Proverbs 17:17---"As iron sharpen iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." I have a relatively new teacher friend, Yan Wang, from China. She came to teach at our school last year. We seemed to just immediately form a bond. I don't even know how or why. I guess some would call it a "God-thing". She truly "sharpens" me. First, because of her bravery, to live across the globe from her family and attempt to teach American students the Chinese language! But it is so much more than that. Because we are friends, she has seen me struggle and I have seen her struggle. She knows my strengths and always reassures me in them. She also knows my weaknesses and helps me in the striving and struggle to become a better person.
I can say that about so many of my closest friends. They stick with me, no matter what. They let me see their weaknesses and they put up with mine. I guess once you live to be 40 plus, you should be well-acquainted with just how finite we humans are. And, as much as we strive and struggle to be our best, we can only do so much. And, that "so much" is enough.
I have seen family and friends go through much hurt this year--cancer, declining health, death, separation, divorce, job loss, and wayward children. But even in their hurt, they hold on to Jesus and the life He brings--to the joy that He gives even in our struggles.
God began speaking to my heart this year about letting go of fear. I wasn't fearing big things, but small things. He kept reassuring my heart that if He was asking me to do some task, He was going to be there with me, actually in me accomplishing any task He had called me to do. So it really doesn't matter about my "finite-ness". He is infinite. He is able to accomplish all He desires to accomplish through me.
I think sometimes where I get off track is -- I envision that God wants grandiose things from me, when really all He might want that day is for me to pray for or with a friend. Maybe He just wants me to cook and clean for my family that day. Maybe He just wants me to share with one person His story. Maybe He just wants me to faithfully do the jobs He has called me to that day.
John 12:24, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain." When I was in college studying music, I would practice piano in this one certain practice room. From the window in this room I could see a tree. It was the Fall and into the Winter of this year. On that tree was one leaf that remained gripping onto the tree when all the other leaves had fallen. I watched it for weeks on end. It just wouldn't let go. The leaf was all dried up, brown and ugly, yet it wanted to stay in the tree. It didn't want to let go. Did it not know that for new life to spring forth, it first had to fall to the ground?
Are you holding onto something you should let go of? Do you stay gripping because of fear? Have you always done a certain thing or done things a certain way and now it is time to let go of that thing or that way of doing things? Are you scared? Do you know when you fall that you fall into the arms of Jesus?
So I encourage you today. Don't fear. Keep growing. If there is something you need to let go of, do. Remember, your God will be there for you. And look around, I imagine He has placed people in your path to spur you on. People who will put up with your finiteness. People who know that the God who lives within you is great enough.
