He Leads Me into A Spacious Place

I was once part of a group meditation where the speaker asked us to envision a beach or a waterfront, and a wide open sky, to hear the sounds and smell the air and notice how the sky is big and vast enough for all of our thoughts and fears and pains. Together but alone each of us envisioned this spacious place where the was room for all of our thoughts and feelings and hurts, with all their complexities and contradictions.  There was room for us, and others, and life, just as we are.

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18 vs 16-19

Life and fear and brokenness can often feel like a very small place, no? Tight and constricted we squirm under the weight of our struggles. Our hopes and hurts bump into each other as they frantically circulate in the small space we find ourselves. Time seems scant and our breath feels heavy and we feel that our troubles fill up every ounce of us.  Our hearts find themselves claustrophobic in our chests.

But the Lord brings us into a spacious place.

World events, personal struggles, life itself feels stifling.  We find ourselves in small places where the walls are closing in and we can't quite catch our breath, we are bound and our options seem few.   We ball up our fists and we sink low into ourselves.

But the Lord brings us into a spacious place.

Friends, I don't need to tell you what your tight spaces are.  You know. 

Addiction is a very tight space.
Illness is a very tight space.
Poverty, grief, loneliness and fear are tiny tiny spaces.

But God leads us into spacious places.

He draws us out of the deep waters where we are surrounded on every side by a pressure we cannot control. He moves us into spacious places where there is room for us and others and life and brokenness, where our hopes and fears have room to breathe. And He meets us there. 

He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

from KELLY ORIBINE .COM
http://www.kellyoribine.com/2016/11/he-leads-me-into-spacious-place.html