Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14

There is a song that led me to this passage.
Here, Ezekiel has a vision in which he is in a valley of dry bones. Can you imagine being there? Yeah, pretty disturbing. Anyway, the Lord tells him to prophesy to the bones and eventually they rise up, now covered in flesh. Well, the bones aren't really alive because there was no breath in them. Eventually, the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath and eventually the breath entered the bones and now there stood an army.

I admit I read this multiple times and didn't really get it. I got that the dry bones were dead and God brought them back to life again by pouring his spirit on them. Honestly that's all that I thought it was. After some reflection, I realized that I'm probably somewhere in this valley of dry bones. There are a few instances when things feel a little hopeless. School, work, and life is a pretty heavy weight on my shoulders sometimes. Life can become dry like those bones.

Not just me, but I thought about how AAIV might be down there as well. We talk a lot about not overworking ourselves too much when we're serving, but I feel like we still do it. I know I do. I don't really know how much this has to do with the passage at all, but all I know is I don't want to see AAIV in the valley of dry bones. Wherever we all are, it doesn't hurt to remember that only God can breathe life back into us and transform us into an army just as he did to the dry bones. I look forward to retreat in hopes that God will use it to pour his spirit upon us so that we will rise up as an army. I like that he turned them into a vast army, not just a vast group of people, but an army. That's what I'd love to see in our leadership team and even all of AAIV.