Oh, the Places You’ll Go

I recently finished reading Rebekah Lyons’ Building a Resilient Life.  A book – much to its title’s credit – filled with practical advice of four steps to building a resilient life:

1.       Naming the pain – through honestly naming and acknowledging the hurt you have or are experiencing.

2.       Shifting the narrative – through replacing the lies you may have believed about your suffering and replacing them with God’s truth so the pain doesn’t define you, but allows you to see purpose and perspective in it.

3.       Embracing adversity – through seeing hardship as a teacher rather than an enemy allows you to build strength, courage, and depth of character.

4.       Making meaning – through allowing God to transform your pain into purpose – whether it be in service to others or beauty He inspires you to create as a result of your struggles.  

In the book, she has a beautiful quote from her mother-in-law at the end of her life, “There is nothing in your life that hasn’t been sifted through His hands.”  There is nothing in your life, not your hang-ups and bang-ups; not your waiting places; not your lonely games, that He has not sifted through His hands.  

It got me thinking of Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good…”  Joseph’s story in Genesis embodies what it looks like to live a resilient life.  He very easily could have let his situation overcome him, whether it be in the pit, slavery, or prison.  Any one of those situations would have been enough, understandably so, for someone to wallow.  Joseph didn’t.  He leaned into each position he found himself in, and though his situation didn’t immediately change, God never left him.

“The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.” (Genesis 39:2)

“… But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.” (Genesis 39:20b-21)

Joseph knew in those moments that this wasn’t where his story ended – those weren’t destination moments for him.  Those were reminders that God was with him – those were middle-of-the-journey mercies to encourage him to keep going, to keep pressing in, to not give up.

Joseph embraced adversity when it would have been hard to shift the narrative and allow the pain to blind him.  He allowed God to make meaning through each appointment.  

I’ve been on a path, it seems.  I mentioned it in my first post in this series, where God highlighted Psalm 1:6, “God charts the road you take. The road they take leads to nowhere.”  I’ve noticed it in the books I have been picking up to read:

·       Resilient Soul – Brad Leach

·       Rest and War – Ben Stuart

·       Stronger than the Struggle – Havilah Cunnington

·       Building a Resilient Life – Rebekah Lyons

Like Joseph, God is leading me somewhere – I don’t know the destination, I don’t even know the route, but He is leading me.  When Joseph left his father’s house that fateful day, he didn’t know the heartaches he was about to walk.  As seen in Genesis 50:20, after he had traveled thousands of miles and endured several trials, he was able to look back over the course of his life and see God’s faithfulness and to fully appreciate the promises God gave a 17-year-old boy through dreams.  Brad Leach talks about this in his book ‘Resilient Soul’, how resilience often becomes visible only in retrospect.  When you look back over your life you begin to recognize the seasons that once felt like detours, delays, or devastation were actually forming endurance, faith, character, and probably most importantly, a relationship with the Father.

There’s this quote I heard from the Bible Project recently, as it relates to Romans 5:3-5: “You look forward by looking backward – trusting in nothing other than God’s character.”  I think too often in the trials of life, we get paralyzed by circumstances and “the how” we can get beyond the season we are currently in. I know I am guilty of this. And we forget:

“…Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3b-5)

It’s hard to see hope when everything in your life feels like it is crumbling around you.  I’m sure it was for Joseph sitting in a foreign prison.  I know it has been for me.  Yet, God’s ask is the same: trust in His character.  Trust that there is nothing in your life that He hasn’t sifted through His hands.  Like the ingredients to make brownies, He knows the plans He has for you (Jeremiah 29:11). Like Joseph in prison, He knew He was about to elevate him to second in command to Pharaoh. He knows.  He’s working.  Your life is not over.  You’re not stuck.  Keep putting one foot in front of the other.  Remember:

“Everyone’s going through a refining fire sooner or later, but you’ll be well preserved, protected from the eternal flames…” (Mark 10:49-50 MSG)

“Oh the places you’ll go!
…
But on you will go
though the weather be foul.
On you will go
though your enemies prowl.
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl.
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.
…
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
…
KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS
…
you’re off to great places!
Today is your day.
Your mountain is waiting.
So… get on your way!”

This past year and a half, I have been fascinated by waterfalls, traveling hours just to sit beside one for a moment before heading home again.  Today, as I sit on a log overlooking one, I am struck by the common knowledge that they can only exist in all of their beauty and wonder through an extreme shifting and catastrophic breaking to allow for a magnificent pouring out.  These meandering thoughts, however they may be meeting you, whether through pixels and blue light or ink and paper, are a result of my own pouring out after an extreme shift in my life, and a life-altering breaking.

My prayer for you is to accept that the mountain waiting for you may not be about the destination – or even the climb to get there – but the person God is forming you into as you climb.  I pray you find peace with every step.  I pray that as your journey stretches on, you are able to say, “If God’s Presence does not go with me, do not send me up from here.” (Exodus 33:15).  I pray you never forget to look back down on the valley and appreciate the trail that brought you here.  I pray that you never stop putting one foot in front of the next, trusting that even when your faith is wavering, you know we have a good, good Father who knows all the places you’ll go.

With love,
Sarah