Spring is coming!!! Daylight savings is here. And best yet, we have had two sunny, warmish days which is really welcome after a cold and very wet winter. I don’t know about you but when the sun reappears, I feel lighter in spirit. And, I felt that way this weekend - more than I have in a while. It sort of reminded me of how I used to feel when school was finally over and summer was here. The feeling of freedom was such a wonderful feeling- like a burden has been lifted if only for a sunny afternoon.
I heard somebody talking this weekend about what life used to be like living with an active addict. Each day was “wonderment”- wondering how bad today was meant to be. Would it top yesterday in terms of difficulties. He was carrying a burden and each day he expected to fill that bag that he carried on his back with yet another fear, hurt, or frustration. His thinking was skewed. He only saw the challenges of the day and hunkered down to survive them. He was a slave to his circumstances. I have been there. In fact, I felt a bit like that over the first few months dreading when I see a name come up on my phone or when I turn on my computer each morning. How bad is this going to be? At one point will I get a break? For me, I then try to wrap that feeling up and hide it away so you won’t see it. That makes it even harder. But what does help me is that I know the truth. I am learning to apply it to my life as a real act of faith.
When you are a parent of an addict, you can feel batted around at times. My child wasn’t a bad child and yet there are times that I still wonder why he makes certain choices. I find that I sometimes forget the truth which is that I am dealing with a child who has a chronic disease. There are times when I wonder could I have done something different that would have circumvented this struggle before it got started. Then I remember I didn’t cause it. I can’t control it and I can’t cure it. Or, I just focus on the setback and not the progress. I lose sight that it is progress not perfection that is the focus of our journey. That is true for my son and true for me. But, the deceit of some of my thinking makes the burden greater like a long, dark winter. Why do we do that? Why do I do that?
Just like after a long winter of surviving, God brings the spring and the sun back to shine and make things new. The sun’s light brings warmth and life back to all that is around it just like truth brings light into the dark, cold corners of our soul. If you start watching, you’ll hear the songbirds, then see the tiny buds on the barren trees, and finally the blooms come. God is creating one miracle at a time. When we focus on the Truth, God’s lights shines into one corner at a time. He is working things towards good, the great reveal, the fragrant blooms of our lives. It is the progress that is the miracle, the unfolding of his beauty being planted in our lives.
So, here are a few truths to hang on to in the times of a long winter season.
We don’t have to carry the burden of sin. Christ came to give us freedom from being a slave to sin. Freedom from being a slave to the brokenness of this world. Freedom from being a slave to the brokenness of those we love. We are not slaves to our burdens. Gal 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
No matter the darkness, we can seek the light. God sent his son to bring light to this world. So, no matter how dark some days are, the Light is there if we shift our focus. Christ has been engaged in our lives before we were on this earth. He did not intend for us to live in the darkness of our burdens. John 1:4 “Through Christ all things were made and in him is life. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
Lastly, each day even if we are faced with new challenges or ramifications of past decisions, even if we feel that we cannot possibly move forward under the weight of it, we were given a promise of grace, compassion and faithfulness. God has got it even as we carry it so why not hand it over and accept his love. He is enough. Lam 3:22-24 “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
We are not consumed by our burdens. In fact, our burdens when placed in the proper perspective allow us to enter our world each day in a way that displays Christ’s light to others who are a slave to their burdens and do not know the freedom the comes from knowing the Truth. What if we all woke up each day in "wonderment"- wondering who we were meant to share the light compassion and love with? The light that comes from knowing the God has got it. He can carry our burdens. Go to him, all who are weary and burdened and he will give you rest!
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