On Weeping Forward [Renewed].

I found this from my old, original blog...  And it struck me with new intention, as well as reflective imaging.

Intention, because during this hard season of home with consuming little ones, I am reminded and inspired by Sandy Lawson's words that prophesied: "Christina, God is tilling up the soil of you heart right now" [old blog, October 12, 2009].  And he was!

Oh, was I weeping forward!  God churned and yanked and uprooted, and then planted and watered and spurned Mark, Camilla, and Judah, and church and friendship and home from that harsh, blackened, cracking climate where I just kept couraging and strengthening and fighting for life and joy.

And now, just last week, I think of this blog as a reflection of my dear friend Sandy, who lost JD two years ago, and is weeping forward.  With college OT/NT classes each semester, 3 life groups, countless young women she mentors, two sons and daughter-in-laws, church commitments, and coffee dates, her life is a complete investment in the soil around her.  Surely, she is weeping in grief of JD as well has incredible, horrific, health upheaval herself (6 times cancer and auto-immune disease), yet she bravely forges her energy to weep forward, for the sake of Jesus Christ and the kingdom.  Oh, what beautiful love He induces with her seeds, what Oaks have grown from her watering!  Countless people like David Johnson & David Russell  (link to his sermon Christian Hospitality) and many others without title or fame, like me have been ministered too, homed, loved, served, hugged, and whispered prayers over before, during, and after their own season as well as her own, of Weeping Forward.

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SATURDAY, JANUARY 15, 2011

Weeping Forward.

I read this phrase in my Ruth study this week, and shared it with a friend who is going through a really painful season. It stirs thoughts, as one tries to grasp what that means, and what it looks like.

Weeping forward.

Action. Movement. Hurt. Hardship. Pain. Journey. Hope.

And then today, in my study, another phrase collaborated with it: sowing tears. It comes from Psalm 126, where the psalmist writes: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy" (v5). And again, it insinuates the same: in pain and loss and hardship and sorrow, in acknowledging all that is hurt and lost and mourned, there is still action. There is sowing.

The sowing is planting; it is moving forward. Knowing the harvest is still a season away. In this hard sport, not only do we weep, but we weep forward. Not only do we weep forward, but we sow seeds for the hope and life that is yet to come.

So, in this thought, today, if you are in a season of weeping, what are you also sowing? And, are you sowing and weeping forward? What kind of harvest do you expect to reap from that of which you sow? Seeds of goodness, love, joy, faithfulness, obedience? Or the folly of the contrary?

Or, if you are in a season of harvest, what bounty can you name and label and see, to gather now as a sign of His faithfulness during the toil of sowing? In the blessings, the abundance, does your joy acknowledge the goodness of the Lord? Are you sifting seeds from your harvest to plant when the time for sowing comes?