Blessed Are They Who Mourn...

"Blessed (enviably happy) are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." Matthew 5:4

If I were to write this verse, it would read, "Blessed are the eternally happy for they shall be...well...eternally happy." For what do the happy need?  But Jesus didn't say that the happy were blessed. Instead, He took a moment in time to correct a grave error in our understanding. He commanded blessing on an unexpected group of people. "Blessed are they who mourn..."

I never envy people in mourning and I would laugh at the idea of anyone envying my own sorrow. I envy those who are happy, excited, reveling in their circumstance. I pity those who have lost something.

So why are the mournful to be envied?  Not for their sorrow alone. There is a sorrow that is a "worldly sorrow". A morose spirit that sinks into depression and despair. We can tend to cling to our sorrow and never let it go. We can sorrow for sorrow's sake until it becomes an addiction. But it is those who mourn who have the opportunity to be comforted.

"...for they will be comforted." Not might not possibly. They will be comforted. "  Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted." (Isaiah 49:13) The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Comfort. He is the Consolation in times of sadness, in seasons of loss, when there is no happiness to be readily obtained from our circumstance.  And He is always ready and available to comfort us. For this reason the heavens sing and the earth rejoices. The mountains break into song because the Lord is the consolation of His people.

Could it be that the comfort gained far outweighs the loss? Could it be that the consolation fills the void to overflowing - to the point that we are better off after the whole process than before?

This comfort is the mighty hand of God reaching down to dry the tears of His hurting child.  God could show us His power by withholding all painful situations from us. But He shows His LOVE when He comforts us. He reveals the sweetest side of Himself when the great Lord of Heaven and earth comes - not to pull us immediately out of a hard situation - but to gather us close to Himself and walk through the situation with us. He demonstrates His deep, affectionate kindness when He slows His pace to match our stride and supports our weak and stumbling journey through the rough places. He is the Companion in our sorrow...the kindest, most gentle companion ever known.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they know - more than anyone - the Father Love of God. They have felt a facet of His nature that no one else would know. They know what it is to be held close to their God.

A Day In Psalms

I have made it a habit over the past several years to read Psalms and Proverbs through every month. This means 5 Psalms a day to get through in 30 days. So today I started on Psalm 13, then counted out 30 and read Psalm 43, then Psalm 73, and so on. It's quite a nice system.

The Psalms always seem to follow a common theme, and, more often then not, they tend to be exactly what I need to hear for the day. Today was no exception.  The week has been a bit frustrating, there are several confusing questions that God has yet to answer, I'm waiting on some direction, and then to top it all off I had some discouraging situations arise.

I came home - tired and lonely - and determined to try to get some answers.  I grabbed my Bible and a flashlight and ran to my hidden spot in the backyard where I could cry if I needed.  Opening to Psalm 13 I read:

"O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!” Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.
But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me."

Oh, how I could relate to David's distress! But the last part got under my skin. WHY suddenly is David breaking out in joyful songs. What happened in the middle of writing that Psalm that change his entire outlook?  I am envious. But a bit confused too...

I moved on to chapter 43:

For you are God, my only safe haven. Why have you tossed me aside?
Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?
Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me.
Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.
There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy.
I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!
Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!

There it was again. David, like myself, was searching for answers...for guidance. Suffering because he felt as though God had deserted him. Am I not in the same place. Don't I feel as thought God has maybe forgotten that I am still in need of answers?  But, again, David changes his mood midstream and begins to praise. What happened? I wish I could go back in time to be there, right in that room, listening to David's agony, but then finding out the source of his transformation into joy and trust. It was getting under my skin now...

I cried a few tears of frustration (10 minutes worth or so) then pushed aside my struggle to read on. Psalm 73:

Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride serves as their necklace...

Ah, again I could relate. I had envied, today, the people that could do whatever they wanted. Enjoy life, have fun. Those who did not have the burden of obedience. Yes, I am ashamed, I was envious of those who could have fun without worrying about righteousness or wisdom.  I was sick of struggle...of fire...of trouble and pain and self-sacrifice and laying aside my will all the time. I wanted to do my thing my way if God wasn't going to give me my answers...or at least that's how I felt until I read further.

When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me—Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.
Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction.
Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awakes, so, Lord, when You awake, You shall despise their image.
Thus my heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind. I was so foolish and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry.
But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all Your works.

