Desert Journey – Day 10

Love is so difficult when the people you are asked to love are challenging. Quite frankly, I rather complain and grumble about them, than choose to love; a little self-pity instead of forging ahead in love, seems common practice. Forging in love would mean putting me aside.

I would like to get up from the sand, however Jesus seems comfortable and I don’t think we are moving yet. Feeling a little squirmy, really. Yesterday, my good friend reminded me of the qualities of sand- it helps refine by scrubbing, exfoliating and smoothing. Jesus calls to mind a phrase I heard years ago, sandpaper people – people that help sand away our hardness and rough edges.

An uncomfortable smile crosses my face as I look at Jesus. Some more sanding required, huh? He smiles, as he does so often. What I have noticed about my time with Jesus is that he doesn’t lecture and condemn me; he guides and convicts. Such a monumental difference! One brings shame the other acknowledgment of sin.

Jesus calls to mind 1 Corinthians chapter 13:

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

It does not insist on its on way; it is not irritable or resentful…I am stumbling here.

As I sit in the sand an allow for some “scrubbing and exfoliating,” it actually feels good. I know Jesus wants me a little smoother.

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