Slow Dancing with Shadows

Do you ever find yourself grieving over something you feel like you will never have?

I call it "shadow dancing". 

It's like holding a loss -- a shadow --  in your embrace and allowing despair to slowly waltz you across a crowded room (to really sad music) where everyone else seems 

lovely and happy. 

Embedded Lies

There are so many lies in that picture -- where many of us choose to live (or at least visit on occasion).

Lie #1: The "shadow" that we feel we were denied often defines the quality of our lives. 

For example, if you didn't get the family you wish you'd had, you may feel irrevocably deprived and marred for life. But that's just not true.  Everything that is in our lives is part of God's mysterious tapestry.

I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. (Colossians 2:2 The Message)

Lie #2: The good things on this earth that you feel you were denied are not as meaningful as you tell yourself. 

Our citizenship is not really here on earth. We are meant for so much more -- and justice will prevail because we worship a just and loving God. Your day will come in the future when all will be made right. But why wait?! You can actually fast-forward your thinking and go there now! Embrace where you are and what you have, finding the purpose and meaning that God has for you now. Claim your gift in the shadow of an unchanging God who loves you.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17)

Lie #3: God loves and blesses other people more than He loves and blesses you.

Nothing could be further from the truth. All through Scripture, God demonstrates His favor on people who are wounded and broken. Especially on wounded and broken people! Use what you have -- the good and the bad to find HIM. Shadows are pointers to the Light.

Shadows are Created by Light.

Instead of grieving the shadow loss, see it as just a vague representation of the blinding light that is surely yours if you know God. There is a perfect shadow to live under that provides the love you crave, freedom from the fear that may plague you, and the protection and comfort that is yours because Jesus took all that suffering for you. So stop borrowing it back and step into the Light of His Presence.

"Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the  

Shadow of the Almighty."  (Psalm 91:1)

I have a song for everything: "In the Shadow of the Cross" worship video (artist unknown).