2 Corinthians 6:2-10
"We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything." NIV
I enjoy the privilege of having friends who have taught me through the way they live that the above words are more than faded ink on a musty page. I have watched them over the last 17 years, both up close, and from a distance, and the message retains its clarity and dynamism.
They are people of vision, integrity, intention, in short, of God. And for them, in the midst of a broken and aching heart or shattered dreams, He is enough.
It is a severe mercy, yet God cannot give us what is best until we are willing to let go of what is most precious to us. Like Abraham, sooner or later in life we find ourselves with knife poised and ready to descend upon that thing we have loved more than Life, that thing that is our "child of promise."
This summer I found myself at that altar again. For now my mind has surrendered. It takes my heart a little longer.
In the meantime, I find solace in this blessing from the pen of Brennan Manning:
May all your expectations be frustrated.He is enough.
May all your plans be thwarted.
May all your desires be withered into nothingness.
That you may experience the powerlessness and the poverty of a
child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son
and the Spirit. Amen
