To those suffering loss, in whatever its form (the loss of an infant, a child, a spouse, a friend, a family member) hold to the hope found in Christ. Our loss is not overlooked by our God. He hears our every fear and gathers each tear. Do not think for a moment that these things are not felt by our father. Jesus chose to step into humanity for the cause of drawing us close. His walk in human flesh brought with it the fullest range of emotions. He, too has experienced deep sorrow, anguish of soul, desperation, frustration, disappointment, anger, and hurt. He wept with His friends at Lazarus’ death. Although He knew in His infinite wisdom the plan – he felt the sorrow of His friends – he understood the impact of human loss. In His most desperate hour as the crucifixion drew near Jesus departed with His closest friends to pray. (This account can be found in all the gospels). Imagine His disappointment when he found His friends sleeping and the increasing frustration as He repeatedly asked them if they could not stay awake even one hour to pray with him. Bent in that garden our Savior came face to face with a tidal wave of human emotions – they overcame him like a tsunami turning his world upside down. There in that garden he cried out in his humanity to his Father. Notice that the father sent a comforter – an angel – to minister to his son. Jesus, wept even harder in the comfort of that angel. God does not expect us to be super Christians, clinging to religious beliefs, or doing the right actions, or saying the right churchy words. No - our father wishes for us to come just as Jesus and just lay it all out – to hold nothing back. There in that moment when we are fully exposed, when we are broken before the Lord – surrendered to His will – He will comfort us. Those things we hoped for may not come about, circumstances may not change, we may not be delivered out of the storm or lifted from the valley to the mountain top – but we are delivered into the perfect place of His grace and love. This encounter with the God of the universe will demand a choice. I like how it is stated in I Kings 18:21 “How long will you falter between two opinions…” and in Joshua 24 “…..choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” - - we must decide if we will surrender to His will – who we will serve. Will we follow His plan, even in the suffering? Will we choose His way and face our storms holding His hands? Will we walk this road not held in check by the worlds standards, religious expectations, or our own self-inflicted standards? I assure you that the worlds standards would not have allowed for the God in flesh to cry out as he did, but Jesus did not care – he approached His father in honesty and in all his brokenness. Because of this Jesus was lifted up, encouraged and able to fully surrender to the will of God. Choose this day what you will surrender to – and take comfort in the arms that are wide open – see the face of a Father who loves you more than anything else. Take courage in the one who is able to deliver you!
Many times over in our lives we may be required to walk in the valley. Let the God of the Universe, the Lover of your soul take your suffering and make it something more beautiful. Cling to the tragic beauty found in the cross – the ultimate act of suffering and sorrow that brought you into the courts of praise before a loving, mighty God. Remember Grace.
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Journey through the Valley of Shadow
My thoughts of God have been forever changed, that is how it is when you come face to face with the magnitude of His infinite grace and love – when you are consumed by it. For there are times that in this life that we must surrender it all, laying ourselves out on the altar – and at this time Father steps down from His throne to gently pick up His children and whisper His love. In this moment the grace and love that have flowed from His thrown since the beginning of time wash over you like a tidal wave and you realize for the first time just how great this God is that you serve, and how absolutely unworthy you are. You are faced for the first time with the evidences of his grace and love displayed throughout your life and you realize that it has always been this way.
I know that God brings us to things to make our lives more beautiful. Trials and suffering bring us into a new relationship with God – a new understanding of the vastness of his love. I can not with any honesty say that I look forward to trials, nor would I choose suffering if the choice were left up to me, but these things are a blessing for those who trust in God.
This year we were called to a journey in the valley of shadows…a time of desperate faith, clinging to the unseen as though we could see it until that unseen became a reality for us. It was a coming to knowledge of God’s grace and the love that shelters us in the midst of life’s devastating storms.
Our valley was the pregnancy of Caleb Levi Riddle. This was a time of leaning on God and claiming the promises found in His word. Our defense against the enemy’s attack was constant prayer. We had to train our eyes to focus on the cross of our Lord when our circumstances seemed so hopeless. In looking to our Lord we discovered a more beautiful world – that world that is spiritual and beyond description. In Christ’s love even the most desperate situations become bearable and we could see the hand of God and the grace that was being lavishly poured on us at every turn.
The following pages are the journey that we walked. It is the truth of imperfect people in a harsh world facing terrible odds depending on a perfect God that chose His loss so that we could be redeemed. It is the journey that has brought us closer into fellowship with God’s grace and has left us forever changed.
In this journey it is my hope that my life has been made more beautiful because of the suffering.
I know that God brings us to things to make our lives more beautiful. Trials and suffering bring us into a new relationship with God – a new understanding of the vastness of his love. I can not with any honesty say that I look forward to trials, nor would I choose suffering if the choice were left up to me, but these things are a blessing for those who trust in God.
