Ambidextrous.

Ambidextrous. The word is defined as being “able to use both hands equally well.” I don’t know if I fit that exact definition when it comes to the word “equally,” but I’ve always been quite proud of my ability to do things with both hands. To use that as an adjective that describes me in any of those "get to know you" games. Though I’m a left-handed writer, I learned as a child to eat with my fork in my right hand, so as to avoid awkwardly bumping the elbow of the person sitting next to me at the table. As a schoolgirl, I got sick of looking for the one pair of lefty scissors in the bin during art class, and have cut with my right hand for as long as I can remember. And though I’m not all that stunning to watch in a game of baseball, I catch much better with the glove in my right hand.

It was not until recently that I have seen the meaning and the challenge of that very word in spiritual matters. I’m reading an incredible book called A Grace Revealed, which is the sequel to the very best book on grief that I’ve laid my eyes on, entitled A Grace Disguised. A Grace Revealed is all about the story of redemption that our Father is constantly writing.  In the book, a spiritual hermit from long ago named Abba Theodore is quoted:

     “This power we also can spiritually acquire, if by making a   
      right and proper use of those things which are fortunate, and
      which seem to be on the “right hand,” as well as those which
      are unfortunate and as we call it “on the left hand.”

You see, God is able to use both prosperous times and times of adversity to advance His purposes. He remains faithful and true throughout both, working through both prosperity and adversity to show His redeeming power. But the secret, I’m finding, is in something that is much harder for me to submit to – being spiritually ambidextrous. Being willing to surrender to both the good and the bad, the easy and the hard, and letting Him develop me into a person who can go through both still willing to trust and obey Him.

         “We shall then be ambidextrous, when neither abundance nor want
     affects us, and when the former does not entice us to the
     luxury of a dangerous carelessness, while the latter does not
     draw us to despair, and complaining; but when, giving thanks to
     God in either case alike, we gain one and the same advantage
     out of good and bad fortune.”
            (John Cassian, in The Conferences of John Cassian: The Wisdom of the Dessert)

I'm convicted.  It looks like I’ve got a whole lot of submitting and praising to do to be able to use both sets of circumstances equally well for the glory of God.

Just something I’m chewing on today…