Old Wineskins

I am watching my dog die.

It is painful to mourn things before they happen, but for some reason, God has me in this season right now.

I am mourning his death. I am mourning the imminent loss of several of my closest and dearest friends from church; they are not dying, but they are moving away. I am mourning the loss of dreams for an outreach to the hungry, to the destitute, to those that need Christ -- the death of a vision which now seems never to be going to come to pass. And now a big hole yawns before me...an unexpected chasm that only the Cross of Jesus Christ can navigate...

But wait, what's that the Holy Spirit is speaking?...

Even now, I am rejoicing at my continuing death -- the Surgeon's knife carefully carving this way and that until He finally begins to uncover His heart in me...I am rejoicing that somehow, someway, all this will lead to a fuller revelation of Him, both to myself and to others. I am rejoicing because death of anything that is in me means glorification of the Cross, in which I command my flesh to be solely glorified...I am here, Lord, do with me as You see fit! I will trust you, and rejoice in who You are!