This year we were called to a journey in the valley of shadows…a time of desperate faith, clinging to the unseen as though we could see it until that unseen became a reality for us. It was a coming to knowledge of God’s grace and the love that shelters us in the midst of life’s devastating storms.
Our valley was the pregnancy of Caleb Levi Riddle. This was a time of leaning on God and claiming the promises found in His word. Our defense against the enemy’s attack was constant prayer. We had to train our eyes to focus on the cross of our Lord when our circumstances seemed so hopeless. In looking to our Lord we discovered a more beautiful world – that world that is spiritual and beyond description. In Christ’s love even the most desperate situations become bearable and we could see the hand of God and the grace that was being lavishly poured on us at every turn.
The following pages are the journey that we walked. It is the truth of imperfect people in a harsh world facing terrible odds depending on a perfect God that chose His loss so that we could be redeemed. It is the journey that has brought us closer into fellowship with God’s grace and has left us forever changed.
In this journey it is my hope that my life has been made more beautiful because of the suffering.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Continue Walking
I guess maybe clarification needs to be made of walking through the valley and staying in the valley. Each of us must make this walk through the valley and often times when we are truly surrendered to Abba we will walk through many valleys along this road. If our hope is anchored in Christ and we have committed His word to our hearts and we are holding to the promises of unseen things and our face is set on the end we will continue to move forward. Never allow the world to handle your sorrow or cause you to deny that you are in the valley because in doing so you will deny Christ the opportunity to ministers to you.
"Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted," Jesus said to the throng of humanity that sat on that mountainside in the afternoon sun. These were not random words flung out to make people feel good. This was God in the flesh - knowing the past, present and the future looking out over broken humanity and saying, "You will sorrow, your dreams will break, your world will shatter, your hope will falter, prayers won't always be answered your way - BUT you will be comforted, I will not leave you or forsake you, you will not be crushed or overcome, I will deliver you!"
He knew the world would shame people out of their sorrow convincing them some things "don't really hurt", or some sorrows are greater than others, or that there is an acceptable time to sorrow. He knew people would deny their sorrows hiding them in deep places in the heart. His invitation was to face it - I will comfort you.
Take a lesson from Jesus himself. Leading up to the Crucifixion he tried to prepare to his disciples. He tried to reach out in His humanity and share his heavy heart that had peace to impart. He even invited some to the Mount of Olives to pray with him to walk in the valley with him. Then there in that garden God in flesh wept openly and agonizingly. Sorrow and grief rolled over Him and He cried out to Abba. Jehovah, Immanuel, The Lamb poured out in His humanity cried out to Abba, "Father if there be another way let this cup pass from me!!" - let this sorrow end. "None the less YOUR will..." - surrender to the walk in the valley with hope secured in His father's will. And then the comforter was sent - and angel to minister to Jehovah. Notice what happened next. Jesus didn't get up with a smile on his face and go to the disciples and say, "OK I'm fine, I'm about to die an agonizing death, walk through a dark valley - darker than any valley known to man - so let's move on!" NO - scripture reveals that Jesus wept even harder with the comforter there - he came face to face with His heartbreak - he cried then so hard, so openly that blood poured from His brow. Then he stood and walked through the valley - not with giggles - not denying the pain - not denying His sorrow - BUT SURRENDER TO ABBA'S will - His faith anchored in God - His sight set on the Father's face - putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward.
Keep moving anchored in Christ. Do not be deceived by the enemy. There is no shame is sorrow or disappointment or grief. The shame comes when we allow that instead of Christ to define us - when we allow that instead of Christ to become our focus (for when we do these things we have taken our sorrow as an idol and placed in before God). In recognizing it, facing it, owning it - we allow God to send comfort and strengthen us as we walk through our valleys - to move past all things in due time according to the seasons of God.
"Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted," Jesus said to the throng of humanity that sat on that mountainside in the afternoon sun. These were not random words flung out to make people feel good. This was God in the flesh - knowing the past, present and the future looking out over broken humanity and saying, "You will sorrow, your dreams will break, your world will shatter, your hope will falter, prayers won't always be answered your way - BUT you will be comforted, I will not leave you or forsake you, you will not be crushed or overcome, I will deliver you!"
He knew the world would shame people out of their sorrow convincing them some things "don't really hurt", or some sorrows are greater than others, or that there is an acceptable time to sorrow. He knew people would deny their sorrows hiding them in deep places in the heart. His invitation was to face it - I will comfort you.
