Dirt by Mary MarantzSample

Day Five

Rising to New Life

Scripture: Galatians 2:20; Galatians 5:1; Philippians 1:21

At a certain point, you stop running.

Breathless and exhausted, you double over at the pain of a lifetime spent proving. You’ve run so hard for so long. You’ve gone so far out into the world, only to keep finding yourself back at the beginning. This one truth always clawing at your heels like the heavy chains you never asked to bear: no matter how hard you run, you can’t outrun you. 

So you crawl there for a while, panting through the pain, and then you curl up in surrender and rest your face on the cool, hard ground. Death to this old life you once knew. A dying of self to become a new thing—this time one with both roots and wings. 

“God, set me free of me.”

Your fingers find the dirt beneath you, and they dig in. You feel the earth at once soften and shake loose to welcome you, a new way in the wilderness taking root. A wild thing. Untamed. This vine that now carries you is no shackle. This vine is color and freedom and fire and dirt. You feel a new kind of strength coursing through you now. There is power now, and you rise. 

RISE. 

These scars and these wounds, these raw nerve endings still smoldering from the burn—you no longer hide them. Instead, you stretch out your limbs and you turn every one of them to the sky. You let the air get to them. A cool, gentle breeze that finally quiets the sting. And the shame, like ashes, falls away at once. Mere dust on the wind. 

From dirt it was born, and to dirt it shall return. 

You stand there, at last on solid ground, no longer running. And your broken, scarred branches become a worship song. They are raised high now. Unhindered, unrestrained, unembarrassed. You reach childlike open hands toward heaven. And you just sway there, gently at peace. Standing tall among the giants. You can breathe again, you can rest. 

At last, freedom takes root and comes home.

You know Who it is that holds you. Who has always held you. You were born a wild thing. And you are finally free. 

Questions: Why does surrendering to God lead to freedom? When have you experienced this in your life?