Letter to a friend

I hope it’s okay that I’m writing. You’ve been in my thoughts and prayers for many months now and I felt led to offer a word of encouragement as you embark on a new beginning.

I’ve never dealt “personally” with the demons of addiction but I have known it in my own family. While I don’t know how it truly feels to wrestle with something like that day by day or hour by hour, I must say you came to mind as I prayed a prayer our DS recently shared with me.

In the new year I do not wish for you
that God will bless you,
since God already intends
only the deepest blessings for you.
I don't wish that good things will happen to you,
since I don't know
what will most beautifully shape your soul—
in what losses you will receive grace,
in what challenges you will gain wisdom,
in what struggles you will become more truly yourself.

It speaks a truth of uncertainty and admits that I don’t know “in what losses you will receive grace, in what challenges you will gain wisdom, in what struggles you will become more truly yourself.” And, it even proposes a scandalous idea that somehow there is blessing in our deepest valley and driest desert.

Never presuming to have walked in your shoes, I do however believe there is some truth to that prayer and idea. Perhaps on this side of the coin and the start of the new year, you too look back at those moments (as I often do) and find yourself pondering the question - “why?” Sometimes, I think I’ll never know and I’ve learned to be okay with that. And sometimes, I’ve found, as the prayer suggests, that those struggles have made me more truly myself.

I imagine David, the one whom OT writers identify as a person after God’s own heart, found himself asking the “why” question a great deal as well. Why he was to be king, why Saul hated him, why he couldn’t build the temple, why he could succumb to temptation so easily? You wouldn’t think of him as a man with uncertainty given the brash boldness he displays against a giant as young boy. With one swing of a sling and a pebble, he crushes an entire army. But, David is not always that certain.

We all have our own giants to face and most of them are not defeated with simply a quick swing of a sling. In the 61st Psalm, a psalm attributed to David, we find a much more uncertain and overwhelmed David. Here, he begins from a place of weakness and deep distress – from the end of the earth. Rock bottom. That’s the David I know more easily. Not simply a David crowned hero for his ability to wield a rock, but rather who knows what it’s like to hit rock bottom. And here’s the best part. This larger than life character, known the world over for what he did with a rock, cries out “lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”

I am so grateful for the points of light that are brightening your life this year. I’m proud of you for standing up to your giants. You are not alone. And my prayer for you in the months and years ahead are the exact words of David: “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”

God love you as He always has. And God use you up, day by day, for real ministry in His world. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There and back again

Hello blog. Fancy meeting you here. :)
On March 27, 2011 life changed in a big way. I welcomed my daughter into the world in the wee hours of that morning. Since then, you can tell I've done very little in the way of posts. However, yesterday I had a spark that nudged me to return again. I've always been enriched in sharing a few thoughts in writing (even if no one else is reading). So, starting this month, expect to see some new posts very soon. Until then, may those to whom love is a stranger find in you a generous friend.