I’ve been writing this in my journal a fair bit lately – nothing is at it should be. The phrase has become my touchstone when my idealism and longings crash into reality and what is right in front of me.  This touchstone serves as a stabilizer, not erasing my idealism but providing evidence that there is an eternity being manifested even now through every longing for things to be as they should be.

I heard a great message last week about waiting for our hope eagerly; with anticipation.  As I pondered that this week, I grasped that this does not call us to endure what is now, but in the now, to be ever watchful for the harbingers and tokens of eternity that are popping up all over the place.  In the midst of all that is not as it should be, we get glimpses of God’s invitation to long as he does for the fulfillment of all of his promises.

So today, when I received an email telling me a group was not in a position to support an initiative my organization is trying to spearhead in Guatemala because they are trying to first meet their commitment to an initiative in Niger, I heard the invitation to trust God with our need and check out what he was doing in another place.  As I did, I was so excited by what was happening that I emailed those leading the ministry on the ground to find out how their work could be supported.  In the midst of things so not as they should be in Niger, God is shining his light and bringing an opportunity for self-sustaining lives of dignity and faith; he is bringing eternity into the present.  Check it out for yourself and consider giving to support what they are doing:  http://nvoc.ca/about-us/

As I broaden my thoughts beyond this one situation to the overall picture of my life, what I once thought of as only the pangs of loss, I have now come to understand to also be the longings for a time when all will be as it should be: when the crossing of borders will no longer mean war; when the meeting of strangers will no longer mean one overpowering the other; when the rhythms of relationships will no longer include us being broken, wounded and wondering if we will ever stop being afraid of one another; when we will invest all that we have and are and will have no thought to what we get out of it or what we need to protect.

…

I met with a friend this week, to share a vision and to invite her to consider how she might be a part of it.  The meeting was rooted in remembering her words many years ago as she, in a moment of angry frustration with me, shared her deepest dreams.  I never forgot her words, and now I was in a position to bring them to the fore and maybe do something about them.  She was excited at the possibilities, and that I had even remembered her dream.  At a time when nothing was as it should be between us, a dream burst forth from her lips and landed in my heart, and years later we had come full circle, giving witness to the lessons learned, the reconciliation won, and the opportunity to dream together.  Isn’t this too, a token of eternity – evidence that we are on its threshold?

I think so.

And this is what keeps me grounded when my longing for things to be as they should be starts to feel a little too overwhelming, and I can ask for eyes to see the “pop-ups” and tokens that what I long for is not unrealistic at all; in fact my longings fall short of all that God has in mind.