Life is Swiss Cheese

HaHA... now you have to keep reading. :P

Everyone's spiritual walk is different, but we have a few things in common. One is that we experience a semi-regular series of ups, downs, and funny-shaped divits.
It's normal. But it's hard.

Especially since you never know where the dips are, when they'll come, how long they'll last, how deep, ect. If all the dips were the same, it would be like walking on a comb. But it's not; it's a block of Swiss cheese.

This analogy is already breaking down (as all analogies eventually do) so I'll drop it and get another one.

I'm a rather tall. People sometimes point this out to me, usually trying to give a compliment, but when I was younger (and really tall for my age) I didn't really like being tall. Particularly when a few well-meaning people would tell me to stand back-to-back with a friend or another girl my age and then observe going, "Wo-oah.... you are really tall."

My growing went in spurts. Grow, stop, grow a little more, stop again. But I never got any shorter.

Hold that thought a second, while I give you a Bible verse and then get to the point. ;)

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

Anything else in all creation. That includes ourselves, you know. :)

Our walk with Christ takes us along a Swiss cheese road full of unpredictable pot-holes. Selfishness, temptation, impatience, pride, anger, depression, indifference, doubt, and frustration can and will jump you from behind, clobber you and leave you in a spiritual funk for who knows how long.

When that happens, the first thing to enter my head is, "How did I let this happen again? I thought I was better than this. I thought I'd grown."

Is it my fault that I neglect time with God, lose my temper, fill my head with wrong thoughts, doubt His Word, ect? Why, yes it is. But getting so down about it will only make it worse. So how do you go about having "joy" when your heart's in a "dip"?

Nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love. Nothing, no one, never.

Knowing that, is it possible to fall away from God? Yeah, I think the Bible makes that pretty clear.
But if we want to come back, is He suddenly going to slam the door and turn on the neon "CLOSED" sign?

His love is stable. Open always. He, Himself, remains forever unchanged, with a deep love for us that's so intense and insane, we could never wrap our heads around it.

That's why, in Philippians 4:6, He said not to be anxious about anything. Sheesh, anything? What about my relationship with Him? If I don't worry about anything else, I should at least worry about that, that's the most important thing!

First off, no. He said not to, so no. Don't you love how simple that is? :D

Second, we'll never get any shorter. God's forgiveness and mercy are so great that, even when we've fallen completely, He can pick us back up and (with time, prayer, and yeah, probably some pain) get us back to where we used to be, before the dip.

He didn't make it complicated. Seek Him first and He gives you your heart's desire (which, of course means that if you seek Him first, He is your heart's desire).

Neither Height nor Depth. No matter how high you were before you fell, no matter how deep the ditch you fell into, nothing will ever separate you from His love or take His Holy Spirit from your heart.

Can you fall away from Him completely? Yes. But that's a choice you make. So if what you truly desire is Him (which, if your miserable without Him, you probably do) you'll never, ever, ever, ever, EVER be separate from Him.

Isn't that just the most amazing promise ever? :)

Hmm... now I want cheese.
:P

Something Beautiful

I like to paint. When I say 'like', I really mean to enjoy not necessarily to be skilled at. ;)

When I have time, I watercolor. The trouble with watercolor is that, unlike drawing (another favorite of mine) it is nearly impossible to stop in the middle. Therefore, I rarely have that hazy concept of "time" to paint.

Last night, I had the time. I painted some pansies. Ah, pansies. Happy. :)

When I was done, they looked mostly like pansies, which is good, but I stared down at my little work-of-art and thought, "Something beautiful".

It's funny that I thought that because the painting itself wasn't especially beautiful. It was actually noticeably ordinary. But I wasn't really thinking of the picture. In a sec, I'll explain why.

When you hear the word "Art" what do you think? Easy: painting, dancing, theatre, sculpture, ect. All true. But I think that there are a lot more forms of art.

The dictionary definition of art is "the creation of beautiful things". (by the way, that's one of the best dictionary definitions I've ever read!)

So what counts as beautiful? I suppose that's kind of a matter of opinion, much like art itself. The real question is where beauty comes from. 1st Peter 3:4 says one's beauty should be "the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit”.

Art is an emotional thing. It’s taking your heart and pouring its contents on something you love.

That kind of art shows up in countless forms. You can tell a lot about a person by their “art”.

The art of talking with friends.

The art of planting flowers.

The art of reading out loud.

The art of being with children. (a favorite of mine)

The art of studying.

The art of having energy.

The art of listening.

Many of these just sound like “skills”. But there’s a big difference.

Dancing is a skill. It’s not really art unless you honestly love it.

Singing is a skill. But when you sing about something close to your heart, then it’s an art.

Washing the car is a skill. It becomes an art when you actually enjoy it!

Skills are great. They’re handy, fun, God-given things. But art… I believe art is a manifestation of God’s supernatural love for us. He gave us each the desire to create because we are created in His image. We naturally want to see the things in our hearts put forward physically.

My little pansy-picture wasn’t amazing to look at. What was amazing was the feeling of taking the love of painting that God placed in me, and pouring it on paper.

It’s the same feeling I get when I take my love for my little sister and use it to give her a hug. Or when I take my desire to see something be tidy, and clean the refrigerator with it.

It doesn’t have to be a great painting or a painting at all. It doesn’t have to be dancing (I, for one, am a bad dancer). It doesn’t have to be something spectacular.

Just something beautiful.

In Christ,

Katy