From Woodstock up: The Journey

We Thank You Lord. 

Lord God, as our nation mourns the loss of many innocents in the floodwaters of the Guadelupe River this last weekend it is even more difficult to recognize and thank you for your never ending hand of mercy and compassion. But I do just that! Because we are assured that the innocent lives of the children and the saved were ushered to the shores of eternity, I thank you for mercy! Because love is poured out to the survivors of the lost, I thank you for compassion. Because a nation of decent, caring people will support and contribute to these devastated communities I thank you for mercy and compassion. And Lord, as can only be done in your wisdom, seeds of faith will be planted while the darkness overshadows the land, in the hearts of the fear-filled ones who will turn away from witnessing this evil power of devastation and finally seek your light, your way and your truth! Again we will see new life in the land of the living because of your mercy! Amen

And then my pondering thoughts take off, beginning with a current bible study on Jonah:

The phrase “as deep calls to deep using the Hebrew noun for “deep,” tehom, often evokes a vast abyss or ocean in Scripture, such as in Psalm 36:6, where David said God’s “judgments are like the great deep.” The flood waters beneath Noah’s ark may have delivered millions permanently to the abyss of sheol. “Why God?” we shout and shake fists of fury! I know I need to look to His infinite power and majesty with the help of this word in Job 38:16-18: “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep [tehom]? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?” I know my answer is to admit, as did Job, that He alone is the Sovereign, Omniscient God.

At last we must stay riveted on Him, our Lord. And be always where Jesus can see us from his “lonely wooden tower.” A song called Suzanne by Leonard Cohen, says He– Jesus, spent a long time watching, “and when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him he said all men shall be sailors then until the sea shall free them” In Cohen’s masterful lyrics the sea is a unifying force between the secular power of ‘tea and oranges’ and the love of his muse Suzanne, and the sacred journey where Jesus walked. In my life, these are the waters of redemptive suffering where, like Peter, I must learn to fix my gaze only on the redeemer.

As I hear from Him during these times then I want to hear more. As I hear of love and mercy in the midst of suffering then I am enabled, by His Spirit to submit and can. move forward in obedience. All of those “why” and “what if” hurdles seem to diminish, leaving no trace or hesitation in my heart. 

Wanting to please the one you love comes much more naturally than does chaffing against the goad as when resistance was my normal response. I would say submission and obedience comes from hearing but hearing leads to Knowing the true Love that is God himself which changes my heart and makes me more malleable. Love IS the moving and molding force. I want to be made in His image at that point. I long to be a sailor who walks upon the water. When I sense His direction then, the walk of obedience becomes more like a gentle two step dance with my bridegroom.