It isn't me who gives. It's God through me. And that means that when I'm dead inside it doesn't matter... It only gives Him more room to move.
And on the days where life feels literally devastating and you wonder what the point to even trying to give is. When you have a bitter come back for every inspirational thought that comes your way. When the doors are all closed, and that open window that's supposed to be there is all blacked out. On those days when all of you is used up and all you have left to give is the rocks on the "rock bottom". When all you feel like doing is picking up those rocks and throwing them around with all your might to see if you can break a window open. It's on those days when other people see what you have inside of you after you've hit rock bottom.
But the "rocks" of the Spirit are: Love, Joy, Peace, Forbearance, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
Reach down and pick up peace, and use it to take love with you to find kindness, and the kindness brings joy to someone, and inspires them on to do goodness, and you realize that with God's faithfulness, you've gained the self control to put gentleness into action and not throw those rocks. But only allow Christ to display the beauty of them. And this is where forbearance comes in. Because we all know, that after you've already managed a whole day of this. It's gonna take a colossal amount of forbearance to do it again tomorrow. But with Him filling us, all this is possible. And for this, I thank you Lord.
Dear Frank, you have been doing a good job of allowing the molding and learning from it. I'm thinking about interviews, applications, and dashed hopes. I hope you are keeping copies of all that paper work, too. You never know what is just around the corner. In the meantime, you can always STAY right here where you are loved and needed as long as you like.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a good post. I wonder does one ever get done relearning about these things? You must keep a copy of this close at hand....
ReplyDelete"But with Him.... all this is possible." So true, yet so hard to believe sometimes. I know the feeling of being in the longggg hallway between a door and a window. The lessons learned there are vital and strengthening, in the long run, but they sure aren't fun. Thanks for sharing this perspective :)
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