Skip to main content

Meltdown

             Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”  “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:13-36)

 

Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor? (Isaiah 40:13)

 

Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. (Job 41:11)

 

As a quick prelude, the verse from Isaiah and Job are the cross-references for the passage in Romans. The nice thing about it is that it shows that even the “greats” like Paul didn’t feel they had to come up with original phrases with which to praise Him. We don’t have to be poets like David. We can quote as long as the quote connects to our souls.

Now, to the passage. Last night, I got some bills, and life fell apart…again. It tends to do so whenever life doesn’t go the way I want it to. So, I’m running to God with the “Help! Father! Make it all better!” routine, complete with dire predictions about being out on the street. I’m not saying this routine is accurate in terms of reality. It’s just accurate in terms of how my mind works. And I know what I should do is take advantage of the excess energy produced by the anxiety to get some things done. I should use it to give me the boldness to do things I should do. Instead, I tend to use it to whine, which has the marginal benefit of using some of the energy up.

And then, Biblegateway.com gives me part of the passage from Romans above as the verse of the day. Yes! Let’s celebrate. “God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform,” and all that jazz. Except, it’s true. Some of the hardest things I’ve faced have produced the greatest blessings, made me stronger, revealed that I’m already stronger than I thought, and given me the chance to grow, trust, love, to hope, and dream.

So, God is good. God is God. I don’t understand – can’t understand what He is doing in my life, and even more, I can’t begin to even pretend to understand how He can take all the pieces of my life, and all the pieces of your life, and all the pieces of all of the lives around us and make them work together to accomplish His goals. I’m working on my third book, and it’s hard to keep all of the details straight for the various characters who people the story. I can’t imagine trying to do it with millions, or billions. And yet… He does. So not only is God good. And now only is God, God, but God is amazing – and is fully capable of guiding me through the details of my little life. So I’m going to hold onto that, and the joy it brings, even though my inclination is to meltdown.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more