Open Hands, Open Hearts

Hello dear readers,

I’ve been shying away from writing this week in the face of a lot of grief and pain circling about my small part of the world. Many people around me are suffering and I haven’t felt strong enough to stand in the gap for them with words. Words can sometimes feel like just words.

But I am hoping the words I offer today can break through the suffering as I am fully relying on the Holy Spirit to show me the way. I am not looking to myself to come up with some sort of generic or trite reply to what the people around me are experiencing but to the God who alone can comfort.

Friends, there has just been a total bombardment lately of bad news. The kind of news that affects us to our cores. It isn’t easy to figure out how to live under the realization of these things and it certainly isn’t easy to believe in a benevolent Father who watches from heaven.

I think we can all admit our biggest fear. Death is our biggest fear. When the news of tragedy rips into our stilled hearts, we can’t ignore the after-effects. Fear takes over. Anger, bitterness and resentment begin to fill the gaps left by question marks too big and too consuming to answer.

We don’t even have to be directly affected by the news of tragedy. We might not even know the victims or their families. But the fear comes anyway. Because the people we love most live here too. And we’d give anything to protect them but in our raw, exposed vulnerability, we are reminded we have no control whatsoever.

What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to react?

***

I am a believer in Christ. I believe in His redemption, grace and love.

But this isn’t always an easy thing.

People sometimes look at my faith and think I’m clueless. They reason my faith away with the belief I bury my head in the sand; that I don’t see or experience the harsh realities of the world around me. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

I feel deeply the pain of others. And I feel the sting of death. In fact, I would say the very thing that drove me to the arms of my Savior (after much debating over whether or not He existed), was the fear of losing the ones I love most. It crippled me. It sent me into a depression I can’t even find the words to describe.

That was also a catalyst for me. It made me search. I decided I would no longer be spoon-fed the “truth” but would figure it out on my own.

Eventually, I did.

But as I now stand on the side of a loving Father and a perfect sacrificial Savior, I find myself in a position of influence. I will either be commended for my faith or questioned and condemned. I can either fly beneath the radar with my faith, using it for my own comfort and sense of well-being, or I can speak boldly of the truth in the hopes that it will touch and forever change the lives around me as it did my own.

I’ll be the first to tell you I don’t always handle this very well. But my struggles and inability to understand everything that happens in this world doesn’t make me stand on any other side but the side of Christ. This is my truth and I am forever grateful for the patience, tenderness and love God has continuously shown me when I’ve questioned Him and even belittled Him in my heart.

Pride will keep us from God. We must approach God from a place of humility if we are to understand His truth. We can’t continue to think we have ALL the answers. I’m sorry, friends, but we don’t. We never have. There are things we cannot explain with fallible human philosophy and dried up rhetoric which doesn’t reveal anything new under the sun anyway. When we come to the end of our own understanding, we come weakened to the throne of God. God doesn’t want us to be weak because He enjoys our suffering. God wants us in that state because it is only then we can receive. Only the emptied vessel is capable of being filled. The longer I search, the more I learn our God doesn’t make it hard for us to find Him. He doesn’t make it about our accomplishments; how learned or bright or wise we think we are. It’s about our ability to receive. And receiving is reserved for the humble of heart.

People are flawed. I am greatly flawed. But I still desire to speak His truths. Even so, weigh nothing you hear from me or anyone else outside the state of surrender. Surrender your heart and mind to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to lead you into all truth. And then trust He will. Trust when you hear and receive words that push on the walls of your heart like water flooding a thirsty land, you are hearing the word of  the living God. Teachings that glorify Christ and not man will do this. Weigh them against your own study and be aware of fear or bitterness creeping in. The state of your own heart is a clear and direct indicator of whether or not you are hearing words of life or words of death.

Humans are capable of delivering truth because God gives us the power. But we are imperfect vessels carrying a perfect message. When you hear too many different philosophies and opinions and you’re overwhelmed to the point of giving up your search, get back to basics. Put aside everything and humbly approach God in prayer. He will lead you to truth and silence the voices who clamor for your attention. He will show you what teachings are: a) false or b) ones you’re not quite ready to understand in your walk. God’s timing is perfect but we can only live by it as we draw near to Him one on one. It sounds simplistic or maybe like a ridiculous self-soothing technique but you won’t know until you are brave, or perhaps humble, enough to try.

Eventually, we all find ourselves having to make a choice between 2 sides. Either God is love or He is not. If you, like me, believe He is love than you must begin weighing the arguments you hear against this understanding. The truth of God’s love is revealed in Scripture. But learning how to read and digest Scripture properly comes in time. Truth is revealed in increments because we simply couldn’t handle all of it at once. It takes time. Give yourself time. But remember, God is love. You may not have all the answers but you can be sure the answers point to this in the end.

Together we are looking for grace this month. God knew what the realization of death would do to our fragile hearts:

Hebrews 2: 14-15 – Because God’s children are human beings – made of flesh and blood – the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.

Friends, you and I have already been set free from the bondage of death even when we have trouble believing or receiving. But grace is all about receiving. It’s never been about what we offer but what our God longs to give. He awaits to lift us from despair. I don’t say this with the belief we won’t be affected by the news around us.  But I join countless other humbled believers when I say: we can find peace and comfort beyond what we thought was possible in One and One alone. Even the faith-filled and grieving parents of an eleven year old little girl who passed earlier this week were able to confidently stand in this truth and when I read their words in the paper, I was changed. Their confidence pushed on my heart and swelled in my tears, but I knew these precious people had received the gift of His love in a way that would forever change the lives around them. And in our very dark world, they chose to be a light.

You can receive too. Open your hands, open your hearts. Let Him pour life back into your weary soul as only He can. I assure you, the peace you long for can’t be found anywhere else. But it is abundant in the heart of God. God’s heart reveals He never intended for us to live in the fear of death. But if we are to receive life, we need to lay down our defenses and come to Him emptied. I speak from experience when I say, He is eagerly awaiting to embrace and fill you. When you receive, you begin to speak life to those around you…

and death doesn’t have the final say.