What a week. I don’t know about you, but this past week has felt grueling. So many decisions, so much wrestling. I’m grateful it’s Friday.
Of late, my heart has been chastened. Too often it takes coming to the end of myself before I recognize my need for Jesus. I wish it wasn’t that way. I wish I relied less on my own inadequate strength and turned more quickly to him for provision. If I’m honest, even on my best days, my heart is like a stone. My harvest of achievements are an empty husk; my life is a broken bowl. No wonder I run out of strength. No wonder I feel lost when I try to forge my way on my own.
I appreciate Christina Rossetti’s words today because they bring me back to this core truth: Jesus is my life. It is only in him that I live and move and have my being. As the hymn writer says, “Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling.” And so, on weary days and triumphant ones, my heart’s prayer must always be for this resurrection life. “O Jesus, rise in me.”
Whatever you face today, it is my prayer that you find your life in Christ. He promises resurrection for this day and for the life to come. Thanks be to God.
A Better Resurrection
I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numb’d too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimm’d with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.
My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall—the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.
My life is like a broken bowl,
A broken bowl that cannot hold
One drop of water for my soul
Or cordial in the searching cold;
Cast in the fire the perish’d thing;
Melt and remould it, till it be
A royal cup for Him, my King:
O Jesus, drink of me.
Wow, that’s easy to identify with.
Too often I prefer busyness in order to avoid the emptiness. A hymn portion frequently comes to me, “ Life cannot be as it hath hither been”, but not in the positive sense of the gospel, but in the negative one of void and loss. Till then I just try to stay anchored. Amen, Lord Jesus, rise in me. Thanks Claris, Bob
So true, Bob. Busyness can be a healthy distraction. It can also be an empty filler. It’s a delicate balance of determining how we are using activity as we grieve. We rest in the assurance that Jesus is the one who fills all the emptiness.