Lay it down
My rights to how my family may form
My rights to watch a little baby grow up
My rights to what my life “should” look like
Lay it down
he says
Lay it down…
lose your life and you will find it. – Matthew 10:39
It is often not until the expectations of your life come to a crashing halt
disappointment ensues
that you realize you had any expectations at all,
that you were holding on to your life.
It is the privilege, the blessing of the sufferers,
the disappointed
the broken hearted
to learn to lay it down-
to wrestle in the laying down-
to know HIM in the laying down.
And the laying down gives us room.
Room to dream.
Room to breath.
Room to hope,
to hope in the one who is the author of hope
to hope that all will not be as expected,
it will be far greater
it will be true living
when we lay it down.
To know that he knows the way we take. – Job 23:10
He directs our steps. – Proverbs 16:9
And He knows, He Knows, He KNOWS…
The why of the blessing that has come in a form you never thought would be the way he would ask you to take…
The blessed to be a blessing.
We were blessed with two daughters in the past two years, but for a moment.
To be a blessing both now and to come.
And I’m laying down the “to come”
Because just as this year I anticipated a different path to joy our lives would take,
a baby in our arms, in our home…
I could never have written what unfolded.
It was and is broken and beautiful.
And still the grace that has been given in the broken pieces is finding a way to feed our souls,
To direct our steps
To be multiplied into the lives of others.
I want to plan this next year,
anticipate,
hope
for the blessings I think best.
Lay it down
he says
and
I will give you ALL.
The blessing has been Him. ALL him. Always him.
We just sometimes can’t see it or want it to be different or think that the fullness of joy can’t really come from simply just His presence.
“No good thing does he withhold from him whose walk is blameless” – Psalm 84:11
The goodness is Jesus, redemption, rescue, grace.
Jesus in the pain. Jesus in the joy.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
“I count all as loss compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” – Philippians 3:8
That’s how good it is to know him.
I see it more in the loss,
in the laying down.
“And suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint.” – Romans 8:3-5
The kind of hope that comes from the love of God
poured down
poured in
poured through
poured out.
Lay it down.
It’s the only way to love, to hope, to joy…
the kind we really want,
the kind we really need.
the kind that will pour out blessing upon blessing,
not the material kind-
the eternal kind.
The blessings that matter.
Lay down your rights,
your dreams,
your hopes,
your expectations
To the one who Loves. Who is LOVE. Who pours Love out and in and through and around…and covers us with his love in more ways then we could imagine. – Ephesians 3:20
And let him rebuild
renew
restore
with dreams far greater
hopes unexpected
JOY found in the most unlikely of places.
It comes in the suffering
the trials
the broken pieces
the mundane places
This is where we either lay it down, or clench our fists.
This is where we learn to hope or walk the bitter path.
It is a constant, daily, moment by moment surrender.
It is a life of laying down our lives… to the one who laid down his life for us.
It is a life where beauty is found in the surrender.
Oh Lord, let this be a year of laying it down.
Of counting all as loss compared to knowing you.
That I would know more deeply what the Psalmist says: “In your presence there is fullness of Joy.” – Psalm 16:11
It is you Jesus. Always you.
And tomorrow when I forget,
and I clench my fists and hold on to my dreams,
remind me to lay it down.
That YOU are where life is found.
- A Time to be Silent and a Time to Speak - October 29, 2020
- Teaching Them to Hope, Birthday After Birthday. - January 15, 2020
- A Taste of Hope Fulfilled – Briella Dawn’s Birth Story - August 3, 2018
