Sometimes, our lives are filled with laughter, fun-filled or chaotic days with “our people” surrounding us. Other times, our lives seem bleak, without enjoyment or people to belong with. A good future looks like a distant, untouchable horizon.
Life landscapes naturally change over time but they also change with our response to them.
Take a beach landscape with hills beyond the horizon. We feel the sand beneath our feet, we hear the waves on the shoreline and we see the distant horizon. It’s like a beautiful three-part harmony. Whether we take the whole landscape in at once or concentrate on one part of the landscape determines our pleasure in the scene.
Sometimes, in our own life landscape, all we can see is the sand, all we can feel are the broken shells, all we can hear is the crash of the waves that may sound too loud in our ears or too powerful for our senses. There’s no harmony. Everything jars. We feel insecure or even, lost.
The horizon looks so much more promising when it’s far away. We want to fight our way there, heaving our frustrations out with the tide.
But what is it about the awareness of the sand and the breaking down of the shells that is so important?
Feel the weightiness of coming this far and remembering all that you’ve learnt.
Without even realising it, a current takes our life forward and teaches us balance. Small changes in mindset and framing help to shift our position even as the waves shift the sand under our feet.
We often use the term ‘seasons’ for life changes. But the changes that take place are not always about seasons. They can also be about constancy. The waves will keep coming. Life doesn’t always allow us to get away from them. Even in the battles and the tough spaces that for some can seem endless, things gradually shift. If we didn’t have those extended periods of waiting, which are so painful to endure, we wouldn’t be able to preserve the lessons. Those lessons are like the broken shells on the sand that are uncomfortable to walk on. As the shells become broken down they become softer and finer until finally, they become sand; easier to walk on and easier to handle; able to sit on, walk on, touch, and build things with.
Looking at the horizon can bring some peace, but it’s the breaking down of what’s uncomfortable and painful that eventually brings the greater peace.
Sometimes, it’s about being still and allowing the movement of the waves to shift the sand under our feet, to learn balance, before we’re ready to move closer to the horizon.
Isaiah 40:27-31 (NLV)
O Jacob and Israel, why do you say, “My way is hidden from the Lord. My God does not think about my cause”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The God Who lives forever is the Lord, the One Who made the ends of the earth. He will not become weak or tired. His understanding is too great for us to begin to know. He gives strength to the weak. And He gives power to him who has little strength. Even very young men get tired and become weak and strong young men trip and fall. But they who wait upon the Lord will get new strength. They will rise up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weak.
Hebrews 10:36-38 (GNT)
You need to be patient, in order to do the will of God and receive what he promises. For, as the scripture says, “Just a little while longer, and he who is coming will come; he will not delay. My righteous people, however, will believe and live; but if any of them turns back, I will not be pleased with them.”
Prayer: My City of Refuge
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