Thoughts too deep to be expressed,
And too strong to be suppressed.
~George Wither (1588-1667)
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
~ Ephesians 3:20-21
From the late spring of this year…
Oh beloved, some days are just too amazing for words. It was one of those days for this writer. It was a day of travail and travel and prayer and reunion and prayer and reminders and prayer and family and prayer and worship and prayer and conversation and rest.
i landed back in a town that i left in shame some time ago. It was a day of reuniting with many family members and friends. It was the most incredible day.
Hours passed as i simply met with people who poured grace upon grace back onto me; a man who had done little but cause them pain and loss in the past. And even in that outpouring was the voice of other emotions hammering in concert throughout body and soul.
Loss
Gain
Nostalgia
Hunger
Wishing
Wistfulness
Shame
Happiness
Sadness
Remorse
Joy
Peace
Pain
Love
Wonder
And there were moments where i did not feel these separately, or in groups. Rather, i felt them all at the same time. Oh my. What a day. And what a great gift for a former addict who had tried, at almost any cost, to keep himself from feeling anything of importance in the past.
And then it seemed to me that in all of this, there is an even more beautiful truth. G_d is both allowing and experiencing the very same thing along with us. He is this simple, unchanging, full-spectrum Being who feels and experiences all of this and more… rather to the infinite.
And it seems further that in Him allowing and enabling us to feel such a wide bandwidth of emotions at once we can be overwhelmed. But this overwhelming is not to our detriment. Rather, this overwhelming is designed to give us insight into our need for Him to sustain us, and to the manifold wonderfulness of who He is.
Obviously, i’m a little lost here. But, i think that may have been the point of today. He is so exceedingly, abundantly bigger and smarter and stronger and everythinger than we are. And days like this only serve to give vision to that reality.
Wow, what a day.
