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It Gets Easier

November 18, 2010.


I'm sharing this to celebrate past seasons in my walk with God. I'm grateful for the phases and the experiences I've been through (and often have to re-go through cuz I wont learn my lesson :-). I'm also grateful to be experiencing truths that are renewing my mind; and changes that  I can actually put a finger on (gotta love those). This is my journal for today (journal entry implying that I had to flesh it out and elaborate a lot to present this; cuz often, only God and I can make sense out of our written moments in the raw form- what can I say, they're private; right Daddy?  ;-) 


My God,

I’m so grateful for the ease You’ve put into my heart. For the most part, I’ve overcome the pressure I used to put on myself to perform, to achieve holiness, to earn Your approval. I’ve no more use for rules and regulations: Christians don’t do this…, don’t go to this place, don’t befriend this person, don’t laugh at this, don’t enjoy that. I may not do some things, but it won’t be out of submission to some well-intentioned, self-inflicted moral code. You’ve set me free from laws so I can live; simply live in Your LOVE. I can do (or not do) things out of love for You and for people; and not out of fear that I might displease folks or fall short of my own standards. Perfect love casts out fear. The only One I have to please is You- Your yoke is easy and light, Your expectations are attainable; You knew me right from my mother’s womb; and You see my end from my beginning. What better guide? In terms of discipline, You’re easier on me than I am on myself- and even when You punish me, You do it with grace and mercy; because You cant help loving me. In terms of pleasure, the best of what I taste, see, touch, hear, and smell are the least of the joys You give.

It’s much easier than it used to be- sensing what pleases You; deciphering the fine lines between living for You and getting entangled in my own preferences and my personal sense of right and wrong; loving people and hating sin… all the things I used to so worry and fret about. I can just live; and not fuss in the wrong way about displeasing You; because somehow, it just flows. I don’t have to do, do, do; figure, figure, figure- I just let You be… in me.  Oh, I haven’t got it down pat; but it’s easier than it used to be. It’s easier now.

You’ve freed me from my need to be legalistic; for fear I would fall off the wagon. You’ve unraveled all (okay, most :-) of the uptightness, the legalism; by Your love- and now, I can let go of those props and lean on Your love. You’ve set me free to ENJOY life; enjoy living. The whole, ‘… that they may have life and have it more abundantly…’ thing wasn’t figurative. I don’t have to keep my skirts hiked up for fear of wandering off the straight-and-narrow. I prance, I dance- and yes, sometimes, I do wander off the path- but my Good Shepherd, You always guide me safely back; and I can rest in that assurance: THAT You (not I) who began this good work in me will see it through to a flourishing finish. I can breathe, I can relax, I can just live, love, learn, laugh… and when I mess up, I can let go. I’m free :-)


Colossians 2:11-15, (The Message)
“Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of … keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in- insiders- not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already done for you, destroying the power of sin… God brought you alive- right along with Christ. Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled out and nailed to Christ’s cross…”



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