I’m honored to invite my friend, fabulous poet and blogger Kelly Belmonte, to share what God has been speaking to her heart lately — a profound truth we can all take to heart today:
A million years ago, back in my college days, there was this song I liked to sing. It went like this:
He has shown thee, Oh man,
What is good and what the Lord requires of thee,
But to do justly
And to love mercy
And to walk humbly with thy God.
Based on Micah 6:8, that song (and scripture) has stuck with me over the years as an important reminder of what I need to do whenever I feel I’ve lost my way.
These days – eons later – I find myself reflecting on… well, a lot. I used to say that age doesn’t matter; it’s just a number, and I wouldn’t be one to freak out as I reached certain decades. But the truth is, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise (as Grandma used to say), I will reach fifty in under four months, and I am not ready.
You might even say that I’m freaking out. A bit.
Things are not as they used to be. That is a fact. For example, it used to be I didn’t ever worry about what I ate. The word “diet” was simply not in my vocabulary. Those days are gone. Over the past three years, I’ve put on over 10 pounds, which may not sound like much, but I’m not super tall, and I refuse to buy new clothes. So, it’s awkward.
The only thing that has changed is my age. My older friends smile gently upon me in shared sisterhood, as if to say (sometimes literally saying out loud), “We’ve all been there, my friend. You just have to work harder as you get older.”
But the thing is, as you get older you have less energy, so working harder is actually… harder.
In many other ways I’m not where I thought I would be as a “grown up.” I mean, almost fifty means I’m really an adult now, right?
Yet I’m still caught clueless about many basic things, and as I get older, it’s more embarrassing to admit it. So, that’s awkward, too.
That’s the context of my life right now. Not horrible, just awkward.
Recently I’ve revisited Micah 6:8, because in some ways I feel I’ve lost my way. While reviewing it in various translations (thanks, BibleGateway.com!), I found something unexpected. Here’s how it reads in the NIV:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
Right out of the gate, I’m given a fresh look at this familiar passage. He has shown something to me, a mortal. I am mortal. I am not a god.
From that understanding follows the understanding that the Lord God, who is immortal, calls the shots. He requires certain things of me.
That’s it.
Sometimes my behavior suggests a kind of amnesia: I’ve forgotten who I am in relation to the Most High God. I’ve forgotten what He has done for me. When I have lived with injustice, lacked mercy, and walked proudly, I am under a profound delusion. I have forgotten that I am mortal, and only by the amazing grace of God do I have the hope of eternity.
Then something happens – like a Gibbs slap on the back of my head – to wake me up to that “oh crap” realization that I am in way over my head.
But instead of resting in His mercy, I get busy thinking I can buy myself back into His good graces – buy back His love:
I’ll get fit, yeah that’s it; no wait, how about I get up earlier every day to read more scripture, yeah, that will do it; yes, that plus eating more nutritiously of course; give more to my favorite charity; volunteer regularly at the local food pantry – sure to be a winner.
And then the second Gibbs slap – He’s shown you what is good, already! Sure, all those other things are beneficial, but doing them as a payment makes a mockery of the Great Purchase that was made for me already at the cross.
Justice, mercy, humility. Stop making this more complicated than it needs to be, Belmonte. He has shown you, woman-mortal. Fifty is going to come and go. Just do this thing.
Walk with God.
He’ll continue to show you the way.
Kelly Belmonte, is a poet, blogger, and management consultant with expertise in nonprofit organizational development and youth mentoring. Kelly expounds whenever and wherever she gets the chance on poetry, writing, and the creative process. Her work has been published in Relief Journal: A Christian Literary Expressionand Atlas Poetica. She is honored to have her poem “How I Talk To God” selected for inclusion in The Word in the Wilderness (2014) edited by bestselling poet Malcolm Guite. Kelly also contributed a chapter to Women and C.S. Lewis (2015), a collection of interviews and essays on the theme of Lewis and women in his life and writings. Kelly’s two poetry chapbooks, Three Ways of Searching (2013) and Spare Buttons (2014), are published by Finishing Line Press. She blogs at All Nine.
