What Does This Mean?

Driving home from volleyball  at 1:30 am, I wondered if there was a blog post in me. Is there another song and Bible verse that had touched me and helped me lately? Nothing came to mind, so I decided that when I got home I would just get ready for bed and do my nightly devotion.

As I read the thoughts for June 16th in "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young, I had to keep rereading the words of the second paragraph. It was about following a path. God will take each of us on our own unique journey; what works for one person may not work for me. What works for me may not work for others, so I should not feel overly proud of my own choices and push them on others, while I also should not feel shame or regret if what works for others doesn't work for me. God has designed a unique path for each of us to take.

But then I got to the final sentence. It has the words from Micah 6:8 in it: "act justly, love mercy, walk humbly." What does that mean? (How very Lutheran of me to ask this!) How do I apply that to my journey?

See, I had just determined, while reading prior sentences, that whatever happens in this journey I'm on, whether it's endometriosis and treatable, cancer and treatable, or cancer that is untreatable, whatever lies before me, I'm going to honor God through this journey and praise Him through this. And then of course this song by Lauren Daigle came back to me. I'd thought about it earlier today as something that I might incorporate into a future blog post.

But what does it look like to honor and praise God in the midst of this, while also walking humbly, acting justly, and loving mercy? So I decided that I should look up some of those words to get a better picture of what they mean so that I can integrate this into my journey. Here's what I found on dictionary.com.

Humble: to not be proud

If I'm walking humbly through this process, I'm not honoring myself and boasting how great I am, instead I am praising God for how good He is. NO MATTER WHAT. Hmmm... I can do that. It might be hard at times to remember to praise Him when things are tough or if the diagnosis is scary, but I can definitely work on growing in that area.

Just (root of justly): righteous; guided by truth, reason, and fairness; in accordance with standards

Acting justly in this process I will be guided by God's word (truth), and doctors (experts who will tell me the truth about the situation), and my own reason about what is best for me. I will treat the diagnosis according to standards I have for my overall health and well being, while being guided by professionals.

Mercy: an act of kindness, compassion, or favor

Ahh.... this I can do! I can treat myself with compassion and kindness during this journey. Treating myself, and others, with compassion is something I have worked very hard at over the last few years and I've made great progress. Now it will be time to really put this new skill to work. I can do this.

Hmmm... these are some interesting things to ponder. Even if God chooses to not "move the mountains I'm needing Him to move", I can walk humbly, act justly, and love mercy to bring Him glory through all of this.