Life Spanning

There was once a time of innocence, when every second revolved around the most trivial, but mainly bracketed to the oneness of me.  Where familial was a house lived in and carried like an invisible cloak.

Where love flourished but taken for granted, and appearances wafted about in the periphery...there for the sharing or not.

Where personality developed, awareness took roots, and life ran through hoops, sharp turns and hilly terrain.

That terrain ran with lessons hard learned, bad decisions mingling with the good, and the race tiring.  Life is hard.

Looking is not always seeing.  Hearing is not always understanding.

Believing often leads not to committing.

Time that had once seemed interminable now speeds along as one chasing the wind...with reflections and wonders of the loss of it.

Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. 

~ Proverbs 19:20

But maturity and wisdom begin to reign and take its rightful place in life, for the Creator forgets not His own and restores what is broken.

I've filled my days with details

And all the choices of the earth

Carried the yoke of worry

And all the burdens that it brings

So through the midst of all the rushing

You whisper to our hearts

And with Your sweet voice

You say to us

  To be still and know You are God  To be still and know You are God  Just to rest in Your arms

So give me peace and wisdom

To know how to fill my time

Where I can learn to keep You

At the centre of my life

So through the midst of all the rushing

There is time to spend with You

And my foundation

Will daily be

Written by: David Gate

Brokenness or Catalyst

Nameless, her shame still easily identified by her actions, she sought relief.  Simply a cool drink of water would do, despite the risk of being encountered, seen, ridiculed and hated.  

Her story is one of sin and disgrace...but also of grace, of forgiveness, of hope and of salvation.  

Yet we sometimes either water it down or embellish the details...turn it to our way of thinking...because it suits our purposes, supports our doctrine, or because it offends our senses otherwise.

The words are simply put, accurately described and provided for an example.  This was a broken woman, held hostage by her past, no matter the reasons for five husbands, and very likely labeled unfit for human contact; (the time of day has been well documented for the hottest sun in a heat sweltering country well acquainted with famine and hard times.) Who would venture out at such a time except to avoid harsh judgment by your peers, who at this time were probably resting in shade and shelter from a blistering sun?

We cannot, must not, try to clean up this woman or anyone else before they can come to the Savior!

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

Regardless of her circumstances or time of day, whether shunned by her peers or not, it was God's will that she be at that well at that precise moment to see and hear a message she could not keep hidden.

How like our Lord to use a woman, a woman of five husbands, a woman living without the benefit of marriage...to carry the Good News to her community.  And she never once hesitated to do so.  

Brokenness is where we all meet the Lord, whether it's early or late in our lives, regardless of the sin we carry.  It is knowing where you wallow, where you are stuck, where you are hopeless.  It is a matter of the heart. 

And along comes the Savior...just when the brokenness is agony and colored bitter.  Just when depressing shame resembles a well worn coat and helplessness wraps your neck like an old woolen scarf.

And He speaks.  

And He knows.

And with His wisdom, His love, His forgiveness, His encouragement, His MERCY, His GRACE...

...you are amazed, humbled and eager to share the Wonderful One who gives you Living Water.