DECEMBER 28, 2008
WRITINGS FROM JEFF NEWLAND
MUDDY CROSSROADS
The Lord works in mysterious ways. It’s not because He wishes to be some grand mysterio behind the scenes , rather He has chosen to work through humanity to humanity ; and to work through humanity means using flawed tools in the hands of a Master Carpenter to complete a divine plan ; employing living , stubborn sacrifices to fulfill His intended mission for the kingdom here on earth .
It is our own imperfection and stubbornness and prideful thinking that make God’s way having to be so mysterious. For His work to make such an impact upon us it has to come first hand, or we, in all of our stubborn pride, wouldn’t grasp it to the heart. We have to get it in our hearts because that is where we believe and conceive notions and passions and things that we would actually die for. It is in the heart where our values, morals, and ethics are birthed; this is where relationships are developed and this is where what we live for is governed. For you will live out actively in the natural, what you truly believe in your heart. If it doesn’t make it to our hearts we will continue to say
“That wouldn’t ever happen to me. “
So God allows our free will and spirit to govern our lives in the aspect that his will, will be seen through all the rubble we cause. It will be like that shining light at the end of the tunnel for a fallen miner. One who has fallen into the depths of the inescapable crevice. Looking at doctor’s diagnosis which read 6 months to live or at the graveside of a child’s life which has been snubbed out way too soon; or that glimpse of the surface as a desperate driver makes his way from a watery grave to a realm of air and fresh breath of life. It’s that verdict which cries out, “You are a menace to society.” “You will never amount to anything.” “35 years to serve before parole.”
Through it all: sickness. Death, courts and illicit lifestyles, never looking fully into the face of a Savior. Finally someone falls to a weary knee, and cries out; then the doctors become baffled, comfort draws near and a life sentence becomes time served.
These are impacts of aberrations. Something outside of the mainstream of our life strikes hard and unexpectedly much like a falling meteor creating a massive, smoldering crevice in our lives. But God, who is not only the Creator of the universe but also the Savior (the Rescuer) of mankind uses these impacts to first move us towards a contrite spirit, a bended knee and a hollow heart and as hot tears flow up out of that hollowness, filling our eyes and running down our cheeks, He then positions us for revelation that will carry us through it all.
I am no different. I have had a to come to muddied crossroads, where no matter which way I traveled it was to be difficult and there were no golden decisions to be made that would illuminate the future, nor make my present condition any more tolerable.
Like gold nuggets to a 49’er the wisdom of the Lord has to be mined, dug out. Not because the Lord is some selfish suppressor, but because we are. We tend to believe that we can make our own fate and in a sense we can, but left into our hands alone, we will build walls between relationships, chasms between potential and a darkened gulf between the Heavens.
That gift of a free spirit is both a blessing and a curse because with it we can actually hinder or even stop the move of God in our lives. The human will is one of is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, if we do not truly want God-even though his mercies are renewed every morning- we will not receive.
On the flip side of this; if we submit and surrender our human will over to God’s will, in that act of complete surrender lies tremendous victory. There is something paramount in a free will spirit looking towards an Almighty God and crying out from a hollow heart,
“Woe is me, I am unclean; but You are all knowing and all powerful. I can’t do this, but You can, so not my will but Thine be done. “
The roads may become muddied; the valleys may seem to sink ever so lower and the mountains, which we must climb, seem to rise higher and higher with each desperate scale.
Loved ones going off to war, economy falling into recession, Wall Street giants receiving hand outs while the inner city children still go hungry. Low valleys, high mountains, muddy crossroads are in the path of life.
In the season of which we dwell, the only decision that can be made with a substantial outcome is ‘let go & let God ‘. Then, no matter how muddy the road or how difficult the travel, or how perplexed the other decisions seem, in the end result my God shall be my solution.
This is where humanity coincides with the Divine, for if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. We have to allow the trouble and trauma from this life to enrich us for the afterlife and to cultivate our character so that wherever we may go, our character (our values, ethics and gifts; who we truly are) may sustain us, as well as those around us.
For we are a web woven intricately together, by the Divine Weaver, the Lord, Jesus Christ. Each one of us depending upon another for strength and comfort; interacting, networking together designing that unique character in each of us.
