Leaving Lo-debar

New Year’s Day 2024 dawned with the promises of new starts and resolutions. Yet, as I reflected on the state of the year left behind, I wondered at that growing, kicking child of strife and unrest silently waiting to emerge from the world’s contracting womb.

A glance out the window revealed a fog of environmental inversion graying the bright day. Trapped cold and polluted air dimmed the light and dulled my view, painting a misty picture…much like the world’s shifting from community to isolation to disconnect silently tries to permeate our lives.

Could it be the brightness of the New Year has been tarnished by a type of crippling, everyday PTSD from contentious political and media voices, the fracturing of families, the pressures of trying to stand and see clearly how to proceed in a challenging and laborious world?

In 2 Samuel 9, Lo-debar (meaning “not a pasture”), was a town east of the Jordan River where Mephibosheth, the crippled grandson of Israel’s King Saul, lived, not in his own home, but in the house of a son of a powerful Transjordanian tribal chief. King David, appointed by God to succeed King Saul, sought to restore Mephibosheth’s inheritance to him after his grandfather and father, Jonathan, died in war. David also offered him a permanent place at the king’s table.

Mephibosheth, considering himself “a dead dog,” was amazed the king would show him such kindness. Yet, to eat at the king’s table like one of the king’s sons, Mephibosheth had to leave Lo-debar, a place of desolation and turn his eyes towards the king.

When I try to catch my breath from the tiresome traumas of the past, and long for that place of everlasting peace, reconciliation, and the healing of whatever ails me, I, too, am called to leave my Lo-debar to come to the King’s table. Only then can any crippling of my soul, or the strife of the world, find healing, resolution, and relationship through the King’s invitation, made available through His only Son, Jesus Christ.

Can I let go offenses? Brave the steps through the fog? Leave my familiar cocoon of isolation to share community with other healing souls? Leave whatever diminished place I might be and take my seat in a place of favor? Accept such grace from the King? And dwell there? Or, do I choose to live as a spiritual orphan, refusing to come to God, my Father, who has provisions for every need?

In an increasingly messy milieu of a hurting world, the KING ABOVE ALL KINGS offers His presence. May each of us have the courage to accept His offer of kindness and saving grace. And like Mephibosheth, leave whatever is our Lo-debar to dine permanently at the KING’s table.

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Thank You, LORD, for rescuing us! Still our arms from flailing as You save us from drowning in our personal or worldly infirmities. Let us rest in the strength and assurance of Your embrace. Lift us from desolation, oppression, and offense into reconciliation, freedom, and acceptance. Thank You, LORD, for Your amazing Love and Grace, and for lifting us from every Lo-debar. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

2 Samuel 9:7-8, 11b, 13 NLT “Don’t be afraid!” David said. “I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king’s table!” Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, “Who is your servant, that you should show such kindness to a dead dog like me?”

11b “And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David’s table, like one of the king’s own sons.

13 And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king’s table.”

*Check out this inspirational read by Chad Norris (that prompted this post) for leaving your Lo-debar and coming to the King’s table. God bless you!

Your Mess is Your Message: How God Can Use Your Brokenness to Help Others.

https://a.co/d/1GAqRpw