Embracing Our Personal Gethsemane

It was one of those sunny spring days with a cloudless blue sky and crisp, clean air. The azaleas were covered in a glorious riot of blooms. Dear friends were on their way to my house for dinner. God was on His throne, and all was well. 

I heard a car pull up and my heart brightened. Perfect timing. My preparations were complete and my friends had arrived. I hurried out the door to greet them. 

But it wasn't my friends. It was someone else, even more dear than the awaited friends. With terrible news that would change my life and that of my son forever. It would, ultimately, end my marriage. I listened, dumfounded, and knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

God was still on the throne, and all was still well, but for a brief time, I felt completely alone. 

Abandoned. Crushed. Devastated.

I was shocked, but I tried to put on my happy-girl face and pretend that I was still fine. Still alive and filled with joy. A few minutes later, my friends arrived. We ate our meal and laughed and talked. I smiled and faked it the best I could. 

After dinner, we went to my little country clinic. In the prayer room, my sweet friend said, "Tell me what's wrong." And I did.

Together, the three of us laid on the floor, face down, and wept. We begged God to intervene. Finally, hours later, I began to thank Him for what He would do through the painful situation he had allowed. Somewhere in the dark night of my soul, I found my place of Gethsemane. 

It was my "Thy will be done" moment, and the rest of my journey through the pain depended on that one pivotal time.

We had prayed until I could "do it". 

There were horrible times ahead. More pain than I could imagine. I asked God and everyone else around me "Why?" and "How will I make it?" and "When will God move?" In the midst of my grief, however, God surrounded me with His love and peace. The body of Christ surrounded me with support and loved me when I was pitiful and unlovely. Our Lord carried me through. 

I didn't know it at the time, but it was the same pivotal moment that Job experienced. Right at the beginning of his trial, when he received the news that his oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, three sets of servants, and all ten of his children were gone, Job worshipped. He shaved his head and tore his robes and fell, face down, on the floor. He worshipped God there, and found his Gethsemane. (Job 1)

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord."

                      Job 1:21 nasb

That one "Thy will be done" moment made Job's survival through the rest of his trial, faith still intact, possible. 

It's the kind of Gethsemane we all must face eventually. The moment when life comes crashing down and we see no way to survive the trial God has allowed is the one moment of critical opportunity. It is the moment when we allow God to strip every pretense away and leave us bare before Him. 

It's the moment when we allow Him to touch the core of our hearts and purify us as with hyssop and fire. 

Our personal Gethsemane is the place where we abandon our will to His and arise a new creature. We are transformed by surrender and equipped to do battle, shaky and tearful though we may be.

Job had more than forty more chapters worth of story and suffering to go, but the battle was won at the very start, on his face, on the ground, in his surrender.

Our personal battle through the dark night of our soul can be won. It can be won, but not by arguments or begging or demands. It is won only by surrender to the One who is still on the throne of heaven. It is won when we allow God to strip away everything else to which we've clung, cleanse every sin, and cling to Him. 

It is won by the prayer of Gethsemane. Thy will be done.

We never want surrender. It seems like foolishness to embrace God's way of pain, but it's not. The foolishness is in clinging to the tatters of our own will. 

Peace can be found in the pain, in the cleansing, in the surrender. Peace can be found when we embrace Gethsemane and accept His difficult and terrifying will. 

Years later, I can look back and see that the prayers of my Gethsemane were answered in tremendous ways. God used my pain to transform me. He brought me through. 

Gethsemane is a precious place to our Lord, and time spent there is never wasted. Not mine. Not yours.

If you haven't faced your own dark night of the soul yet, you will. We all will. When that time comes, embrace your personal Gethsemane. Begin your journey as Job began, with worship and surrender.

"Not my will, but Thine be done."  It's the way of Gethsemane. It's the way of Christ. It's the way that changes everything.
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In case you missed one of this week's posts, here are the links: The Changing of Our Culture: Physician Assisted Suicide, The Opportunity in Trials,  The Monarch Migration Badge,  The Sermon Without Words,  A Matter of Perspective, and Living in Goshen: God's Best.

