I feel like I’ve been on a crash course of learning these past few months. To the point that I could never write it all down. It almost seems as if each moment has carried with it something to hang onto and store away for future reference.
I would hardly know where to begin to document all that my heart has been taking in lately.
But I’ll start with this:
Leaning is living.
We’ve all heard and used the phrase “lean into it”. The past couple of days I’ve thought about what it means to lean.
When you lean into something, you put the weight of your entire body into it. In general, your hands are not used. Your hands are not pulling you up or grasping to hold on. When you lean into something, you are trusting that it will hold your weight. You’re trusting that it’s bigger than you and that it can hold you.
It’s easy to lean into things that feel stable and strong. It’s harder to lean into things we are unsure of or unfamiliar with. The same is true in life. It’s easy to lean into the good times, the times that feel comfortable and familiar and secure. It’s harder to lean into the times that represent struggle or fear or the unknown.
And that’s where the fork in the road comes. We can stand our ground against leaning into difficult times or even run away from them. Or we can lean into the beauty of what can be learned and gleaned from the experience. One allows us to survive. The other allows us to thrive.
Take a packet of seeds. We can leave the seeds in the safe little package they come in and they will continue to be safe little, surviving seeds. But we also have a choice to plant them in the dirt, a sort of leaning into something counterintuitive, and allow them to do what they were meant to do. To grow roots, to push through soil and come out not just a seed, but a beautiful plant or flower or vegetable. To watch them thrive as a result of leaning into the necessary environment that would cause that to happen.
The good news is, we never have to lean into something completely foreign or unknown. The One who has allowed or brought any given circumstance into our lives is well-versed in every aspect of it. He sees its potential for growth and beauty in our lives. We can lean, not only into the situation, but into the One who holds that situation. Our hands not grasping and scratching to desperately hold on or crawl out. Just leaning. Trusting. Waiting to see. Expecting to thrive.
I’m still learning. But leaning is becoming a little more natural to me and a little less scary.
Because I don’t just want to be a survivor. I want to be a THRIVER!!!!
Isaiah 49:9-11 – They will feed beside the roads
and find pasture on every barren hill.
They will neither hunger nor thirst,
nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.
He who has compassion on them will guide them
and lead them beside springs of water.
I will turn all my mountains into roads,
and my highways will be raised up.
Proverbs 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
