Long Tall Glasses

             You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, (Psalm 30:11)

          Though I prefer the NASB’s use of “mourning” to the NIV’s, “wailing,” the latter fits better with my recent post about grocery store aisles. This verse brings to mind a transition that has taken place in the last ten years. The first five of those years still involved lots of stress caring for my father, but there were tiny steps. In the past five, I’ve moved more assuredly into gladness (NASB), joy (NIV), and, well, maybe not quite dancing.

          But this isn’t the way we think it should be. We want the transition to go at the speed of Leo Sayer’s Long Tall Glasses: less than three minutes between “of course I can’t dance”  and “Hand me down my tuxedo, next week I’m coming back for more.” But as I said in the paragraph above, it’s been ten years and it’s still “of course I can’t dance.” Of course, that’s just from my perspective. It’s possible that God thinks I do a great spiritual Quick Step or Paso. I doubt it, but I don’t trust my self-evaluation.

          Now, this doesn’t mean that everything’s going as I want it to, all the time, with no difficulties, no stress, and no failures. But I have been deeply blessed by with time to heal, learn, try, begin to hope (at least a little), and to become something closer to the kind of person I want to be. In addition to time, God has given me opportunities, friendships, challenges, and flat-out commands that have removed sackcloth and given me joy.

          So,  how does any of this matter to you? How is it more than bragging? The point is that God can and does do this for people. It may not happen in this trip down the grocery store aisle, in the three minutes between “of course I can’t dance” and “hand me down my tuxedo,” but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. And, while everything may still not be perfect, it can be a lot better than we deserve or honestly expect.