#Gethsemane #darknightofthesoul #surrender #Christian #Job #ChronologicalBible

Finding Christmas: The Importance of Surrender

It was one of those silent arguments I couldn't win. You've probably had those, too. God wanted a certain thing done a certain way with a certain attitude. I didn't think it was possible. Had I believed it could be done, and with a good outcome, I'd have tried at the start. I didn't just doubt Him. I didn't believe Him at all. I expected a catastrophic outcome when I tried and failed.

Trust Me, God would say.

But God, I would say.

The preacher began to speak about the issue from the pulpit. Conviction came at me from every angle. Inescapable conviction.

Finally, I surrendered. "Okay. I'll do it Your way, but don't blame me when things don't work out." I didn't say those words aloud to God, but my heart felt them. 

When I finally obeyed, it quickly became obvious that God was right, and had been all along. 

What still surprises me is how God blessed my reluctant obedience. 

Looking back, I can see that, even more than obedience, He wanted my absolute surrender to His will. 

Even when it didn't make sense to me. Even when I didn't understand.

God's ways are inscrutable. (Isaiah 40:28) The word used there indicates that, no matter how carefully nor how long we search, we can never understand nor completely know His ways. Just when I think I have God figured out, I find  there is more to know. That is never more true than in the times when I arrogantly think I have a better way. I don't.

Absolute surrender is a struggle for me. 

When the outcome is clear and the action makes sense, those surrenders, of course, are easily done. I'm talking about the surrenders that no one understands. The "leave medicine and write a novel" kind of surrender. The "forgive your worst enemy" kind of surrender. The "turn the other cheek when you're being humiliated in public" kind of surrender.

The teenager, Mary, soon to suffer humiliation and scorn for a sin she didn't commit, understood surrender in a way I only wish I did. (Luke 1:30-38)

Mary had ear-nailed-to-the-wall, no turning back, total surrender from the first.

The angel Gabriel told her, "God has taken note of you, and He is pleased. He sent me to tell you that you are about to have a baby and He will be the Messiah you've been expecting." (Leanna paraphrase) Mary knew she was a virgin, but she didn't argue the impossibility of a pregnancy. She simply asked, "How?" 

"Nothing is impossible with God, so He will father the baby." (LP) 

I read those words and wonder how Mary responded as she did. She simply said, "Okay. Whatever God wants is fine with me. I'll do it." She didn't argue. She didn't say, "I'll lose my good reputation over this." or "That is a bad idea because I'm going to be stoned to death." She simply surrendered to the will of God and left Him in charge of her consequences.

Surrendering when the world does things a different way is not easy. It's also not optional. 

Christmas is one of those issues where the world has a very commercial way. The world's celebration is full of tinsel and garland and spending and bright packages. It's a months-long gear up for a few moments of unwrapping followed by an all-too-often sense of emptiness.

What if the body of Christ stopped surrendering to the world and surrendered to God instead? 

What if we admitted that Christmas has nothing to do with all this glitter? 

What if we surrendered to the truth that Christmas is about surrender?

Mary surrendered to the will of God. Jesus the Son of God surrendered to the will of His Father and wrapped Himself in flesh. Jesus the man surrendered to the will of God and took the long and painful journey from the manger to the cross. 

Christmas is about one surrender after another that, ultimately, bought redemption for sinful man. It's time we acknowledged it.

Christmas has nothing at all to do with Grinches (although it's a cute story) or trees (except the one to which Jesus was nailed). It is not about Santa Claus, no matter how many touching stories we tell to make it seem so. 

Christmas is about Jesus, and the theme of Christmas is surrender. 

To experience Christmas in the deepest way possible, we must celebrate through surrender. Search for the will of God in our lives and obey it. Whatever He asks. Nothing held back. 

The gift God most wants us to give this Christmas is the gift of ourselves, given to Him. Our will poured out before Him. It is the gift of surrender we must give our Lord, and it's the best gift of all.

"And Mary said, 'Behold, the bondslave of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word.'" Luke 1:38 nasb
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In case you missed any of the past week's posts, here are the links: Finding Christmas: Setting a Goal, Finding Christmas: When Life is Less than Perfect, Finding Christmas: Clear Vision, Finding Christmas: Making Choices that Count, Finding Christmas: Truth, Tradition, and Choice,  Finding Christmas: The Joy of Relationship and Finding Christmas: The Word of God.

