Saturday, December 4, 2010

Tuesdays With Auntie Hope

(I'm a little late on the post, but the lesson is still with me...)

This has been a rough week - busy, challenging, and full of personal weaknesses, insecurities and room for growth. I was looking forward to my visit with Auntie Hope so I could just sit, visit for a few hours and not have to think about "the real world." I actually wanted to hear Auntie Hope tell the same stories - about boarding school at Pretoria Girls High and about growing up around her parents' laundry business - that she tells every week.

On any other visit I would try to steer the conversation elsewhere, try to avoid anything that leads to hearing the same two stories over and over again. It never works, though. Auntie Hope always tells those stories and there is nothing I can do about it. It is what it is, and those two events obviously made an impact on her.

But when things are difficult, when life is challenging, we look for the familiar and the stable, don't we? We want to hang onto things that are known. We like to be able to count on something solid because much of life is fluid, shifting and unknown. And it's funny to me that the things that would normally drive me crazy are the things I seek to comfort me when I'm feeling down.

That's when I remembered that my favourite adjective to describe God is "immutable" - incapable of change. The God I read about in the Bible is still that God today.

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30

1 comment:

jonna said...

Annie, you've been on my mind a lot after reading your last few posts. This post really hit me. We are getting ready for another showing and as I think about possibly selling our house and then finally moving, I find myself clinging to all sorts of silly, but familiar things-like the view from my bedroom window. Unchanging and familiar. Praying for you.