Well, that jewelry story was me today. I lost a really important ring, but I didn't even notice until almost the entire day had gone by. So I had no clue when I really lost it...I just knew I was heartbroken over it. Because I really like metaphors, (and I've spent most of my life in church where, incidentally, a lot of metaphors get thrown around) I'm going to turn this into a teachable moment. (Because I also kinda like teaching) What if we replaced the ring in my story with Jesus? So I went about my whole day and didn't have Him with me (not actually true, but just stick with me), and then as the day is beginning to wind down I finally look around and notice that He isn't there. Can't we so easily do that in our spiritual lives? Even though He is always always with us, aren't there times we can just unknowingly cast Him aside, with about 1,000 possibilities for as to why we just didn't decide to carry Him along? I mean, it isn't as if we notice right away when we have lost our connection with Him. It is something that happens gradually, and typically we don't have any clue.
Our lives get busy. We sometimes experience seasons of life where we feel strong enough to handle life without running to Jesus. That life is so false, though. There is no true, genuine life outside of our Creator. Then, when hurt or pain strikes, we flail around like babies trying to learn how to swim. How different, and less stressful, would life be if we started living in Christ, day in and day out, no matter how hard or easy it was? I know, I know. I am constantly learning what the heck that means, too.
I guess what strikes me most about this ring of mine is what it says on it. It is inspired by the song, "Overcomer" by Christian artist, Mandisa, and I got it when my friends came to visit me in Honduras. The song carried me through what was honestly one of my most difficult life seasons. Talk about feeling like a failure and never being enough. Honduras brought all of that to the surface for me for the first time in my life. And it was painful. The verse engraved on the back of the ring is 1 John 4:4 --But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already overcome those people (referring to nonbelievers, essentially), because the spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.
Here's the truth, no matter what BS might hit the fan in our lives, we can ALWAYS take hope in Christ that He has overcome it all. And because of that, we can live boldly and face our fears because we know that in the end we have nothing to lose when we already have the One who is enough, who can never be taken from us.
The line that keeps popping up today from the song is this: "Stay in the fight 'til the final round." Here's the beautiful thing I am discovering about this...whether we fight or not, we still have Jesus. But, oh, wouldn't it just be so beautiful if we let God fight for us so that we might experience His power here on earth? Wouldn't it be awesome if we showed up for the fight?
That ring I lost was incredibly precious to me, but apparently it didn't really hit me until I lost it. When I looked down at my hand today at work and it wasn't there, I literally almost ran to the bathroom just so I could cry. Cry for the loss of something that knew my time in Honduras and experienced it right along with me. Something that always reminded me of what good community looks like, which in my case was my 2 dear friends making a goofy music video to the song and sending it to me BECAUSE THAT'S TOTALLY WHAT THEY DID. It's awesome. The reason I decided against running, though, was because running doesn't change our problems, at least not for the better, If anything, it just makes them worse; harder. If I am going to honestly learn how to dance with fear, then even in some of those moments of weakness where I want to break down (no matter HOW silly it may seem), I choose not to.
Oh, and it turns out I didn't actually lose my ring. I never even put in on for the day! Talk about being oblivious to things in your life...don't forget what the focus is. What the purpose is. It isn't us. It isn't our stuff. It isn't our lifetime achievement goals. It's Jesus. Always Jesus. We are all overcomers. In Christ, we have enough. We just have to learn how to dance with the fear when it threatens to make us feel like we're failing.
*disclaimer* - I am always always always speaking these same words back to myself when I write them. Please don't let me fool you into thinking I already have this figured out. I don't.
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