The secret to making sense of life … abiding

The secret to making sense of life … abiding.

In making sense of life¹, emerged the good and right motivation to be an overcomer, rather than just a survivor …

  whether in the throes of a difficult divorce,

     worrisome financial strain,

       losing a cherished friendship,

         grieving the loss of a parent,

           serious prolonged illness

             or managing parental heartache ...  well, that ought be our aim.   Many years ago, during a time of prolonged stress and strain, my mantra became not somehow, but victoriously.  I did not just want to sleepwalk through those years somehow in order to survive the mental and emotional anguish, I wanted to live victoriously.  Because really, who wants to just eke out an existence, when soaring is possible, in spite of what goes on about us? 

Kipling whets our minds with possibilities ~ If you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
but make allowance for their doubting too:
if you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
or being hated don't give way to hating,
and yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise² . . . Yet as beautiful as it is, in the final result, it leaves us with ‘the Earth and everything that's in it,
and---more---you'll be a Man, my son!’  The poetry promises maturity and all the world’s gain … but I say, ‘where is peace, O Man!  Where is inner victory in the midst of the storm?

Long about the time my prayers netted me not somehow but victoriously, my goal for daily living, also came its companion ~ the precious words of my Savior, “Peace I leave with you.  My peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives give I to you; let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”³ These words, the gift he gave to his beloved disciples, very nearly this time of year all those centuries ago, are just as comforting today.  It was after they had shared the Passover meal, (which we refer to as The Last Supper), after he had washed their feet, and even told them that one of them would betray him.  He told them he would be leaving them to go and prepare a place for them in his father’s home; it was then he offered them his peace.  Then walking from Jerusalem out through the vineyard on the way to the Garden, Jesus stopped for an object lesson.

Perhaps Jesus grabbed ahold of the grapevine, clutched a cluster of grapes, or pointed to the branches as he said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser… Abide in Me, and I in you.  If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”⁴

Abiding in Jesus seems to come natural to the believer who is in desperate times.  Don’t miss the phrase, and I will in you… In your relationship with Jesus Christ, when you abide in him, he also abides in you!  So look for him!  See, Terry, when you run to Jesus, as his beloved child, and you cry out your need to him, he is there—he is closer than a breath away.  He dwells in you, child of God.  Remember what Jesus had just told the disciples in the Upper Room--that when the Holy Spirit came—he would be ‘with them and in them’?⁵  The Holy Spirit has come!  As a follower of Jesus Christ, he is with you and is in you.  And he is also at work all around you.  Look for him. 

Sometimes it is Jesus who comes through a word of inspiration spoken, which seems to be salve for your wounds; sometimes he comes through the kindness of another; sometimes he comes through answered prayer . . . but always, he is there.  In your time of need, in a time of great stress or pain, run to him… abide in him, and look for him at work around you, as he is with you, my dear friend.  And ultimately, Jesus will set all things straight.

^{1 – Making sense of Life ~ http://pastorwoman.com/ReadArchive.aspx?id=1359}

^{2 – Rudyard Kipling, IF, first stanza}

^{3 – John 14.27, NIV}

^{4 – John  15.1, 4, 7, NKJV}

^{5 – John 14.17}