day 15 - constant

Man, do I miss the sound of rain falling through the leaves of my hickory tree outside my bedroom. It’s raining outside right now, and it’s just different. The music has changed. I can’t wait until spring arrives. Ok, so I know that the trees are already budding out and the azaleas are in full bloom in JANUARY (!!!), but I miss the music of my leaves.

Speaking of rain, Nate wrote an awesome post about being soaked through and through – saturated – by Christ. What a beautiful, amazing, glorious thought! Man, oh man! What beautiful imagery comes to mind! It brings to mind the picture from The Shawshank Redemption, when Andy escapes and has his arms raised in victory and gratitude.

It seems I’m stuck on that movie. There’s so much depth to it. I’ll try not to harp on it too long, or I’ll bore all of us… Andy escaped because all he had was time. He didn’t fight where he was – wrongfully incarcerated and horribly abused – he had a mission, and it did not matter how long it took. In other words, he had hope.

He not only had hope, he gave others hope - Red, in particular. That’s how we, as a community of believers, are supposed to function. We are each uniquely gifted by the Holy Spirit, and that gift is not ours – it is not meant for our edification or benefit. We are meant to seek Him, allow Him to develop our gifts and then to use them for the good of everyone else. He pours into us so that we can pour Him into others. He fills us up so that we can pour out His love and grace and hope into each other, and into the world. We are called to be lights in dark places, and those places can be within or outside the Body of Christ.

The obvious example is my gifting. I am an intercessor, and I’m meant to intercede for others – never myself – that’s Someone Else’s job. I know and love other intercessors, and what is so very cool about that is that none of us look the same. We don’t pray the same, we don’t see the same things, we are assigned to different people, but we share the same gift. We get to live and learn together, and we get to serve together.

Today’s Scripture is 2 Timothy 1:3-6 - 3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

Verse 3 is, in essence, what I do. He brings someone on my heart, and I pray. Pretty simple until the radar goes off the charts… what gives me hope is that He is constant, unfailing, faithful and true - especially when we are not. That is the very essence of love - He is LOVE - He cannot be any other way. His constancy challenges me onward to Him - my desire is to be just like Him, and man, do I have a lot of work to do! And even more work to ask Him to do... and to be willing to let Him work... even when it HURTS.

The point of all our giftings is to point people to Him. He works through His Bride, reaching out into a hurting world for those who He is still steadfastly pursuing. The community I so dearly love is one that deeply desires to be His, to make disciples, to reach the nations... none of that could happen within the Ring without each one of us individually seeking Him through prayer, worship, meditation of His word, and encouraging and sharpening each other. We are charged by Jesus to GO. We could not do that without hope, without each other, without Him.