"I delight greatly in God, my soul rejoices in Him..." (Isaiah 61:10)
My first week of university my flat went to do a pub quiz, we walked as a group and the whole way there I was focusing on saying something funny, interesting, and trying to ask good questions. I was pretty nervous and so focused on the people around me that I didn’t realise I was about to become very good friends with a lamppost. It knocked me to the ground and I spent my first couple weeks of drama school with a face bruise and an embarrassing story. It was horrible.
I was so fixated on the people around me I had completely lost sight of where I was going.
In this time there is so much that could grab our attention- news, statistics, social media and good things too, the vaccine, family, coronavirus memes. But if we become fixated on these things we become in danger of walking into a metaphorical lamppost and being knocked to the ground by life. Maybe you already feel like that, like the past 12 months have taken it out of you, you feel like me as a fresher lying on the pavement with a pounding head.
The good news is that our souls weren’t made to rejoice in the things of the world, our minds also aren’t meant to despair as the world does. We know one in which our soul can rejoice fully, safely, eternally. As we fix our eyes on Jesus, train our souls to look to him for our fulfilment, lay the despairs of the world at his feet, he makes our paths straight. We will still go through the ups and downs of life, in and out of lockdowns and who knows what else will come our way.
But through it all we can rejoice in him, our eyes fixed on our eternal destiny and the things of earth really will grow strangely dim as we fixate on his glory, grace, and magnificence.
We invite you to join us as we journey slowly and prayerfully through Isaiah 61 - line by line over forty days.