The most read post of the last week: Finding Christmas: When Life is Less than Perfect

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 #Advent #keepChristinChristmas #MerryChristmas #JesusChrist #disciple #Surrender 

photo courtesy of freeimages.com

Surrendering to God's will

As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, "This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. (Luke 11:29-30 NASB)

So they said to him, "What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?"-for the sea was becoming increasingly stormy. He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you, for I know that on account of me this great storm has come upon you." (Jonah 1:11-12 NASB)

We are rambling on a side road in search of understanding about the sign of the Jonah. Yesterday, we saw that Jonah's actions spoke much louder to the sailors than his eloquent words about fearing the God of heaven. Today, we see that the sailors understood something we often do not, the concepts of accountability and consequences. They were saying to Jonah (Leanna Paraphrase), "This is your fault because of your rebellion, and we want the storm to stop. How are we going to get relief?" 

The storm was because of Jonah's rebellion. The sailors were essentially innocent bystanders in the crisis, drawn into the situation by Jonah's presence on the ship. All they wanted was for the storm to stop and the seas to calm. They wanted peace. 

The sailors wanted to "do something" to make the storm stop. If Jonah's actions had "caused" the storm to start, perhaps some other set of actions could "cause" the storm to stop. Since Jonah was at the center of the problem, they turned to Jonah for the solution. "What should  we do to you?" I don't know what they expected him to say, but "throw me overboard" was not it.

When I read Jonah's words, I'm always surprised. What was he thinking? I suppose he considered one of two things. 1) They would throw him overboard, the storm would stop, and he would drown, successfully ending his flight away from God. 2) They would throw him overboard, the storm would stop, and God would miraculously save him. Either way, there would be a resolution to the situation.

For the purposes of illustration, I am presuming that Jonah had come to the end of himself. His rebellion and prodigal flight had not worked out as he expected, and his consequences were overwhelming. He had finally come to the point of abandoning himself to God. "Throw me overboard" was, in a way, a surrender to the will of God. 

I've been to the point of resignation a time or two, and maybe you have, too. In situations so complex that I had no idea what to do, there came a point when my desired outcome no longer mattered. The most important thing to me was an end to the storm. At that point, the outcome was not as important as getting some kind of relief in the ongoing situation. That point of surrendering my will to God's is a vital step in receiving the miraculous intervention of God. 

When Jonah told the sailors to throw him overboard, they were horrified. They did all they could to save Jonah from his plight. At last, they, too, had to abandon him to whatever solution God would provide. In the midst of a crisis with someone we love, this is often a vital place for us to reach. I don't at all mean to "throw overboard" one who has brought a storm into our lives, but allowing God to use the consequences of their actions to change their hearts and lives is a necessary part of God's redemptive process. 

The sailors rowed desperately, trying to avoid letting go of Jonah. They begged God for mercy. They delayed as long as they dared. All the while, God's big fish was waiting for Jonah so that His plan could unfold. Our attempts to spare others from God-designed consequences can delay the redemption God has planned. 

There was no way for the sailors to know what God would do as they flung Jonah toward the sea and whatever mercy God would offer. Sometimes He sends a storm, but sometimes He sends the most unlikely of refuge places. That's what Jonah found. 

When the sailors did what Jonah said to do, the storm completely stopped and they understood that Almighty God had done it. They feared God greatly, and responded with sacrifices and vows to Him. God completely transformed their lives. God never wastes the storms of life. In this particular storm, he used it to bring the sailors, bystanders drawn in to Jonah's rebellion, to Himself. 

The storm was not wasted in Jonah's life, either. We will see tomorrow about the refuge God had prepared for this wandering prodigal.

For today, consider the storms of your life. How did God use the storm? Have your efforts to spare others (or yourself) of consequences delayed the resolution of the storm? Surrendering to the will of God is not an act of failure. It is an act of faith and opens up the most remarkable of possibilities when we allow Him to do all that He can do, in whatever way He chooses. 

Let Him have His way. It's always best.