Good morning…
2.18.2018. As I write the date in my journal, I notice the pretty pattern of today’s numbers. This exact date has never been before. This exact date will never come again. Two. Eighteen. Two thousand and eighteen.
We all wake to lives in flux. One of a kind. Imperfectly unique. We all wake today to lives in flux. For some of us life is breaking through to an exciting new. An engagement or a wedding. Babies or grand babies. A new job, a new opportunity, a new form of family. For some of us life has broken down into chaos, confusion, complete-utter despair. Last week, last month, last year or one before, we experienced our coming-apart, our unraveling, what author Brene Brown calls our “BREAKDOWN/slash/SPIRITUAL AWAKENING.” Our lives are lived in constant flux: rising from every gain is loss, rising from every loss is gain.
On 2.18.2018, many of us are birthing new things. With each new birth we say “goodbye” to an old sort of single-ness. “Goodbye” to the freedom of the unmarried years. “Goodbye” to the years of “our family” sleeping under one roof. “Goodbye” to the way life has comfortably been as we expand to birth more, next, new.
On 2.18.2018, several of us are unexpectedly separated, divorced, or widowed from the life of our dreams. With each great loss we say “Hello” to a new sort of single-ness. “Hello” to figuring things out on our own. “Hello” to making hard decisions with God. “Hello” to stepping one day at a time, from where we have been to where God is leading.
On 2.18.2018, whether birthing new or missing old, our “journey will ask us to risk walking this shifting landscape of change and transition without trying to pin our life – or our faith – down into neat securities. It will challenge us to acknowledge that the state of change and flux is the reality that underpins all existence, and that if God is real, then God is right here in the flux… …take the journey in faith – not the kind of faith that knows all the answers and has mapped out the right and proper paths, but the faith that says simply, “I don’t know, but I trust.” (Margaret Silf’s The Other Side of Chaos: Breaking Through When Life Is Breaking Down, 8-9)
The glory of the old lasts for only a short time. How much greater is the glory of the new! It will last forever (2 Corinthians 3:11, NIRV).
…Sue…
P.S. If you live in the Atlanta area and you are single-again after being separated, divorced, or widowed, please join us for our six-week NEW WINGS CLASS, as we discuss, chapter by chapter, Margaret Silf’s book referenced above. Together, we will notice God growing for each of us a brand new set of wings.
Dates and time: Six Wednesdays in Lent, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm, February 21 – March 28, 2018
Location: Northside Church parlor, the room to the left of our main sanctuary, 2799 Northside Dr NW, Atlanta, GA 30305
Facilitators: Ginna McFarling, Stacey Triesch, and Sue Allen
Wednesday night dinner available starting at 5:00 pm. Childcare and children’s activities available. Purchase your own book, but this Wednesday we will have copies of the first chapter available. Please forward this invitation to anyone you know who is single-again, growing new wings with God. With questions please contact me, sue@suetoyou.com.
