"Come Into the Light"

This picture came a few months after we moved last year up to my husband's folks' farm. It was in the fall, and I was in the middle of a Beth Moore study on the life of Esther. I had signed up for the study to meet some people and get some needed structure to my personal study. Didn't expect to be BLOWN AWAY by it.

One of the themes of the study is destiny. I know. It's heady and elusive -- I hadn't ever spent much time dwelling on it, but the study forced the issue, and my personal circumstances were perfectly arranged for each week's teaching to reach me at my core. Because of the circumstances that prompted our move, I was in a place of not wanting to deal with big picture stuff like destiny because I was confused and hurt. But at the same time I was drawn to it, and there remained in me a flicker of hope that I'd yet be able to fulfill what God created me to do.

It was into this mental/spiritual/emotional context that this picture came. Here's some thoughts that came:

"Destinies are fulfilled in the light. I am with you where you are. I won't leave you, but in this dim place you won't fulfill your destiny. Come fully into the light. That is where I am. That is where you'll be able to see Me -- to see as I've created you to see."

God, help me to want the life you made me for more than this familiar place where I only see you faintly and where I sit in habitual sin and contentment with mediocrity.
November 2009

Ugh. I dislike what this picture reveals. Feeling those pointed words takes me to a place of sadness and hope all at once. If I'm partly in the shadows and partly in the light, it reveals where my thoughts rest and what I believe. Because what I believe, I do.

This thing about destinies hasn't ever been something I've explored. Just seemed a little out there. But really -- what's the big picture purpose of life? We each have unique expressions of the same thing: love God and love people. A life poured out in that pursuit is a life well lived.

The shadows symbolize sin; the sinful nature; the flesh, however you want to put it. My new favorite phrase for that is thanks to author Bill Giovanetti: the "inner mess." The light, of course, symbolizes the presence of God. Living in the light means living close to God.

Responding

What do you do with this picture? Where do you see yourself? Where are you saying yes to God? Where are you saying no? What do your habits reveal about your love for God and others? Your daily schedule?

I'm so not about legalism. I want to learn how to love. But loving means living in truth. And where there's stuff in my life that bears evidence of deception (you know, the thing about "being hardened by sin's deceitfulness"), I want to see the deception for what it is and trade it for truth.

But it's messy and I'm inconsistent. Sometimes I care more than other times. Sometimes I can be so engaged and other times so checked out. Thank God that he knows how to father us toward maturity. God, will you increase my faith and put within me a greater desire for yourself.

"Significant Insignificance"

I never knew feeling small could be so helpful in my understanding of God. It was through a teaching by Louie Giglio called "How Great is Our God" that my eyes were opened to the incomprehensible vastness of the universe and smallness of planet earth by comparison. I'd never seen photos that capture the outer reaches of the known universe combined with an explanation of where earth fits into that. Our smallness as a planet is mind-boggling; much less our smallness as individuals.

It's simple to say, but wrapping your mind around this is another thing: the God who spoke it all into existence set his love on our microscopic planet. He loves it, and he loves its inhabitants; knowing every individual human being who has drawn breath on it across the ages. Including me. And you. And not only does he know we exist, but he knows us down to the cell, down to the thought, motive, everything.

This simple but strong picture came when this realization was starting to sink in. Also, it was about eight months into a season of uncertainty. Unknowns were pressing in, and I was seeking God for guidance and peace.
May 2009

The Picture

Jesus' hand is cupped with planet earth sitting in his palm. In light of the universe surrounding earth, as human beings we're infantesimal. Smaller than microscopic. Yet in this smallness we're known and valued -- resting in the palm of the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator God. Right on top of his scar that makes this place with him possible. His significance establishes our significance.

Responding
Sometimes the circumstances that surrounds us look big because we measure big-ness by what our physical eyes absorb. Then we feel threatened when life is full of unknowns; when the bottom seems to drop out of everything and you wonder what in the world is going on. Been there?

How big is your view of God? How big is your view of yourself? Your circumstances? If you're overwhelmed, what does that tell you about the way you see God?

If everything is looming large, a great place to start in countering that is to accept & affirm the truth of your smallness. Just go outside on a starry night and look up (easy for me to say; I live in the country) :-). Still, whether you can see the stars or not, ask God to help you take in your smallness and His big-ness. That your place with him is one who is known and loved; one in whom He is personally doing a transforming work.

While the imagery is different, Isaiah 49:16 gives a picture of Israel being tattooed on God's palm. As his holy and dearly loved children we have this place with him, too.

"Preparing the Soil"

This picture came a few weeks into a difficult and confusing time. God spoke this picture into my mind and used it to comfort and remind me that, again, He can be trusted whether I understand circumstances or not.

The Picture
The farmer is preparing the soil for the crop that will grow in that field. The clods have to be broken up to be made useful. What the Gardener wants to grow here won't grow with the soil like it is.
The field appears to be fallow; no visible growth, no beauty, no fruit. But the Gardener is at work, preparing the soil for what is to come. A crop that can't grow in the soil of pride, self-sufficiency, contentment with mediocrity, fear, hanging onto hurt, anger, ego, critical spirit, cynicism. His plan can be trusted.
September 2008

Responding
Do you feel like you're in a season of being reshaped? Maybe what you thought was going to happen in your relationships, career or overall life plan hasn't happened. Do you feel like you're being worked over?

What does cooperating with God's reshaping work look like? It starts with our answer to this question: do I believe God is trustworthy in everything? If yes, then go from there and ask for His help and grace to accept our circumstances, however full of uncertainty and confusion they are. If your answer is no, try this: just ask God to give you eyes to see Him for who He is.

Sometimes it's discouraging when we see how far we have to go. We wonder if we've made any progress at all. But I think the Gardener would have us look at it not by the progress we have made, but by the progress He has made as we submit to him in loving trust.