In the heights. No storms. Peace-filled.
I can see far down the valley and the harvest is ripe, full, greener than green.
It is up here where hearts soar and God's goodness is apparent.
Everything will be okay.
We are made right with HIM through His son and I KNOW that truth from right here.
All parenting follies/guilt/shame let go of,
All ugly marriage conflicts forged into something more beautiful,
All fears are quenched from the rest found in this place.
I can number my days without worry and smile at the future because HIS presence and HIS supply are not just known but actually felt from this mountain top.
From here I see the sunset spray the sky with colors unimaginable.
But it still gets dark within minutes.
From here I have to live out the truth I owned in the heights.
Sure my breaths come easier at lower altitude but then so does the lie that I control my breathing.
I need to rest here just as much as on the heights but I work too hard even at that.
The peace gets suffocated by my inability to see, as if I am supposed to see and know all things.
I long to die to self more, serve with real joy and love, live a love that is patient and kind,
But who has time for that?
How quickly my pride invades the valley.
The valley is where I live, metaphorically a bit, and literally.
It is here I must learn to maneuver better.
Surrounded by mountains and my inability to overcome, I falter and learn to lean.
That is exactly what this year had me learning to do: Forget self, and trust the Trust-Worthy One.
I see the heights and long for them, but am learning the joy of taking one step at a time, and then the next, and then the next.
And God is teaching me this not because I struggle to take the steps, but because I struggle to take them slowly in His time.
Frankly sometimes I crawled, and kicked and screamed, or tried to jump and run over people:
Yes, please, I need this, explosion proof ME.
God is 'gentling' me. I have seen growth and grace here.
But the slow calm in a heart of trust is what He is after, and only He can do it...
Star gazing from the plains, bike rides through the hills, math problems at the table,
Lego cities, dress up, soccer Sundays, talking through hurts and disappointments, looking eye to eye with truth, forgiving quickly the small explosions...
"Take the steps more slowly, calmly and enjoy Me through these precious souls I have given you."
You can teach and live 'Sermon on the Mount' living.
Not to keep the letter of the law but to live the Spirit of the law, which is utterly more.
An utterly different love--a Jesus love that doesn't grasp at what is rightfully His.
I can walk this peace, this calm, this hope right here in the valley,
by giving all of me away, choosing to lose my life for others' sake.
No matter their response, When 'no one' is watching.
In the shadows, in the mundane, at the breakfast table, in the home school room:
Give the generous grace given you, He says...
This last year, this new year, this every day:
Unhurried, Grace-Full steps that follow with confidence the narrow, sometimes scary, road in the valley and treasure the glimpses of glory given from the peaks.
Depths or heights no matter, Calm and bright will be the way.
May your year be filled with calm steps that take the time to see the beauty, truth, and goodness of God in Christ.
