Embrace Pain for the Purpose of Exciting Tomorrows - a How-To.

As I ended last week, I promised to finish the conversation I began (albeit, it was a one-sided conversation that I imagined having with you on the other side). 

That's what I want to do today.

I also finished this conversation with my Tuesday morning community, and we wrapped the Bible study up in a nice package, covered in pretty paper, and topped with a glistening bow. 

Yay!

Last week, I handed you a blank timeline and offered a few categories to examine where you are on the journey of entering a new season...

Every new season needs good closure from the previous.

That's why mile markers, like New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are important. They give closure to one thing and an open, welcoming hand to a new.

Embracing that open posture of welcome isn't always easy.

Hence, the need for identifying the grief, the losses, the transition.

So, here's my filled in timeline that shows the "movement" (here's a link to print the actual page via dropbox) I saw through the lens of Visio Divina using Michelangelo's, La Pieta.

It's a great way to process our way through closure and into 2023.

Box 1: What are you leaving behind in the past year? What specific things will you need to grieve? List them, and as you do, learn the art of lament. Here's a link that leads to a lamenting worksheet. 

Lamenting is healthy and it's biblical, especially when you work it all the way through.

In lamenting, we are led to Remembrance - not just the things that have been difficult, but the many ways the Lord has provided for us, fought for us, guided and helped us along the journey of life. As we Remember Him...we enter a place of GRATITUDE, which helps us gain Acceptance (even, believe it or not, with JOY)... Box 2.

And, yet...we want more than just a spirit of resignation... Scripture suggests (and I see this especially in the case of Queen Esther) that we make friends with the hard things of the past, we work toward RECONCILIATION of our circumstances. For in reconciliation, we find HOPE!

How do we get to reconciliation? We remember not just the works of the Lord, but His PROMISES! As we lean into God's promises, hope is always the immediate posture. Box 3.

As Scripture says, "Hope does not disappoint." 

Hope allows us to extend our posture to an open, willing hand ready to receive and surrender to all the Lord has in the "what next" of our lives... Box 4.

If you recall, what I saw as I studied La Pieta was the gospel story laying in Mary's lap. Yes, it was a metaphor...Jesus' body incorporates the entirety of the gospel of love, mercy, grace, hope, peace, eternal life and more! 

That's the best part of this process! 

All the work of grieving our losses and embracing transitions leads us to a new concept of “Pain with a Purpose!”

It's all consummates in a mission and a ministry that God has for us in our new season, our new year, our new beginnings. 

We're not even half way through the first month of 2023.

There's still time to take the steps above, so we don't get stuck in the middle of our muddling-through.

I'm excited for us all to step into this new year with purposeful intent...allowing the pain of the past to lead us into the hope of an incredibly EXCITING tomorrow.