Midlife As "The Valley Between"
“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”
Theologically, this Joel 3 passage speaks of the judgement of God. Here are the words of Barnes’ commentary on these verses:
“For the Day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision - Their gathering against God shall be a token of His coming to judge them. They come to fulfill their own ends; but His shall be fulfilled on them. They are left to bring about their own doom…”
So I might be contemplating, here, the deep similarity between midlife and the Joel 3: 14 conundrum…
Today, I heard a lecture by social scientist and NYT bestselling author Arthur Brooks. It was pointed out that our satisfaction - or lack thereof - with our relationships at age 50 is a singularly clear and concise predetermining factor of our quality of life at age 80.
Let’s look again at the commentary on Joel 3:14 - “Their gathering against God is (actually) a token of His coming to judge them…” (parenthesis mine)
IOW, their perspective - which in this valley place could not be reverse engineered - portended their own actual destiny. These in the valley thought that their dissatisfaction, by the sheer numbers of them that were “in agreement”, meant that they must be right. But from God’s vantage point, those who gathered in that valley of decision for the wrong reasons were foretelling their own doom.
In the light of Joel 3 and the results of Dr. Brooks’ research on quality of life IN midlife and into old age…
…some of us better be availing ourselves of the Mighty Gift of Repentance. (To repent simply means to “choose to think completely differently.”)
We absolutely cannot reverse engineer the sense of satisfaction we have/had in our relationships at any age, but particularly not at age 50-55. It was what it was, or it is what it is. We cannot pretend it away…not with God. Here is where repentance is as big a refreshing to our spirit as adding a new deck to the back of our home was to our outdoor “long table family-and-friends dinners”. (That deck was game changing. A joy-maker. It increased our ability to practice hospitality in every way. Our outdoor life is FUN, now. But it was hard, hard work…because we did it all ourselves. By choice. From tear-down, to re-build. What a metaphor is there, on the process of repentance, and the joy it brings when we get through it!)
Repentance is a gift.
We can choose to repent of our own dissatisfaction with our friends, church, spouse, or job. We can choose another perspective, and decide to (dare I say it?) love what is ours.
an image of a (sold) original depicting feminine youth and midlife - and the mentoring relationship
In natural terms, your happiness when you are old depends on doing (or having done) the right thing in the midlife “valley of decision” .
MY message is this: If you didn’t get it right, you still have time to fix it. But it will be hard work, it will take time, a few letters or phone calls, or face-to-face over coffee. It may take the act of circling way back, and sincerely apologizing.
None of those actions earn God’s favor. Of course not. What they do earn, however, is some all-important emotional resiliency, flexibility, and joy.
By choosing to “return to first love”, by activating the SHEER MIRACULOUS GIFT of being able to go back in time (through repentance) and “fix it” where you failed to love, means you get to flex and strengthen the very emotional muscles that you must have to thrive in your elder years.
(an image from a sketch tutorial found in my online class “The Women of Advent”)
Wherever I am unhappy now, foretells my quality of life in twenty years. However I find myself in my “valley of decision” will be the position God lets me keep - unless I change my mind. Unless I tear down and rebuild.
Wherever I am not loving what is mine to love right now, in the middle, in the valley of decision, is predicting the very areas where, in my old age, I will have either “real relationships” or “deal relationships” (based on “you do this for me, I do that for you”).
Your original design is to “go from strength TO strength” (which is also the title of Harvard lecturer and author Dr. Arthur Brooks’ new book). But to have that kind of lifestyle all the way into old age depends on the mysterious paradox of sovereign grace meeting your own initiative to do the work. Do the work of change.
May the Holy Spirit bring this home to every heart. Mine, above all.
The Trinity, In Trembling Words {...and art...}
I finished a 16x20” canvas last week.
On the subject of The Trinity.
“Three In One - An Invitation”
I know. WHO TACKLES that as her subject matter, for a painting?!
I do. Apparently, I do.
The painting sold right away. Even though the canvas has already shipped out (as of this morning), the words on my heart won’t go away. I am utterly captivated, challenged, and inspired by the truth that Elohim, the Godhead, is plural.
Our Christian God is Three In One, friends.
We are invited into the warmest, wisest, most winsome circle of friendship in the universe. The King is my friend. The Father loves me. The Holy Spirit is my closest companion, He advocates for me fiercely, and He is my comforter. Together, these three move as absolute one. They are my “mastermind” group - and it doesn’t cost me a dime. I can’t believe my grace and blessing.
I have not earned and do not deserve to be placed in Christ and thus drawn into THIS circle of fellowship.
Most of us have an unconscious image of God as a rather solitary being: omnipotent, omnipresent, omni-basically-everything.
While it is true that “the Lord our God is one”, and He IS Omni-all-the-things, He is enthroned in the heavens; I fear we have been well-taught that He is three in ONE, to the detriment of the truth that He is THREE in one.
Emphasis on the THREE.
If our subconscious paradigm is “God, the great omnipotent, rather solitary being, ruling on high” - we come away with a very different picture than that of “God existing as a circle of friendship, in wide-open community, and in joyful, loving fellowship for all eternity past.”
Suddenly the remote Throne becomes a circle of three, each one facing the other, each one loving the other, each one distinct as a person yet “as absolute one” in execution - each one honoring and listening, each one with creativity that The Three then make various plans to execute those creative ideas into manifestation.
Two very different concepts of God, so different as to affect who I am! I now stand on the second one. God in three Persons is the only paradigm that is utterly true to Scripture, and makes sense of the universe and my design.
Creation didn’t arise from the boredom of a solitary Being who craved worship. Creation came from The Three deciding to share all they are, and all they have, with those they would create. The goal of The Three has always been inclusion.
But here’s where it gets difficult for some: the inclusion MUST BE on their terms, not ours. Why? Because they cannot lie, they will not deny who each is and who they are, as One. Father, Son, Spirit. They are faithful to one another’s essence. We don’t get to make up gods or goddess, or even “one God, not three”, or pretend there are many paths.
What a joy to realize that the passage, the great Shema Yisrael, “the Lord is one” does NOT mean one in the sense of a singular number. It means one in function and eternal purpose and creativity. They have never been, will never be, at odds.
When you meet God’s desire to include you in THEIR life, with your utter belief in who He has declared Himself to be, coming to Him through Jesus the son, you are then placed IN Jesus (thank God for His vicarious act, dying as us, so that we could be raised as in Him - what a plan!) and drawn into the most wonderful, warm, wise, witty circle of friendship in the universe.
It’s beyond your imagination, the things that The Three have cooked up for you! (“…the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.”)
Truly, nothing is impossible with those Three. They have conspired as One to create and have a family of humans with all the rights of sonship given to Jesus - because He willingly became us so that we could be “as He is”.
“As He is, so are we IN THIS WORLD”. 1 John 4: 17
OH THE RICHES OF THE TRINITY!