Did you hear the cicadas this summer? Maybe you don’t have cicadas where you live. Crazy bugs. They honestly creep me out more than I care to admit in public. They sing in the trees in the heat of some summers. This year in my back yard, they were deafening.
They spend part of their life cycle underground, and by “part” I mean years. Some varieties only come out every 17 years. They are growing, resting, waiting for the moment that all of them will emerge in force. Buried.
I’ve been buried for a while now. I will admit that I have not rested well. I’ve found myself mostly struggling to get out of the hole I thought was crushing me. Fighting against the fear that my seeming inactivity toward my goals meant I was failing. Failing to take care of those around me. Failing to take care of myself. Failing to fulfill the purpose and promise God has given me.
I am not failing. I am learning.
Rest can be so hard sometimes. To sit still amidst the chaos around you… true rest is not lazy. It is something fought for. It’s a battle I often lose on my own. Life’s circumstances have forced me away from many things that I love lately. Things I have been called by God to do. Things that I thought I had to do NOW. In my timing. Because I forgot for a time that none of it depends on me -or my knowledge -or my strength. As I begin to remember, I struggle a little less. The days, weeks, months are less heavy and still hold joy.
I am pressing in, rather than pushing up. I am hearing His voice and seeing His reminders of the promises He has given me. He has not left me nor forsaken me. And He will never leave you.
We are like those crazy bugs. We need to be buried at times. To rest. To grow. To become who God calls us to be. That becoming often involves breaking. We break through our old habits and the formerly believed lies about ourselves, our worthiness, our significance. We break out of the boxes we’ve built ourselves into. We break so we can learn how to rebuild ourselves.
If I can be patient and wait for His timing, He will bring me out in the full force of all that I learned in the darkness. Stronger than I ever knew possible.
Crazy loud bugs, those cicadas. The hotter the day was, the louder they sang. I could learn a few things from that. I always fight better from a place of worship. I forget that so easily. The fiercer my foe, the louder I need to sing. Sing in the heat of the battle.
He won’t leave you buried. He will call you out at the right moment to emerge in force. To sing in the heat of your battle. To rise in new form and fulfill your unique purpose. To fly. If this is where you find yourself right now… rest.
You will feel the sun on your face again.
Rest in His promises. They do not expire.
Let Him work in you. He won’t let you miss a single piece of your purpose.
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