Space Between

“Your community is big when the space between you and others is small.”

Loren Thornburg

Today in church as someone sat in the once empty and not so big chair next to me I was aware of how our culture, myself included likes our space.  Most of us have an idea of how close is too close and we adhere to that.  When someone enters into that personal space bubble we become uncomfortable.  The problem is that this translates over to our hearts.  You see we were made for connection, intimacy and community.  In order for these to function as we need and as they were intended requires giving up the space that we are comfortable with.  It demands we let people into that space, giving up our rights to comfort and inviting us into community.  Give up the space between and let community in.  You need it and it needs you.  

“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”
Hebrews 10:25 NLT

Especially now we need community.  It wasn’t just then, but it’s us too.  They weren’t the only ones that needed to be reminded of its importance.  It’s easy to neglect meeting together.  It’s easy to neglect letting people into our lives and going deep into theirs.  Yet, we need it and even more we are called to it, we are commanded to it.  God made you for it.   He knows the great encouragement you have to offer and others have to offer you.  He knows you need it.  This means letting down our walls.  This means giving up the space that makes us feel safe and comfortable.  This means letting God have His way with the space He has given us. So enter in and let God have His way with your space.  

Escorted by Pain

“Sometimes pain escorts us to places we would never have gone on our own.”

Loren Thornburg

Pain is painful.  You can’t ignore it.  It begs for your attention and forces you to attend to it.  Never have I wished for pain, yet I am reminded of the healing that comes because it was painful.  I would have missed the healing if pain had not escorted me there.  I would have ignored it and pretended that it wasn’t there if it hadn’t begged for my attention.  We see this example in our physical bodies.  The pain of a cut, broken bone or other ailment reminds us to clean it so that we will find healing from it. Our hearts are no different.  Pain reveals the parts of your heart that you don’t see.  Sometimes you don’t even know it’s there until the pain escorts you there.  Once you have been taken there you can either let it escort you to healing or choose to look the other way.  The catch is that if you don’t look at it now it will surface again later.  It will beg for your attention until it finds healing.  Your heart longs for healing.  Let pain escort you there.  

“Reveal your light and your faithfulness! They will lead me, they will escort me back to your holy hill, and to the place where you live.”

Psalm 43:3

In this psalm we see the longing of a troubled soul for God.  This is what pain does.  It reveals our deepest longing for our God.  We long for relationship and intimacy with Him for this is what we were created for.  In the pain our cry is for Him to come meet us in that place that we could see His light in that darkness and His faithfulness in what feels abandoned.  We need an escort and He is the only one that can do that.  This is the gospel.  God gave us Jesus, His son so that we could be escorted into intimacy with our Father, our God.  He wants all of us and is willing to allow us pain to get us.  He is the only one that can escort us from pain to the healing of our deepest pain and desire.  He is the only one that knows our pain, knows how to meet us there, and knows how to best lead us through that place.  He sees our pain and wants to accompany us to healing.  Let Him take you by the hand even now, even here.  He is your best escort.  

Guard the Goods

“You have been given much that is good.  Guard it well.”

Loren Thornburg

We go to great lengths to guard that which is worth much to us.  We put our money in banks, our valuables in safes, and our sentimental items in a special spot.  Yet, what do we do with the goods we have been given that aren’t of physical worth?  How are we guarding our relationships, the truth we’ve learned, and the things we are thankful for?  Guard means to protect, preserve and keep watch.  It’s easy to lose sight of the goods that don’t have a monetary value, but we can’t afford to.  Relationships, truth, and all we have to be thankful for are the very things that give us life.  These are the very things that will keep you from that which steals life.  You have been given many good things.  Keep close watch over them.  If you don’t guard your goods, you will lose them and the life that they bring.  Guard what’s good and keep close what’s true.  

“Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.”

2 Timothy 1:14 Amplified

This isn’t a recommendation it is a necessity.  We must guard and keep with the greatest care the truth God has been given to us.  They are of great worth.  The truth of the Bible, the things God has revealed, the words He has spoken to our hearts, those things are of great value.  They are precious and they have been entrusted to you, so guard them well.  Keep close watch over those things.  This means reminding ourselves of them often and letting them soak into our hearts.  It means having people around you who can help bring these things back  into your sight.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you for there is a great spiritual battle for these things.  It looks different for different people at different times. What does it look like for you to guard with the greatest care the goods God has given you?  

Beyond Disappointment

“Hope is often hiding beyond the disappointment."

Loren Thornburg

This time of the year is fun when many gather around to share the Olympic experience.  I love how sports can unite us.  Yet, the hard part is that not everyone wins.  That is the excitement of winning and yet the great disappointment of losing.  It is so hard to watch and see the athletes watch as their dreams fade away.  They’ve spent thousands of hours working towards what comes down to a moment, only for many to come up short.  We’ve all been there in that moment having spent much time in hopes of something that seems to only bring disappointment.  It’s a part of life for those who are willing to risk.  It’s worth it, not only for the joy of accomplishment, but also the joy of the journey to get there with the celebrations and purpose along the way.  Yet, what do you do with that disappointment.  It can feel so heavy at times.  We are offered so many places to take that disappointment, but they all subside and leave us only momentarily eased.  They all do, except for one and that is HOPE.  So, in the face of disappointment, when dreams seem faded away,  risk again against the odds, hope again against feared defeat.  It’s the only way to know what joy you might find hiding...beyond the disappointment.

