From the Inside…Out

We are navigating uncharted waters for our time.

Foremost on my mind is the suffering of others and the invisible enemy they and their families are fighting.

My morning prayer time is now spent in quiet devotion for those that are facing the agonizing reality that they did not have the precious few moments needed to say goodbye to someone they dearly loved. Families prohibited from entering hospitals, there is no opportunity for last “I love yous”. No space in time to express final sentiments that have gone unsaid. Not even a brief chance to hold a hand as this life flows to the juncture of the next, for eternity.

My heart is there and my prayers will be lifted for them in the days ahead.

In searching through the events and emotions of the last three weeks, I recognize above all, as most of us do, how much the total landscape of living has changed so rapidly. It occurred to me that for the most part as a society, we are now living “from the inside out”.

Where we used to let outside influences drive our daily lives, that drive is now coming from the inside. Our basic human instincts (buried deep from years of society’s ability to impact the things we do or don’t do) to look with our hearts… before our eyes. To act on a need (fight) … before our brain goes to a safe place of distancing ourselves from getting involved (flight) those instincts are re-emerging. Compassion is coming to the surface everywhere and we are allowing it a chance to manifest in so many magnificent and creative ways that truthfully, just a month ago we might have pushed back on and not allowed them to become palpable. All of it from the “inside”, our innermost desires to make a difference for someone else instead of ourselves, shining through daily. Our tendency to self serve has been replaced with an internal craving to provide blessings and hope to others. If you step back and witness it… it’s a beautiful thing brought forth from painful events.

In our isolation, without the external “things of this world” compelling us from the outside to make decisions based on a thirst for the better, upgraded and enhanced versions of possessions that are truly not necessary… we are looking inward, no longer in comparison of others and what they have, but now in collaboration to share what we have to offer.

What we once had to offer, no matter how small or seemingly ordinary to us, it’s those things, abilities and offerings that have now become extraordinary. That’s what happens when the Spirit from the inside shines it’s light through something and it is released. Given with the love that God intended from the beginning, everything ordinary transforms with that light into the extraordinary. Being a presence in each other’s lives, the way it was meant to be. Being cognizant of other’s needs, reciprocal in nature, propels us to transformation that can be plainly seen and felt all around us.

I do understand that there is a dark side to our reality right now, but if we can continue to shine our light from the inside, that darkness cannot endure.

When our daughter passed from this life I knew almost instantaneously that purpose had to come from the pain. Not that there was a purpose for the pain… I believe her purpose was much bigger than that, and it was never meant for me to decide what form her purpose would take. I trust what I’ve been taught… God’s goodness prevails, in His timing, His will not mine, He will work out the details of purpose, sovereign over all of it.

We know we were never promised a life free of trials and suffering, someday when we are far above it all and see how all of the pieces finally fit together it will be our jobs to show what was grown from the circumstances we were given.

So… are we growing fears, doubts, angst and worry or is it love, empathy, consideration and kindness that are being cultivated?

Look on the inside. Let the good stuff continue to shine and flourish.

John 14:27 , Isaiah 43:19