Just a few late night thoughts born out of an incredibly challenging few weeks...I hope you find encouragement in this. ----- Life. Oh, what a shape-shifting mystery it is. It seems the faith-testing climb just to discover the breathtaking, restful, hopeful view from the mountaintop is so quickly followed by the straight-down plunge into the valley below. Light. Dark. Grace. Discouragement. Belief. Doubt. Struggle. Joy. Pain. Courage. Vision. The discovery that what you trust on paper doesnt always play out the same way in real life. The shapes and forms of what we encounter are rarely fully planned for, and we dont exactly come out the other side unscathed. Maybe its 6-plus years of driving 11 hours round-trip just for 20 minutes with the neurologist who cares for a special needs son to help us continue stumbling down that endless path of, Whats next? It could be the counselors office as we desperately navigate difficult and painful behavioral issues with another child, and try to create a future for him thats healing and healthy. The date nights where leaving the house after dark reminds us how tired we are, and that we need to run by Target for wipes, or the grocery story because the milk is gone. Those unexpected calls...texts...visits with friends who are struggling and unsure where or how or what to do...for their marriage thats died...crumbling faith..plicated health issues...family battles... The financial ups and downs. The too-small house. The house we thought we had but then it fell through at the very last second...for the third time. In our particular circles of faith, theres an oft-quoted passage that says, Where there is no vision, the people perish... It garners many a head nod, because its an anchoring passage. As if having vision solves the problem. Trouble is, most of the time, we find ourselves chasing the vision without ever opening our eyes. Because, if we open our eyes, we discover that the vision for who were meant to be is now and forever will be quite different than we ever imagined. The well-packaged, neatly folded faith, life, job, spouse, kids, and journey is a unicorn. Clearly, none of us need that reminder, yet, when the ugly bits show up, we still wonder what the combination is to get to that normal place. But. Its all survivable. Not without feeling adrift at some points and flat out abandoned at others, but its survivable. I guess for our family village, while there are lots of moments and realities Id never have chosen for myself, I know for a fact I wouldnt trust anyone else to make that 11 hour roundtrip drive for the 20-minute meeting. Why? Because thats our 11 hour drive. Thats another paragraph in our story. That paragraph is making us who we are. Setting aside the reality that we probably havent faced the most difficult days of life yet, every word on the page is another reason for anyone we EVER encounter to know their story is safe with us. Because we chase down the vision with our eyes wide open. But, chasing the vision really only matters if were willing to actually live it. These words arent coming from a guy who knows a whole lot. In fact, the longer I go, the less Im sure of. However, Im sure of this: no matter how crazy our story looks, or how far the drop is from the mountain to the valley...well still climb back up. (And you can too.) And, trust me...if you ever need somewhere to rest your burden for a while...the Chambers village has your back. Chase your vision with eyes wide open...then live it...no matter what it looks like when you get there.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 03:13:11 +0000
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