“Driven and motivated to always feel okay is not a steadying way to navigate your life. If your only way to navigate your inner landscape is to manipulate, control, and dominate your outer landscape, you’ve lost the map to joy. . . . Just because the road doesn’t seem to be upward and onward, doesn’t mean it isn’t making the way closer to God.”- Ann Voskamp
“Nothing created has ever been able to fill the heart of man. God alone can fill it infinitely.”- Thomas Aquinas
In Chapter 16 (“Moses Way”) of WayMaker, Ann Voskamp underscores that only one outcome matters. That we come to Jesus. Therefore, true freedom means freedom from outcomes as well as coming to Jesus.
Certainly, Ann observes, when waves swamp we often feel desperation to surface, to find the way up and out to the life we expect. But, we fail to find the way through when we strain and strive upward. Instead, we need to still and go down. Down into the depths of God, where all is still and calm.
Furthermore, Ann underscores, God answers prayer:
“The Maker and calmer of waves . . . answers every one of our prayers like waves. Sometimes He takes away the pain like an ebbing. . . . But more often than not, He doesn’t sweep the suffering away, but surges with more of Himself, comes with a crest of hesed-lovingkindness to raise us into the next breath, an upsurge of grace that carries when we can’t see any way to keep going. . . . He sweeps in to carry me. . . . He rocks all our ache, like a Father singing a lullaby till the peace finally comes.”
In conclusion, Ann stresses, the WayMaker makes a way through unbelievable suffering to be with us. Thus, we can trust and believe that He never abandons us in whatever suffering we face. As Martin Luther once wrote:
“God’s glory is manifested in our suffering, better than in any other way.”
Today’s question: What Bible verses help you navigate your inner landscape? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Relational, not transactional – God”
