Good morning…
Yesterday’s morning message, My Change Of Heart, set off the largest avalanche of responses from one blog post, ever. Too large of a pile to sift through in one follow-up, we will examine a single pebble from our pile today.
“I trust you know what God is doing,” one subscriber wrote and many of you echoed. “While I am looking forward to new blog posts, I am really going to miss the summertime redo of our favorites. I know it gave a break to you, but it did to me too. I never want to miss anything but, as life is, I often do. Summer was a wonderful way for me to reread favorites, find what resonated with other people, and also hear new the important ones that I missed. It also allowed me to not feel the pressure of making sure I read every one during the school year. For me hearing something a second time on a second day months later sometimes allows me to hear it differently. Just like reading scripture always gives us something new depending on where we are.”
She continued: “I always loved the summertime blog because it was more relaxed and laid back like summer should be for everyone. Just my two cents, which I know is often different from everyone else’s.”
I was not sure exactly why her words caused tears to well up from within, until I listened to my heart writing back. “I always love your perspective. You join me in the sadness of this loss of an old tradition. Your acknowledgement means so much to me.” Here’s why her words filled my heart with gratitude and my eyes with multifaceted tears: to be known is a wonderful thing. To be supported in loss. To have companionship in the sadness of letting go of a twelve-year tradition. To have our shared truth acknowledged: before every new birth there is a death to a beloved old.
“It was a lot of work preparing an original manuscript every spring, a labor of love for sure,” I continued. “But I too enjoyed seeing which posts resonated most with our online community, I loved being surprised how God would re-run an old message at another uncannily perfect new moment, giving a deep gift a second time, and I also loved breaking from the daily rhythm of the school year, as in our Spirit we sense that summer is designed to be lived at a slower cadence.”
“This is a big loss for sure,” I concluded, “and I am grateful you acknowledge this with me. Thank you so much. I do think God is leading us to this 365-day adventure for reasons we do not know, we cannot see, we are not supposed to understand right now, but sensing together our loss before we begin witnessing God’s gain is very, very important to me.”
But whatever former things were gains to me [as I thought then], these things [once regarded as advancements in merit] I have come to consider as loss [absolutely worthless] for the sake of Christ [and the purpose which He has given my life] (Philippians 3:7, AMP).
…Sue…
P.S. I know your hearts join with mine this morning, lifting prayers for the friends and families who have lost loved ones in the senseless mass shooting in Virginia Beach, Virginia. May God come near to comfort the grieving through the love of ordinary people-with-skin-on.