The truth hit my brain like a shaft of light. David's questions were all answered. Not by whining and complaining or getting frustrated, but by turning his eyes from the question to look at the Solution. Suddenly all the questions - when put in an eternal perspective - were taken care of.  "It is good for me to draw near to God." THERE. That is how David was able to change his attitude. He took his questions and problems, gathered them up, carried them to the Throne Room and handed them to His God. "My heart and flesh fail..." He knew it. I know it. God knows it. "...but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever..." I don't understand how He does it, it's a great mystery. But somehow, when David drew close to God, He changed his outlook. He changed his attitude. He took the worries that were piled up like mountains around David, and He diminished them until it was like David didn't even remember what he was fretting over. Intriguing.

I tried it. I drew near to God...then nearer...nearer...then even more near. I spent time there. I didn't hurry away, I just sat and considered HIM. His character. His nature. The things He's done. The things He has said. Oh, yes, I did ask my questions - or, at least, I tried. I started to whine and it just seemed out of place next to His grandeur. The problems were too little to catch my attention now. I was enthralled. I couldn't keep my mind on the problem long enough to fret over it. I kept getting distracted by the beauty of Christ. I didn't WANT discouragement any more. I wanted God. I wanted joy, and adoration, and love, and trust, and to glory in His unending faithfulness. I wanted to sing and then maybe dance a little. I wanted to praise and worship and bow down and cry, "Holy!" with all the angels. That's what I wanted. So that's what I did.

I don't remember where I left my worries. I must have dropped them somewhere in the Presence of God. I don't have time to stop to search for them now...

Positioned for a Miracle

Do you ever feel that where you are right now is not compatible with where you are going?

Like a lame man looking up a sheer cliff face at his mountaintop destination?

It is curious to notice, though, that this is the place God puts His children in at least once in life. All of His best heroes have spent time in this spot.

And why?

Because this is the spot where we learn what faith is.  This is where we either give discouraged, throw in the towel, and never reach our potential...OR we lift our chin and ask, "I wonder what miracle God is planning here?"

You see, there's always a miracle.  In the exact right time, there is always the perfect miracle.

Look at Joseph. Years in prison - forgotten in prison - but one day the Pharaoh happened to have a dream, and his servant happened to hear of that dream, and that servant had happened to previously been in jail with Joseph, and he had happened to have a dream in prison, that Joseph had happened to interpret, and so the servant happened to tell the king of Joseph, and Joseph happened to be able to interpret Pharaoh's dream, so Pharaoh happened to make him second in command of all of Egypt, happening to fulfill a dream God had given Joseph years before.

Coincidence?

Or was God orchestrating every detail to perfection in Joseph's life so that at the peak time everything slipped effortlessly into place?

Maybe, right here in this uncomfortable place that seems so far from where you're going God is crafting a miracle.

And just maybe that miracle will change your life.

And it won't be coincidence.

But don't get impatient...the delay just means you haven't reached the perfect time yet.

Yet.

And you know what that means...

...it's means your miracle is still coming.

Butterfly

Are you torn, little friend?
Torn between two realities.
Torn between who you were and who you've been declared. One clutching at you from the drudgery you called life, and one beckoning you from ahead.
How do you make it?
How do you stick it out?
How do you handle the transformation process?
Are there days when the end result seems so near you can almost taste it, then days when you're not sure if you have the courage to wait out the pain?

Was before so bad?
Open fields and springtime skies. Colorful blossoms and companions to share it with. Sure, there were hard times...you were fair game for the bigger and stronger. Sure you were worms, eking out a living on the ground. Sure you knew you were made to become something better.

Do you know what's coming?
Did you know the promise? The promise for all your ugliness to be turned to beauty. Do you remember trying to find fulfillment and satisfaction, to be full, only to find that everything was tough and tasteless just like always? Did you ever look longingly at one who had been transformed and realizing that they could soar, while...you only crawled.  They were able to draw the sweetness from life and soak in every beautiful moment. Is that hope what gives you patience now?

And now this.
This dark, cramped prison. No sunlight, no hope except the promise. No companions. No freedom to do what you want when you want. This pain, this  longing, this impatience, this struggle with your own self to just  stay put until the right time.

This prison is a chrysalis.

This prisoner: a caterpillar.

This impatient one: destined to be a butterfly.

This example: set here for me to learn from.

So I can learn that my waiting is not useless.

I, too, am in a cocoon of becoming. My present is not my future any more than a chrysalis is a butterfly. But the chrysalis is vital in the making of a butterfly. Like the little caterpillar, if I break out of my confinement too soon, all will be lost.  Like the caterpillar I will, in the end, realize just how worth it the waiting is.

In light of all this, there is courage to wait it out a little longer. There is the realization that this chrysalis time is not my prison, it is my launching pad. And this pain that transforms me is my best friend.

