Send in the Clowns…
Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
A friend of mine texted me that she was weary and heavy-laden last week. I texted back and an emoji in tears and prayed for her. But… I was angry at her… she is a wonderful child of God and has NO BUSINESS showing anything less than happy happy!
Did you catch that… “showing”… I’m what you might call a Show Girl! When someone is going to all the trouble to help, I expect to be lied to and told how wonderful it is to suffer “for the Lord”. As I put on my clown makeup, I practice my show… whatever it takes to exchange laughter for sorrow, create cheat sheets for avoiding the sweat of life, and mask the fear of the truth of tomorrow.
But this week… I got caught AND trained up!
Matthew 11:29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls
Take My yoke upon you… been there, done that… I AM an ENCOURAGER in the ARMY OF THE LORD!
Oops… forgot the “learn from Me”…
Encouragers are strong in empathy. We can SEE the pain and even when we can’t FEEL the pain, we HATE the pain! But sometimes, (I’m not accusing anyone… BUT ME) we are weak in discipline. We want to run into the burning building and be the hero… AND… we want to do it our way and we want you to be GRATEFUL, dangnabit!
I am a chameleon, so I can convince you that I am all about you and your needs. Really! And for the moment I am…
But then… the game I am playing becomes exhausting and unsustainable. And I become… angry!
I SHOULD be reprimanded… I SHOULD be wearing sack cloth and ashes in shame… I SHOULD be defrocked from my armor and demoted to less than a fighting soldier. Maybe errand girl… or sit in the corner girl… or bound, gagged and hidden girl.
Isn’t our Jesus amazing? He didn’t do any of those things I definitely deserved (according to the accuser of the brethren). He said… “Come to Me”!
Come to Me… not “Go to your room”… or “I don’t see your remorse”… or ” I can’t use you when you’re like this”… or… “you are only good enough (and sometimes not even then) to be seen and not heard!” Not even ONE of the things I have done, would do, or plan to do to the person who crosses and/or disappoints me.
I was caught this week… and called out. But not by Jesus. He let my own game, my own plans, my own heavy, heavy bag of stupid catch and call me out. He let ME grow weary and heavy laden!
And then… I watched Him work… on me!
Just when I thought I was done for… But God… (whenever I see these words… But God… I become unglued with indescribable, call it heavenly language, of so full of excitement I could burst praise)
Ephesians 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
This week He said, “Come” but He also said “Sit with Me and learn”… in the heavenly places!
Stripped of my commission in God’s army? Demoted? NOPE… raised up and seated! My problem… sitting still! Thus learning is somewhat fragmented. I read the instructions and think I’ve got this one!
But God…
Did you see what He did? He put His arm around me and said, “Darlin, come and sit with me… in the place I am preparing for you. Ohhhhhhh My God!
Matthew 11:30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
If all I ever do is put my butt in the seat and watch Him, I have accomplished ALL that He desires of me. If I am so focused on “doing”, I miss the “done”! If I insist on the exhausting work of “impressing to please” I am stuck in my own head and selfish heart and will reap only anger and bitterness.
But God… John 5:19 Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
Yoke… family! Burden… being His kid!
He said “Come”… “Sit with Me and learn from Me”… and finally “Hook up with Me”.
And you will find rest for your souls… AND A CALLING!
Ephesians 2: 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Send in the clowns… and someday the clowns will realize that they are NOT clowns but children of the Great I AM. As they learn from His first Son, they are being sanctified and made whole. As the training goes on, they put away their childish masks and costumes and long to be revealed as a chip of the “old” block… like Father, like son/daughter!
This week Jesus leaned over and whispered, “Now that your here… sitting with Me… learning from Me… hooked irrevocably to me… What’s your dream? My little wonderful girl, if you could be anything you wanted to be, what do you see dimly in the looking-glass that you long to see clearly?”
I’m still working on my answer…
In the mean time… please forgive me if I’m sometimes “Clowning Around” instead of Encouraging… Just like you, I’m a kid in training. But I’m encouraged! I’ve read the end of the book… God Wins!
**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible