Today I sat by the window and watched the snow falling. It was not the most beautiful snow in the world as it was mixed with rain which made it hard to see the flakes sometimes… but I could see them. It was the type of snow where if you concentrated on it you could see it for just a second as it passed the trees in the background…but then your eyes blur and you can’t see it anymore… so you have to concentrate again and THEN YOU GET IT…but only for a second. I did this for a while… over and over again and thought-
Isn’t this how it is with the God sometimes? Well, it is for me. I don’t know how holy that is or not, but I find myself seeking God in the midst of a life filled with clouds…and I have moments of REAL clarity when I completely abandon and the peace of Christ floods me. It’s unexplainable, and the circumstances of life don’t matter…and the pain at its hardest is completely bearable, and I’m not worried… and the future though totally unknown is so secure to me…not frightening…there is not a shadow of despair because I KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVES… but then it flees. Satan comes in with a memory or a cold hard dirty fact staring me in the face…life comes in with what is required and a reminder of what I don’t have and all the sudden I’m wet from the snow…and I’m cold and I don’t see God….I know it’s snowing but I can’t see the flakes…I know God is there…I know it… but I don’t feel it. I believe God is there but the pain is too much and the clouds too dark and I can’t even think of what I should ask God for because I wonder if He isn’t like a jeanie with a three wish limit and … honestly … I just want God and I want God’s will but I am weak human being who doesn’t like it that God’s will often asks us if we will be wet and cold for Him.
And good thing that even when I don’t know what to pray for, my Lord Jesus is interceding for me. And so that’s when I wait and get pushing through and keep seeking Him because I know in a minute I’ll finally see the snowflakes again and maybe this time I’ll see them for longer than a second… and maybe one day it will stop snowing for a few minutes. It always does…it stops just long enough for me to recharge. God’s mercies are new every morning…and I go to bed every night knowing that if He were that jeanie guy, I would have tapped Him out.
He is really the only one who ever truly knows any of us. And that is what marriage reflects, obviously, as when it goes as the Lord designed it, our husband or wife knows us so much more intimately than anyone… and as I hear, that’s a good thing…it’s something I really look forward to and pray that God has for me some day. But, we were not made for people…we were not made to glorify people or ourselves or to complete people…we were made to glorify God…for His good pleasure…
and I’d like to just ask one question: why would any of us think we could ever be content or find the utmost joy unless we were doing what we were made to do??
People who excell in an area like music or sports or writing or teaching or counseling or caring or … fill in the blank … say they feel the most joy or the most satisfaction (in the smaller sense of the words) when doing those things. That is because that is what their gifts are… that’s what they were made to do, in a sense. But ultimately we are ALL made to glorify God through whatever we do…whatever we eat or drink (ICor 10:31)… A piano does not good at producing music written solely with a guitar or a violin in mind… it isn’t the same. I do no good glorifying myself or other people only… that is not my aim. I’m not as beautiful or functional unless I’m glorifying my God.
So (to tie my wandering thoughts together)… I seek to glorify God. Right now the cup the Lord has presented me with includes a lot of pain and a lot of unknown and uncertainty. Some days its hard to just do the normal stuff like reading and writing and going to class because the pain and sadness overwhelms me…the confusion overwhelms me… the rejection and lost hope overwhelms me. I have a dear friend who is encountering so much physical body pain right now and so much complete life change that she often feels the same way… But this is where God has us for this time. And no circumstance is outside of our Lord’s control…and I DO BELIEVE He works in them all for His ultimate glory and for our good. He NEVER NEVER forsakes us…and He loves us more than we can even imagine. Think of who you love most in the world…God loves you more than that. So with these cups we have right now, whether they be filled with sweet or sour drink, let us dedicate them to the Lord and seek His face. Let us give our lives wholly to Him and allow Him to glorify Himself. Heck…pray that He will!!! And let us say like our Savior in the garden:
“What shall I say then? Lord, save me from this hour? No! It is for this hour that I have come.”
It is for this hour Lord that You have brought me here. I pray that these cups may pass us, but not our will God… only Thine our dear Creator…
I’m going back to the snow watching for now. It’s gotten much thicker… and much easier to see.
This is me. 3/19/08