A Pure Stream of Truth

Today while rushing to a dentist appointment and enduring the pressure of warfare in the atmosphere I began to observe my thoughts. Externally I was threading my way through traffic, half-listening to Sam talking, waiting at lights and watching the clock. Internally a ticker tape was running through my mind. First came all the circumstances, schedules, appointments, and things to do this month concerning school starting and the ramping up of the boys sports season, prep for upcoming ministry trips, parents 50th anniversary, followed by my "things to do" list relating first to home then to work, and finally floating across my inner screen came faces and conversations with the many people whom I hold in my heart to whom I am pastor, mother, daughter, friend. At the end of this internal multimedia presentation of calendar dates, faces and feelings came the thought, "I will be glad when this season is over, the pressure gone and my life not so busy."

This was a familiar road. A familiar habit of mind; this "sorting, organizing, processing" followed by longing for a break, a vacation, or at least just the passing of the pressure! Suddenly something deep within rose up saying, "NO! Do NOT escape!" With that a "spell" of sorts was broken. A fog cleared and a pure stream of truth began flowing. Its important to NOT escape into fantasy even if that fantasy only involves life after the checking off of the "to-do items on my list", or the visualization of "next week" when the calendar is freer of commitments - the grass greener, the sky bluer. . . No, this is now. This is my life. It is what it is. It is here in the glaring light of the present that I must see Jesus! It is HERE in the midst of the pressure, my over full calendar, my plate, heavy laden with emotions, decisions and concerns that I must see Jesus graphically portrayed as crucified. Unless I see Him here and know by way of experience his death and life at work in the whole of my being then I will either escape or devise a rescue plan of my own making (perhaps a mystery novel from the library? or another video with Pete? or a few moments rest in the comfortable recesses of my imagination).

Yesterday I was challenging MDCC to look at their lives. Are they full of symbols or substance? To escape, and not find the Way of the Cross here, well, that makes my preaching symbolic, not substance that is proven and born out through my own experience. (Ew, foul stench!) The challenge is that I am not walking through my days with a detailed instruction manual, the kind with the specific step-by-step diagrams that I love! No, instead I am walking the New and Living Way by knowing intimately the One who called Himself the Way, Truth and Life. I love to teach the Message of the Cross. Today I am grateful like Paul, that if I ask the gospel will be laid out personally for me by the One who knows my specific circumstances and my "hard wiring". This beautiful and fulfilling relationship with The Way will not occur if I start complaining internally, or fantasizing about escape. Jesus, could there be any higher purpose for my day than to know you by way of experience right here? I don't think so!

For I make known to you, brethren, the message which was announced as good news by me, that it is not as to its nature, human. For, as for myself, neither did I receive it directly from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation given me by Jesus Christ. (Gal. 11-12 Wuest)

Thank You, Lord, that if I ask, look and listen over all the circumstances You will be superimposed - graphically portrayed as crucified (Gal. 3:1). Thank You that this is not "poetic symbolism" but that being immersed in the power of your death and resurrection is actually the Way to live in my day-to-day. It is not just for the "big things", but also for the minutia of everyday life. Your death holds the answers for the questions and the concerns. Your life resurrects me in places of weariness and the emotions run dry. . .

What a treasure, this life with You! Knowing You, my joy and my very great reward.