Pondering Within

All I know is, God is good. He is real. Alive. And moving.

When everything you think is what you want turns out to be not what the Lord wants... cry. Then realize exactly how good He is.

He's good enough to give you better dreams.
He's good enough to reveal that He is REAL by his greater wisdom and plan for your life!
He's merciful enough to lead you deeper into love with him if you'll only accept that true love is the bitter sweet fire of joy and sorrow mixed together.
He's perfect. He is perfect and so he is so good and loving and merciful that he leads us to realize just how imperfect we are, and then when we finally realize that immeasurable distance between him and us and we think, there's just no hope - then he is even more merciful because he loves us in spite of our sad state. In fact, he may just love us because of it. He loves us because we are his children, his little ones, the hearts that hold on to his promise and refuse to let go come hell or high water.

Anyway, this is more therapeutic than enlightening, but the truth is so simple. "Walk with me?" He says, holding out his hand. The road is rough, and he is already in so much pain. How could you say no? No one in their right mind would dream of it, he so obviously loves them more than anyone they've ever known. So of course you take his hand, of course you start the climb.
And it hurts, and rocks cut your feet, and you sweat and you start to wonder why he would ask this of you at all. But then you remember, he doesn't need you there. He is going to keep on going. In the most humble love in all existence he invited you to come with him. So climb on! In fact, start running! Forget the cuts and bruises, the hunger and thirst. He loves you so much that you are a salve for his wounds and a support in his struggle. How can that be? He allows your little heart, with its little flame, to be such a light to his great and mighty heart. Why? Simply because that is who he is. What he is. Love itself. That is love. That is God.

I heard a prof say once that if in marriage prep the man is asked why he loves the woman and he begins to list off reasons, they aren't ready. Likewise for the girl. He said, there should be no answer. "I just do." "I don't know." It is meant to be so binding, so convicting, so wholly consuming that there really was never life before they were there with you and there certainly won't be life without them from now on. Another friend told me that knowing he would propose was the easiest question he'd ever faced. "There was no effort, no work. I never had to think about it. We both think the other is too good for each other. She makes me want to be a better man, and I make her want to be a better woman."

Clearly, the analogy of human love, even marital love, is still an analogy at best for the love that is experienced between man and God. Yet, for what it's worth, there it is. Jesus holding out his hand, offering to walk there, beside you and within you, to dwell and remain, and to be all that you work for, laugh for, love for and live for. Will you walk with him? Will it come to you in just such a way? So simple, so light, so easy? Will there be any room for doubt, once you know his enduring faithfulness, his extreme humility, his total otherness? It is precisely because of his greatness that the sacrifice and love he offers is so awe inspiring and nearly ridiculous. It is irrational by human standards that a God who is infinite perfection would yearn to be united in love with a creation that is infinitely imperfect. Fortunately for us, God's wisdom is not man's, nor his ways our ways. And because by his stripes we are healed, and by his Incarnation we are brought into relationship with the Lord, and by his Resurrection we are offered the hope of eternal life - oh let us walk with him. Let us never fear or tremble. He remains.

"Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart."- Lk 2:19