Focus

I seem to be a bit emotionally unstable this week. I mean, I probably shouldn't be moved to tears by the fact that my husband wants plain grits instead of my creative twist, or by the fact that I accidentally dropped a pound of sausage on the floor. Right?

I'm guessing that my hormones are going a bit wonky right now. Spring has sprung; we've had one gorgeous sunny day after another this week; the garden is coming along; there's a lovely green haze showing up in the trees, etc. All great reasons to be cheerful and springy myself! And mostly, I am. Just seem to be extra emotional and set off far too easily.

Now, for me, realizing that it's likely my hormones is NOT an excuse. It is an alert, a wake up call. It tells me that I need to get grounded in Truth and focused on Him. To paraphrase Amy Carmichael, a cup of sweet water won't spill out bitter water, no matter how you jostle it. And my water needs some sweetening.

So, here's to getting refocused and grounded. And what a great day for it... Good Friday, when we turn our eyes to Calvary (where they should be every day).

I've been thinking on Isaiah 53 this morning:
(1) Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
(2) For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
(3) He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
(4) Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
(5) But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
(6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
(7) He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
(8) By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
(9) And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
(10) Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
(11) Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
(12) Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

And 1 Peter 2:19-25:
For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. (20) For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. (21) For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (22) He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. (23) When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. (24) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (25) For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

I was also thinking of this hymn this morning:

Oh, my Saviour crucified,
Near Thy cross would I abide,
Gazing with adoring eye
On Thy dying agony.

Jesus bruised and put to shame,
Tells me all Jehovah's name;
God is love I surely know,
In the Saviour's depth of woe.

In His spotless soul's distress,
I have learnt my guiltiness;
Oh, how vile my low estate,
Since my ransom was so great.

Rent the veil that closed the way
To my home of heavenly day,
In the flesh of Christ the Lord,
Ever be His name adored.

Yet in sight of Calvary,
Contrite should my spirit be,
Rest and holiness there find,
Fashioned like my Saviour's mind.
~Robert C. Chapman~