Good morning…
For me, this holiday season is officially over. With back to back birthdays for my husband and Jesus, December 24th and 25th, back to back birthdays for our two oldest kids, January 6th and 7th, and my high school senior’s final PDC dance on January 9th, my holiday season is officially over.
I love to look at my life in seasons. The art of noticing one phase ending before the next one begins helps me to mark movement through everyday life. That is why Henri Nouwen’s 1.9.17 morning meditation was perfectly positioned on the day my holiday season officially ended.
Nouwen writes: “Sometimes we have to ‘step over’ our anger, our jealousy, or our feelings of rejection and move on. The temptation is to get stuck in our negative emotions, poking around in them as if we belong there. Then we become the ‘offended one,’ ‘the forgotten one,’ or the ‘discarded one.’ Yes, we can get attached to these negative identities and even take morbid pleasure in them. It might be good to have a look at these dark feelings and explore where they come from, but there comes a moment to step over them, leave them behind and travel on.”
This holiday season, we all had moments of anger, situations sparking jealousy, feelings of rejection, retaliation, and regret. Nouwen is right. We need to look at these dark feelings. Explore where they come from. Yet, empowered by the strength of God’s Holy Spirit within, we say, “Now is the time to ‘step over’ and travel on, leaving negative emotions behind.”
The LORD says, “But forget all that–
it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.
For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland (Isaiah 43:18-19, NLT).
Seeing God’s movement in our everyday lives, we ‘step over’ and travel on, trusting in the One making pathways through life’s wilderness.
…Sue…
