Sometimes you just feel stuck, in so many ways. When you are trying to pursue the good and do what is right, but old ways keep hanging on, and sometimes you wonder if you are really making a difference or growing at all. When your heart feels like it’s broken, and you know life isn’t easy for anyone, and none of us get to choose our own crosses, but who can show you how to carry this one? When what comes next seems impossible to face, but there’s no other way to go except forward. We all get stuck sometimes, when life isn’t what we want it to be and we wish we were somewhere else.
But no matter how much it feels like standing still on the inside, the currents of time and change are carrying us through day after day on the outside, and before we know it the landscape is beginning to look different, and we are awakening to new perspectives. It’s like when you were a child on a long road trip and falling asleep somewhere on the endless winding highway, only to wake up hours later in a whole different state. Setting us in time might be just one more Divine mercy, because as much as we wish we could hold onto the precious moments, there are far too many moments that would destroy us if they lasted beyond their God-given limits. Indeed, this is how God holds out hope to us– He points us forward, always, opening our eyes to what is ahead. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19) But His work is more like the gradual nurturing and nudging of a gardener than the radical renovating of a construction crew. Jesus described the Holy Spirit like the wind that moves invisibly around us– we can see and feel its effects here and there, and only if we are watching for it.
For everyone who feels stuck in whatever circumstance or in feelings that just won’t go away, Jesus’ beloved disciple John reminds us tenderly that we are in process, and the happy ending is yet to come: “Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.” (1 John 2:28) As real as our experience is in this river of Time, we are constantly being reminded that there is an unseen realm as well, that operates by different principles– and someday we will be able to step easily out of this current, with eyes wide open, onto the banks of a new land. This is our hope, anchored in Christ’s sacrifice of blood and in the love of the Father that moved heaven and earth to reach us before we drowned. The Church-Planter Paul frequently reminded the early believers of the reality of this hope, because he knew how easy it is to get discouraged here. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)
So hang in there, and keep your eyes open for what God is going to do for you. There is truly only one thing that never changes: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23) Everything else is in constant slow process under God’s watchful eyes.
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“So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 4:18, The Message)
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“The cross you’ve been given — is always God’s kindest decision. The cross you carry — is carrying you toward who you are meant to be.” (Ann VosKamp)