For true stability only comes upon completion of the web. Any single thread precariously dangling is subject to the winds and pollution causing it to be trashed and unacceptable for the end product or trashed to the earth to dissipate and never be used in the grand scheme of things.
Thread upon thread, twine upon twine. Precept upon precept and line upon line. Networking together for a common cause: the completion of the web.
No single thread is more dominant, no individual twine nor twist is worthy of any praise. For the web is not a web until all threads and twines come into unity beneath The Divine Weaver’s established objective. Sunday school teachers upon pastors; pastors upon laymen; laymen upon converted convicts; converted convicts upon spirit filled streets; and the streets overflow into the church. We are all part of the divine plan.
For the scales of this world to fall from our eyes and our spiritual sight to be revived we must travel down some muddied roads, cross over some low valleys and be subject to impacts of aberration, which seems to shake the foundations of our very existence. Only to learn that what we believed to be a rock solid foundation has been nothing more than a sandy beach accessible to the tides of life; to come and go as it wills creating crevices in our souls and washing away bits and pieces of who we truly are.
We have the power within to allow these tides of life to wash away the sands of stress and the trash of self, and then we can better see the golden nuggets of wisdom that the Lord has intended for us. To dig deep within our intellect , emotions and experiences with the help of The Holy Spirit, to find those hidden values, those passionate ethics and the spiritual gifts that only a mighty, merciful God could have ever placed within.
As it’s been written, “God is no respecter of persons.” This applies not only with grace and favor but also how He chooses to showcase His power within the lives of His people for their personal revelation. His ways are publicized through the brokenness of lives and even through all of the crevices in our souls – due to the aberrant events – when we shake a fist towards the heavens and proclaim,
“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me. “
He looks down, not from some celestial throne, rather from the viewpoint of a cross and with tear-filled eyes, nail-pierced hands; He cries blood for you and me. His blood reminds us that He understands.
‘Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith: who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And yet have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. Despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. ‘
God chastens us not out of abuse nor His own pleasure, rather for our profit, so that we may be partakers of His holiness. During this time of correction , things become rather chaotic from the natural viewpoint . People turn their backs ; hasty words are spoken ; finances are bleak ; blood pressure rises , hearts beat faster and nerves are frayed even the sunlight seems to hide away ; but for those of us who exercise the righteousness of God during these chaotic times , discipline becomes exhortation and grief is turned into experience . The death of a spouse becomes a time of personal realization of an in depth connection with our feelings and self; to actually see who we really are and to be able to express and work through personal feelings and emotions. Some of us may not ever cry except for the loss of loved ones. The Lord never intended for us to suppress our emotions, rather to release and then refocus on the why’s and how-to’s of life.
Time behind bars: incarceration also becomes a time of personal realization. Realizing what you can and cannot do without. Realizing the importance of liberty and the obedience to such freedom. Not just in the laws of man, but to the laws of God governing ourselves. We tend to rob ourselves of the grateful freedom ever known to man; not the freedom from tyranny nor told what to do rather the freedom from sin, which enslaves us with addictions, poverty, violence, generational curses and animosity and bitterness. Once locked down, stripped of any personal indulgence, we can truly relate to the verse “Be still and know that I am God.”
Then somewhere from behind the clouds sunlight breaks through and wisdom and understanding floods our very being.
I have said all of that to say this.
I am no different. I have had to have the impact of aberrations-something outside of the norm- to move me in a position for revelation.
The revelation that I am to relate entered into my life at one of those muddy crossroads. A place where I had to climb and work hard to make it over the mountainous obstacle which hindered my movement (speaking not only spiritually, but even on a more practical level. A place where questions arose: “How am I to live?” “Where am I to live?” and financially, “Now What?”).
I also had to drudge through one of the lowest of valleys where spirits of melancholy tried to muffle and restrain my spiritual growth and natural prosperity. If it had not been for the grace of God and a true to its name Church, then I would not have only been restrained rather I would have become one of those dismal spirits wandering in those low valleys ready to suppress others.
As it’s been said before; we are all part of a web, a network amongst souls and we will affect one another in some form or fashion until the threads and twines are both trashed and lost or the completion of the web. This publicized revelation came to me during a season in my life where bodily injury, career decisions and the loss of a loved fell upon me unexpectedly, all at once.
No fancy metaphors of stormy tides, nor fallen meteors, just life on life’s terms.
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