Archive for God's Plans
What Can God Do About Our Pain and Disappointment?
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Most of us are more than qualified to write a good country song or two. You know, something like,
8 Important Things to Know During Hard Times
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We all live in a world cursed because of sin. Part of the effect of that curse is hard times, difficulty, pain, and sorrow. I so wish I could tell you that Christians don’t have to go through any difficulties, but the Word of God contains story after story of believers in difficult times. Paul and Peter in prison, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, Stephen being stoned, believers being persecuted, the very life of Jesus, and I could go on and on. And this list applies to all storms whether we caused them, Satan sent them, or God designed them. In a moment, I am going to share my list of eight things you should know about hard times but before I do that I need to give you some foundation.
Why You Must Go Back
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God’s ways are mysterious, beyond my understanding and often seem downright contradictory. While in my humanity, I prefer to think in straight lines which lend themselves to defining a goal as completed, a task marked off, I find that God’s ways are usually not pictured best by straight lines. They are paths which appear, at times, intertwined, difficult to map out, going forward, then backward, orbiting around a center, and often perplexing my human mind. The longer I walk with God, the more clearly I see that He is truly not confined to my limited understanding. He is working, often His deepest purposes in me, when I am clueless.
This week, I was meditating on two of the seemingly contradictory ways of God. In the next few days, I want to explore these two thoughts:
1. You must go back.
2. You can never go back.
Huh? Sounds confusing? I hope you are intrigued sufficiently to continue reading for both statements are true and I am not being ambivalent. There are times in life when you must absolutely go back. You must go back, as it were, in your mind, your emotions, your relationships, to moments of the past and experience the moments again. There are some very important reasons for us to go back. And in other ways, we must never go back and in fact, cannot do so, but that is for another day this week.
The Quest
Posted by: | Comments“It’s a curious thing about quests, isn’t it, Mr. Quirk?” she said. “The seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs.”
I put the novel down.
It was one of those moments when I realized that something significant was about to happen, if I’d pause long enough to let it. If I would stop long enough to get the impact of the words.
The words tumbled within me. I felt drawn to them; to ponder them; to absorb more than their surface meaning.
The paradox of it struck me. Yes, how often do I, do we all actually, pursue something we want only to find that what we really need is quite different indeed? But somehow we are unable to find it without the journey itself which often proves rocky, curvy, dangerous, and on a surface glance, absolutely undesirable.
We have a goal, a desire, a drive. We aim at it. We head toward it, often in the only way we know how, but somehow, almost mystically along the journey, its pull on our hearts disappears. We find, in a way that looks to be accidental, what our hearts really needed.
How can it be that when we find ourselves in the darkest situations, “Yea, though I walk through the valley…” where the shadows are all around us, “of the shadow of death…”, and we initially feel our goal is just to get out of this awful place, that suddenly we can experience God along the way, “I will fear no evil…”, finding that He is with us? “for He is with me.”
Waiting on God
Posted by: | CommentsWaiting on God
As I entered the hospital, I heard a woman say “We’re just waiting to see.” Directly behind her was the newspaper stand. The newspaper headline spoke of having to wait. I thought of how many times we say “I’m just waiting on God.” Implied is “There is nothing I can do about this.” Sometimes implied is “I have no idea where God is in this situation.” I began to think about how spiritual it sounds to say, “I am waiting on God.” It sounds so holy. So Christian. So patient. So obedient.
But then I thought of how it feels in spite of the facade we put up when we say “We’re just waiting” as if we are at peace with the wait. I thought of it in this way:
Waiting on God
I feel the unanswered questions
And I struggle to relinquish control
I try to quiet my mind and
bridle my emotions
I feel the inner frustration
And the need to be at peace
“Where are you, God?
How can I interpret your silence?”
It may sound spiritual
But it feels restless
The deep longing for God
To prove He is alive
Waiting on God
David said
“I pour out my soul within me”
