What they see is the financial strain, which they feel embarrassed about. What they see is their spouse’s battle with cancer. What they see is their child's learning disabilities and heartaches. They don't see their stories as somehow confirming larger movements. Here’s the dark twist––the stories all have enough differences that the people in them feel unique and rather alone in their situation. But then comes the next thing demanding their attention. But nevertheless, the demands keep coming and they find themselves awfully tired at the end of a week. These are mature saints, folks who know how to live responsibly, walk closely with God, and practice soul care. The effect is that these dear people are now running on very low reserves. The stories kept coming––folks navigating all sorts of challenges in their personal lives for months, perhaps years, as well as the global trauma and the warfare of the Hour which we’ve been talking about on our podcast and in these letters. Then I began hearing a number of stories from different people, each with unique circumstances but all with the same theme––life becoming so full and demanding they haven’t really any personal time to catch their breath. If we hadn’t, we would have been candles burning at both ends. But I’m very glad we at least had some breathing room built in. (So kind of God not to tell us what was coming, just to create some margin.) We created that margin…and then it got eaten by those unforeseen circumstances. So here’s what I have been sensing lately…Īt the top of the year, when Stasi and I were doing some listening prayer (asking Jesus his advance words for 2022 for us), one of the things he said was, “Defend margin.” We had a sense that we needed to make extra room in our calendar for unforeseen circumstances that were coming. I think that’s the single most helpful thing I can offer. Over the years, what I’ve tried to do with these letters is to share with you what I’m hearing from Jesus, and what I’m seeing unfold in the world, so that we all might walk more closely with him and strengthen ourselves with his strength in this Hour.
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