To Be Called Beloved...
"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 3.14
It's been a few weeks... But really this last week.
You know those moments when you are in the middle of a beautiful and yet long run. The moment when your muscles ache, you feel like you can't continue and sitting on the side of the road is a rather appealing idea?
Yet you keep running and muscle memory takes over. From all the runs--both short and long--that have come before. Each step over the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years that have formed. Adrenaline kicks in and muscle memory takes over. And your rhythm and stride ease in the midst of the pain--the joy of the sweat, accomplishment, and just one more step win out.
It has been a week. All the best laid plans going awry. Physical pain. Exhaustion. People hurting. Lack of compassion. Lack of empathy. Watching those whom you love having their hearts broken. Your own sin causing other people problems. Finding yourself the object of many people's wrath--when the fault and culpability is not your own...apology, after apology, after apology. The sweetness of a moment of worship that was unexpected. The swell of a song. The beauty of a conversation with God. The Bible verse that surprises you. Someone breaking into your home. Others who you care about wounding you deeply. The minor annoyances of the unplanned --requiring time, energy, and effort.
All of this summed up in the moment where laughter erupts as you are helping push your friend's car up the highway with 4 other girls. The laughter and the joy because even in this situation... focus cannot ultimately be stolen. Rejoicing that God has sent a cloud of witnesses to surround us and cheer us on in our reckless abandon and surrender at the foot of the cross and the edge of the empty tomb.
That the muscle memory of pain, stress, and exhaustion gives way to the muscle memory of a faithful God who has not left us abandoned but speaks & has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son who He loves--in who is redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So even while the bugs invade, the work is never ending, the roof is falling in, and the pain does not dissipate... Muscle memory is giving way to the joy of knowing what it is to be called beloved.
It's been a few weeks... But really this last week.
You know those moments when you are in the middle of a beautiful and yet long run. The moment when your muscles ache, you feel like you can't continue and sitting on the side of the road is a rather appealing idea?
Yet you keep running and muscle memory takes over. From all the runs--both short and long--that have come before. Each step over the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years that have formed. Adrenaline kicks in and muscle memory takes over. And your rhythm and stride ease in the midst of the pain--the joy of the sweat, accomplishment, and just one more step win out.
It has been a week. All the best laid plans going awry. Physical pain. Exhaustion. People hurting. Lack of compassion. Lack of empathy. Watching those whom you love having their hearts broken. Your own sin causing other people problems. Finding yourself the object of many people's wrath--when the fault and culpability is not your own...apology, after apology, after apology. The sweetness of a moment of worship that was unexpected. The swell of a song. The beauty of a conversation with God. The Bible verse that surprises you. Someone breaking into your home. Others who you care about wounding you deeply. The minor annoyances of the unplanned --requiring time, energy, and effort.
All of this summed up in the moment where laughter erupts as you are helping push your friend's car up the highway with 4 other girls. The laughter and the joy because even in this situation... focus cannot ultimately be stolen. Rejoicing that God has sent a cloud of witnesses to surround us and cheer us on in our reckless abandon and surrender at the foot of the cross and the edge of the empty tomb.
That the muscle memory of pain, stress, and exhaustion gives way to the muscle memory of a faithful God who has not left us abandoned but speaks & has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son who He loves--in who is redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So even while the bugs invade, the work is never ending, the roof is falling in, and the pain does not dissipate... Muscle memory is giving way to the joy of knowing what it is to be called beloved.
muscle memory making messiah. mmmm.
ReplyDelete