Have you ever tried swinging?
Children love it and it can be fun even for adults but that is if you are not
too heavy for the swing. So this is what happens; the swing is pulled back and
then released to take you forward. There is a limit to which it can go
depending on how far it was pulled back but whether or not you get to that
limit depends on how far forward you thrust yourself. Recently, it has been
reminding me of life. I have been through and heard so many stories of ups and
downs that there is no doubt that life is full of them and God is involved in
every believer’s ups and downs which appears to make it worse. Worse because no
matter how hard one tries to go forward, the restraint of God makes it
impossible until God is ready to let go of the swing. It is also happened with
Jesus.
Luke 12: 50 “I have
a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and i under a heavy burden until
it is accomplished.”
The ups are the happiest times
but clearly they are greatly impacted by the downs. How high the swing will
ever go is directly tied to how far back it is pulled. Some people go back and
forth a number of times but are never able to attain to the heights directly proportional
to the force created by how far back the swing was pulled because they did not
thrust themselves forward as they should. The thing to do to get to the very
height it can reach is to depend on the Holy Spirit to show you how to and help
you push forward. It has to be the Holy Spirit working with and through you.
When I was much younger, I
thought I knew everything there was to learn in life but I find as I get older
that life has a lot to teach us and so we must be very slow to speak about
things that pertain to life. Life keeps changing so that everything with life
keep changing too; the only being with life that remains unchangeable is God
the giver of life. So we keep increasing in knowledge inching closer and closer
to maturity. As everything spins the best thing to do is hold on to the one who
isn’t spinning and He is Jehovah. You can’t hold unto yourself because your own
life is spinning too. You can’t do it yourself.
Ecclesiastes 1: 9
“History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the
sun is truly new.”
The back and forth of life is the
spinning process and the completion of a circle always brings us to another
level or stage in our lives. The things we go through, as the swing goes from
one high to another low and again to another high, builds the character we need
to enjoy the highs yet pleasing God. Some people never attain to the heights
ordained for them at every level and some die not having done as many swings as
they were ordained to but that is the reality of life. We have to like Jesus,
learn, through the things that we have to endure.
Hebrews 5: 8 “Even
though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.”
Don’t envy the man who is at the
height of the swing whilst you are being pulled back and restrained; focus on your
own life so that you don’t loose direction. If you lose focus or are careless
with your swing, you might fall off. Sometimes we are careless because we think
if we fall off someone around us waiting their turn to get on the swing might
catch us but the truth is there are not many people waiting to catch you and
few as they are that may want to help you, most of them have their agenda.
Though gentle they may look as they pretend to be genuine, their agenda always
manifests. The one sure person that catches you without an agenda is Jesus whose
hands are always stretched out waiting to catch and put you back on that you
may reach the very heights He has purposed for you.
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