Shalom Aleh

Welcome to Day 1 of Part 5‘s Chapter 1 of Arise and Shine. Today, Bettie is bringing forward the first free will offering of goatskin (no outward attraction).

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I woke up from the dream with a start. I was supposed to be praying, after all!  But as the images from the dream replayed themselves in my mind, I realized that God had gifted me with thoughts from Him.   

In the dream I found myself down in a deep ditch.  Above me I could hear the sound of cars whizzing past on the roadway just on the other side of the ditch. A panic began to swell in my heart.

How would I ever be able to go as fast as those cars above me? I could not get out of the ditch, and I certainly did not have the strength to go beyond a slow, steady plod.  And then I heard the voice of the Lord behind me, calling me to follow Him.

The panic now rose to desperation as I cried out, “But God, I can’t follow you! All of the cars are going too fast! I cannot begin to maintain a speed like that and catch up to them and to You.”  

The answer I heard stilled all my fears: “You will not miss my will for you. I don’t require you to keep pace with anyone other than myself. And I am aware of your weak and slower pace. You can follow me just as you are.”

Most days I am keenly aware of how the pace of my life has changed. And most days I see nothing attractive in this slower pace. But there are times when the Lord steps into my weakness and shows me another side to this life that I might call so unattractive.  He is the One who brings a beauty in this place that seems awful and painful.  And He is bringing to me an aspect of HIS will that I would not see from any other perspective. 

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem” Isaiah 53:1-3

Come


On the outside looking in

My days appear so drab

Nothing attractive and nothing

To win a second glance

Or even a cheer.


On other days when the pain

Brings a swelling

The drab becomes ugly

The gait takes a turn

To the dark side of exclusion.


But on the inside looking out

My heart cries can’t be heard

By a world rushing through

Spinning on with life

Neglectful of the weak.


Where is the beauty in a life

Squandered by slowness

Pushed down to days

Spent alone and with fear

With days seeming vain?


Come, follow me!

Come, take up your cross!

Come, taste true Love!


I hear a voice calling through haze

From One also rejected

Who counted the loss of this world

Nothing to gain my one soul

To win Eternity’s prize.


Who for the Joy set before Him

Endured the Cross,

Yet we esteemed Him 

Stricken by God

For my pain He died.



What if the slowness

The weak and lame places

have become the road

Where Holy dwells?



What if I offered my

arms up to Him

Who bore my disgrace

And found His arms aching

for others also to hold?



I will therefore all the more gladly

come with Him outside the city

to see with His eyes

and hear with His ears

To share this love 

above all others.

“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5

“Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” Hebrews 13:13-14