By Judy Villanueva
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
I watched my little grand daughter enter the swimming pool with a kind of excitement that spills out of children when they are enveloped in favorite things! Her smile reached out from the water with a gentle power that seemed to float over and declare the blessed truth that “There is a God and He is fun!” Suddenly, I saw her expression change as her foot left the last step and she could no longer touch the bottom of the pool! I knew her water wings would hold her up but she did not believe this and began to panic. Her body stiffened and what was magical a minute ago was now frightening. “You’re ok,” I assured her, “Your wings will keep you safe. Stay calm. Breathe.” How fast the shift can be from faith to fear, joy to panic — from freedom to the prisons that confine our hearts and dictate how we live and feel.
Where do you need some wiggle room? What are the places in your life where you feel stuck or confined? It might be an emotional pattern that leads to an outburst or shutdown. It might be a tight place where you find your heart narrowed or cut off from love. Has fear tightened its grip? Has despair closed in? We can usually put our finger on it by considering the circumstances where we feel hemmed in and without much power to be what we wish — the place where we lack freedom in Christ.
Freedom to trust God, freedom to love, and freedom to act from grace rather than out of the pressured places of worry, fear, and anger.
In moments of truth, how do we find the internal space to NOT DO what we usually do and DO something better instead? To be someone better, one moment at a time.
I love the story in John 18 where Jesus identifies himself to the soldiers, officials, chief priests, and pharisees who have come to arrest him. They ask, “Are you Jesus of Nazareth?” and when He declares, “I AM He” they all draw back and fall to the ground! The reality of Christ is powerful and it is in Him that we find our wiggle room!
The challenge is to notice what has come to arrest our freedom and then to pause and pray for His power and a little space to do and be something better!
I want to live OUT OF the reality of the great I AM, don’t you? I want to stop in front of the tight places of my life and take a deep breath! I want to confront confinement and speak truth to my heart. “There is a God and He is mighty!” I want to trust that His wings will hold me up and give me the courage and power to live free.
“Lord, help me live the reality of the great “I AM”. Thank you for your commitment to my freedom! Be my strength and courage and wiggle room in the tight places. Amen.”
What about you?
Where do you need some wiggle room to live differently?
What are the places in your life where you feel stuck or confined? Where you feel locked into one way of being?
Does fear or worry ever steal your freedom?
What might it be like to live out of the reality of the great “I AM”?
Worship
What a great way to use the term wiggle room.
Always fun to read your Listening for Love Blog. I think of (Wiggle Room) like a shutter that hits all parts of your body. The fear is alarming and causes us to freeze up. But we have that option to call out for the strength from within, that wants us to face the circumstance with risk and trust.
I do love this one. Thanks for taking the time to pen ordinary words that God breathes on. “Your wings will keep you safe” are powerful and straight from the heart of God ❌❤️❌❤️
I love this Judy! I battle all the things you wrote about. Thank you!
Love, love, love this! So true.
I sure could identify with the wiggle room this past year 20l9…As I get older, I experience
little difficulties of life, but last yearI got a physical wallop that made a simple thing like walking all most unbearable, but life goes on, and God with His love, grace and blessings resolved it, and I am again walking, and the world is still turning.
This is so wonderful! and the questions are so appropriate for not only starting off the new year but the new decade … your question stated a tad differently is:
Where do you need some wiggle room to live differently in 2020?
Your blog prompted a memory from the early 2000’s… it’s a quote (by someone?) that said: “Poverty isn’t the state of not having, it’s the fear of not getting, that causes you to hold on tight and not let go of your God given generosity.”
One last thought about fear… After 400 years of silence, the first words spoken to humanity from heaven was “Do not be afraid!” Spoken by Gabriel to Zachariah in Luke 1. I think that’s so fitting that for us, as fearful humans, the beginning of the New Covenant starts with “Don’t be afraid, your prayer has been answered” … so … Calm down! … I bring good news … man I love this stuff!!
Thanks for your blog to remind me of all of that!
Brother