Day 111 - Blown opportunity
Scripture focus: I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all - oh, how well I remember the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left. God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. Lamentation 3:19-25 The Message
Yesterday's devotional recounted a story of a friend I once had with a penchant for whining. We were both really young at the time, and I don't think I was a very good friend to her. I saw her whining as being "unwilling" - but I think there was more to the story. I think my friend believed that she was to blame for all her "lostness" - and solely responsible for finding the solution. Alone, she couldn't get from the problem to the solution. And soon, she simply gave up and started to whine. In hindsight, what she needed was permission. She needed permission to tell the truth. Before she could remember and get a grip on hope, she first had to acknowledge that she had hit bottom.
"All God wants to do is to take you where you cannot go alone and make you what you cannot be alone. You were not created to live your life absent of God. There is a dream for your life you can't even begin to imagine without God. Without him you are settling for less. If you were meant to fly, not even running really fast is that impressive. You can spend your whole life trying to become what your soul longs for without God. You might resent him that he's made it so hard for you to live out your dreams or fulfill your destiny. It's never quite hit you that it's in the struggle, in the process, even in the search for God, that he is making you strong enough o take flight." Soul Cravings, Erwin McManus, entry 25, Destiny.
I wish I could have done more for my friend than act like a mirror for her misery. I wish I had known that what she needed, and ultimately desired, was for someone to renew her hope.
Hitting the bottom happens when we run down the road of trying to please God, rather than taking the perilously dimly marked trail of trusting God. My friend tried to please God as a wife and mother, and ended up feeling helpless and hopeless when her expectations weren't fulfilled. (Seeking to please always carries with it the unwritten rule that if we please, someone else will return the favor.)
Trusting God with our troubles, lost ways, burnt dreams, and poisonous perspectives isn't for the faint of heart. Fortunately, God is in the business of heart renovation.
Recommended reading: Joshua 20 and 21 in the morning; Luke 20 and Psalm 89 in the evening
1 comment:
Interesting devotional. My wife recently commented to herself one afternoon while I was grumpy "that we should not judge someone by the sound of their pain". That turned into an ahh haw moment for me and will put that quote to good use going forward. The sound is nothing more than a symptom and should raise our antennae.
Just a thought on something timely. It is good to be back in the HUT.
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