Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

Hey Gang!

This is the song Matt wants us to use in the upcoming "Betrayal" message he's doing:

I wanted to put it on here for easy access (which is basically what this blog is for-- easy access to shared resources and/or thoughts) and as I grabbed the video, I noticed that it is from Seether's album entitled "Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces."

It sounded conspicuously like the sermon we heard last night, and I just had to point it out. Speaking of last night, a.) Ryan, we missed you like whoa and b.) I jotted down some of the "main" verses in case you wanted to revisit them.

(for the record, the scratch and sniff still doesn't work... I had to try one more time)

Psalm 115:1--

"Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness."

Philippians 4:8--

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-- think about such things."

Lamentations 3:17-24--

"I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, 'My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.' I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.

I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

Y'all. Notice how Jeremiah is saying to himself. I mean we know from context that Jeremiah really did know the Lord as his portion. But here he says it to himself. I know we've all expressed our intent and our desire to know the Lord as our portions. As our leader. As sovereign. And as we struggle to know what that looks like, we know that it's not necessarily where we are.

This week, perhaps knowing God as our portion begins with saying to ourselves, "God is my portion."

Here's my challenge to all of us. A blanket challenge, if you will.

Before you leave your room every day this week, say to yourself "God is my portion, therefore I wait for Him." You can put it on a notecard to remember if you have to. What circumstances are you waiting for Him to change? What negatives in your life keep you from finding His beauty and knowing Him as your portion?

Don't focus on them. (easier said than done, I am so very more than aware)

Do you want to yell back? Do you want things to be made right? Think you know how to protect yourself? Holding a grudge? Want your own revenge? Feeling discouraged?

Here's what I get from the Lamentations passage-- God's redemption, the way He makes right the wrongs in our life, is so much better than our own revenge. "therefore I will wait for Him...". So he may not avenge the situations the way we want, but He has the power to make our hearts patient as we wait for His redemption of the situation.

It's in the waiting for God that we begin to find the beauty in all the negative spaces around us. And knowing that peace begins with saying we believe God when He says He'll bring it.

So say it. At least once in the morning. And as it becomes your focus, I'm willing to bet the thought will come up again during the day... "The Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for Him."