What Is Found in the Dark?

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Elizabeth

Dark.

There is darkness outside at three in the morning and there is darkness inside of ourselves from which we cannot escape.

Dark.

There is darkness in the middle of a storm and there is darkness in the destructive aftermath when the sun is shining.

Dark.

There is danger in the dark and there is fear, but is it the darkness that we fear or is it whatever lies within the darkness that we cannot see?

We light candles and we plug in nightlights and we busy ourselves to do whatever is necessary to hold the darkness at bay.

What are we really afraid of? Are we afraid that God is not there in the dark? Are we afraid that God is only in the light and if we enter into the darkness, whether it be the darkness of loss or of sin or of depression or even of death, we will lose the glory of His presence?

Yet in the darkness was where the glory of His presence was found, within the dark cloud over Mt Sinai when He made His covenant with His people Israel.

Yes, there is death in darkness.

And

There is new life in the dark.

In fact, life can only begin in the dark. A seed sprouts underground and a baby grows in the womb and even Jesus was raised into His new life in the dark.

In the darkness of a cave.

We see the afterwards of the resurrection, the earthquake and the angel and the glorious, blinding light.

But the resurrection itself?

It happened in the dark.

It happened in the dark, in the silence, with the smell of damp earth and the roughness of rock all around.

And if new life can only happen in the dark, well then,

instead of doing all we can to avoid it, perhaps we should lean in to the darkness, lean in to our fear.

Perhaps if we do, we will discover a new life that could not have been found otherwise.

Welcome

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Elizabeth

Sophia Grace Giger

February 20, 2015

Loved and adored already.

Outside the World

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Elizabeth

We stand outside the world.

We dance and dream and die, and through it all we long.

We long for something else, for something more. We long for something bigger, for something more real.

Some understand what they long for and others do not. We long for what is true. We long for a world that is fully real.

We catch breaths of the morning air, fresh and clean and pure. We catch glimpses of the morning light, startling and bright and glorious.

Yet we stand outside the world and these hints of morning air do not change us. We do not become pure or glorious.

We stand outside the world and we hear a Word. We hear a Word that spreads a rumor.

It is a rumor that this shall not always be so. It is a rumor that one day we will be allowed to walk through the door and stand on the right side. On the inside.

It is a rumor that one day we will finally be changed by the Morning. Through the Morning Star we will become pure and clean, bright and glorious.

We will be as we were made. We will become as we are remade. Remade into the very image of the Word.

And by moving through the Word we will be allowed to stand. To stand in desperate gratitude. To stand covered in another’s glory.

We will dance and we will dream, but we will not die.

We will stand inside the world.

Welcome

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Elizabeth

Welcome to my new space!

If this is your first time to join me, I’m so glad you’re here. I hope you’ll stick around and explore just a bit.

If you are here from my Blogger space, what do you think?

I’ve discovered over the years that friends are an amazing gift.

I have the good fortune to be married to a man with good friends.

Good friends who also happen to be very talented in the world of design and websites! All credit and praise and admiration go to Porter for my design.

I also am blessed to have many good friends on my own.

Good friends who also happen to be very wise and who are, at the same time, accomplished writers.

For the next few weeks, I’m going to step back and spend some time enjoying our newly expanded family.

While I’m loving on my husband and some sweet little girls, you get the privilege of reading a few beautiful thoughts from several of my wise friends.

I hope you’ll enjoy them. Will you make them all feel welcome?

Newness and Light

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Elizabeth

The people walking in darkness…

I once was walking in darkness.

I once walked in the darkness of consuming and of my material things.

I once walked in the darkness of busyness and self-importance.

I once walked in the darkness of anger and impatience.

…have seen a great light

The Light has dawned and has shone all around me.

I now walk in the light of peace and rest.

I now walk in the light of love and mercy.

I now walk in the light of forgiveness and hope.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

New life.

New heart.

New spirit.

New creation.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh

You were taught…to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Walking in the light of life.

