The Only Resolution that Matters

We have all heard the saying, “The only thing that’s predictable is that life is unpredictable.”

Today I tap these keys starring at rain. A few days ago was sunny.  A week before, the ground was white with grace. A winter wonderland.

Many seasons can happen in the strangest and shortest of spaces.  Still, if we are honest, humble….truth be told….we can never control the seasons.

They come like a wave; crest rising high, troughs lying low. Day, night. Wet, dry land. The ebbs and tides of life inevitably flow.

And the reality of this life is, no matter how hard we try, the forces of nature won’t ever obey us, regardless of how we manipulate, mold, dictate, or try control our own destiny?

She pats my twenty-five-year-old hand with her well-lived, dignified, wrinkled, eighty-five year old palm from on top of the recently painted, three-foot fence that stands between us. The fence three generations stood across like friends…family.

A smile cracks between her lips.  I listen.

For when the world stops because of heart-ache, there is really nowhere to go…But lower. Open. Transparent. Humble.

“Balance.” The word was like thunder.  “It will all work itself out.  Life always works itself out.  Nothing is forever.”

I am not sure if it was her peace during my troubles, or how she seemed strong, “oak-like”, completely unshaken….where the darkness was reminded that light always lives somewhere over the horizon….even when we can’t see it. 

She was right. The days got brighter. They always did.  Eventually.

For what are we anyway, but small ones turning to His time, His rhythm, the hours and days He sets perfectly into motion?

I see many suffering this season.  Others strive their way to “better”, as if any of us can hold the Universe in our hands.

But what happens when tides fall, seasons change…and they always do, inevitably, no matter how “good” or “bad” we have been?  What happens to our grandiose realities when we discover there is no “easy” way?  No “7 Steps to…” convenient, or master of anything in this life, really?

And oh, don’t let me kid you.  I have fought the waves, tried to be Moses and part the seas, I have wanted to be Joshua and call the sun to cease in the glory of those sweet, sweet moments….

But I am realizing that even those aren’t mine for the taking.  All beauty, all sweetness, all of creation only lives and moves and has its being because He gives us our daily bread.  Something we can never demand of Him. 

And like King Solomon (and my neighbor) I am seeing…

• The beauty is most found in the journey to becoming.
• Joy is often found in the quietest, stillest, smallest, and most humble things.
• The significant and truth is….time, and change, good and bad, happens to us all regardless of who has been striving.
• The uncalculated reality of His Word tells us…it rains on the just and the unjust.  And sometimes there is no hiding from the downpouring.
• The appreciation of my low state is where God wants us most, seeing none of us more “valuable”.  Scripture telling us “God is no respecter of persons.”

And in my experience….striving, and rules setting, and strict list making often only hinders us from the openness required to receive His blessings.

And isn’t “a good year” relative, anyway?  I mean, what does “a good year” even look like, really?

I may be belaboring this subject, but please, hear me out.

This past year was the most calm I have had in my entire life.  Everything was great, perfect maybe…on the outside.  But inwardly God did a working.  Inward, I was healing, hurting, working through issues that I had for a lifetime, been ignoring.

The year prior was my hardest.  There were wars, broken children, and a life I never thought I’d have.  But it was somehow….some weird and crazy way….the best year I’d ever had.

I found independence, truth, deep friendships, and strength I never knew I had.

So, who measures our years?  Who puts the scale down and weights the height and depth of what we go through?

I mean…

• We can grow a great ministry, serve at church, or have glowing public approval, but lose our families, ignore our health, or struggle with our spouse or children.
• We can try hard at being good, or looking good, or living good, but inside have toxic hearts filled with shame or guilt or offense.
• We can workout or diet, or glamorize and accessorize until we could be on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine….but if we don’t grow in stature, and wisdom, and selflessness, and contentment….have we gained anything more than what is passing instead of eternal?

And after all, I’ll admit…..goals are proven success indicators.  But if we get lost in the tunnel of our hopes, our dreams, our own selfish motivators…haven’t we missed the surrendered life God has been calling us to?

So, why do we use man’s mathematical ways, putting grade’s on years and time…which is nothing short of an unexplainable gift from God?  Why do we measure lives, and people, and situations by Facebook, or Twitter, or social media…when God looks deeper, into the corners of our hearts where others often fail to see?

I mean we all do it, don’t we?

So, how about if we resolve simply to give this year to Him?  The hardships, the seasons, the storm, each wave; whether we are riding high, or deep in the troughs of our most difficult day.

Why don’t we hand back the power, the consequences, all our expectations to Him…and instead lay our year like a sacrificial offering at the alter of His purposes?

Then, come what may, we will rise from glory to glory in light of eternity…Not because we have done something right, but because He is allowed to shine….

In the brightness, in the storms, like the light of the eyes of my eighty-five year old neighbor standing on the other-side of the fence…

Peaceful.  Wise.  Trustworthy.  Unshaken by external circumstances.  Faith full.  Trusting….The Son is still there….even if we can’t see Him.

What can you give over to God as the new year begins?   Where in your heart have you failed to confess your weakness, and not grabbed a hold of His eternal, earth changing, all consuming love and goodness today, friend? 

Would you be so brave enough to share with us?