A Beautiful Life is a Life of Resurrection
The following posting is an excerpt from a soon to be released devotional book
A Beautiful Life by Gwen Faulkenberry. Look for it the early part of 2009.
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:24 nrsv
The theme of resurrection is the heart of Christianity. We stake everything on the fact that Jesus died for us and rose to live again. As a child, I grasped that truth and received salvation by faith. But it wasn’t till later I began to learn that the theme of Jesus’ death and resurrection is played out in our daily lives over and over as we grow in a relationship with God.
The biggest death I’ve ever suffered professionally was the loss of a job I loved. After changing my major from Biology to English, attending Law School, and teaching, I believed I’d finally found my niche when I was hired as a writer for a Christian company. I spent a year being trained, investing in relationships, getting perfect evaluations, and reveling in creative opportunities the position afforded. I thought I would work there forever. Then one day out of the clear blue sky I was called into a meeting and told that my position had been eliminated; I had two weeks to clean out my desk. My boss seemed truly pained to relay the information but there was nothing he could do. The company was downsizing.
I was crushed. Looking back now I can see that, among other things, I was very naïve. Clueless as to how the corporate world operated. But I was also about to learn an important spiritual lesson that would serve me well for the rest of my life.
A friend and co-worker met me outside after the meeting in which I was terminated. Our building was located near a field that bordered a wood, and there was a little path between the two. A fence separated the path from the wood.
We walked down the path in stony silence, both lost in a world of our own thoughts. Mine were a haze of pain and confusion, and I imagine his were focused on how to help. We sat down together on a bale of hay at the edge of the meadow.
I do not remember anything that was said as we sat there, but I remember looking up through my tears and seeing a deer standing in the meadow. It was looking at me with eyes that burned like coals. As my friend and I stared at the deer, it suddenly started running toward us, gliding, really, across the field. It seemed it might run right over the top of us, but neither my friend nor I felt afraid. Just to the side of the hay bale, it turned and leapt—no, soared—over the fence and disappeared into the forest behind us. My friend and I sat gaping in awe.
After a time, he spoke up first. “That deer is a sign to you, Gwen. I believe you are to view this experience of losing your job as that fence, and you are the deer. Soar past the death you feel today into the resurrection life God has for you, and do not look back.”
It took awhile for me to see any fruit from the seed that was planted that day. It had to die and be hidden in a dark place. It had to be watered, and sprout into a plant, and now that plant constantly has to be pruned. But the fact that you are reading this book today is proof of the resurrection that has taken place in my life.
God’s way with us many times is through death, but He never intends to leave us there. Jesus came to lead us in resurrection life, onward and upward.
