So how do i drive with these things on?
What?? I know, that doesn't sound like the type of eye-of-the-tiger, hear-me-roar, tough girl thoughts I might have after washing off the sweat from my boxing class today, but that's just where I'm at. I'm really not all that tough, I'm realizing. Oh sure, it was a good work-out, and I got some tips on perfecting my roundhouse kick into the bag and aiming my upper cuts right into the chin, even though I wasn't nearly as winded and ready to die every second with this instructor, like I usually am with Mr. Donut Man Duque and his aDorable Doggie pal...
But I'm coming back down to reality in this season I'm going through, learning hard lessons on life and love and family and work and money and even more about God and His amazing grace. Even a wretch like me.
I'm going through some awesome devotions that hit me right where I need it, so I gotta share some things..
Like the one on Patience, and I quote:
"Patience is the practice of trusting even when we cannot see....
"Patience evokes a spirit of humility because we recognize that we are not in charge...
"Patience involves seeking the Source instead of the solution.
"Patience is maturity revealed.
"patience is the art of waiting, expectantly, joyfully, and quietly, when you have no idea what you are waiting for.
"Patience is the ability to stand perfectly still in the vortex of chaos, and be totally content to hang out until further notice simply because you have no intention or desire to move forward without His instruction." (Kristin Armstrong)
That last one really gets me. There seems to be a fine line between waiting on God and just being lazy or procrastinating, I know, but I think there's a lot we can learn from God when we just sit expectantly before Him for awhile. I know for me it's teaching me to have a soft heart. My first reaction to pain is to toughen up, or at least pretend I'm tough, and to keep moving, don't slow down, just push through the ugliness and hope God blesses my decisions. But that's not God's plan for us. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh," God says in Ezekial 36:26.
And again I quote Ms. Armstrong: "In response to heartbreak....it is all too easy to develop a heart of stone.we think this will protect us from any more pain. Yet the problem with stone is that it feels nothing-no pain, but no love either. It is a trap that feels like self-preservation but is actually self-destruction. The Lord wants to give you a heart of flesh. With His love you can emerge from a painful season..with a heart that is yielding, porous, and ready to receive the gifts He has waiting for you."
So yeah, I'll still glove up, alright, but not with hard, unfeeling gloves of stone that bash others yet don't even feel their pain or mine, but with soft gloves of flesh, that can feel as they reach out to others.
And that's all this tough, eye-of-the-tiger has to say today. Roar and purr.
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