Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Cliffs

"God's command is enabling. Never has he given an assignment that was not accompanied by the power to accomplish it." -Elizabeth Elliot

So I've officially graduated (or rather, I've been officially graduated, apparently it's something that is done to you). And I feel a little like the rest of this summer is just me stepping closer and closer to the edge of a cliff. Digging my toes in, trying not to look down, but eventually I have to jump (fall?) off.
But I've also been thinking that this cliff eighteen years into my life cannot be the first cliff. There was a precipice the day I lost my first tooth. The day I got lost in Kmart. The day I learned to tie my shoes, the day I put my head under water for the first time, the days my sisters were born. The first day of school, the day I got my driver's license, the day I decided to take taekwando. When my dad became an elder, when we first (and second, and third, fourth, fifth) went to West Virginia, every single cello recital.
These have all been precipices I maybe jumped, maybe fell off. And who am I to say that this present cliff is somehow more important, more significant than the tooth-losing one? Than every other time I was afraid and had to trust, was walking blind and had to trust, was dying to something in myself and had to trust that God would raise me from the dead?
Our lives will always follow that pattern of dying and rising. And I wish I could get used to it, could love God enough to say not "Please be careful" but "Anything for you."

"To whatever he says my answer is Yes." -Elizabeth Elliot

1 comment:

Annie Chase said...

I agree.
and with the comment that you posted at the very beggining by elizabeth elliot I wanted to say that I really liked it. Often when I'm strugging with some "cliff" that I feel is too hard I remember that God doesn't just drop us in a trial without a way out or help, he's always there with us and that he doesnt allow us to struggle more than he has given us grace to overcome. that he knows each of us because he created each of us and he only tests us and refines us according to what he has in store for us. that ist will never be more than we can bear because jesus bore it all for us.