“Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error,
change – this is the rhythm of living.”
“What is this?” I asked one of my good friends as we were in a gift store the other day.
“It is a Rosary,” she said.
“I’ve seen these, but how does it work?” I said with curiosity.
She went on to explain that every perfectly sized bead represents a prayer of declaration. There are knots in the Rosary, and also gaps to cue you what to do next.
It was fascinating and I wanted to hear more.
“The gap between the beads represents the Lord’s Prayer.” She continued.
At the bottom of the Rosary was a cross with Jesus’ body symbolic of the sacrifice He made for us.
What a beautiful symbol of declarations and our relationship with the God!
As I was driving home, I was thinking about what my personal Rosary would look like. The way the Rosary would look like to represent my daily experience with God.
Would it be neat and tidy and precise as the one I saw in the store, or would it have different size beads, more knots, and lots of gaps in between?
As I think about my life as a Rosary is would be more of the latter.
My beads would be different sizes, some would be perfectly round while others would be very uneven. There would be many knots in mine along with varying gaps of different lengths in between.
The smaller beads would represent those times when I only spend a couple minutes focusing on God. Those times when I say a quick prayer and then run out the door for work. Or when I only read one Scripture just to say I did it that day.
The bigger beads would represent those times when I spend huge chunks of time reading the Bible and meditating on what it is saying. Or researching what I’m reading on the Internet to get more details of the history behind what I’m reading.
The uneven odd shaped beads represent those times I’m in worship when sometimes it just flows and sometimes it feels like I’m only singing a song. The ebb and flow of worship can be quite uneven at times.
Then there are those gaps…
The gaps in time when it has been days since I picked up my Bible or spent any time with God. When the tyranny of the urgent got the better of me.
Or gaps in time when I feel God drops something in my spirit and then walks away for me to think about it
…like a Selah moment.
And what about those knots?
The knots represent those lies that I believe that simple are not true and trip me up in my relationship with a loving Heavenly Father.
I went to a Bible study for a long time with a good friend of mine and she said we were in a season of ‘untying the knots’ in our lives. It was an incredible time where God was untying those false believes that had kept us bound.
Finally, there is the cross at the bottom with Jesus on it as a sacrifice of all that He has done for us.
My personal Rosary would probably have the Trinity represented at the bottom.
Some days I feel the love of the Father or a soft reprimand. Some days it is the still small voice of the Holy Spirit guiding me in decisions that I need to make, or comforting me through a tough situation.
Other days it is Jesus siting at my dining room table waiting for me to spend some time with Him.
Whatever your background, your ‘life Rosary’ may look quite different.
One is not right over the other.
It just is…
Your relationship with God is not a little package tied up with a very pretty bow, but a very real and diverse experience.
The diversity is what makes it so beautifully personal.
Today put another bead on your ‘life Rosary’ that you normally don’t do.
Maybe it is being more expressive in worship, or getting out in nature to thank God for some of the beautiful things in your life.
Or it could be getting your eyes off your phone and paying attention to the person in front of you in line at the store and asking God quietly what He says about them.
Whatever it may be, put a different bead on your personal narrative today.
“Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”
Isaiah 43:19 (MSG)
One fateful decision landed me smack in the middle of my own Wilderness…
Though I was obeying God’s voice, I spent the next several years “walking on water,” even though it felt more like I was treading water. A Journey Out of the Wilderness is for people going through a rough time—a Wilderness experience—where you feel as though you are “down for the count” and ready to give up. Wilderness Wanderers feel as though they are doing laps around the mountain, passing the same tree over and over again wondering, “Will this never end?” However, being in the Wilderness will be one of the most transformational times of your life.