Sometimes there are days where we just don't know what to say. We are surrounded by things we simply don't understand. Life is hard. We have mixed feelings about things that happen and are not sure how to express ourselves. We see loss. Death occurs. Under quietness it reveals a pain. Struggle faces our friends. Our families are lost. We are forever searching for that perfect day. That perfect peace.
What do we say when a friend shares they have cancer? Where are the words for one who loses his wife? How do explain to our children when we lose our job? What happens when grandma can no longer see? There is no money to buy those needed medications. Time slips away. Day by day we dredge on through in wonderment at how our lives came to be this way. We didn't see that trial coming. Sickness was not on our list of accomplishments today. We place our father in a nursing home. We search for our next meal and some, some search for a warm place to lay their head. So many are abused each day. Babies are taken from this world. Young people are caught in drug wars as we fight our own flesh. What do we say?
Sometimes what a friend needs is to just for us to simply listen. As words may not find a place to bring comfort a touch will. We don't have to pretend to know all the answers as to why. We just have to be real. Sometimes all we can say is, "That really sucks!" We can utter the words, "I am so sorry." We can share how much we understand. But more importantly we just need to be there. Just to have a friend reach out to you and give you a hug. We need to love like Jesus.
I admit I have cried out to God asking Him, "Why Lord?" There are things we may never understand until heaven. So, what do we do today? We believe. We trust. We hope. We place our faith in One greater. In One who does know. One who understands. One who knows our deep pain and frustrations.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Our bodies are yet the shells of what is inside. The heart of man. I spend time focusing on the things that I can see, but cannot control. I need to focus on the things which I cannot see, heaven. We were not made for this home, but we have an eternal home waiting for us. In this life if we focus on Christ we will one day see Him face to face and the things that we spent so much time worrying about here will seem so very little.
Why do we get so worried about those things in which we cannot change? We cannot control most of what happens in our life. As I leave my home I can control my car, but I am not in control of those other drivers on the road. As I get in my car I must simply trust God. I must let go of all fear, give Him the wheel of my life and trust where He is taking me.
God is working in all those areas which we cannot see. Our vision cannot reach all the four corners of this earth as God's can. Do I understand everything He allows? No. But, I am not so sure I want to. I didn't always have that thought. When my dad died I wanted to know why. That was something this young nineteen year old did not understand. My friends, I still don't. But I have come to the place where I have to let it go and trust God in all His ways. Even if I did know the purpose or the reasoning behind it, would it make it hurt any less? Really? No, I would still miss my dad and want him here.
"Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful." James 5:11
Why did my husband lose his job? Well now that one I do think I know. Sometimes God does show us the reasoning behind such struggles. It was a deep lesson for our family to learn. We were to be content. To be humble. God has done a work in my husband and I. We are not the same people we were two years ago. Our hearts are even bigger and our faith has grown. We no longer want control, but to trust God with everything. He has shown Himself to us over and over again. Friends, faith is something that grows over time. The more valleys we go through the more we want to see the mountain top. We learn the only way to rise to the mountain is to settle our hearts and rely solely on Jesus Christ and His strength.
It is not for us to carry the weight of yesterday. We are not to hoard anxiety. We are not to board the plane of pity. Worry is not equivalent to faith and in self we cannot see Christ to His full extent. We can simply wake each day and make a choice to find God in everything. To seek Him in the dark pit that has encircled us. We must take off that coat of pain and replace it with the covering of Christ.
"He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:29-40
We cannot change everything. We cannot fix what is broken. We must trust the One who can. He is our Redeemer. He is our Restorer. He is the One who can being complete healing. His way is not always what our way would be, but the thing is, He sees the whole picture. He sees past today into tomorrow. His sight reaches the Promise Land of Heaven. And isn't that where we are bound? That is our destination. This earth will try to take everything away from us. Satan will try to steal all from our lives that we hold so dear. Friends, if we have sealed our heart with Jesus, nothing else matters. There is nothing on this earth that can touch us and take away what is really important. Our faith. Faith is bigger than any cancer. Faith is stronger than any hurricane. It triumphs over all. We can overcome if we just believe in what is bigger than us.
"But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:8-10
When there is only one petal left on the flower it is the perfect picture of hope. You can still see the beauty. There is beauty of yesterday still holding on and the promise of tomorrow just by one seed. That one seed can grow into thousands. Although we may never understand what happens each moment of every day, there is one who has purpose in each petal that reaches the toward the Son.