Take a lesson from Jesus himself. Leading up to the Crucifixion he tried to prepare to his disciples. He tried to reach out in His humanity and share his heavy heart that had peace to impart. He even invited some to the Mount of Olives to pray with him to walk in the valley with him. Then there in that garden God in flesh wept openly and agonizingly. Sorrow and grief rolled over Him and He cried out to Abba. Jehovah, Immanuel, The Lamb poured out in His humanity cried out to Abba, "Father if there be another way let this cup pass from me!!" - let this sorrow end. "None the less YOUR will..." - surrender to the walk in the valley with hope secured in His father's will. And then the comforter was sent - and angel to minister to Jehovah. Notice what happened next. Jesus didn't get up with a smile on his face and go to the disciples and say, "OK I'm fine, I'm about to die an agonizing death, walk through a dark valley - darker than any valley known to man - so let's move on!" NO - scripture reveals that Jesus wept even harder with the comforter there - he came face to face with His heartbreak - he cried then so hard, so openly that blood poured from His brow. Then he stood and walked through the valley - not with giggles - not denying the pain - not denying His sorrow - BUT SURRENDER TO ABBA'S will - His faith anchored in God - His sight set on the Father's face - putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward.
Keep moving anchored in Christ. Do not be deceived by the enemy. There is no shame is sorrow or disappointment or grief. The shame comes when we allow that instead of Christ to define us - when we allow that instead of Christ to become our focus (for when we do these things we have taken our sorrow as an idol and placed in before God). In recognizing it, facing it, owning it - we allow God to send comfort and strengthen us as we walk through our valleys - to move past all things in due time according to the seasons of God.
Monday, January 17, 2011
This Season of Sorrow
I would be lying to say I am fine. I am still walking through this valley of the shadow of death. The world would say to me to toughen up that this is a common thing. My Savior would say to me face that which hurts and together we will walk through the agony of this time. In the wake of my devastation I still have a very real and raw pain. It is as if I can see the end but have not yet arrived. This was an incomplete season in my life by physical standards and when it is complete I believe I will finally place my foot on the base of the mountain at the edge of the valley - Thanks only to Immanueal who has carried me often or I would have sunk into the mire of depression and hopelessness.
Maybe incomplete season seems a strange way of stating it - so maybe this illustration would be better suited. When I was a child in Oklahoma my stepdad and his family and friends were cattlemen and farmers. One summer a severe drought hit - the kind that causes the huge lakes to grow stagnant and ponds to dry up leaving fish on the sand. Acres and acres of hay burned up in the scorching sun that year. As the crops failed the farmers became agitated, worried, restless - some even angry. They knew this would create a shortage in the winter and effect the cattle business. This one loss would have rippling effects that lasted through the winter months. As the season drew on and got closer to what should have been the harvest time they became more irritable, more restless, more worried how things would turn out. Hands and bodies that should have been busy with satisfying labor of cutting, raking, hauling, and storing hay were still. The hired hands went without jobs, farmers used to constant labor found themselves at coffee shops and gas stations. They were anxious just to get past harvest to begin the next season. They were ready to prepare the fields for the winter crops. They had to wait for the season to be completed in order to move to the next - and so they were restless. Even knowing they had the next season to look forward to - it was this one they were in that resulted in empty hours that would have been filled.
Explained: My season of pregnancy was cut short (my season of motherhood to Caleb cut even shorter). Though I fully realize God's season are not measured by man's and His are perfectly timed our physical world is accustomed to the seasons we have laid out and the expected ends we have become familiar with. This fact has been the most difficult for my mothering heart to grasp and reconcile to my faith in a perfect God. My season of pregnancy by our worlds standards should have been 9 months with an anticipated due date (April 27). So the anticipation of joy at this date has turned to a realization of sorrow - and beneath that a realization that though my arms are empty - heaven's are full. But oh how it aches here, on this earth. My hope rests in this - God is able to deliver me into His perfect grace. I also hope for the passing of this season to move on to the next. I do not hope naively, believing the next season will be without sorrow but I do believe that there will be a season of healing. And though this loss remain and I will sorrow at times for what might have been. I am eager to embrace the hope of what will be in the arms of Abba. I eagerly await the blessings whether they be times of sorrow or happiness. My joy and hope are anchored in the cross and my face is set on my Savior's and ever I feel him holding me close. For when I would have been content with just a touch of His garment He saw fit to draw me up into the full embrace of His arms and gently guide me through the valley. And just as he wept for his friends at the death of Lazarus I know He weeps too for me - not because of Caleb's death (for He knows that it was truly a ressurection to a more perfect life) but for the terreble ache I feel. I know too that He allows such brokenness to enter into our lives that we may be more perfectly conformed to Him - to be made more beautiful - So I surrender to His will and rest in His arms and walk this valley to its end with Him as my sustaining hope.
