dry bones
This last week was a very frustrating and difficult time for me. There was a big event going on at church. It was not one I was in charge of, but one in which I was more of over-seer and a support of a volunteer who was in charge. It was a week full of complaining (you get that a lot when you're on the staff of a church) quite a few truths stretched and spome back-biting and gossip I just don’t appreciate. All in all, I'm really glad the week is over. So as I sat down to write the next post in the waters project, I found myself... dry.
I had a week full of so many "to-do" lists and so much chaos that I barely had time to breathe and be refreshed.
I worry that one day I will forget how. Forget to breathe. Forget to slow down. Just... forget.
So what I am to do? I t am I to do about a week that I know God caused waters to flow, but I neither had the presence of mind nor the heart to see it?
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” (Ezekiel 37:1-3 ESV)
Sometimes God gives me times of dryness not because he’s angry with me or because he’s forgotten me. He does it because he’s testing me.
And he wants me back.
Reading Ezekiel 37 at this point in the waters project is transforming, because it is reminding me of that my own dry spirit is not the point, that my own spiritually dry heart is not what it’s about. It’s about what God chooses to do. It’s about the power of his presence, and how in it, we are able to live.
Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.” (Ezekiel 37:12-14 ESV)
This time of dry bones is reminding me that he is the Lord. I belong to him, even when I fail to see it and he is mine, even when he feels far away. Even when it seems the waters aren’t flowing.
This post is part of the he caused waters to flow project.
I had a week full of so many "to-do" lists and so much chaos that I barely had time to breathe and be refreshed.
I worry that one day I will forget how. Forget to breathe. Forget to slow down. Just... forget.
So what I am to do? I t am I to do about a week that I know God caused waters to flow, but I neither had the presence of mind nor the heart to see it?
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” (Ezekiel 37:1-3 ESV)
Sometimes God gives me times of dryness not because he’s angry with me or because he’s forgotten me. He does it because he’s testing me.
And he wants me back.
Reading Ezekiel 37 at this point in the waters project is transforming, because it is reminding me of that my own dry spirit is not the point, that my own spiritually dry heart is not what it’s about. It’s about what God chooses to do. It’s about the power of his presence, and how in it, we are able to live.
Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.” (Ezekiel 37:12-14 ESV)
This time of dry bones is reminding me that he is the Lord. I belong to him, even when I fail to see it and he is mine, even when he feels far away. Even when it seems the waters aren’t flowing.
This post is part of the he caused waters to flow project.
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