LIFE IS HERE

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
(John 11:25-26 NASB)

I sat quietly at the Well. The darkness before dawn settled around me as I waited for Him whom my soul loves to come with His glory light and chase all the shadows away.

I shivered in winter’s chill and wrapped a soft throw around me, but it did nothing to melt away the circumstances that seemed to have piled up overnight like snowdrifts in a winter storm. It seemed life had come to a halt, as winter has a way of doing. My writing was especially being impacted. I would try to get going, but I couldn’t seem to get any traction, like trying to drive up a snow covered, icy mountain road without snow tires or chains – I was spinning my wheels and getting nowhere in a hurry.

I hoped people wouldn’t notice me in my “nowhere-ness”, but they did. People who cared about me began asking questions. I thought of a friend who had stopped by my office and commented about the lack of writing he had seen from me recently. I made excuses, but inside I cried out, “I’m stuck. I’m in this snowdrift and can’t get myself out.”

I began justifying my inactivity with “when” thoughts. “When the economy improves, then I’ll get moving. When the pain from this tooth infection is resolved then life can resume. When I have more time then I’ll write again.” When… there is no shortage of “when thoughts” in winter-ness of the soul. Life is up ahead somewhere, on the other side of the snowdrifts of circumstances.

It was then that I remembered a phrase from an advertisement for a housing development that I had noticed on a billboard just before Christmas. I remembered it had caught me by surprise and I had written it down in my journal to ponder. I turned to the page in my journal and read the words again.

Your New Life Is Waiting For You Just 15 Miles Ahead

“I am the resurrection and the life.” My heart looked up startled at the sound of His voice as He whom my soul loves drew near. Without even saying good morning, I blurted out, “Lord, I’m stuck!”

“Walk with Me,” He said. I knew He meant a walk together in His Word, and my heart quickened as He led me in all my “stuck-ness” to John 11. I love to read about the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Countless times the Lord and I walked together through this very place in His Word, and I would find myself standing just behind Mary and Martha, breathless as Jesus uttered the command, “Lazarus, come forth!” I waited quietly for the story to unfold before me.

“Lord?” I whispered. “It’s very dark. I can’t see anything.” There were muffled voices as though spoken from behind a barrier. I tried to focus in the darkness, and noticed the slightest hint of light several feet away, but something was blocking it. I squinted in the darkness toward the light. “Lord, it’s as if there’s something blocking that light over there. It’s like there’s a…that is to say, um, Lord, it’s like there’s a big rock in the way.”

The words seemed to hang suspended in the darkness as my thoughts raced. The Lord had shown me the story of Lazarus from many different perspectives. I had sat in the house broken and grieving with Mary. I had run to meet Jesus with all my “if only” thoughts with Martha. I had stood filled with questions in the crowd of onlookers. But never had I seen it from behind the stone of winter – in the darkness of the tomb with Lazarus.

My eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and I took in the walls of stone. I caught my breath as I spotted Lazarus wrapped in burial cloths. I put a hand over my nose as I recalled what Martha had said in response to Jesus’ command to roll away the stone, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench…” His voice interrupted my thoughts as He asked, “When did Lazarus come to life?” I sat very still thinking about the question. I’d always been on the outside watching for Lazarus to come struggling out, wrapped tightly in grave cloths. I had always thought of Lazarus as being alive when he came out of the tomb. “When did life come?” He asked again.

I was not at all sure of where His question was taking me. Suddenly loud scraping sounds filled the air as men pushed the heavy stone away from the opening, and light mixed with dust filled the tomb. Through the dust Jesus’ voice thundered, “Lazarus, come forth.” His words reverberated inside the tomb of stone. Then I saw it, the gentle, but unmistakable rise and fall of Lazarus’ chest beneath the strips of cloth. He was breathing. He was alive! “He came to life when You called His name, and told him to come out,” I whispered.

Everything came to a stop then, as though frozen in that moment. That’s the amazing thing about walking through God’s Word with Jesus; He stops at incredible places. Places just right for heart-to-heart conversations with Him—like now.

“Do you think Lazarus was having ‘when’ thoughts?” I could feel my eyebrows crinkle in the center as I looked at Him with question marks in my eyes. He directed my attention back to Lazarus as He asked, “Do you suppose that Lazarus thought to himself: when I get outside then I’ll start breathing? Did he lay there waiting to be unwrapped before he got moving?” His questions came steadily and I wrestled with the words He spoke.