Maybe incomplete season seems a strange way of stating it - so maybe this illustration would be better suited. When I was a child in Oklahoma my stepdad and his family and friends were cattlemen and farmers. One summer a severe drought hit - the kind that causes the huge lakes to grow stagnant and ponds to dry up leaving fish on the sand. Acres and acres of hay burned up in the scorching sun that year. As the crops failed the farmers became agitated, worried, restless - some even angry. They knew this would create a shortage in the winter and effect the cattle business. This one loss would have rippling effects that lasted through the winter months. As the season drew on and got closer to what should have been the harvest time they became more irritable, more restless, more worried how things would turn out. Hands and bodies that should have been busy with satisfying labor of cutting, raking, hauling, and storing hay were still. The hired hands went without jobs, farmers used to constant labor found themselves at coffee shops and gas stations. They were anxious just to get past harvest to begin the next season. They were ready to prepare the fields for the winter crops. They had to wait for the season to be completed in order to move to the next - and so they were restless. Even knowing they had the next season to look forward to - it was this one they were in that resulted in empty hours that would have been filled.
Explained: My season of pregnancy was cut short (my season of motherhood to Caleb cut even shorter). Though I fully realize God's season are not measured by man's and His are perfectly timed our physical world is accustomed to the seasons we have laid out and the expected ends we have become familiar with. This fact has been the most difficult for my mothering heart to grasp and reconcile to my faith in a perfect God. My season of pregnancy by our worlds standards should have been 9 months with an anticipated due date (April 27). So the anticipation of joy at this date has turned to a realization of sorrow - and beneath that a realization that though my arms are empty - heaven's are full. But oh how it aches here, on this earth. My hope rests in this - God is able to deliver me into His perfect grace. I also hope for the passing of this season to move on to the next. I do not hope naively, believing the next season will be without sorrow but I do believe that there will be a season of healing. And though this loss remain and I will sorrow at times for what might have been. I am eager to embrace the hope of what will be in the arms of Abba. I eagerly await the blessings whether they be times of sorrow or happiness. My joy and hope are anchored in the cross and my face is set on my Savior's and ever I feel him holding me close. For when I would have been content with just a touch of His garment He saw fit to draw me up into the full embrace of His arms and gently guide me through the valley. And just as he wept for his friends at the death of Lazarus I know He weeps too for me - not because of Caleb's death (for He knows that it was truly a ressurection to a more perfect life) but for the terreble ache I feel. I know too that He allows such brokenness to enter into our lives that we may be more perfectly conformed to Him - to be made more beautiful - So I surrender to His will and rest in His arms and walk this valley to its end with Him as my sustaining hope.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The Valley of the Shadows
The tragic beauty of the valley
Is in the songs that fill the air
The broken hallelujahs from
God's children walking there
In the midst of terrible pain,
and in the wake of shattered dreams
On the bank where tears have fallen
into flowing streams
There the children cling
to the hope they know is true
That God is a loving Father
who will carry them through
So up from broken hearts,
poured out of aching souls
Rises a redeeming chant
The Father already knows
He hears his children's cries
has counted every sorrow
Knows their very hearts
and has penned their tomorrows
And though the shadows press
and the enemy stands near
He offers them a shelter
from their devouring fear
He may not ease the suffering
or change the circumstance
But ministers to hearts and souls
causes aching feet to dance
He holds them in his arms
so gently whispers love
Reminds them of redemption
the perfect gift from above
He gently takes their hands
and guides them on the way
Down the path of sorrow
to a brighter day.
Is in the songs that fill the air
The broken hallelujahs from
God's children walking there
In the midst of terrible pain,
and in the wake of shattered dreams
On the bank where tears have fallen
into flowing streams
There the children cling
to the hope they know is true
That God is a loving Father
who will carry them through
So up from broken hearts,
poured out of aching souls
Rises a redeeming chant
The Father already knows
He hears his children's cries
has counted every sorrow
Knows their very hearts
and has penned their tomorrows
And though the shadows press
and the enemy stands near
He offers them a shelter
from their devouring fear
He may not ease the suffering
or change the circumstance
But ministers to hearts and souls
causes aching feet to dance
He holds them in his arms
so gently whispers love
Reminds them of redemption
the perfect gift from above
He gently takes their hands
and guides them on the way
Down the path of sorrow
to a brighter day.
Such is the Kingdom
For such is the kingdom of God
This precious little one
Who came into this world
and was so quickly gone
How comforting to know Christ
greeted you with love
When so silently you passed
from here to heaven above
Your life here was treasured
and it has left it's mark
On our very lives and
deep within our heart
This precious little one
Who came into this world
and was so quickly gone
How comforting to know Christ
greeted you with love
When so silently you passed
from here to heaven above
Your life here was treasured
and it has left it's mark
On our very lives and
deep within our heart
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