EXPAND, CONTRACT, EXPAND

“I must decrease, He must increase,” John 3:30 ESV. These words from John the Baptist combined with the words of King David: “I will run the course of Your commandments, For You shall enlarge my heart,” Psalm 119:32, lead to an understanding of a powerful spiritual principle: Every new day requires both constraint and release, contraction and expansion. As a jellyfish moves through the water by expanding and contracting, so we move through life. This process is disconcerting to the uninformed, but to the spiritually awakened this routine becomes a welcomed process since it is a sign of forward progress. Unwillingness to accept necessary shrinkage or fear of expansion leaves us to simply drift along with the surrounding current, eventually casting us onto the dry shore. Lord, I love Your ways and praise You that You do not leave me trapped in stagnation. Open, close, I’m good with that. To what must I close today and to what must I open? LORD, You say.