Then, as though an unseen hand had hit the play button, the scene came to life again. Lazarus sat up and struggled to his feet. He began to move toward the entrance of the tomb. The way was difficult. He could only take tiny steps and moved his body side to side. The scene stopped again. “Tell Me, is he any less alive bound and struggling? Is his life waiting outside in the sun or once the grave cloths are pulled away?” The Lord asked. In response, my puzzled heart looked into the Teacher’s eyes as I said, “Lord, you could have caused the grave cloths to fall away the moment You called Lazarus to come out. He could have walked or even run from the tomb then.”

We sat quietly, and then the One who gave all for me said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” I sat very still pondering His words from His Word as the scene came to life once more. I watched as Lazarus struggled outside into the sun. He was still struggling when Jesus directed the people to unbind him and let him go. The scene came to a stop as something about it caught my attention. Ever since Jesus had commanded Lazarus to come out, he had been struggling, inching his way in obedience to Jesus’ word to him. Lazarus didn’t say, “Well, Lord, when you unbind me I’ll come out.” No, Lazarus, in obedience, struggled and inched his way out until he finally stood face-to-face with Jesus.

“What a joyful moment that must have been,” I mused. My heart looked into eyes that held memories of eternity past as I said, “Lord, Lazarus was your dear friend.” I felt His hand upon my heart then as He whispered, “You are My friend if you do what I command you.” I recognized His words from John 15:14, and they pierced my heart as I realized I was not doing what He had commanded me to do. I was all wrapped up in life’s circumstances. I was in effect saying, “Lord, I’ll get back to the work you gave me to do when you unbind me and let me go; when you take Your heavenly snowplow and clear out these snowdrifts of circumstances, I’ll write again.”

I suddenly felt very small as I recalled Jesus’ circumstances as He labored, barely able to stand, under the cross. He had struggled on the road, under the weight of the cross, under the weight of my sin. Sometimes He fell, but He struggled to His feet and inched His way, step by labored step, in obedience to the Father, on toward Calvary, where He poured out His life for me. “Oh,” was all I could say there in His Presence.

Then the One who named the stars looked deep inside my heart as He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” In His glory light the shadows disappeared and I could see what He was revealing to me. My heart looked up as I said, “My life in you is not dependent on circumstances. Help me to keep going even when things get difficult, and I feel stuck. Give me strength to keep pressing on in obedience, inch by inch, step by step, until the day I stand before You face-to-face and the circumstances of this world fall away in Your Presence.”

Back at the Well, we sat in sweet companionship in the quiet mist of dawn, and He shared words with me that He gave another friend of His named Paul to write down. 2 Corinthians 4:17. He personalized them just for me the way only He can, “Diana, do not lose heart, but though your outer person is decaying, your inner person is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for you an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while you look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Then He whispered, “Write.” I opened my laptop, the cursor flashed as though mocking me. I began to feel panicked, but then my heart nestled down at His feet and I worshiped Him. My fingers began tapping the keys, haltingly at first. Then letter by letter I began to write about the Word walk the Lord and I went on together, and those things whispered from His heart to mine. When I’d finished, I placed what I’d written in His hands, you know, the ones with deep dark places in the centers. “Well done,” He said and my heart smiled.

Then He touched the tops of the mountain peaks with soft hues of mauve and pink as the day began to wake up. I headed out the door, strips of circumstances still wrapped about me, but under all those circumstances was LIFE, glorious LIFE.


My dear friend, what circumstances have you “stuck” today? Take them to the Lord. Go with Him on a walk through His Word. He’ll stop you at all the right places, and give you what you need to press on. Sometimes you’ll run and sometimes the way will be hard. The circumstances wrapped around you so tight that you can barely move. He will strengthen you to keep walking in obedience to Him, step by step, until one day you step across heaven’s threshold and stand face-to-face with Jesus. The circumstances of this life will fall away, as Jesus wraps you in His embrace and whispers, “Well done. Oh, well done, my friend.” Joy!

An Original Conversation at the Well
By Diana Morgan
© Copyright February 2, 2011