Sometimes There's Thorns

This Montana journey has been an emotional one.  FOR SURE.  I have seen God so abundantly!  And to see His work in my life has made me so JOYFUL!  To get to where we’re at would be impossible without His hand.  There have been many roses.  Bright, colorful, fragrant blooms where we are excited about all that God is doing.  It’s easy to paint a rosy picture for everyone.  But the truth is, there are a lot of thorns too.  Sharp, cruel, painful thorns.

There’s an especially large one named fear.  What is it about a thorn that makes us sometimes want to reach out and touch it?  Just to see how sharp and pointed it really is?  The past few days I have been reaching out and running my finger up and down that thorn of fear.  Focusing on it and all the pain it causes instead of looking at the beautiful roses of God’s provision and love for me.  The blessings of a wonderful new home, new church, and new friends.  The blessings of opportunities and experiences I have only dreamed of.  I have pressed so hard against fear, it has caused my heart to bleed.  Fear of the unknown, fear of trusting God with everything, fear of how it will all turn out; FEAR.  

There’s also a thorn called sadness.  Sadness is inevitable.  It’s a part of life.  And change causes sadness.  Change IS hard.  But that doesn’t mean change is wrong.  God called Abraham to pack up his belongings and leave his family and move to a land that God would show him.  I imagine Abraham struggled with fear and sadness too.  Change IS hard.  But God didn’t call us to live the easy life.  He called us to live sold-out, radical lives for Him.  Going where He sends because He sees the BIG picture.  I have been playing with the thorn of sadness and my heart’s been pricked.  Sadness to leave family; to see my kids interact with and be enjoyed by their grandparents and other relatives, sadness to leave friends; some old and some new, sadness to leave my church where I am so blessed each and every Sunday, sadness to leave the familiar and what seems “safe.”  And sadness is okay, as long as it doesn’t become the focus.  The emphasis needs to be on the roses.  God’s blessings, His provisions, His faithfulness.

It’s easy to feel pain.  It’s easy to feel fear.  It’s easy to look around and see nothing but thorns everywhere.  And that’s where satan wants us.  In the midst of the unlovely.  But if we just look up, we see the rosebuds.  Some in full bloom.  Some just waiting to open up in all their glory.  And One perfect rose that gives us salvation.  And as we focus on the things above, the thorns around us seem a little less important.  The sun is warm, the sky is bright, and the colorful blooms dance for joy.  He beckons us higher.  He invites us to stop, smell, and enjoy the roses.  He doesn’t want us lost somewhere in the middle.  He wants us to delight in His beauty, His life that He’s called us to.  Sometimes, I just forget.

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.  And he went out, not knowing where he was going....For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

--Hebrews 11:8,10

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith....”

--Hebrews 12:1,2