Catch-up Tuesday: Unexpected moments...

I fell asleep yesterday at 9pm. Yes… 9pm. It was GLORIOUS!!!!!! But as a result today is deemed “Tuesday Catch-Up” since Monday’s Musings did not happen. My apologies!!!

I apologize if it seems the past couple of weeks, I write with a sense of heaviness, but, to be honest with you, my heart is heavy. So many friends and loved ones are struggling with so much, and so many others, that I don’t know, are facing unbelievable trials. So as I am working through everyday life and the circumstances that come, I write what I learn along the way.

Sometimes things hit.  Sometimes it’s unexpected- other times it’s not. But regardless, there’s always an impact.

When blessings hit, we are filled with appreciation, surprise, elation, and joy.  I remember when Aaron proposed- I was SHOCKED. (He had convinced me, quite thoroughly, that it would be 3-4 more months before our engagement).  In that moment, I couldn’t even put a thought together, let alone a sentence. It was beautiful.

Think back to a surprise blessing and the emotions that rushed over you. …Sometimes it is small surprises, like a friend paying for a lunch, a card in the mail, an extra order of Waffle Fries in your Chickfila bag… but no matter the size of the surprise, the impact hits and smiles flow.

When trials hit, however, emotions do as well: despair, bewilderment, frustration, dread, sorrow. The shock that we encounter is hardly beautiful. It’s destructive. When I think of those unexpected moments in my life or my loved ones’ lives, I cringe. The pain is raw and the emotions run deep.

Unexpected moments often bring extreme reactions. You see this echoed in Jesus’ disciples and crowds following Him. When Christ performed miracles, the surprise and joy flowed. The excitement was buzzing! When you read the Gospels you can practically feel it reach through the pages.

 When Christ was crucified, the despair and dread among the disciples were paralyzing. They stayed together rarely venturing outside… a far cry when they were willing to go out two by two to spread the Gospel (Mark 6) without taking anything for their journey. What a difference a surprise circumstance makes.

The difference between the impacts is obvious:  Excitement and joy VS dread and withdrawal.

And yet, God allows both. The good collisions and the bad ones. But why?

Phillip Yancey said this: “Within the pages of one book the same person experiences an overwhelming sense of God’s presence and also God’s absence.”

 

God allows life to happen. Therefore, in this fallen world, we will experience the effects of sin through the unexpected impacts, surprises, and collisions that hit. When they hit, we must fight through our emotions to remember the goodness of God’s sovereignty is to be trusted, not the badness of our circumstances.

I must hold onto the grace that holds on to me… as I keep learning that even though the surprise collision or accident, makes a difference in my life, it does not make a difference in God’s plan, God’s grace, or God’s goodness.

Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. 30 Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, but they who wait for 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.

“John Claypool, reflecting on that passage, notes that the order reverses what we might expect. As if to overturn our preconceptions, Isaiah begins with soaring and ends with walking. All Christians pass through various stages. At times- for many it comes early in the journey- we soar in a state of spiritual ecstasy; at times we run, expressing our faith with the boundless energy of activism; at times we can barely take a step without fainting.

Claypool made this observation, in fact, while sitting at the hospital beside of his ten-year-old daughter. … Now as her life slipped away, he could do nothing but sit by her side, hold her hand… and weep. It took every ounce of spiritual energy to keep from fainting.

Now I am sure that to those looking for the spectacular this may sound insignificant indeed. Who wants to be slowed to a walk, to creep along inch by inch, just barely above the threshold of consciousness and not fainting? That may not sound like much of a religious experience, but believe me, in the kind of darkness where I have been, it is the only form of the promise that fits the situation. When there is no occasion to soar and no place to run, and all you can do is trudge along step by step, to hear of a Help that will enable you “to walk and not faint” is good news indeed.”  

-Reaching for the Invisible God, Phillip Yancey

  God’s love and goodness is always with us whether we always realize it or not...

Keeping us from fainting is just as loving as,

and perhaps even more important, than helping us soar.