Is this really as bad as it gets?

Sometimes I think we imagine the worst, hope for the best, but really have no idea what to expect when life gets a little crazy all around us! One thing we should keep in mind is that the 'worst' is never really the 'worst' - the 'worst' has a way of morphing over time! Lamentations is not the most well-read book in the Bible, but it is there for a very specific purpose. Jeremiah is the writer and this is considered to be one of the poetic books of the Bible - not really my idea of poetry, but it is in biblical writings. The primary purpose in writing was to mourn the huge loss of Jerusalem, and more importantly, the Holy Temple. The nation of Judah is taken into exile, probably under the Babylonian rule, and there is great turmoil and sorrow in the land. Nothing has been the same since they lost their Holy City. In fact, the Book of Lamentations is read at the Wailing Wall today on a weekly basis as a memorial of the great sorrow and tragedy of losing their city. The very title of the book in the Hebrew language means "How" or "Alas" and was a word commonly used during the funerals of Old Testament times. The opening words of the book say it all: She dwells among the nations, but she has found no rest. (1:3) Then, almost without warning, we find this little note of hope right in the midst of all the anguish spoken in the words of this tiny book.

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It’s a good thing when you’re young to stick it out through the hard times. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face. The “worst” is never the worst. (Lamentations 3:25-30)

The purpose of the writings served to give reproof for the nation's failure to recognize and serve their God whole-heartedly; instruction to get them back on track; and hope for a restoration beyond their capability, but definitely within the abilities of their God! Seems to me there are times in our own lives, even right now in our nation, when we need exactly these three things! We don't always "have skin" in the game, do we? Sometimes we drift a little, getting ourselves off-course as it applies to "whole-hearted" devotion. It is good to know we are never without hope! There are several points which will provide us with some insight into rising above the "worst" in our lives:

- God proves himself in our waiting and our seeking. If you have ever had to really seek something that was just not immediately in your view, then you might just know what Jeremiah was saying here. You get a little focused, don't you? You direct all your attention, regardless of the other stuff demanding your attention, on what it is you are seeking. Until you find it, you are "on a mission". Sometimes, I have to take time to stop to think - in the "thinking" times, I actually discover what it is I was looking for! Amazingly enough, God is found in the seeking and the waiting - and it is exactly in those moments where he proves himself faithful, graceful, and merciful to us!

- Life gets heavy and sometimes there is just a whole lot of stuff that is hard to take. We just find ourselves burdened by what our choices bring into our lives. I cannot tell you the times I have chosen one thing, only to find it has delivered into my life exactly the opposite of what I imagined it would do. Jeremiah's reminder to us is to get alone with God - there we will finally figure out that the heaviness is not what he desires for our lives. In "getting alone" with God, we get "staying power" for the longer hauls in life. Ever want to just "bale"? If so, you probably need a little "staying power" which comes no other way than in the "filling times" of being infused with the hope God gives.

- It is easiest to ask "why" or "how", but the greatest revelation comes in asking the "who" question. When we ask the right question, we get the answer that brings the solution to the problem. I think this is what my algebra teacher may have been trying to teach me when he was always telling me to "solve for X" in a problem. Guess it will come as no surprise to you to hear that I finally found out "X" always equals GOD. Problems of my own making multiplied by issues that are beyond my control always equal God's best opportunity to prove himself greater than my sin, willfulness, or shortcomings! We always want to "solve for" the WHY or the HOW in life. God wants us to "solve for" the WHO.

"The worst if never the worst." Really? Some of our circumstances look pretty awful, don't they? To our way of thinking, nothing could be worse. I honestly think God was using Jeremiah to remind Judah, and us, our worst is NEVER the worst because God's mercy holds back the torrents of "the worst" that we will NEVER experience! Yep, things might be a little gnarly (extremely gnarly) right now, but they are not the "worst" they could be. If we trust God, rest in the assurance that his grace is holding back the "worst"! Now, this should give us hope! Just sayin!

No runt here!

If you have ever felt like you just didn't have what it took for the issue at hand, rest assured you are not alone in that feeling! For seven years, Israel was under the domination of a heathen nation known as Midian. The story of man called Gideon begins with the description of the ugliness that domination brings to a nation - others eating their crops, turning their camels loose to bring their pasture lands to ruin, and sending the people scurrying to the caves to hide from their captors in cowering fear of their destructive forces. As is always the case with God, he hears the cries of their hearts, sends a prophet, and re-explains to them why they are in bondage. It is simple: God spoke to them of his tremendous care for them, demonstrated that care repeatedly in mighty ways, and they still chose to fear the people around them! Fear is always a place of bondage - plain and simple!

