Weeping Forward

"Although there will be weeping in this life, the direction in which we weep is truly what matters. Be encouraged. God sees your tears. Cry them, wipe them, feel them, but don't let them stop you. IT'S POSSIBLE TO CRY AND WALK" ~ Kelly Minter

Thursday I realized that I would be saying, "goodbye" to people that I dearly love, a church that has been a second home to me for over two years, and suddenly the 50+ hours that I spent each week working would be free. The reasons for this goodbye are not the point for this post nor are they important... the purpose of this post is that this transition is difficult, there has been (with more to come) a lot of weeping. This morning I said "goodbye" to children that have attached themselves to my heart forever, to their parents, and to my church. During this time of transition and sadness, something kept coming back to mind, a study that I had done on the book of Ruth, the term, "weeping forward" kept repeating itself over and over in my mind, trying to creep into my heart... I realized that the Holy Spirit was trying to bring something to my attention... so tonight, I dug out my Bible study on Ruth and to my surprise...

One year ago to the day... June 23, 2010, I began my journey through Kelly Minter's "Ruth: loss, love, and legacy". If this doesn't reiterate God's timing to you, I'm sorry, but to me, it's undeniable. One year to the day... I began a study on loss, love, and legacy. I began to study a short book in the Bible that is chocked full of incredible nuggets of knowledge and truth. I studied this woman, Ruth, who followed her mother in law, Naomi back to Naomi's homeland; a land in which she would be a stranger, an outcast, where she would have no rights and no one. Ruth had lost her husband, but she chose to "weep forward" and follow her mother in law into a land she didn’t' know, to people that she didn't know; to a God she didn't know.

I followed this woman's journey as she gleaned in a field, as she won the approval of Boaz, as she married Boaz (her kinsman-redeemer), as she gave birth to Obed; I followed her journey from weeping to rejoicing. From setting out to a foreign country with a bitter companion to a beautiful ending in which she gave birth to a son in the direct lineage of Jesus. What a story!

What if she had just wept? What if she had wept and wallowed in her weeping? What if she had wept backwards? The consequences of any of those scenarios wouldn't have ended in such a beautiful story.

"So tell me, what is our ending? Will it be beautiful, so beautiful?" ~ Barlow Girl

I want a beautiful ending. I want a beautiful journey. I am so thankful that God's timing isn't our own. That He orchestrates things in a way that we can't. That He cares so much for me that He led me through a study one year ago andthat he brought it back into my spirit today... to remind me of his plans, of my purpose. There is no doubt that I am weeping but there is also no doubt that I am weeping in any direction but forward!

I am convinced that God has a plan. That he makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and that in Him I will find everything I need.

“Bring me joy, bring me peace, bring the chance to be free. Bring me anything that brings you glory. I know there’ll be days when this life brings me pain but if that’s what it takes to praise you, Jesus bring the rain”

I am reminded through all of this that:
"He loves us, oh how He loves us, oh how He loves us, oh how He loves! We are His portion and He is our prize. Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes, if grace is an ocean we're all sinking!"