Soon everything will be different. I will be who I was proclaimed to be from the beginning of time.

Soon, like my friend the caterpillar, I will be able to soar

Ascent To Hope

The crazy thing about despair is how addictive it is. It seems that once we have begun to lose hope, we lose all the will to regain it.

THE SPIRAL DOWNWARD
What is it about despair and suffering that intrigues us so? What pulls us into it? It seems it is the Second Law of Thermodynamics that works in our souls - everything digressing over time unless conscious effort is made to reverse the downward spiral. It all usually begins with a failure on our part, or sometimes the failure of someone else that begins to blot out hope. In all honesty, you will often find unforgiveness - either of another or of one's own failure - at the root of all hopelessness. We begin to dwell on the bad things, and forget about the plethora of good that God scattered all over our lives.  If left alone, we will begin to think that despair is all there is. That suffering is our lot. That the grandest plan of God for us is that we learn to accept that life is horrible. Suffering will beget more suffering, despair more despair until our world is so cluttered with arguments and failure and self-pity that no glimmer of hope can seep through. It seems, almost, that we begin to enjoy our misery. Often, in this state, when hope is offered us we reject it.
That is hopelessness.

A RIGHT VIEW OF SUFFERING
Granted, there are times of suffering that God leads us through in our lives. There are seasons where we have great need of endurance to face the situations that confront us. There are times when we fail and He corrects us. There are time when others will fail us, and we must learn to forgive anyway. But that, really, is just the point...in times of hardship we MUST fix our eyes on God, the Source of all hope. We must not let go of the expectation that He will fulfill His promise in our lives, otherwise our circumstance will pull us down into despair.
We can walk through suffering and yet hope.

WHERE IS GOD IN MY PAIN?
It takes an act of God to restore hope in a heart that has lost it. But restore hope He can and will. Like all things, though, He will not force hope on us.  He will wait for us to ask. Yet His waiting is not passive. Nothing our God does is ever passive. In fact, His waiting is something of a warfare. His heart beats with intense longing, with aching pleas for us to lift our eyes from the rubble of our circumstance into the light of His countenance. Even when we feel we have reached the end of what we can bear, if we could look up we would see our dear Father holding off the forces of hell lest they destroy us. Bearing on His own shoulders the weight that would crush us. Shielding us from the fiercest heat, the raging waters, the wind that would surely destroy us if He was not still the Protector. He pleads with us to let Him reach down His mighty arm to save us, and lift us again to safety.
He waits close by, always, ready to save.

THE ASCENT TO HOPE
And there, as sun and shield He waits. He waits to give grace and glory. He waits to shower good things, as soon as we wish to accept them. Here, my friends, is where hope and grace intersect. Grace, by definition, is enabling power. When hope is gone and we cannot lift our heads and truly deserve nothing good, God comes to our aid. He takes the frail, wayward being and lifts them above their situation. He sets them in a safe place, and offers them whatever strength they need to regain hope.

As I mentioned before, God is the Fountainhead of all hope. Wherever He is, there is hope...and life...and vision! As long as we are close to Him, we will find that hope is always close. Despair is held at bay by the Presence of the Promise Maker Himself. Sure, trials will come. Battles may rage. Failure may occur. Wounding may even happen. But somehow, all these things seem a little more like an adventure or a challenge rather than a crippling blow when He Himself becomes our hope.

The Beauty of Hard Times

Hardships.         We dread them. And yet, we cannot hope to become anything without them.  I think the Lord takes His beloved through hard times so that our message is always fresh...

You know what it is to be the one going through hard times and to see someone who is delighting in all the successes life can offer. Their sympathy can only feel like pity, their words tend to be hollow and empty of real comfort, and the contrast of their happiness makes our sorrow hard to bear. It is difficult for those in the valley to accept comfort from those on the mountaintop. It is hard for those on the mountaintop to remember what it was like to be in the valley, or to stop and ponder those still there. We are finite beings, so prone to become desensitized to the lessons of the past. So, the Lord, for the sake of our ability to minister to each other, allows us to reenter the valley every so often, lest we forget.  It is not punishment, it is a part of the maturing process. It is His mercy keeping us sharp and useful for His work.


You see, it is quite different for a sufferer to see one with them in the valley who, though suffering, overflows with joy and wisdom. Here is a counselor they can rely on. Here is a true friend in time of need. Here is one who can give a "word in season to the weary".  


In our affliction our comfort is softer and more merciful than if we never faced wounding, trial, or temptation. Our words are clearer. Our message rings truer. Our example is easily followed. Our humility in realizing our own weakness draws and will not repel. In our own dependence on God we tap into a power source that flows through us to all who come for help.


