“You’ll know without question that I’m in the thick of life …”
Joel 2:27 Message
Do you ever question where God is?
According to the above Scripture, God is in the thick of it. In the messy, miraculous middle of all life’s moments.
Perhaps a better question is, where am I?
If God is in the thick of my life, but I am on the outskirts (hello, avoidance), I’ll be missing Him. It’s like God is dwelling center city and I’m in the suburbs somewhere. Safe, but removed and remote, hiding behind the proverbial white picket fence (or fig leaves!). There are simply some places I’d rather not go. Some realities I’d rather not face.
But if God is in the thick of life, and I want to dwell with God, then it would serve me well to be in the thick of it, too.
In this season of Lent, I think of Jesus walking into Jerusalem, fully knowing the trouble that awaited him. His disciples would have preferred staying on the outskirts, skirting the suffering, so to speak. “Let’s just not go there,” I imagine them saying.
The disciple Peter voiced his preference for the remote and removed mountain top real estate. He even offered to build their homes there. But Jesus headed back down into the city, always in descent, speaking of suffering along the way (Matthew 17).
Jesus warned his friends of the hard times to come. Then, with resolute courage, he walked right into them (Luke 9:51). His friends, however, filled and fueled by fear, fled.
It can be hard to stay present to our lives sometimes.
If you’re needing to head into the center of something, be assured God awaits you there. Ever and always in the thick of it with you.
The Thick of It: Our Little Life Words of the week.
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DEEPER DIVE
Ponder:
What do you need resolute courage to face or to follow Jesus into?
Is there any place to which you would say to Jesus, “Let’s just not go there?”
Practice:
Practice the prayer of Examen by asking the following questions each day this week:
Where did I choose to stay in the safety of the “suburbs” today? Where did I move into the center?
How did I experience God in the thick of life with me today?
Play:
Our song of the week is Fear Thou Not by Josh Garrels.
Pray:
Grant me the resolute courage to follow you, Jesus, into the thick of life.
I believe that so many of us are in the thick of many things these days. In the thick of good trouble, in the thick of the heaviness of the wars being waged around the world, in the thick of personal battles no one knows about. And it is good to know we are in good company…the best company…God company.
Thank you, as always, dear friend…for your wise words.
Jenny, so are so often and uncannily in synch with your LLW! It truly is in the thick of it where we meet the divine! Also I remembered how I entered the old city of Jerusalem once, at age 19, and so very deeply impressed. The moment you have walked through the stony gates, you are in a different world...