LONGING FOR GLORY

I try to blog on Tuesdays and Fridays. As I was thinking about what I wanted to write today, then I was reviewing the days events. I have a friend named Laura who is REALLY special to me. We started seminary together and have walked through some really significant, really joyful, and really hard events together in each others' lives. Laura is one of those kindred spirit friends who knows how to understand me, encourage me, and pray for me. And so I can do that back for her also. Its been this great peer type friendship, which I really need because I have a lot of relationships in which I do almost all the giving. I spent this afternoon on Laura's couch, chatting for the last time in person. Her two year old woke up from his nap and wanted "Aunt Weez" to hold him for like 40 minutes. So that's the last time for a while I'll get to do one of my favorite activities (hold one or both of the twins while talking to Laura) because they are moving to New York City to plant a church in Brooklyn. My heart aches with desire for this friendship to not be separated. There are other desires in my life that are unmet as well, right now. My temptation is to eat as much chocolate as I can, because it can numb the pain somewhat. What do we, as a vulnerable church, do at these times? I have some advice from two wise men that really helps me, because I need tons of help as I really fight against giving up. One, Bill, wrote this to me long ago and I still have it taped up on my refrigerator, "The longing is a part of our worship. The unmet longing is our fellowship with a suffering Jesus. The longing fulfilled is a taste of the the hope of what is to come. The call is to trust Him with a ruthless trust wherever we are with our longing. Don't loose the longing. It will kill your heart." Another man, Paul, just e mailed this to me the other day,"If you had no belief at all, you wouldn't have listened, it wouldn't have found a place in your soul. So, there must be at least a mustard seed's worth of faith. What is the power of faith? Is it our virtue or is it the power of that in which we have faith? Since it is the latter, I trust that you will increasingly enjoy the mustard sauce. Which of us will be perfected before we arrive at home? Not one. So, I am grateful that you are attuned to the hope for home, for a perfect father, for genuine relationships, for a community that loves God will all of their hearts and one another as themselves." So in short, as a vulnerable church, don't kill our hearts, and remember that we have faith that comes from the Lord, that we can rest in. That is really hard. Don't hear me saying that you should just snap your fingers and do it, because I can't. No one can. Its a big battle that takes a lot of work and energy to seek the Lord instead of distract or numb ourselves.