Have you ever taken the time to watch a water droplet sit on a leaf? The tension between the water and the air perfectly balanced to keep the water encapsulated in the form of a droplet, yet fluid enough to glide along the surface of the leaf. It is an amazing example of embracing tension.
The older I get, the more I learn about myself. And while I’m beginning to embrace the part of my personality that is bolder and more outspoken, I’ve always been called a peacemaker. I do prefer peace over conflict, but life is full of both and I’m learning that many times it is the conflict that opens the door for peace. So I better learn to do both well, and that means I need to embrace the tension that exists between what appears to be opposites.
Opposites. I learned about them on Sesame Street. Hot and cold. Soft and hard. Go and stop. Then life taught me a few. Kind and mean. Competent and unskilled. Strong and weak. Joy and grief. Somewhere along the way, I came to believe that opposites cannot coexist. While I believe that I am a work in progress that the Lord is very patiently developing, the truth of the matter is that works in progress are filled with opposites! As we grow from one characteristic to another, we are in a lengthy state of bearing opposites. There isn’t a switch that is flipped to instantly remove one trait and replace it with another simultaneously. Instead, I need to fully embrace the opposites and what they are teaching me. Although I don’t want the hard, bad, and ugly, I have something to learn from them.
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed
– not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence –
continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Philippians 2:12-13
We are in progress – a water droplet gliding along the surface of a leaf. The tension between the air pressure on the outside and the water pressure on the inside perfectly balanced to clearly identify the two as separate things. Until something shifts and the droplet breaks, allowing the water to spread along the leaf and be absorbed and evaporated into another state.
God has a good purpose for you. And He is graciously allowing the process to do its work in you to fulfill that good purpose. So embrace the opposites – acknowledge your current limits as you grow in strength and allow the laughter to come when times are hard. He is with you in it all. He is cheering you on. He loves you and wants to remind you in every moment that…
You are adored.
You Are Adored 