Finding the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary
I’m joining the #fiveminutefriday group of writers today to write on the word prompt – view.
This picture may not strictly be a “view” , but it is what I woke up to on Tuesday morning!
Such joy!
It has brought a smile to everyone’s faces.
A surprise at this late time of year.
After the sorrow of the previous week comes new life, new joy, new hope.
Surprised by joy.
“weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning”
Life is a strange mix, isn’t it?
This past month of April I feel as if we have had the full range of human emotions – sadness, despair, fear, joy and excitement, all brought through the everyday experience of everyday living.
Firstly there was the sudden and tragic death of a very dear Christian man in our community. He was what is known as a ‘character’, his death, like all deaths was sad, but oh how I heard him chuckle at the number and range of people squashed into the church, hearing the gospel as they attended his funeral. He would have rejoiced to see people there who have never attended church before!.
Joy in the midst of sorrow.
Then last week our community experienced the fear of the power of fire which took hold of the surrounding heathland, it raged day and night threatening our villages. What at first appeared spectacular, became something to be frightened of. The admiration for our firecrews grew as they battled day and night and the relief was palpable when the fire was finally extinguished.
Relief after the fire.
Then at the weekend I attended a wedding, a happy event yes, but for me also tinged with sorrow. I was happy and glad for the groom to have found happiness again in his widowerhood, to have found joy after his sadness. But for me, the best and longest friend of his late wife, it was filled with memories and sadness, her children and her other friends all there reminding me of her and the gap she left.
Sorrow in the midst of joy.
I don’t want it to be a cliché when I quote, “For everything there is a season and a time”, but just like the weather in Scotland when you can experience all 4 seasons in one day, so also it appears that in life you can experience different circumstances all in one short month accompanied with the different range of emotions within each season. Joy in Sorrow; Sorrow in Joy; Awe in Fear; Relief in Tears.
I think it is to allow yourself to experience, to go through the emotions, the grief, the fear, the pain, the joy and the happiness and to remember that for everything – there is a purpose under heaven and to submit to God in each of these times and seasons.
Ecclesiastes 3:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Yet in the dark streets shineth
the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.
When the light comes and pierces our darkness, when we are given hope so that our fears are relieved we find joy, and when we meet with Jesus we have peace.
Peace
Peace which the world can’t give.
Peace which the world can’t take away.
Our streets may still be dark, there may still be fears lurking in our lives and hearts, but as we allow the light of Jesus to shine in those dark places of our lives, as we allow Him to take our fears from all the years, as we allow Him entrance into our lives we find His peace.
Not the peace which is fleeting, not the peace based on an absence of conflict, but a peace with God when our hearts are fixed on Him. A peace which passes understanding and which keeps our minds on Him.
Do you know that peace this week? Where do you need to rest your burdens down to find that peace? What fears do you need to let go of to let the peace of Jesus fill your heart?
My prayer for you this week is that you will find that peace of mind and heart in Jesus in the midst of your day and week and years.
When we have been bogged down by our fears the last thing we feel is joy. We feel trapped, we feel down, we feel darkness, we feel despair, we feel hopeless.
Yet in the dark streets shineth
the everlasting Light;
The Hope and fears of all the years
Are met in Thee tonight”
But when we are delivered of those fears relief comes, a lightness comes and joy comes! All those fears from all those years are met in Jesus.
Joy
Joy Comes
Joy comes with the relief, joy comes with the hope. All our fears from all the years are met in Jesus, they are come together in Jesus and He deals with them, He satisfies them, He relieves us of them.
Jesus meets us right where we are, He relieves us from the burden of those fears and brings joy. Joy which no one can take away from us, no-one can rob us of the joy which Jesus brings.
Have you had the burdens of your heart lifted, have you had your fears relieved? Then rejoice, know that deep down joy in Jesus.
My prayer for you this week is that you will know relief from you fears and that you will find joy in Jesus.
I have been pondering what it means to have ‘a time for joy’ and wonder is there a time for us to set aside our sorrows, our burdens, our heaviness and just ‘joy’?
Not that in any way I am saying we should skip over any grieving period for the loss of loved ones, or other trauma in our lives. But do we get so set in our ways of being ‘heavy laden’ that we never shake that off to rejoice or have joy in the Lord?
In reading through the book of Nehemiah, I see the exiles returned, the temple restored, and the walls rebuilt. The Book of the Law was then read and what did the people want to do, but weep and mourn [Chapter 8]. Yet it was to be a day of rejoicing!!. God had done so much for them! God had actually done what the peoples around had thought impossible in the restoring of the temple and the city walls in such a short space of time and despite opposition! God showed His greatness. God showed His covenant love towards them, it was a time to rejoice!
But like the Israelites are we so busy looking back at past mistakes and bound by past sorrows, that we can’t shake them off to look and see what God has actually done for us and rejoice in Him?
So, is there a time just to put those sorrows aside, to take off our mourning garments and instead put on the spirit of joy? Is there a time to stop our mourning, our sorrows, our sadnesses, our hurts and look up to God and rejoice?
It may not be an easy thing to do, our sadness may weigh heavy on us, we may have so long worn the ‘spirit of heaviness’ that we don’t know what we would do without it, we may even feel exposed, vulnerable without it. It is what we hide behind, it is our identity. So how can we put those things aside?
And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength [Nehemiah 8:10]
Even in this we don’t have to do it alone; God is with us, His joy is our strength, it is His joy which will enable us to put aside our sorrows, it is His joy which will be our strength as we rise up from our place of mourning, it is His joy which will then cover us, clothe us, it is His joy which will strengthen us and allow us to worship and to praise.
Perhaps for you, for me, today is a day when the time is right not to mourn, not to weep, but rather to rejoice, to dance, to sing, to praise. Perhaps it is the season to take off that garment of heaviness and in its place by covered by the garment of Praise to the Lord.
Finding God in the Everyday 