Paths

Eric is traveling this week, going to D.C., and while he is there for business a good friend is going to be there as well and, and so their paths will get to cross for dinner and hanging out. I realized that Will ( that is the friend) and Eric have paths that are different; different ages, different jobs or job ideas, different reasons for ending up in various cities but their paths keep crossing! Eric and I are both thankful that their paths keep crossing for many reasons but one of them is because Will has a beautiful gift of listening and really seeing things. And although Will may speak of or view an issue differently than you, it isn't hurtful because you know he has listened first!
I realize I need to take stock of what keeps crossing my path and listen.
One area that had been impossible to ignore is the experience or quality of joy in the midst of suffering, joy in the uphills, downhills and plateaus. In word, in song, in life stories this has been the beat I keep hearing and witnessing.
In looking back I remember happiness, maybe tiredness or sometimes restlessness alongside the happiness, but a happiness still. And it is not of my own strength or positive Pollyanna attitude; there of course were days or weeks of ugly self-pity or total annoyance at everything, like the color of the sky; my joy was Christ alone. Christ alone because I had not planted scripture in my heart during the time I had been given to sow those life-giving words. And somehow, a mystery to me, Christ took my lack of knowledge or theology, my lack of praise songs and sermons and gave me Himself! I am thankful He met me in my weakness and was my strength, I am thankful He wasn't only memorized words but was the Word, I am thankful for Christ alone. I know that it isn't the verses or sermons, bible studies, songs or any act I do, it is Christ alone. All can fall away but Christ remains. He is the Word, the Good News, the Song of Life! Christ alone giving me a joyful endurance! Christ alone taking my brokenness, like being quick to snap, and making it perfect, being quicker still to forgive.

And so, now having a greater desire for Christ, for His Word, for the Church, I am remembering and listening to the paths that keep crossing mine so I do not make idols out of those good and worthy things. Christ is the joy in the endurance. Christ is the peace in the waiting rooms of our lives. He is the sweet hand-holding while you wait for another seizure, the text messages when you can't talk. Christ is the holy moments He gives us to walk around and enjoy His creative genius, or to sit and listen to the "whistling woods" as Oliver calls them. Christ is the path I am listening to.

I have not a single doubt that more wisdom, more words to recite as I waited or even acted would have helped, but that isn't my testimony.