Cultivating Thankfulness.

I haven't written in a few weeks.  I've been in a really strange season.  Call it a wilderness, call it dry land, call it "do I need to get myself on meds?", call it whatever you may like.  We all go through them, usually after we receive a big promise or a big assignment.  You know, it's the "Here's what I've called you to" OH yippee yippee!!! And then there's the "You can get there by this route (insert desert)".  You may also like to call this: New levels, new devils.

You'd think after going this way several times before, we'd get a little smarter.

Or at least we'd remember the time this happened before.

Let's just say, sometimes I am smarter and other times I seem to forget that this has happened before.

But we're gainin' on her...

Step by Step.

Today's wisdom is brought to you by the days when "I seemed to forget this has happened before."

The days when I had "forgotten" left my heart very callused, hard, and ungrateful.  I decided to eat from the isolation tree which bore fruit that tasted like "I'll just take care of myself."

Yeah, tastes like barf.  I don't recommend it.

These were days focused on what I wanted and did not have---instead of being focused on the bounty of what I do have and being thankful for it. Two completely different perspectives.

Which lead to two very different places. Desert or Strawberry Field.

I realize that the desert place can be a result of a lot of different things--sometimes it's promotion and sometimes it's disobedience.  But what it always is and will forever always be is a call to Love.  To come up higher.  To Roll in the Deep.

The reason we got there ultimately matters not when we remember that our sin has already been taken care of.  Of course, the desert usually comes with a full load of repentance, but hopefully that comes from realizing the lies we've believed about who God is and who we are...

instead of from punishing ourselves for how "bad" we think we've been.  Two different perspectives.

It's true.

The desert has a way of drudging up the past--but only because it leads to freedom....to the Strawberry Fields.  And the moment I begin to cultivate thankfulness for my surroundings and for what has already been taken care of, I see more strawberries instead of scorpions.

I stop for a rest at an oasis here and then continue into the sun, feeling the sting of heat, knowing that my next oasis is coming shortly.  I feel the raw emotions, I remember, and I offer them up.  No need to strive my way through forgiveness,

I just surrender.

And place my callused and broken places before the feet of the One who already knows "why".


And then I drink.


Fresh and Living Water. Rolling in the Deep.



Because I am not an orphan, I am a child of the King.


Two different perspectives.


And I am on a journey--not for riches or fame or success--but into the heart of the One who made me.  And though "goodness will indeed follow me for the rest of my life", I will resolve in my heart never to look at those individual blessings for my identity or for my security.  They will instead be an outpouring of "dwelling in the House of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23)



Now that's some Good News.




(corresponding song: Rolling in the Deep by Adele)