"I sure hope this isn't how it's all going to go!"
How many of us haven't said that.....as a trip begins.....as Monday dawns....as something breaks, goes wrong, doesn't happen. We hope it doesn't continue that way.
After surrendering my key and departing Cornerstone at 2:30 on Wednesday, I was off to do a good deed for a young couple who live nearby. A few hours later Stephanie comes home announcing this condition of my car:
"I sure hope this isn't how the whole
Sabbatical is going to go!"
But Lord, I did a good deed and this happens! I was serving, don't I get a little protection? We can all too easily go down that path. If I do something good then goood things should happen in my life. When bad things happen, was it then because I did something bad?
I've found life doesn't follow any kind of predictable pattern, especially not one that I can control. And O, how I love to be in control! Life happens and reminds me I'm not in control. I can't make things go my way. I can't fix things I'd like to fix.
Paul reminds us many times in the Scriptures that life is not predictable, it is not easy, that there is no equality of good bringing good and bad bringing bad into our lives. Life is full of difficult and unplanned circumstances. But there's another side to the story:
2 Corinthians 4:7-10 "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."
It's not what happens to us but how we handle it that matters most to God. Because we know we are never truly abandoned we can look beyond our circumstances to the God who holds our lives in His hands.
Something will happen today - and tomorrow - that I won't have scheduled, that I can't anticipate. It can be a God-thing or a frustrating thing. It can be an opportunity to display the character of Jesus or not. So in some ways it doesn't matter which way things go. Because I know don't have to fear being crushed, abandoned or destroyed I can honor Him with each step and word and thought and deed - even when good deeds aren't guaranteed to provide insulation.
Something will happen today - and tomorrow - that I won't have scheduled, that I can't anticipate. It can be a God-thing or a frustrating thing. It can be an opportunity to display the character of Jesus or not. So in some ways it doesn't matter which way things go. Because I know don't have to fear being crushed, abandoned or destroyed I can honor Him with each step and word and thought and deed - even when good deeds aren't guaranteed to provide insulation.
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