2023 was such an adventure. Not smooth sailing by any means, but what a ride it was...
In April I became a British Citizen.
In May I left my job.
In June I visited Prague and Vienna.
In July I went home to South Africa for 6 weeks
In August I moved to America…
And that last one was one of the most daring adventures I’ve decided to take… I came to Mississippi to dance in the trainee program with Ballet Magnificat. And since this time last year, the past months have simply flown by! I find myself already preparing for the next season… But before I do, there are so many contemplations, meditations and reflections that I want to make the time to think over and be thankful for!
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With each new day, I am reminded again and again how truly blessed I am to live in a place where I am not persecuted for my faith. Whether I be in England, America or South Africa, I have the freedom to proudly proclaim and share the Gospel. It doesn’t mean that I’m not looked down on by the current culture, but I am safe, free and alive.
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
2 Corinthians 4vs17~18 NLT~
The sovereign nature of God’s providence over people, places and time has become so apparent to me. Although I really shouldn’t be surprised… I am blown away again and again by the way that the Lord appoints a divine and beautiful will over our lives in a way that we could never credit to ourselves but only stand in thanks and praise!
“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
Matthew 6vs27 NIV~
But this kind of trust in Him to guide you in His way takes such great faith. My word for 2023 was “faith” and my faith sure was tested in so many ways… leaving jobs, starting new ones, moving house and country. I constantly found myself in the position of surrender. Having no other choice but to wholeheartedly trust God is who He says He is and that I sure can trust Him, with everything.
And out of this kind of trust led me to discover my word for 2024…. REST!
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11vs28~30 MSG~
If you look intently at Scripture, you’ll discover this one very interesting thing…. The practice of Sabbath predates Sacrifice! God’s command for you to take margin out to rest and rely on Him, to delight in Him and be delighted by Him was what He desired for us far before we had to take a sacrifice to the altar to get to His presence. And then He went so far as to send His Son to be the one sacrifice that would outweigh all others… And what did His Son come doing… eating and drinking, walking in community and breaking the boundaries of the routine of religion.
Don’t quote me on the standard theological grounds around this… but do you know what I think this teaches us? That the greatest sacrifice we’ll make is the sacrifice of our pride. It’ll take the wiping away of the mask to realize that we need a God greater than us. We need a kind and loving God who wrote rest and delight into the very rhythm of this world. That when He walked on this earth, He Sabbathed well! He lived with the gentle routine of connection and cultivation into the nearness of His Father. He fashioned daily habits and rituals, prayer, communion, and scripture to build a life of beautiful devotion… And He desired for us to learn to live and walk like He did, to imitate Him and His ways for the world around us.
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 10vs31 ~ 11vs1~
Another interesting little pocket of thought is that there is no known Hebrew word for spiritual…. You can look it up if you want!!
If you would’ve asked Jesus about His Spiritual life, He would’ve seemed confused… But look out of the faith based platform long enough and you’ll hear someone talk about the sacred / secular divide. But this sort of language wouldn’t have been found in Jesus' vocabulary.
There is not a divide between the workings of the Lord and His Spirit to the going on of your everyday life. When you choose Him as your Lord and Saviour, it means your entire being surrendering to Him. Body, Mind and spirit, all of you for all that He has done. What you believe (or don’t believe) about the Lord and the role of following Jesus in your life is not some set apart quiet time in the morning or a church service on a Sunday. But it is as much an element of your life as your morning coffee, daily shower or routine mealtime. Prayer is talking to Him as if He’s in the room, as if He can truly change situations in the instant. Communion is partaking in the celebration of poignant remembrance of His body broken and His blood poured out for you. The pace you choose to move your life according to, the habits you partake in, the tone of your voice, the thoughts in your head, the choices you both make and do not make reflects your intention of this life. The only divide there is in the talk of “ Spiritual” is when Paul refers to people folloing Christ and those not following Christ (who are of course the “not Spiritual” ones).
“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 2vs10~16~
If there’s anything we can see from the way our world is that the human race truly does believe that it can get through life just fin without Jesus… the the small error here is that I don’t want to get through just fine. If there is more to life… then I want it! If there is something deeper, more meaningful and beautiful. If there is a greater purpose, the emptiness of our human state longs for it. We can get by just fine…but we can also find our ultimate state of thriving in connection to our creator.
If we trust, we don’t need to be afraid.
I could go on and on and on about the role of following Jesus in my life. But my words will always run dry. Everyone’s will. Except for His.
But I’ll leave you with this. Trusting Jesus will always take you further than you could take yourself. It’s worth it, it’s always worth it!
"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.
I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in a Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith."
Philippians 3vs7~9
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