I roll my window down to soak in the precious little hands waving and the last sounds of goodbye. I feel the pressure of love in my heart. Is this real?
Thirty-three hours later, backpacks on and suitcase rolling behind me, I push open the airport doors to a familiar humidity. On this Mexican soil I would be quick to realize one thing: summer is back.
The season of fall was upon me as I left my home in Minnesota, opening a natural transition of letting go. But as Mexico welcomed me, it did so with a wave of heat – no leaves saying goodbye to their branches here. Where was the space to grieve what I had just lost in this new community of summer heat, excitement, life and celebration? I quickly met the way of life in my new home at YWAM Mazatlán: energetic worship, weekly birthday celebrations, loud dance parties. They fight with joy, fill space with celebration and move forward by standing on God’s promises. |
The first week passed, and God whispered, “I’m ready, Jenaya. Are you?” …Ready for what?
And he spoke - deep into my heart - giving once shallow words a depth only experience can understand. It was within this season of feeling loss over and over again that I witnessed God - who is love - reach into the place of death. In these deep places of grief I discovered I trust in the goodness of God. | Will you be a temporary home |
But what about “summer round two?” As the heat continued, and along with it the excitement, life, and celebration, the word of God continued to unveil itself to me. Death is not dead in the hands of God, but in the hands of God it is the passage to resurrection. For God is the God of resurrection. As I transitioned from Minnesota to Mexico, it became time to test the trust I gained in my season of grief. Would I hold onto the grief - live in what was no longer mine to hold? Or would I give it to God, releasing the blessings which were placed in my hands temporarily, trusting God would resurrect something new within me? And so I gave it to him with thanksgiving. Out of my hands and into the hands of the One who holds all things. And so he asks me again, “I'm ready, Jenaya. Are you?” And in faith I say, YES. I'm ready for the season to stay, to stand in victory - not as a victim of death. I'm ready to run into the hands of God - for him to speak to me as a daughter of the Victorious King. I'M READY FOR… ...JOY! ...LIFE! ...PERSEVERANCE! ...BELIEVING IN GOD'S GOODNESS AMIDST DESTRUCTION! ...LEADING! ...BELIEVING IN OTHERS WHEN THEY CAN'T SEE THEIR IDENTITY! ...VICTORY! | He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. I place my life into His hands, dying to my desires over and over, trusting as I lose this life, I am gaining Him. I'm learning there is always life in giving things to God and... This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. 1 John 2:25 |
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