For A Time

I’m sitting here trying to contemplate life and the endless cycle. The grief-torn world we live in; the startling reality that we all must die at some point, not knowing when or where…it’s inescapable.

For a time we are here…

Waking up, going to work, getting the groceries, filling our days with tasks that feel like they are endless and piling up. Brush your teeth, make the coffee, get dressed. It gets monotonous and aggravating at times, and even on the good days, chores are always there.

We get hung up on the material, when can I buy that house? When will I be able to get that promotion or new job? There is always a brighter future around the corner.

We are faced with challenges, like anxiety, depression, and other health-related issues that cause us to question our existence in this world, clinging to Jesus, and trying to hold fast to the hope that will drown out the fear of whatever the future has in store.

Sometimes we look longingly at the future, and other times we despise it; fearful it may cause more issues than in the present.

But the future, is a privilege, that some are denied. But here again, I say, for a time such as this, we are here.

No amount of money or status will make me happy. While I fall into the lie that I need more, in this consumer world, in this earthly body, I need more. My sinful nature craves excess materials such as clothes, food, and money. But also, my heart longs for the community, and to be known by my friends, and by people, to have something in a Wikipedia article that will live on the internet.

But earlier today I passed by a cemetery, every one of those tombstones has a life and a story that not everyone will know. Not everyone will make their mark in the world, but dare I say, that the most small, town grandma can speak into her children’s and grandchildren’s lives and create a legacy. A friend gone too soon can cause a ripple effect in other people’s lives and make Christ known even after death. A little boy, far too young, proclaiming Jesus is still good through his death by his parents.

We all long for more time with our loved ones. No amount will truly satisfy us even if we spend every second of the day with those who are now gone.

The desire to have more and more creates a desire that only can exist within our heavenly home, to be one with Christ, who is outside of time. Outside of the care of this world.

Christ is relational. He calls us to grow as a body, He calls us to foster relationships, to be kind to one another, and to love one another as a forecast of His love. How easily we get sucked in the day-to-day that we forget why we are here. And we forget that time is a currency that can not be gained back.

As Christians, as God’s people, we are here to hold fast to our relationships. Sometimes it’s not the most comfortable, sometimes you have to stay up late and talk all night about whatever it may be; sometimes you need to give hugs and show sympathy even if you’re having a bad day yourself. Sometimes, we have to forget ourselves to be a friend to others.

Friendships are the kind of love that is not romantic but is the hardest because friendships of various levels don’t all have the same expectations, there is a hierarchy of friendships in everyone’s lives. Still, I’m challenging myself and you, to look outside the hierarchy and just love the people in your life.

And the other types of love, family especially…call more. Go to them more. Ask them to hang out more. Be present with them.

For a time we are here. For a time like this, we must not wait. For a time such as this, we must love and cherish.

But for a time it is!

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace

What do workers gain from their toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.  That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.  I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Thank You, Next

 

“I find it interesting that this has been one of the best years of my career and the worst of my life,” Grande said. “A lot of people would look at someone in my position right now as an artist that could be at her peak and think, ‘She’s really got her sh** together, she’s really on it. She’s got it all.’ And I do, but as far as my personal life goes, I really have no idea what[…]I’m doing[…]and as of late I’ve discovered that it’s the things I’ve always had and the people I’ve always had that still make me the happiest.”

A year ago, I graduated from college. I got a new job. I moved almost a thousand miles away. I learned how to be an adult. I experienced so much love counteracted by heartbreak, grief and loneliness. I went to a foreign country for the first time. I planned a global conference. I’ve helped different families in minor or significant ways in over 80 different countries.

It’s been a crazy year.

In the midst of all those changes and challenges were a lot of tears. I learned a lot about me, and yet still know nothing at all.

Tears fell as I sat in my room a couple nights before my graduation as I stared at the cap and gown waiting to be worn across a platform to accept my degree.

Tears were shed on the interstate from Iowa to Virginia in my car full of all my belongings.

Tears spilled in the hall as the background echoed cheers at the close of the last session in Moscow, Russia.

Tears fell on a plane bound home to Iowa for a couple of weeks – a girl who once believed that heartbreak was purely metaphorical, found out it was actually quite physical and yet could only be healed by time and patience.

2018 showed me I am a constant work in progress, but aren’t we all?

Most importantly – I have learned to forgive. I learned to forgive others, myself and to accept the forgiveness Christ so freely offers me.

I have learned so much this year about love and forgiveness through my broken experiences. As Matt Heard said “The worst kind of pain is wasted pain”. So will I use my brokenness to push me into the next stage of life and grow me spiritually, mentally and emotionally and make me wiser? Or will I waste the pain and have it hinder my growth? Will it harden or strengthen my heart? Can I trust God to redeem my pain?

I settle my heart down and let the pain in. I will cast all my anxieties upon Him because He cares for me. He will lead me beside the still waters. He will restore my soul. He will lead me down a path of righteousness, but also a path of joy and peace.

Psalms 34:18 says:

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit”

This year taught me love, patience and pain, but it also taught me how to understand and sympathize, it taught what it truly means to be selfless, but it also taught me how important it is to take care of myself – to take my God-sized needs to Christ, that in order to be a source of life, I need to have Jesus be my source of life first.

On the days that I couldn’t get out of bed, something so simple my sister said has stuck with me since “sometimes you have to do what is good for you, not what you want to do”.

I repeat these words on the many days I don’t want to work out. On the days I don’t want to leave my bed. On the days that I don’t want to eat a certain way. On the Sundays when I don’t feel like going to church. When I fall into my hermit-like tendencies. When praying is hard. When reading my Bible is about as unappealing as carrots (I greatly dislike carrots by the way).

In more ways than one I see how God interwove that theme into my life this year. Jesus saying “Sometimes I have to do what is good for you, not what you want me to.”

As Jeremiah 29:11 says:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

So thank you 2018; for all that you offered and took away; for all the people that came and went – and most importantly, to those I’ve always had and will never leave. 2018 made me realize that the people I have always had – are the ones that make me the happiest still and you can see some of them pictured above. I love these people. So much.

2019 is whispering on the threshold “it will be happier” as Tennyson says but I think I like T.S. Eliot’s quote better:

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.”

So thank you 2018.

Thank you, next.