Perspective

It was 3am on Saturday morning. I was awake and in bed, watching the Chronicles of Narnia series. My Friday evening did not go as planned so I came home, took a hot shower by candlelight, and retired to bed with the C.S. Lewis series. It had been years since I’d last watched the series and in the time that’s passed, my relationship with God had grown, too. This time as I watched the movies, I could see the “hidden” parallelisms to God and the Christian faith.

This time I could see.

This past Wednesday in Bible study, I talked to the teens about- you guessed it- the Bible. One thing that I mentioned to them is that while the words never change, the meaning of the scriptures impact us differently every time we read it. In 2008-2010, Philippians 4:13 was my strength to press through past difficulties to get to graduation. Today, that scripture speaks to me differently, reminding me that I can be content in any situation where God places me, because I can do all things through Him. I wanted the students to understand that though the Bible was written long before any of them were born, it is still relevant to their live now and will be relevant in the years to come.

Time allows for a fresh interpretation of life.

Like most people, I sat with God towards the end of 2019 and created a vision board for 2020. The prominent theme of my board was “Hindsight is 2020” because God had told me very clearly that this year would explain why everything else in my past happened the way it did. Yes, this year would be the explanation for it all. Yet I have to admit, as I sit in this 10 month of a difficult year, I found myself with more questions than anticipated answers. I thought things would be so much more clear; I thought that God would outright place me in a situation and then definitively point back to a moment in my past and say, “here, Chelle, here is why that happened.” That’s what I was expecting, but that is not what I got. Instead I got moments where I had to sit with God and allow Him to reveal His heart in His own time.

Waiting births understanding.

As I sat up on Saturday morning watching the Narnian adventures, I recalled the events that led to my flipped upside down Friday night. I recalled every word and every moment as though they had just happened. Everything was fresh in my mind as though it had just happened and I saw things from a clearer view than normal. It was as though God was literally and in that moment, tapping me on my shoulder and showing me the purpose for my predicament. In the hours that had passed, I was able to see things as they were.

This time I could see.

One of the things I love most about the Bible is that it is timeless. Obviously, it was written a really long time ago, but as you open your heart to Christ, you see that its words are still relevant today. This is the truth that I hold onto dearly as I teach teens and as I try to navigate life personally. God doesn’t change and neither does His word, but our understanding changes as we grow in Him. Today we may see God as a lion that helps us fight a wicked white witch, but tomorrow as we grow in Him, we see Him as the Lion of Judah who selflessly gave His life for ours.

Time allows for a fresh interpretation of life.

As 2020 presses on, I find myself waiting for the “hindsight” to stop. We ask questions and desire answers to questions that are sometimes too difficult to bear. When I was a child, my favorite word was “why” because I always wanted to know the reason behind everything that happened. It was as though an explanation could justify the actions of others in my young mind. Little did I know then or now, but explanations don’t improve situations. Me learning the why of life does not give me peace, it just gives me a deeper longing for a deeper why. God brought me this far in 2020 to tell me the hard truth that time doesn’t heal things, He alone heals everything.

Waiting births understanding.

This month of Faith In God is steadily moving along and its hardest moments are yet to come. As I prepare for what’s ahead, I literally buckle my figurative seat belt so that I can survive the next course of events of my life. I no longer desire the “why” of life, for I am not ready for God’s answer. Now I simply trust the Who and allow Him to see what I cannot.

Be blessed.