“My help and glory are in God--granite-strength and safe-harbor-God--So trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him.  God is safe place to be.”

Psalm 62:7-8 Message

God is very familiar with disappointment, yours included.  He is not asking you not to have it, but to bring it to Him.  Yet, that doesn’t come without risks.  Risking that He really is good, risking that He will be careful with it and with us, risking that we really can trust Him with them.  These things are true, but often we don’t take that risk.  Instead we take our struggles to anything else that will ease the pain only to find that it is once again true: God is our only help that is strong, safe and trustworthy.  We can trust Him with our disappointment and take it to Him knowing He is careful with it and knows how to turn it into joy.  That’s our God!  That’s our Hope!

When Nothing Makes Sense

“When nothing makes sense, 

When all hope seems dim, 

Still truth reigns, 

still love WINS.” 

Loren Thornburg

Life brings events and circumstances that just don’t make sense.  They leave us asking why.  The shootings in Aurora, Colorado are one of those seemingly confusing events.  Why would someone do something like this?  Why did God let this happen?  Why now?  Yet, it’s not just this event.  These questions come across our own lives in many ways, through many circumstances, at many times.  Although, there are responses that speak to this question there are no answers that really satisfy the pain of it all.  However, there is one thing to keep in mind which I often forget in the midst of these times...evil is real.  The reality of evil is often overlooked and forgotten until moments like these that remind us.  Then it seems the real question becomes, ‘Why wouldn’t this have happened?’  So then, what do we do with this?...we fight, we love, we forgive, even when nothing makes sense.  For even when nothing makes sense, Love still wins.  

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.” 

1 Peter 4:12 NLT

Peter is writing to believers here to encourage them in the midst of trials.  It seems they are no different than me most of the time.  I forget that this life carries trials and evil that should be expected.  Somehow I seem to lend towards the opposite.  I seem to be “suprised at the fiery trials I am going through, as if something strange were happening to me.”  It reminds me of a teaching I heard, about those fighting in a war and how they expect to be shot and fired at.  So should we.  We should expect it with a prepared expectancy to stand strong against it, knowing that we know Who has the ultimate victory.  The end of the story is that we are going to a party where as Greg Stier says, "All evil will be sucked up in this bottomless pit.”  He continues with, “Until then, we have a battle to fight."  This is our calling that we would fight and keep fighting with love as our anchor, with truth in our mouths.  Love will WIN!  

SEEN

“You are not forgotten, you have not gone unseen;

You’re noticed, you’re valued, you’re priceless...You are SEEN.”

Loren Thornburg

There is something powerful about feeling seen.  Having spent two weeks in a nation that feels forgotten and unseen I am reminded of the power of the platform we have to see the unseen.  For in the midst of their sense of feeling forgotten the opportunity to remember them becomes all the more meaningful to them. It is a recognition of who they are and the value they have.  I can’t help but think back to those times that I too have felt unseen but someone came and saw me.  That moment that empowers the soul to know that who we are matters.  We all need it.    You are seen.  Do you see it?

“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers--most of which are never even seen--don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?”

Matthew 6:30 MSG

We all long for that moment of feeling seen and seek it any way that we can, sometimes at the sacrifice of what really matters.  The problem is those things don’t truly meet that place in us.  Only He can.  He can because He already sees you.  You don’t have to do anything to be noticed by Him.  He sees every wildflower even those that may seem unseen and He sees you even when you feel unseen.  I don’t just mean He sees you and moves on but God sees in a way that He sees to the core of you.  He knows you and loves to attend to those places in you often before you even know they need attending to.  GOD sees you...just ask Him.   

There is an After

“Don’t forget that in the difficulty of today there is an after.”
Loren Thornburg

“I didn’t know there was an afterwards.” More than once this phrase has poured out from the heart of someone recalling a hard season of life.  After is a period of time following an event that can often be hard to see or even imagine.  When things are hard it seems consuming and impossible to fathom things ever being any different from how they are at this moment.  Yet, it’s true, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  There is an afterwards.  It’s hard to know this is true until you have walked through a situation that seemed hopeless and seen the afterwards that felt like an impossibility.  Still, there may be another season of life that seems even more unbearable.  However, it is still true in that place...there is an after.  So keep walking, keep believing, and keep hoping for one day at a time you will find your after.  

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His own eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you.”

1 Peter 5:10 Amplified

The apostle Peter is writing to the church leaders to remind them there is an after so they can stand firm in the midst of hard times and difficult situations.  He is writing for us too, reminding us of God’s promise that not only is there an after but He is going to carry us through the suffering to the other side.  He will establish, ground, strengthen, and settle you.  God is a god of Hope.  This is hope: Whatever you are facing now or will come to face He will be in the middle of it to bring you to the other side.  Even more, He will complete you and make you what you ought to be in the process.  So walk into His blessing and favor that carries you to your after.