just when wondering sets in. . .
. . . and you feel like you've been rocked from all angles. Just when you are hanging on by a thread, white-knuckled with stubborn belief in God's goodness yet feeling the full-blown effects of the spiritual battle all around you. Just when you feel most alone, and you are hoping for a breath of fresh air, for any encouragement, yet you know faith goes beyond these comforts.
It's right at that moment when you are sitting in a staff meeting, sleepy-eyed and emotionally drained from the previous week (maybe even the weekend), expecting nothing but the order of the day -- this is when you knocked off balance by the specificity of the Holy Spirit, ever-present and ever-working. Your eyes fall on a seemingly random calendar brought in out of the blue by a pastor on staff, which happened to be left sitting right in front of where you're sitting, minding your own business. Until you happen to actually read what's on the cover of this sort of cheesy-looking publication you'd otherwise dismiss -- and your eyes begin to tear up as you read a verse from the Bible that might as well have been written for you, even though it was and it wasn't, and you hope you can keep it together during the meeting, but this time because you're so overwhelmed by love, by the knowledge of being fully known by someone, the reassurance of never having been abandoned, not ever, for even one moment.
True story. And the verse? Here it is:
Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.
1 Chronicles 28:20
It's right at that moment when you are sitting in a staff meeting, sleepy-eyed and emotionally drained from the previous week (maybe even the weekend), expecting nothing but the order of the day -- this is when you knocked off balance by the specificity of the Holy Spirit, ever-present and ever-working. Your eyes fall on a seemingly random calendar brought in out of the blue by a pastor on staff, which happened to be left sitting right in front of where you're sitting, minding your own business. Until you happen to actually read what's on the cover of this sort of cheesy-looking publication you'd otherwise dismiss -- and your eyes begin to tear up as you read a verse from the Bible that might as well have been written for you, even though it was and it wasn't, and you hope you can keep it together during the meeting, but this time because you're so overwhelmed by love, by the knowledge of being fully known by someone, the reassurance of never having been abandoned, not ever, for even one moment.
True story. And the verse? Here it is:
Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished.
1 Chronicles 28:20
posted by laurastardust at 11:12:00 PM
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