"Restrain your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears.
For your work will be rewarded,
declares the LORD.
They will return from the land of the enemy.
so there is hope for your future,
declares the LORD.
Your children will return to their own land."
Jeremiah 31:16-17
and your eyes from tears.
For your work will be rewarded,
declares the LORD.
They will return from the land of the enemy.
so there is hope for your future,
declares the LORD.
Your children will return to their own land."
Jeremiah 31:16-17
I spent the day with papers all over my desk, binders opened on top of each other, my computer screen layered with windows. It was an ordered chaos of strategic planning and visioneering, as interwoven and interdependent as the papers and binders and windows themselves, each element resting with delicate precision on the life and intentions of the other, in order to manifest in the vibrancy of another ministry season at Highview.
I love this time of year. It's when we get to set it all up, like a giant connection of dominoes, or a childhood game of Mousetrap. This is the careful, thoughtful part, where the ideas and conversations and prayers of last season have morphed into the building blocks of this season, and are now being set up, piece by piece according to the plan, ready for go.
In just a few weeks, some master gong of convention will sound off the beginning of this particular season, and the first domino will nudge, the ball is released, and the rest all falls into line. Fast and furious, it will seem by the end of it, but wild and wonderful and unpredictably predictable while it runs, with constant rapt attention while we watch to see if it all works like we hoped it would.
I love it, because it points us forward. Dominoes only fall one way. Forward. The ball only rolls one way. Forward.
It's a gift, this forward motion. Like gravity. It keeps us where we are supposed to be. Eyes intent on where it's heading.
Although.
It's not quite so clear where it's all going. We can plan it, we can set it up. But there's this randomness to our human experience in this post-fall, pre-heaven interim. There's an unexplainable Wild Holiness that engages dynamically without consulting us. I know. He does. He has.
So.
I am wild with hope this time around. And thoroughly surprised by the joy of it again.
I love this time of year. It's when we get to set it all up, like a giant connection of dominoes, or a childhood game of Mousetrap. This is the careful, thoughtful part, where the ideas and conversations and prayers of last season have morphed into the building blocks of this season, and are now being set up, piece by piece according to the plan, ready for go.
In just a few weeks, some master gong of convention will sound off the beginning of this particular season, and the first domino will nudge, the ball is released, and the rest all falls into line. Fast and furious, it will seem by the end of it, but wild and wonderful and unpredictably predictable while it runs, with constant rapt attention while we watch to see if it all works like we hoped it would.
I love it, because it points us forward. Dominoes only fall one way. Forward. The ball only rolls one way. Forward.
It's a gift, this forward motion. Like gravity. It keeps us where we are supposed to be. Eyes intent on where it's heading.
Although.
It's not quite so clear where it's all going. We can plan it, we can set it up. But there's this randomness to our human experience in this post-fall, pre-heaven interim. There's an unexplainable Wild Holiness that engages dynamically without consulting us. I know. He does. He has.
So.
I am wild with hope this time around. And thoroughly surprised by the joy of it again.
2 comments:
I nominate you to be President of a new movement - Binders for the Kingdom. (Can I join too?)
Thank you for loving Highview.
Anne
Ruth Anne...truly God is firmly indwelt within every fibre of your being...else such a vision and anticipation for our tomorrows could not be even conjured up in your mind.
I am amazed...at God in you!
And grateful,
Juanita
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