In my times of trial I have looked to other people who have faced and learned to rejoice through trials. People like Joseph and David in the Bible, or more modern heroes like Amy Carmichael and Elisabeth Elliot have become my own "mentors". Their stories, written in their suffering for my encouragement, have given me courage to endure. And they, in the middle of their trials, realized their purpose.


There is nothing more beautiful than watching one who, in their own suffering, overlooks their circumstance to reach a hand to another in need. This is the love of Christ. This will change the world.

Vignettes of a Journey: Purifying Fire

Image copyright 2011 Lisa Fox

There are times we find the will of God takes us through fiery trials, hardship, and great challenges. All this is to transform us into who we were meant to be...purified, encouraged, and softened by each instance of God's love shown to us in our desperation.

Hupomone Courage

Hebrews 12:1. "...run with endurance the race set before you..."

The word "endurance" is an interesting one...

hupomone:  (noun) lit., "an abiding under" (hupo, "under," meno, "to abide"), is almost invariably rendered "patience"; cheerful endurance.

When God allows trial in life, my response is often to put on my game face, grit my teeth, and bear it. But here, God challenges me to another level. Not just enduring, but enduring with cheerfulness. Not suffering through trials, but rejoicing in the middle of trials. This isn't a passive feeling of happiness--that does not occur naturally in trials--this is an active engaging of my will to rejoice in my God until the feelings change to match the attitude.


God challenges His children to put their hope of eternal reward into active use in the middle of the current situation. I am called to not just have a victim's hope that things may get better, but to have a victor's understanding that with God all things are good right now.  In this moment, life is beautiful!


There's more to this, though...

hupomeno (verb) akin to hupomone, a) "to tarry behind, still abide," (Luke 2:43; Acts 17:14);  b) "to wait for" (Rom 8:24)

There is action involved in this endurance.  Imagine a person so committed to the will of God that they are willing to stay and endure even if a way out is presented. A person of real endurance--victorious, over-comer endurance--doesn't have to be forced to stay. They remain (tarry) in the fiery, testing will of God until they have reached the end...until the desired result is acheived.


A hupomone Christian will gladly stay long after everyone else has given up and gone home. They will wait it out with joy until the race has been run, the war has been won, and the testing is done.

Fire & Water

Two thoughts for today:

WATER always delights in going lower...it always searches for a valley, for a way to descend...it never raises itself, it never climbs, it never strives to go up. A river runs downhill always.

Have you ever heard the roar of a waterfall? It is one of the most glorious sounds as the water--in its search for lowliness--leaps from the heights to be broken on the rocks beneath. I am reminded of the Scripture that speaks of falling on the Rock to be broken and not waiting for thr Rock fall on you and crush you (Matthew 21:44). Some wait for the Lord to crush them before they obey; some come to the feet of Jesus to break open and pour out their worth like the woman in Luke's gospel with her perfume and tears. There is true beauty in willing surrender. 

The essence of humility is a correct view of oneself. It is not self-degradation, but simply an understanding of who God is and who I am in relation to Him.  My focus is not on my weakness, but on His greatness. Not on my failing, but on His perfection. In fact, it's not on myself at all! This view will put in me a holy fear of God and will cause me to never strive for a position too lofty or identity that is not my own. I will walk every day perfectly in line with His commands because I understand that He is not a God to be treated casually.

The way of the Kingdom of God is not a power struggle, it is a race to the lowest spot. In God's Kingdom only the humble are useful - and it is the humble that He teaches in His way. 

FIRE can only burn up what is corruptible and dry. The incorruptible can only be cleansed by fire, not destroyed.

  If I am going through the fire and feel as if I am being destroyed by it I realize that I must be mostly made up of what is corruptible, worldly, and finite. I must allow the corruptible to be burned up completely in the fires of God until nothing but ashes remains. Will it destroy me? Oh, yes! You see, I am corruptible.

All that is of me--my desires, my passions, my will--is on a collision course with death. All that is of Christ is eternal, living, breathing, forever. 

Who I am must die...completely...so that Christ can live His desires, His passion, His will through me daily.

Galatians 2:20 states it well: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

How do I keep from being destroyed in the fire of God? If my coat was on fire I'd throw it off before it hurt me. I must throw off and separate myself from the things that will burn away so that all that remains is the gold, silver, and precious gems of an incorruptible faith and virtue!

In brokeness we find healing; in humility we find glory, in repentance we find guiltlessness, in nothingness we find the riches of the Kingdom of God!