I don’t do well in valleys and I think I’m in one. Saturday I attended a two and a half hour meeting that should have taken twenty minutes. It’s for a ministry I love, but it’s not the part where we see God work, but where we do mundane planning. It’s not where God is in view but where we produce work that God will really have to miraculously transform. This week I face mostly paperwork. I like being a trial lawyer because I like being in trial, not doing paperwork. My big project at home, new steps for our patio, has moved from the won’t-it-be-great stage to the will-it-ever-be-done stage. Finally, I love winter, but really will this one ever end. I was as cold yesterday as I was all winter. Mainly I was looking forward to the hills of spring and have had enough of the valleys of winter.
To top it all OC is particularly cryptic today. But I think he’s talking about what I’m going through, as usual.
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“Did not our heart burn within us?”
Luke 24:32 |
“We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, we have wonderful visions, then we have to learn to keep the secret of the burning heart that will go through anything. It is the dull, bald, dreary, commonplace day, with commonplace duties and people, that kills the burning heart unless we have learned the secret of abiding in Jesus”
Well there you go, it seems I haven’t learned the secret of abiding in Jesus. My burning heart is being quenched by everydayness and paperwork.
For advice, OC provides this “When God gives a vision, transact business on that line, no matter what it costs.” Well thanks a lot. I know what I’m suppose to do, how do I do that?
I think the answer is that circumstances form the contours of hills and valleys. God has no hills or valleys. He is the same always. I think the secret maybe that when we think we’re in a valley, we need to look closer. Focus on the constant God. Look for the positive.
If I do that for the moment, I see the great Sunday we had at Amana yesterday. The wonderful lunch I had with my beautiful daughter. The fun movie I saw with my bride last night. The terrific book I’m listening to, Crazy Love by Francis Chan (More on that later.)
Maybe the secret of making it through the valley, is realizing that it ain’t a valley at all.
As for the weather, I think I’ll put on the last (I hope) pot of gumbo for the season. It’s recipe I should have shared but I stole it from the internet.
Valley? What Valley?
I’m blessed.
Nick
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