One day the angel of God came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, whose son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, out of sight of the Midianites. The angel of God appeared to him and said, "God is with you, O mighty warrior!" Gideon replied, "With me, my master? If God is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the miracle-wonders our parents and grandparents told us about, telling us, 'Didn't God deliver us from Egypt?' The fact is, God has nothing to do with us—he has turned us over to Midian." But God faced him directly: "Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven't I just sent you?" Gideon said to him, "Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan's the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the runt of the litter." (Judges 6:11-15)

Working away on the threshing floor after the grain harvest, Gideon is interrupted in his work by an angel of the Lord. You may not realize it, but it is in the "doing" of the ordinary things of life that God can speak the loudest and clearest to us! We think we need retreats, revival meetings, and the like in order to "hear from God". The truth is that if we are simply willing to be available to God, we will hear from him no matter what we are doing! The angel refers to Gideon as "mighty warrior" - an image Gideon obviously did not have of himself! Gideon immediately begins to debate this perception with the angel. Isn't that the way we are? God says, "I declare you worthy" and we argue about our worthiness. God says, "I love you beyond measure" and we question how he could love us as we are. God says, "I will give you the words to speak" and we complain that we are not eloquent enough to be a messenger of his grace.

It amazes me how many times we try to "talk God out of" what he declares to be true within our lives! It is important to realize that he has the "big picture" and we are quite limited in our perspective. We may see only what is immediately in front of us, but he sees what is to transpire. Our arguments are simply not valid when put in perspective by God! God has to repeat the message that he is with him and will use him to defeat Midian not once, but three separate times! If that doesn't speak to God's infinite patience with us, I don't know what does! In the end, Gideon asks God for a favor - he asks for a sign! Okay, an angel sits down in your place of business, engages in conversation with you, assures you that God will go with you into the battle, and you still need to ask for a sign? I am so glad that we have this recorded for us in scripture because it gives me hope that I am not the only one that struggles with being obedient when God asks something of me! Even I doubt, ask for further evidence, and then await God's assurances that he really did speak to me! Thank God, we serve a patient and loving Lord!

We often doubt our "credentials", citing something as lame as "I am the runt of the litter" when God declares us to be the leader of the battle! I am so glad that we are not limited to our own perceptions of ourselves! Gideon was so focused on what HE could accomplish in his own abilities and God was so focused on what GOD would accomplish in his power! We make lame excuses when all we see is the possibilities of our own abilities! God has greater possibilities if we'd just lean on him like he asks. God never commissions us to take certain step without also being willing to back those steps up with his full power and provision along the way! Just a few thoughts from the "runt of the litter" today! Our inadequacies are God's opportunities! Don't try to argue that one out! God wins every time! Just sayin!

My Best=His Best

It is quite easy for us to get 'drug down into' the culture of our day. The catty comments from opposing candidates catch our attention on the airwaves. The promise of this remedy providing instant this or that lures us into the latest of fads that only rob us of our hard-earned money and deliver none of the desired results. Easily swayed, we become 'prey' to these influencing factors. Wouldn't it be much more rewarding to be influenced with the type of things that actually pick us up instead of dragging us down? God's desire has always been for us to be 'drawn up', not down!

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:2 MSG)

We need to guard against 'separating' God from the various areas of our lives - holding some off-limits to him and giving him freedom to 'have at' others. God knows the influences that we respond to in some of those off-limit areas are the most important for him to begin to turn us away from - so denying him access isn't going to really work for us in the long run. Don't lose sight of how this passage begins - it isn't about us always wanting to turn those areas over to his control - he is going to help us to yield that influence to him if we will just ask for his help!

We take those areas easily influenced by things that serve to pull us down and we ask for his help to no longer be pulled in those directions. We don't always know what pulls at us, or how to avoid that influencing force. We might just have to admit we are 'helpless' to avoid that tempting force in order to be free of it! It is in placing these things before God (an offering of sorts) that we can begin to have the power of those influences revealed. We begin to see clearly because we are beginning to see things from a totally different perspective.

We are oftentimes 'well-adjusted' to our sin. We get into easily and we don't really see any need to be free of it. Let me just say this - we might not see the need, but others will. They look to us as their companions in this journey of faith. To settle for the presence of sin in our lives is to allow others to think God doesn't provide a means of overcoming those sins. We might not realize how much our embracing of sin actually influences another to let go of their own, but it does! This is actually how a set of values and beliefs becomes a culture!

The more we discover there are off-limit areas in our lives, the more we need to lean into Jesus and ask him to help bring the best out of us in those areas. We are well-versed in how to allow those influences to bring the worst from us - it is time we allow Jesus to show us how to bring the best into those places! Just sayin!