Dear All of Us,
So, when was
the last time you had
the tables turned on you?
Not nice, right?
Well, yes but...
My wife and I recently had
the happy flip of that.
We live in a small apartment.
Our dining table seats four.
Ten were coming for
Thanksgiving Dinner.
What to do?
Well, turn the table
the opposite way.
Go get my work table
from the study.
Put them together.
Get some folding chairs
and settle in for one heck of
a great meal and time.
Necessity
"Turned the tables on us."
It turned out to be
a blessing times two.
With the dining table
now permanently turned,
there's better
room balance,
eye appeal and
space.
We didn't know that until
"We had the tables
turned on us."
It's a keeper.
Our spiritual life
is often like that.
What presents as problem
can turn to a mighty blessing.
Usually not easy or quick, though.
The preeminent instance of that
is the torture and murder of Jesus.
What a horrid and hideous
turn of things. Yet
JESUS'
LOVE STRETCH
for us
on the
CROSS
turned into a
RESURRECTION
of
LIFE
that's turning,
flipping
all history,
all Creation,
all possibility,
positively divine.
So we stay with it when
the tables get turned on us,
often "not nice,"
yet trusting that
it will somehow
turn to good.
You're deeply in love,
ready for marriage.
Your intended's ex beau/belle
showed up, upended
and ended everything.
Shock, pain, loss.
That loss eventually
made room for
a wonderful other
and a marriage
of way deeper love
and fuller goodness
as it turned out.
As a kid you preferred
playing the piano
to playing soccer.
It painfully upended popularity.
It also opened to later being
the high school music teacher
for the kids of those soccer players.
You've been spiritually
focused and faithful for years.
Now there are years of
spiritual dryness and ennui.
It feels like you are
personally experiencing
that dreadful dry desert trek
of the Israelites.
Will it ever end?
It did for the Israelites,
but it sure took one heck
of a long time
for a good turnout,
and finally finding
The Promised Land.
They were more than
move in ready!!
We all have
the tables and more
turned on us.
We get flipped flat on
our posterior cushions.
God has a way
of turning that
to a new
stance and direction,
a very God Good One.
It is most often
hard and slow -
very all three.
In Jesus, the Risen Savior,
we trust - that's faith.
No matter what turns up
or turns over,
We hold on being held on.
We wait it out, work it out,
as Paul says "En Christo,"
"In Christ"
The mystic Julia of Norwich
found out and shared:
"All shall be well,
and all shall be well,
and all manner of things
shall be well."
En Christo
turned wrong
gets loved right.
What a divine
TURN
******
It's Been
WONDERFUL
the past few weeks
to have a large number of
new folks
from many lands
joining in.
Welcome!
It's great to be
together here at
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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******
We know that
a lot more than
the tables
get turned on us.
"And we know that
in all things
God works for the good
of those who love him."
Romans 8:28
See you next week!
Love to all!
John Frank
******
