Good morning…
Thoroughly enjoying our final Monday class, we read aloud some of our favorite passages from The Other Side of Chaos by Margaret Silf. The fourteenth chapter is entitled Yesterday Is Already Ours. This enduring truth – yesterday is already ours – is embedded in us as we walk away from a transformative season together.
Now let’s remember the deep wisdom we all hold most dear.
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Excerpt from The Other Side of Chaos by Margaret Silf, page 120
One of our biggest fears, and the cause of so much resistance to change, is that we think we are on the verge of losing, irrevocably, what we value from the past… To embrace the unknown future that change and transition hold out to us is, we feel, to risk losing all that we have invested our lives in so far.
…When it came time to leave, I didn’t want to go. I remember telling God how much I wanted this graced time to continue. And then it felt as though these thoughts came across to me in a prayer: “Walk on with empty hands, because I have so much more to give you in the future, and you can’t receive it if your hands are full. Don’t be afraid that in letting go you are losing anything at all, because everything that matters, from this time of graced encounter, or from any other experience in your life, has been internalized and is firmly lodged in your heart. It is yours. It travels with you and can never be lost.”
That was a real moment of truth for me.
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I know everything God does endures for all time. Nothing can be added to it; nothing can be taken away from it. We humans can only stand in awe of all God has done. What has been and what is to be—already is (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15a, VOICE).
Embedded forever in our hearts, the beauty of the past is already ours. Everything that matters most is internalized. The memories of life’s graced encounters are firmly lodged within our hearts, traveling with us wherever we go. As we stop clinging and start loosening our grip, we walk on with empty hands, delightfully open to the abundantly more God wants to give us in the future.
Looking back on the past and pondering over the future, we humans can only stand in awe of all God has done. Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes (1 Samuel 12:16, ESV).
…Sue…
