Good morning…
“A twenty-year old college student came to see me in a crisis,” writes Sue Monk Kidd on page 27 in When The Heart Waits. “After years of denial, she was finally facing the realization that she had been sexually abused as a child. That realization had landed her in a lot of pain and confusion. She told me that she had ‘turned it all over to Jesus’ three weeks earlier. She’d asked him to heal her wounds, take away her pain, and resolve her torment. In a word, she wanted God to come with an eraser and make it go away. But God hadn’t. My eyes softened and I put my hand on hers, knowing too well the urgency she felt to have everything be okay again.”
Monk Kidd continues: “‘If I can’t trust God now, when I need him most, how can I trust him again?’ she cried. It wasn’t a matter of whether God could be trusted, of course, but of whether or not she could wait. She didn’t understand that there was a journey to be made here. A waiting, a gestating, a slow and uncertain birthing. That is where God was to be found. Not in the erasing of the experience, but an embracing of it.”
Jumping out of bed in the “morning” of life, we want a God with a big fat eraser, a God who takes away the pain of any past abuse, any guilty goof-ups, any chaotic confusion. Donning our racing shoes, we want a God who paves our own personal fast lane to “happily ever after.” It is painstaking to tolerate the soul-shaping wait: “What career path is mine? Will I ever find my soulmate? How will the life of my dreams take form?” Gestation is a grueling process, an invisible, developmental process, a process we cannot speed up. Exacting and exhausting. Taxing and toilsome. Difficult and demanding. Embracing “a slow and uncertain birthing” is where our ever-present God can be found.
In every lifetime, there is an arduous journey to be made. Hard and heavy. Tiring and tough. Uphill and unrelenting. It is not a matter of whether God can be trusted, of course, but whether or not we can patiently wait with hope.
What’s God going to say to my questions? I’m braced for the worst. I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I’ll wait to see what God says, how he’ll answer my complaint. And then God answered: “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time” (Habakkuk 2:1-3, MSG).
…Sue…
P.S. To accommodate last week’s cancellation, here is the updated schedule for our “Living Fully – Dying Well” series. Please plan to join us.
Six-Week Series: “Living Fully – Dying Well” Facilitated by Susan Spratt, Betsy Walker and Ginna McFarling. Tuesdays 9:30 – 11:00 am, in room 308. Northside Church, 2799 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA 30305. No reservation necessary. You are welcome to attend one talk or the entire series.
January 22th – The Physiology of Dying
Ginna McFarling is a retired nurse practitioner who has worked in women’s health for twenty-five years and in hospice for eight years. She and Betsy Walker, a registered nurse, will help us understand what happens to the body as it completes its life cycle.
January 29th – Cancelled due to inclement weather – rescheduled for February 19th
February 5rd – Writing Ethical Wills and Understanding Our Choices in Living Arrangements as We Age
Jana Eplan who works for Atlanta Senior Advocates will talk about Ethical Wills and then guide us through the possibilities of living options available to us as we age.
February 12th – Celebrating Lives and Obituaries
Journalist and author of ObitKit, Susan Soper will share creative ways to write an obituary and plan a service of remembrance.
February 19th – Preparation for Disability and Death: Wills, Advanced Health Directives, and Financial Power of Attorney
Patricia Friedman is a Senior Attorney at The Bowden Spratt Law Firm, P.C. and will lead our discussion. For over twenty-five years, she has helped clients with their disability and estate planning needs.
February 26th – Being Fully Present to Those Who are Dying
Ginna McFarling will return to lead us in an encouraging discussion about how to care well for those who are dying.
Joyful and Creative Ways to Remember, Honor, and Celebrate Our Loved Ones
Susan Spratt, Ginna McFarling and Betsy Walker will round out our six-week series with an energizing discussion about special ways to celebrate our loved ones.
