Tangled
Back in March, I went to Kansas to sort through my childhood things and help my parents get their house ready to sell. While I was there, I found an old jewelry box full of various plastic beaded bracelets, butterfly rings, earrings with no mates, and many, many necklaces whose thin gold chains were knotted and tangled into a solid mass.
No matter how hard I tried, I could not get those knots untangled. There was no way to decipher where the problem began, and with every link that I would tug, the knot would get tighter. The mess would get worse.
Sometimes, I feel like those gold chains.
Sometimes, I feel like such a complicated jumble, there could never be hope for a solution. I cannot see where certain issues end, and where others begin. I am confused by my emotions, by my tendencies – and have no more understanding of myself than I do the infinite galaxies.
Last night in church, I found myself praying, “God, forgive me for… just… all that I am.” I didn’t even know where to begin, because I cannot pinpoint a beginning. All that I know is that a lot of the time, I’m a tangled, muddled mess – and I don’t know why.
Will it ever be resolved? Will I ever be resolved?
But then, I felt God press on my heart: “I know what you’re made of, and it is good.”
I see the mess. He sees the gold.
I see the knot. He sees a straight line.
I see the confusion. He sees the solution.
One day, the chains will fall loose. Everything will make sense. Everything will be made right. I believe it.
Because if I can be victorious in untangling a mass of gold necklaces using olive oil and a needle, then surely the God of the universe has a creative solution for the complexities of you and me.
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tags: Annie Parsons | Clarity | Desperate | Emotions | Faith | God | Hope | knot in gold chain
Amen.
amen sista friend.
Awesome analogy Annie, I think everyone can relate…but only you can write it so well and have so many people read it
This is beautiful Annie.
Until your last paragraph, I was going to suggest that your tangled chains would be the perfect opportunity to test out one of those “cash for gold” mail in schemes… =) (I guess the analogy there would be how much better we are when we allow ourselves to be untagled by the one who knows best than jump at the easy fix for worldly wealth…)
isn’t it mind-blowing that, for all what we’re ashamed of, he loves us for *all* that we are.
yes.
you have just spoken right into my life.
Dear Annie,
Once again, I cried to read your blog. I am crying as I write. You speak as if from my own experience, my own desperate heart, the tangled mess of life. And the word of God, which He spoke into you last night, is the only hope, and the most wonderful hope, and the most assured and guarantee of hope, in all the world. And once again you ministered to my sore heart.
Thanks, Annie. Isn’t it amazing when the children begin to take care of the parents.
Love, Dad
Beautiful blog.
Beautiful YOU.
Wonderful.
So many times my heart has been there. Is there still. And I believe right with you that someday it will all make sense and everything that feels upsidedown will be flipped right.
Beautifully and simply said.
You are a blessing to me, messy or not.
i LOVE this post. i’m so feeling this right now in my life. thank you for speaking truth, love!
beautiful. thank you.
and, we wear the horse necklace proudly!! Annie has a thank you from Hope for you.