Is There Any Safer Place?

Almighty Creator is greater than you, little heart, and He loves you with a far more intense passion than any you will ever be able to know, however hard you try to manufacture it.  He knows how to sanctify--He's been doing it a long time...  

What have I ever done for You--truly?  When have I ever given out of a sincere desire to give to You, or blessed out of a sincere desire to bless You?  When have I sincerely sat at Your feet to drink You in, to hear what You are thinking and feeling?  When have I ever surrendered without holding back the hope--more, the expectation--that You won't really require the sacrifice, that a ram will be provided in place of my Isaac, too?

"Be rich in good deeds…"  In Real Terms, I won't even begin to scratch the smallest crumb from the outermost crust of ever approaching "deserving" or "repaying" my eternal debt.  But in human terms, I can do my best, my absolute and utter best, to try.  It will be less--infinitely, helplessly less--than the most infinitesimal micro-atom on the tiniest grain of sand, buried fathomless strata below all the oceans in the universe…but it will be my all.  The only thing which is mine--and even that is mine only because God relinquished to me His right to it--I can give to Him.  A pitiful offering, but the one He has requested:  my life, wound tightly around my secret-garden heart.  (A beautifully curious Deity, this Messiah.)

"Do you want it?"
     -- You know that I do.

"Will You take it?"
     -- I will.

"Will You keep it safe?"
     -- Not in the way you wish, probably, but it will be in My hands--is there any safer place?

Is there any safer place?  Drop it to safety, quickly, before the insanity of your attempts to reconcile yourself to letting loose the only thing over which you have a real and fearsome, fearsome "control" snatch it away to irreversible peril.  Don't think--trust.

I drop it, Lord--I drop the heart, because I know Whose nail-scarred hands are infallibly there to catch it…and if You have to rub off some dusty grime that I mistook for gold, that will be all right.  Surrender is only letting You safeguard something I hold very dear and precious, knowing that I may be mistaken in its worth, and knowing that You provide all I truly need--that You are all I truly need.

I drop the heavy, rusty heart, and as it falls it turns into shimmering glass.  


"Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.  The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God."
~ Isaiah 52:9-10 ~ 

Comments

  1. Beautiful. I needed to hear this. :-)

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    1. I'm really, really glad it spoke to you, dear friend <3 :)

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  2. Wow. I have no words. Just...beautiful. :)

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  3. This was sweepingly beautiful. I had to read it over twice in a row.

    And amen - there is no safer place than in His arms. :)

    ~Miss Meg

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  4. Recently I've been realizing just how much I need to surrender my heart completely to the Lord. With my anxiety, it's never been easy to let go of the worry and stress, but God promises us peace, which is in it's very definition: Free from worry or the troubles of the world. He can give us all we truly need. :)

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    1. Laura, yes!! Surrender is definitely hard. I don't know why it's so hard, but it is. However, He is faithful to sanctify!!

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  5. Wow. Basically...this is what it's about.

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  6. Oh my! This was beautiful, Olivia! You have such a poetic way of writing. And wow, was this post packed with truth or what?

    That second paragraph especially is very convicting for me. I know I struggle with that. "What have I ever done for You--truly? When have I ever given out of a sincere desire to give to You, or blessed out of a sincere desire to bless You? When have I sincerely sat at Your feet to drink You in, to hear what You are thinking and feeling?" Yes, yes. When HAVE I? And how do I even begin to do it?

    "The only thing which is mine--and even that is mine only because God relinquished to me His right to it--I can give to Him. A pitiful offering, but the one He has requested: my life, wound tightly around my secret-garden heart." Oh! I love that. It's so true. Our lives are only our own to give because He relinquished His right to them...but ultimately we belong to Him and we'll never be truly whole until we surrender ourselves completely.

    Okay, I can't say anymore. I'm just going to quote your whole post, and that would be rather silly, wouldn't it? :P Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts, dear. :)

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    1. *blushes* Thanks, Miss March! It was totally God, not me.

      SAME, GIRL. How does He even still want to be with us after all we have--and haven't--done?

      Exactly. We make such a big deal of surrendering, when ultimately we only have the option of it because God gave it back to us. He didn't have to, but He did. "...We'll never be truly whole until we surrender ourselves completely." Amen!!

      Haha! Thank YOU, dearie :)

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  7. Olivia. I have no words. This was beyond beautiful. I am definitely saving this so I can read it again and again.

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    1. Aww! I'm so glad God used it to touch you <3

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    2. Remember how I said I'm saving this to read again? Well I just read it again and was blown away once again by how beautifully you painted a picture of our Messiah and the act of trusting Him. ♥

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  8. This was so wonderful. Thank you. (And it reminded me of C. S. Lewis which is good... ;)

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    1. Ahh, thank you so much, Abigail! (It reminded you of Lewis??!! That's, like, one of the best compliments I've ever gotten. And I was kind of hoping to come across like Lewis in this post, so . . . thank you. :))

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