This message comes in the midst of a book about the coming destruction.  I love that in the midst of such bad news from the prophet comes such words of hope.  It seems like it would be all one or all the other but that is not how God works.  While He is a God that brings discipline He also is a God that loves so deeply.  His compassion for you is so great and His lovingkindness is abundant.  There is no end to it.  So even in the midst of the coming pain there remains His great goodness.  Our brains don’t always know what to do with that truth.  Yet, still it remains true.  He is a God very familiar with brokenness and not having it all together.  That’s not a good reason to miss out on His compassion.  So come now.  Come now to His compassion though you find yourself wounded, frightened, angry lonely.  You’re still invited.  Nothing disqualifies you.  He loves you right in the midst of it.  So come now!

Don’t miss this from Brennan Manning, “…He loves you as you are, not as you should be, cause you’re never gonna be as you should be…”

Compassion - Brennan Manning Sermon Jam

by Refresh Ministries

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K56V86j2ng)