When I first read the scripture Kari sent, my mind instantly wandered back to three amazing conversations I’ve had this week. Each of these three conversations were very different in topic, yet strikingly similar in nature. But I’ll talk more about that in a minute.
Before I do, I wanted to reflect on last week’s topic of “getting lost” in connection to what I’m going to write about in regards to being “grounded by Christ’s love.” I’ve spent this summer job hunting since graduating with my master’s degree in May and in that time, I’ve managed to thoroughly confuse myself about what it is I’m even looking for in a job. For so long, I’ve felt led to do something specific, but recently have felt that that vision for my life has been blurred. I thus have found myself feeling completely lost and ungrounded. And I thought that was a bad thing…until I read Dustin’s post on Friday, in which he quotes Thoreau and then proceeds to ponder whether being lost really is a bad thing. He and Thoreau both suggest it’s not and the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve come to agree because it gives us the opportunity to find ourselves again and usually, the person we find is better than the person we lost.
Being lost also provides us with a unique opportunity to wander for awhile and sometimes that leads us to new places, new people and new conversations, which brings me back to conversations I had over a period of four or five days towards the end of last week. All three of those conversations seemed to focus on connecting. The simple act of having a conversation is a way of connecting, but we also considered out loud what it means to connect and the ways that we can connect to other people. Some of the ways I connected with those I talked with last week were through similar losses, similar feelings of uncertainty in regards to the future as well as a similar love for God and how that love in itself connects people and things. In discussing those things, I was reminded that amidst the uncertainty, God’s love also provides us with faith.
To be more specific, one particular conversation I had, involved a discussion of life’s “coincidences” or as we called them, “God incidences.” It reminded me that I have yet to find myself in a time or place in life that I haven’t looked back on and known that I was meant to be there. This helped me so much in remembering that even in my present state of confusion and uncertainty, I am where I am meant to be. It also reminded me that trust and love coincide and how important it is to trust in God knowing he loves me and will lead me wherever I am meant to go.
After having those conversations, my thoughts led me to a story someone once told me about trusting God. It goes something like this: A man was rock climbing one day when he lost his grip and fell. As he was falling, he managed to grab the end of his rope. Well he clung to the rope with all of his strength, he prayed for God to save him because he couldn’t see the ground through the fog below. God answered him and said, “let go,” but the man, worried for his life, continued to hang on. God then said to the man, “I love you, trust me and let go.” Unconvinced, the man ignored God and continued to hang on. When the fog below him finally cleared, he saw that he was only a few feet off the ground and if he had let go of the rope earlier he would have dropped a short distance to safety.
And so from three conversations, I’m left with a few important questions to consider:
Am I willing to let go of my worries and fears and allow God’s love to ground me, as it would have the man who refused to trust in Him? Or am I going to cling to my own rope worrying that I might fall and get hurt?
We all know love and trust can be risky business, but so is hanging on to the end of a rope, when you can’t see the ground below. I challenge you this week to think more about what ropes you’re hanging onto and whether or not you trust God enough to let go so that “Christ [can] dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17).
I hope you all have a wonderful week. While I have an important promise to keep to two little girls this Thursday night, I am going to try to be done early enough to be present at bread for your journey. If I’m not there, I look forward to reading the blog on Friday to see others thoughts about “being grounded by Christ’s love.”
-Crystal
