Monday, January 21, 2013

Gateways


I love this picture. I am not sure whether you can see it clearly or not it is a large gate that doesn’t have a wall or fence connected to it and doesn’t really go anywhere. There are a few of them around town and they always make me chuckle when I pass one. I think maybe it takes me back to some of my childhood reading where there were magical doors that took you away to other mysterious places. (Maybe that is just the imaginative English teacher in me, or working extra hard to keep my sense of humour).

Lately I have been thinking about this gate in terms of our relationship with God. Frequently we try to construct a gate to our hearts thinking that we are going to keep God out (or just others) to protect ourselves. And we build these magnificent doors forgetting that God can go around them and see through them. He understands us intimately and knows what we are trying to keep from Him. All that this really accomplishes is that we are choosing to isolate ourselves from His healing touch. But, if we take the risk of opening ourselves to Him (and in turn others) it is like we get to walk through one of those magical doors into another world. At first glance the world may appear the same, but you will start to be able to see how God is working through those circumstances for your good. There is an awareness of His presence giving you forgiveness, peace, joy and love in place of the bitterness, hurt, grief and anxiety. Enough of my musings…

Dave is making progress on his paper. Please pray that his stress level would keep him motivated without overwhelming him. I have been trying to use a new system for putting together a newsletter, but as with most new computer programs learning how to use them can be cause for delays and other frustrations. Please pray that I would be able to get this done this week and that the new program would eventually reduce the time and difficulty I usually have sending them.

My prayer for you is that God would open some doors for you and that you would enjoy the adventure that we can life this week.

1 comment:

Beth said...

Jenn, I appreciated your thoughts on the gate. Thanks for sharing!