April 10, 2011

• Painfully Beautiful

  I wonder sometimes why God didn’t call us to adopt three years ago. When we made more money,  had better benefits and our house had a spare bedroom and 1,000 extra square feet. God just doesn’t work that way does He? We have all heard the saying, “He meets you where you’re at.” I think that there should be a second part of that saying that goes: “And get ready to be blown over by what He will have to say when He meets you!”

     

  I have been thinking about how human-nature it is to be afraid of the voice of God. His voice often interrupts all of  our preconceived ideas of how our lives need to look. I think for those of us who really want to live our lives in complete surrender to Christ, God does what He needs to and uses what He can to keep our hearts abandoned to Him. I am learning, however, that this challenges the not so uncommon belief that God only allows good things to happen to us. Have you ever met a child that got everything he or she wanted? Yes, so have I. It is not pretty. Would we, God’s children, be any different if He only gave and allowed things in our lives that we, in our human thinking, deemed “good.”

  A couple of weeks ago Blake and I went through something really un-fun (seriously it had to be the enemy!). The situation put Blake and I on our faces before God. Over the next few days the tv didn’t come on, our communication became deeper, our prayer life doubled (at least) and the Bible came open several times a day. Our relationship with each other became intricately stronger as we talked and prayed and listened for the voice of God.
  Instead of just letting this situation fade in the rear view mirror I have been trying to soak up any bit of truth I can get out of it. Wringing out anything that might strengthen my walk, my faith, and my character. I started thinking about how we automatically ascribe anything bad that happens to us to the devil.  I pondered the fact that I had blamed the devil for this latest “escapade” “You know what?” I thought, “The devil knows us well enough by now; we’ve walked similar situations before. He surely knew what our response would be; that it would drive us straight to the throne of God. So why would the devil have done this?”

  And I had to admit….. Maybe the devil didn’t do it.  Maybe God saw that our flesh was battling our hearts and gaining ground and He was left with three choices:

  #1. He could overlook it.

  # 2. He could give us something that we would consider good. (lets just say: a new mini van with a working AC)
  Yet would that have made us desperate for God? If you consider a few days of, “Thank you Jesus!” then yes. But I know desperate personally and that is not desperate.

  #3. He could give us something we would consider “bad.”

  And that is what I believe He did. It was uncomfortable. It was painful. It was a struggle. But you know what? God made it beautiful.

   I thank Him for the painful in my life and for the many, many times that He has made painful: Beautiful.

  
   

   

  

  • 4:39 pm
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