Oriented.

Julia has just come back from leading a small women's retreat on wintering, with a friend who, like her, has carried a significant loss these past couple of years. Part of the weekend, she says, was the two of them stewarding their own experience of winter.

She brings home one word from it: orientation. The word comes from the sun rising in the east. So if you are turned toward the sunrise, you are properly oriented, even when it is dark as midnight. And tucked inside the word is a fact we skip: it was just night. Night is built into orientation.

Jesus says trouble and overcoming in one breath. "We exist in a state of chronic, oriented disorientation." We get up and strain to find east. We read another book, add another practice, try harder to pray. "What we do not have is silence." But you are not the subject of the sentence. God is. He is the grown-up in the room, and you are the child. Because you are in Christ, everywhere you face is oriented to him.

Scripture: John 16:33 and Psalm 130:5-6 (NIV). More at https://pickerill.casa

The Comfortable Words is written and recorded by Eric and Julia Pickerill.
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