Hurrah! Now what?

Today's readings: Psalms 135, 145; Genesis 8:6-22; Hebrews 4:14-5:6; John 2:23-3:1

Imagine you are a member of Noah's family. You've been inside the ark for 150 days. What once seemed like an enormous structure has shrunk to feel cramped and confining. The smell of animals and their trappings permeates your clothes and hair. After 5 months maybe you have begun to wonder if you will live to see the waters recede or if you are really in a floating tomb. But the day you've been hoping for has finally arrived: a dove has returned with evidence of dry land. Today is the day you get out.

As the cover is pulled back and the door opens you are giddy with excitement, but before long that feeling fades and others replace it. After months at sea, your legs are unsteady on land. Sunlight you haven't seen in months feels good on your face, but is blinding and disorienting. The family you love but desperately want some time away from insists on gathering together to praise God and plan the next steps. The world is bright and new, yet it's a little ... disappointing.

Reaching a goal can raise us to an emotional high, but afterward it may also leave us feeling empty. Ready for renewal and transformation, we discover we need to take a little time to steady ourselves and gain our bearings. We are satisfied to complete our project, to graduate, to retire, to give up that bad habit, or to start that new routine. The Bible is full of stories of abrupt transformations, so we may be disappointed to learn that even the biggest events of our own lives are made of ... baby steps.

When we are reborn in Christ - however many times that may happen - we learn to crawl again before we learn to run again. Freedom from an addiction happens one day at a time. Forgiving others is a gradual release. Commitments to daily prayer are often a series of initial setbacks. Healing is followed by the tedium of rebuilding a life one block at a time.

A little emotional letdown is not a sign of failure or insignificance, but part of the process. One day we will remember back to the moment the ground became solid under our feet, and appreciate each step it made possible to take afterward.

Evening readings Psalms 97, 112