Category Archives: Life’s disappointments

Overpowered

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With all the strife and struggle in our headlines these days, we can listen to news reports and quickly feel overwhelmed. None of us can fix all that’s wrong, and there’s frustration in realizing that.

This morning I felt the same crushing helplessness during my prayer time.

Sitting down with God in the corner of my bedroom each day, I put several things on my lap: a clipboard filled with blank paper, an array of scribbled post-it notes in all colors and sizes (prayer requests), a pen, pages of Scripture verses grouped by topic, and my daily devotional book by Charles Spurgeon. A cup of coffee is within reach, and maybe a rice cake with peanut butter on it, at least briefly.

As I start praying, it always impacts me that God is willing to listen and, more astoundingly, to answer prayers. But something else is always present, too. It’s a determination to “do business with God” over my own sin. He never fails to let me know what needs purging and deals with me accordingly. Sometimes the whole hour is spent on that. But most mornings there’s time to sort through the post-its and pray a wide variety of requests over the names and needs on them.

This morning was that kind of prayer time, and I looked forward to claiming biblical promises over the various needs, and listening for God’s directions on how to pray. But something unexpected happened right after I got started.

Reading the serious nature of the requests on the notes, one after another, began to swamp me. Each tiny piece of paper held weighty problems seemingly much too heavy for it, and as I handled the notes, their burdens jumped off the papers and onto me. Trying to prioritize them, my mind swirled like it was in a hurricane of sorrow. Just like with the turbulence in our headlines, I knew I couldn’t fix anything on those notes.

I started to cry, wishing I hadn’t put my mascara on before sitting down to pray. Using the paper napkin that had been under my rice cake, I began dabbing at tears until it was soaked, and then just let the other tears fall. What was happening? I’d prayed for many of these same people in their same dilemmas on multiple occasions in the past without “losing it.”

What had happened to my confidence in God’s ability to do what I couldn’t? Was I doubting he could affect change in the lives of the people I was praying for? Had I forgotten that it was God’s job to “fix” things, not mine?

But God was, as always, up to something completely different than what I thought. And he used a 65 year old photo to let me know what it was.

(Concluded tomorrow)

“God does great things beyond searching out. Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ ” (Job 9:10,12)

Try to bloom.

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Spring, not autumn, is the season for fresh flowers, and we love gathering crocus, lily of the valley, and jonquils into our homes. Fall, on the other hand, is about readying our gardens for winter. Though colored leaves can be striking, fresh flowers are hard to come by…

…unless you live in my neighborhood.

As Jack and I strolled around the block last week, we found a spring-like surprise: brand new blossoms in dramatic purple, pushing up from a tangle of ivy roots and stems. Looking more like Easter than Columbus Day, they made me stop to oooh and ahhh, and I’ve been thinking about them ever since.

All of us have heard the expression, “Bloom where you’re planted,” which is exactly what these flowers are doing. Though that quote isn’t from Scripture, its principle is. No matter what snarling circumstances surround us, God wants each of us to accept our lot in life, or, put more eloquently, to embrace his will.

What if he decides that an extreme hardship is what we need to turn our attention to him? Wouldn’t that “misfortune,” then, be in our best interest? That kind of logic makes us squirm. “It’s not fair!” we say.

All of us want to live on Easy Street. Something deep inside says we deserve that. So why doesn’t God make it happen? If he can do anything, then why doesn’t he choose to make us happy?

  • Because each difficulty coaxes us closer to him.
  • Because we can demonstrate his sustenance through troubles.
  • Because by cheerfully enduring, we can bank rewards for later.
  • Because flexing our perseverance-muscles makes us stronger for next time.
  • Because living above circumstances is the high-road way to live.
  • Because God has told us, “In this, you can please me.”

In other words, the Lord assigns certain hardships to each of us and is keenly interested in how we’ll handle them. When we bloom in the middle of those messes, whether it’s poverty, terminal illness, financial stress, or something else, the beauty and perfume of the resulting flowers can impact many, much like the purple “Resurrection Lily” (or “Surprise Lily”) impacted me. When we’re joyful through suffering, it surprises people.

But there’s a catch. We can’t do it on our own. Cheerfully accepting a “fate” that seems unfair makes our mental scales-of-justice tip. More natural is to run from it, fight it, or try to escape it altogether. From where God sits, however, those reactions go down as losses.

So, to encourage us to bloom against all odds exactly where he plants us, the Lord has told us that one day every believer will indeed have an address on Easy Street. And I’ll bet the blossoms in those yards are going to be out of this world.

“Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you.” (Romans 12:2)

Thirst-Quenching Love

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All of us parents know that loving a child requires sacrifice. Love is why we do it, and we’re more than willing to give up whatever it takes to be a good mom or dad.

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see that he sacrificed, too, not just on the cross but every day in smaller ways. What were some of those day-to-day sacrifices he made because he loved us?

Last weekend I heard a sermon about the Samaritan woman at the well who had a one-on-one encounter with Christ without knowing who he was. We’ve all read that story from John 4 and have heard more than a few teachings on it. But as always in studying God’s Word, there’s more to learn.

Our speaker detailed the narrative, beginning with a simple descriptive statement that let us know what condition Jesus’ was in when he arrived at the well. Scripture says, “Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.” So, in this very dry desert area, in the heat of the day, the man-Jesus needed a drink badly.

He asked the woman if she would draw a little water for him with the jug she’d brought, but a conversation ensued instead. They talked all around water without drinking any, and a considerable length of time passed. What was new to me, however, was realizing for the first time that although Jesus was still very thirsty, he never got his drink.

He could have insisted. After all, he was a man, and she was a woman, and it was the women of that day who drew the water. But his number one concern was not for his own thirst but for the woman’s dry soul and those of her friends and neighbors. His goal was to get them all saved. If it meant being parched, he’d do it.

Jesus was very thirsty another time, too: on the cross. He was suffering intensely, so tortured that he would soon die, but his severe thirst prompted him to ask for a drink. Once again, though, his thirst was left unsatisfied. The overwhelming love that kept him on the cross was willing to give up everything because of his goal to save our souls.

How often do I crack open a bottle of water without a thought of not being able to quench my thirst? Each swallow should remind me to thank him again for enduring such intense thirst so that I could drink his living water.

One day I came to Him, I was so thirsty.
I asked for water, my throat was so dry.
He gave me water that I had never dreamed of.
But for this water, my Lord had to die.

He said, “I thirst” yet he made the river.
He said, “I thirst” yet he made the sea.
“I thirst,” said the king of the ages.
In His great thirst He brought water to me. *

“Let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them. For he satisfies the thirsty…” (Psalm 107:8-9)

*(By Robin Walker)