Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Anguish

At the end of our travels we take some time with our teams to talk about the changes that occur within us when we return home. We leave a small footprint on the place we have been but the mark on our heart is huge in comparison. We do not fully appreciate all that has occurred until we process all that has happened and even then…it often takes a lifetime to work through.


I stood outside yesterday morning just as the trees began to 
 rustle and blow…a breeze was coming and the wind chimes began to sing. I heard the leaves stirring in the trees (God's wind chimes) and I closed my eyes. It felt so soothing to me and I began to cry. Beautiful, sweet, quiet tears which meant the floodgates of my heart were about to open and I was ready for what God would have for me. I sat in my favorite chair in the shade and waited. He had one word for me….Anguish. The word rocked my heart and soul and then my tears turned to sobs. I had forgotten the beauty of the anguish.

I have alluded to this past year as being hard. I have struggled with my calling and all the busyness associated with the changes in my life. I had asked God for a life of ease. I wanted to have the life I perceived others had. I did not want anguish, I did not want my heart wretched and torn. I fought God, and had a million reasons why I needed the break and then went through the motions of life. I had never felt so lost or weary.

For a few of you who traveled with us to the Solomon Islands we heard the words of David Wilkerson on anguish and then I read the account of an ordinary man God called upon to carry the burden of God's own heart. That man was Nehemiah. When I sat outside yesterday these words flooded my heart...

What happened Nancy to your anguish over the things that break My heart? You, who have touched the hem of my garment have now  asked me for a life of ease…Is this really what you want my beloved?  Can you settle for anything less than what I have already shown you?  You have seen the sacred places, the places that break my heart and shared my love with people in places where no on else dares to go. I have broken your heart and then given that heart a capacity for love you had never known existed before. You go in My name and you bring the message of who I am. You care and love those who are forgotten and downtrodden. Whatever happened to the anguish of your calling? Your passion to love was born in that place…that place of wretchedness and heartfelt pain. I have shown you extraordinary…could you ever settle for the ordinary again? You have seen the work of my Hands and I know you are in awe of this. Do you really want this life of ease my beloved?

I had been asking God for ordinary when I have lived the extraordinary. I had wanted ease over anguish


Right before we left Fiji I had thought about pearls. Pearls are in great abundance in the South Pacific and I am a lover of pearls. A pearl is formed when trauma (or disruption of the ordinary) has occurred on the fragile rim of the otherwise tough shell of the mollusk. As part of the healing (restorative) process a pearl sac is formed and over a period of time layers are built up and eventually a beautiful, resilient pearl forms. I am a pearl to my God. He has cultivated me and allowed me to become something I could not have been without His constant influences. He allows me to be at the hem of His garment and to see the
Works of His hands. He has called me by name and I am able to see the bits and pieces of the anguish of His heart. I am His beloved. I live in those places and I long for those places. My heart is home in those places. Lord, true joy, comes out of anguish. I can be no other place...




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