LAMENTATIONS THREE AND TWENTY-TWO

Someone asked the other day,

"Since his mercies are new every morning....how can I find them?" 

It wasn't a question directed to me.

It was launched into the air on Facebook, 

             like a falling trapeze artist in search of a safety net.

It's a good question.

It cuts through the lofty ideas of our beliefs and scratches at 

REALITY.

God's gifts arrive new each day.  

Yesterday's supply is not meant for today.  

Remember, the manna went rancid in 24 hours.

The rub is that yesterday's worries and pain can still hang onto us day after day.

In other words they don't tend to fade from our thoughts without some form of resolution.

In short...Crud has a tendency to stick with us.

While hope and goodness has to be leaned into daily for it to feel fresh.

And why is that?  I think I might have an answer.

Not the only answer, just an answer.

A possibility.

He shouted, "Lazarus come forth!"

And out of the cave walked a man who had died a few days earlier.

Then Jesus said something that is often dismissed as a menial statement.

A job for the "clean-up crew."

He said, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Our spiritual enemy seeks to keep us STUCK in the "what has been" of our lives.

While Jesus typically calls us forward.

Not because the past doesn't matter, but because he has already dealt with it on our behalf.

It has been cleansed and covered.

So Jesus says things like:

"Go and sin no more."

"Then, feed my sheep."

"Come, follow me, and I will make you..."

And also, "Get rid of the grave clothes."

That includes everything that was part of the death experience.

Our actions, and the actions of others, the emotional pain and disease that led to the grave.

We need to leave that all behind and walk straight to Jesus.

He beckons
us forward and away from our private mire.

Every day.

In order to find the mercies that are new 

                                              EVERY MORNING.