Following Him, eyes fixed on the Light, ears attending to the Word.

I was walking in darkness and have seen a great light.

I live in the land of the shadow of death but, praise be to God, a light has now dawned!

Go. Walk in Light.

Stay

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Elizabeth

I love to travel. I love seeing new places and I love experiencing new things.

I grew up in the same town all of my life until I left for college. Once I left for college, though, I didn’t stay in the same place for more than a year or two before moving on.

I have never liked the idea of settling down. It seems boring, too safe.

The reality, though? It is not safe at all.

It is the staying, the investing, that is dangerous.

It is dangerous to stop in one place for a long time. Relationships have more of a chance to implode. Neighbors have a better idea of who you really are. Friends might reject you because they have more time to see deep inside of your heart.

I’d rather keep moving on.

I have tried to fool my own heart, convincing myself that my wanderlust is due to my love of excitement, due to my desire to not live life in safety.

That, however, is a lie. It is a lie that I have lived with for a long time.

It is because I love the safety of shallow, the security of anonymity, that I don’t remain in one place for long.

Now? I’ve been in the same house for almost five years, and in the same town for seven.

I’m learning. I’m learning how to be vulnerable and how to help hold others accountable. I’m learning what community, long term community, really looks like.

I’m learning how to stay.

New Excitement

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Elizabeth

What is it about the word “new” that makes us so excited?

New life, new try, new baby, new piano.

I’m not big on resolutions, but there’s something about the start of a new year that makes me hopeful.

I’m certainly ready for this year to be over. Along with this ongoing, hard thing, my dad had open-heart surgery and my husband lost his last two grandparents this year.

My eldest knows more vocabulary about death than any three year old should know.

I’m ready for new.

A new year. A new start. A new attempt.

Thinking about new makes me want to explore God’s idea of new. Will you explore with me?

The first idea that came to my mind was the new covenant.

I’ve always been struck by the ridiculousness of the idea that God would make any sort of a promise with us, that He would uphold His side of the covenant even when we fail to keep our own promise, but I’ve never explored the idea that it is a new covenant.

‘The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers…because they broke my covenant…’ declares the LORD. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ ~ Jeremiah 31.31-33

I can already see that I will be jumping between the Old and New Testaments to explore this word.

So what is the new covenant that God makes with us, the covenant that is different from the one that we broke?

In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’ ~ Luke 22.20

Jesus. That birth we just finished celebrating leads to the new covenant drenched in His blood.

Hebrews 8 and 9 talks through all of the fascinating details of the old covenant and how it foreshadows the new covenant. Towards the end, after explaining the system of sacrificing goats and bulls and using their blood to take away the sins of the people, the author of Hebrews says this:

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ…cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance–now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

I sit, sit awash in gratitude for this new covenant that cost so much. The new covenant leads my mind around to another use of the word “new”: in Christ, we are a new person, a new creation.

Back to the Old Testament. God promises in Ezekiel 36:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

The fulfillment of that promise?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ~ II Corinthians 5.17

And this:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. ~ Ephesians 4.22-24

Praise God!!! What mercy! What grace!

Again, I sit in gratitude, in silence, letting this beauty wash over me.

Because God was willing to make a new covenant with us when we broke the original one, because Christ was willing to spill His blood to seal this covenant, I am now a new creation in Christ, created to be like God!

And as I sit in gratitude, I can’t help but think of the new that is still ahead of us.

Isaiah prophecies this beautiful thing in Isaiah 65:

Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind…I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years…my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.

We are given a beautiful glimpse of the future fulfillment of all of this in Revelation 21:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’

It sounds as though God Himself gets excited about the word “new”.

Perhaps our own excitement over new things in this world is there for a reason, was placed deep inside of us by Him in Whose image we were created, was given to us to point us toward the most beautiful new thing of all.

I’m participating over at A Holy Experience in the Walk with Him series. Join me?

Art credits: Last Supper by Da Vinci; cross and winter sky by Davenport; cross and sunset by vivekchugh; Golden City