When You Find Yourself on a Journey

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Mt 11:29-30


I stop to rest a while, to look back and remember where I have been. My feet hurt from the journey, through many mountain highs and valley lows, and they are dirty. They are cut in a few places and they are weary. They tell of places been and experiences earned. My feet will tell a lot, but my heart will tell more. My feet cannot tell of the places they did not walk, for in those places were where I was carried.

When one season is complete and another begins anew, it is easier to look back and see what truly happened. During the season, vision and ability to understand reason is often blurred. It is only in looking back that we see how far we were brought. How much we have accomplished through His plan. How much we would have missed if we were the ones deciding...deciding in those moments where all hope had been lost.

I am just coming out of such a season. I am starting to look back and see truly what just happened. How it has shaped me, how it has changed me, and how I am supposed to learn from it. Now, please understand something...this season was a long journey for me, but it may not even be signifacant enough to dirty another's feet. That is an important truth about seasons. They will be translated differently in every life. A lesson that took me a long time to learn may not even be discussed in another's life. There are some seasons that will stay hushed. There are some that will stay dormant for another time. And then there are some that should be talked about so other's may learn too.

I want to share my season. Other's may learn. Or I will learn more from documenting my lessons. More so, this will enable my young children to learn from something they are too young to remember now. They will meet their own such seasons soon enough. But I believe there is also power in their seeing their parents learn and grow under the strong yet gentle hand of the Almighty. His faithfulness should be spoken and taught from generation to generation. When we cried out, He answered us.

This is the year, the season, in which I started learning to take His yoke. To give up my burden and take His. Where I started learning the true power of WHOM we pray to. It's not about the details or the miracle that took place for our life...it's about deep cries and answered prayers. It's about meeting amongst the people and sharing about HIS glory. It's about those who have been around us or who encountered us for the very first time seeing that when we're on a journey it is not us deciding. It is Him. It is not us accomplishing anything. It is Him. The only thing we can claim at all is being weak. Even the strength to cry out to Him for help in our weakness came from the power of His glory and grace.

In my years of knowing Him and being His child, I have often chosen the easy way. The burden that looked deceptively light. The life that was appearing in obedience but had never really been tested. While I understand, in His grace, the Father started me on more of a quiz than a true test...I've never been a quick learner. Never a good test performer. It took me a while to walk through this lesson. To be ready for the quiz that might equip me for the later exam.

In this season there was kicking and screaming. There was questioning of direction. There was repetition. If God was a literal teacher, there probably would have been red pens and bad grades and flash cards to review once again. It was not always handled with the graciousness that is attractive to remember. Trust and submission were not always displayed firsthand.

And there is the path once more. When in my humanity, I was achieving dirty and scraped feet, He was there. He was there to offer His way. His burden that was light. His arms to pick me up and carry me. He did not want my earned experiences to only be those of a sinful heart. He had plans for a hope and a future. He wanted my earned experiences to be those of a faithful God who met His child and showed unending grace and power. He wanted to bring me from this season to where I could look back and know the ONE "who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103:3-5

There will be seasons to come on this journey. There will be mountains that seem higher and valleys that seem much lower. However, these seasons will be different. They will have a traveler who is more experienced in learned faithfulness, powerful faith-prayers, and trusting a God who is strong and gentle. A God who provides rest for this traveler.