Start…See…Smile
Here’s a photo for us! We start out thinking we are capturing a level of beauty and then we get closer and, Voila! Right smack dab in the middle of our initial observation is yet another gift! So we’ve started with one layer, God offers another layer and with each layer, there is a movement of our heart. How do we respond?
“Hmmmm…how’d that get there?”
“What else? Let’s move on, what else is there? I’ve gotta go.”
If my intention includes starting from an initial observation, how do I value that starting point to such a degree that I am aware of all that it has to offer me? Do I settle into that starting observation long enough to ask of myself – what do I have to contribute in this moment? To this person? Where else do I allow it to lead me? Do I allow it to change me? Now that’s surrender – who wants surrender? Didn’t the folks waving the flag to signify surrender actually lose the battle?
Possibly.
However, the great physician, Luke, challenges us to see the way of truly living life is the opposite of what the world tells us we must capture to “win.” “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” Luke 9:24
If I add “settle” after my starting point, does the journey change? Possible we “see” that next layer of beauty because we’ve been nudged to surrender to a settling in and then we truly, see!
Now, the “smiling.” You ask me to smile? To actually show my heart’s movement as the beauty of the “other” is revealed to me and my appreciation of it changes my own countenance – who does that? Might it be the folks that have suffered to such great length that the surrender is now a relished part of the process? They allow their suffering to be seen as a layer of the beauty?
O Holy Lord God,
As we start all things, whether it is our work, our conversations, our listening, our tears, our worship…settle us in so that we may truly see what you have for us. Teach us how true liberty and freedom are found supremely in Your moves as Our King! Your Victory is our bidding, not our victory. May our smile be authentically drawn from the joy produced in surrendering to the indescribable layers of Your amazing, saving Love!
Thank You for Your patience as we learn; start…surrender…settle…see…smile. Even in our tears, how lovely You are to allow us circumstances that evoke a deep joy. Tell Your story in our story. In the name of Jesus we are praying today. Amen.
- AnneMarie, President and Executive Director