new life.

here we are: celebrating this beautiful Easter season. and in many ways, i’m still reveling in and sitting with a line in particular that came to me over Lent: something [or someone] must die in order for new life to be born…

it’s an uncomfortable truth, isn’t it? yet we witness that truth in our lives in a variety of ways.

i pray for humility and, therefore, my pride must die. i desire more quiet and peace in my life and, therefore, i must name and let die the distractions that have come to invade my life over time. i desire to be made new + He gently walks me toward parts of me that must die. i want Him to take my stoney heart from within me + give me His own heart - so He begins, with the permission i’ve given Him, to prune what He must. to lay waste to what ought to go so that i may grow more into who He created me to be.

little deaths, every day.

and the result?

little buds that exist only because of those deaths that came first.

it is my knowledge of and love for Him that anchors me, despite the discomfort that dying is.

what exists in my life that i refuse to let die? what do i cling to, hands clenched, that i am too afraid to allow His lead in? where in my life might God be inviting to me to surrender + lay my desire for control at His feet?

these questions were my prayer this Lenten season. and little by little, with a desire to trust Him wholeheartedly, the dying came. the little deaths in the little, ordinary moments we all experience in our day-to-day. and the Holy Spirit lit the way.

as we celebrate this Easter season, i’m clinging to the Truth that holiness cannot be obtained on our own. our sanctification rests on the help of the Holy Spirit and it is in our YES’s - in our letting go, in our surrendering, in our willingness to trust and have faith, in our little deaths - that we make room for more of Him in our lives. and where He is, there is love. peace. joy. gentleness. patience. goodness. faithfulness. self-control. FREEDOM.

that’s where i want to be. it’s where we were all created to be: freely surrendered just as Jesus was on the Cross. not because death was the final word, but because He is The Way to new life - to Resurrection. to new buds. to light. to the Fruits of the Spirit. to Love.

i pondered and prayed through what exactly “the death of God” meant for me for days. and His death always is and will always be an invitation to follow, to freely give myself just as He did, to surrender all of me for the sake of the new life He promises. the death of God makes the little deaths we each face in our day to day meaningful. purposeful. impactful. unwasted.

when we surrender + let die what He invites us to - we find new life, always.

SCB.