Even the brick walls work into the painting...

I know this entry is long, but it's amazing text from Romans 8. Just stick with it! Let it speak to you.

Romans 8 (The Message)
15This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" 16God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. 17And we know we are going to get what's coming to us--an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him! 18That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. 19The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. 20Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in 21until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
22All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. 23These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. 24That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. 25But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
26Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. 27He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. 28That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. 30After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? 32If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? 33And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? 34Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us--who was raised to life for us!-is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. 35Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us?

Alright, so I was reading on Erin's blog, and she mentioned running into a brick wall. I immediately pictured that in my head. Running smack into a brick wall. What do you do when that happens? You look up. You might even look side to side and wonder how you missed such a huge thing.

It makes me think. Maybe these brick walls aren't such a bad thing afterall. I mean, of course it hurts to run into them, and it's embarassing that we didn't see it, but think of what it makes us realize: We aren't as big or strong as we think we are.

I think that's great. How many times do we go through life without acknowledging God? Or maybe we ask him about the big things, but we think we are sufficiently acquipped to handle the rest. But then, then we run into the brick wall, which we didn't see because we were so busy trying to juggle all of the balls we've yet to hand over to God. At the moment we run into that wall, we lose control of all of those balls.

But that's the point. WE lose control--control that we shouldn't have held onto in the first place.

So, I realize that the analogy is a lot easier to handle than when it is actually happening in our daily lives. When instead of "balls" we have school, work, relationships, and "ministries". Seeing everything we've tried to hold onto fly uncontrollably through the air, out of our reach, is scary.

I'm not going to lie. Sometimes it seems like we fell so hard that we don't know how we'll ever pick everything back up again. That we were juggling so many things at the point of contact that even now that we realize it should all be in God's hands we aren't sure how to get back there...or often more worrying to our little minds: how is this all going to work?

That's where Romans 8:28 comes in. "That's why we can be sure that every detail in our lives is worked into something good." Or another translation, "All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose."

The key word there is together. All of the events of our lives work together to form something good. It's like a painting. Each of the strokes might not be very beautiful. They might not even make any sense. But when you put them all together and take a few steps back, you get a little perspective.

So here's the deal. I'm not sure that I can say that everything in your life is going to work out perfectly. But I can say that God is going to use all of your experiences, mistakes, and triumphs to complete the beautiful painting that he calls your life. Even if we can't see it, he's doing something amazing. Adding new strokes, covering up old ones; but nothing is ever wasted. It's all a part of the painting. It's all a part of the plan.

Selah,
Nanette