I'm a day late with my Five Minute Friday post this week, but here it is at last.
The word we're writing on is STEADY.
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My daughter and I took an overnight train trip last month. We enjoyed it, but the constant motion definitely took some getting used to. Eating, dressing, even brushing our teeth -- everything was harder to do on a moving train.
Walking the length of seven cars to reach the dining car, while the train rocked back and forth, was a particular challenge at first. The instinct is to stiffen your body and inch carefully along the corridor, holding the wall; but we soon discovered that the better way is to relax, keep your arms loosely out at your sides so as to be ready for sudden lurches, and move along as swiftly and smoothly as possible. But even then, it felt disorienting, especially stepping across those little passages between cars.
Everything would have been a LOT easier, actually, if the train hadn't been moving at all.
But wouldn't that defeat the purpose just a little bit? A train that didn't move wouldn't be a very efficient means of getting us to our destination. To get where we wanted to go, we had to be prepared to sacrifice steadiness for a while.
That's true in life, too. I'm the kind of person who values steadiness; I like the predictable and familiar. But I can't have motion and immobility at the same time. To move to a new place or stage, I have to be willing to put up with some unsteadiness.
That involves relying on a deeper stability that underlies the shifting motion of life: God's faithful, steady love for me.
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness."
(Lamentations 3:22-23, ESV)
I love your insight that to get to where we want to be often involves a time of unsteadiness but that in the midst of it we can rely on God who is always steady.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Lesley. Glad this spoke to you.
DeleteI love a great train trip ... my favorite was a bit of a tour in Alaska. Mesmerizing!
ReplyDeleteThat would be an amazing trip -- I'd love to see the mountains and glaciers. What we saw going east through Quebec and New Brunswick was more picturesque than dramatic but still lovely. We did see a bear lumbering across a field into the woods. :-)
DeleteThanks for reading and commenting, Linda.
Oo, what fun on the train. I've always wanted to do that! We recently took cruise and I got vertigo from it. I can certainly relate to your unsteadiness. Perfect metaphor for the next who keeps us standing up, even when we're swaying back and forth.
ReplyDeleteI think a cruise would have that effect on me, too. :-( Thanks for coming by to read and comment, Christina.
DeleteI'm having visions of the Orient Express! Love the insights about getting where we need to go and how it is so much better to relax and lean into the sway of life. Profound :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Emma - great to have you here this morning! The Orient Express ... oooh! Thankfully our trip was murder-free! :-D
DeleteI love your take on this word, Jeannie! The unsteadiness that brings movement. "To get where we wanted to go, we had to be prepared to sacrifice steadiness for a while." That line struck me and I definitely relate to this especially with this time in my life. Thank you for flipping our perspective a bit in a needed way!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad this spoke to you. And thanks for taking the time to read and comment; it's really nice to have you here.
DeleteJeannie, I loved this post. We can't have it both ways, can we? If we want to move, to grow, to progress, we're going to have to accept that there will be unsteady times. If we insist on safety and being in control we may feel steady, but we won't grow. I so appreciated where you took this word this week!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Jeanne. Always glad to have you stop by!
DeleteWow, Jeannie! This would be a beautiful devotional to submit somewhere! You might look at "Our Daily Bread"'s guidelines, tweak it according to their format and submit it! It's a beautiful compaarison. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion, Betsy! I'm glad this spoke to you.
DeleteThis is great! I, too, prefer 'steady', but I ahve to relax and move in the direction God wants me to move--and sometimes, that doesn't feel steady!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Anita; I appreciate it.
DeleteI love riding on the train!
ReplyDeleteIt's a really neat experience, Tara -- takes some getting used to, but also very relaxing!
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