Love Up to the Stars!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Turn away from it and pass on!

Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on. - Proverbs 4:15

I read this verse recently, and it made me think about many things in my life. Today as I settled on this verse I thought about a dear friend for whom I have been praying so hard. He's trying to straighten up his life and make better choices. In the process of stepping into a journey of healing, there always seems to be things that try to hold us back. I believe he mentioned one of those things on the phone one night. He was talking about how he was hurt over someone he was interest in. Apparently this person didn't stick around and wait for him as perhaps he expected. Instead that person decided to go back to a past relationship. The news hurt him so much that it almost made him compromise his own healing by taking his own backward steps. I felt disappointed to hear that, even quite upset...like why are you letting this hurt you so much? To compromise your own healing for someone who wasn't worth it from the first place. You know that agonizing feeling when you are talking with someone and you just get the urge to shake them and say "Don't be so stupid!" That night my words were so few, and that was a good thing because I didn't have the measure of grace that he needed from me. Oh, but I am so glad that God does.

I started to think have I ever pursued something or someone that wasn't good for me. Have I ever "known better?" Did I ever need someone to give me a good slap in the face and say, "snap out of it, wake up?" And how did I feel or react if they did? The truth is I have been where my friend is: Hurt over someone who didn't even care about me in the first place. At the crossroads between an unknown freedom and a (comfortable) known bondage.

There are so many times in my own life when God has put signs up that said "Turn away from it, and pass on!" "Keep moving straight ahead, don't look back!" In those times I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, I can speak from personal experience, that it is God and God alone who can wake someone up to the fact. Oh and prayers...prayers... I have seen God answer this very own prayer of someone else for me. It was a terrible experience that I went through last year, but I have learned countless lessons. And, so here I am standing reminded. I have been there. There are so many things/people I'd like for my friend to turn away from, pass on! I can speak til I'm blue in the face, but it's God and God alone who can lift the blinds from our eyes and help us to see the truth of what is standing before us, of where we need to go, of what we need to do (or not do).

God, I move out of the way, so I don't become a big bush that is blocking the view of the sign that you are holding up for my friend. Please give him the extra measure of grace today that I didn't know how to give...that I can't give...that only you can give. Your grace is Your omnipotent help when we need it the very most!

I turn away from my need to control...I pass it on to the only one who holds the future and changes the present.

sent to the stars at 4:28 PM

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