AUGUST 10-16: IN MY BROKEN
Come Follow Me “Yet Will I Trust in Him” Job 1-3; 12-14; 19; 21-24; 38-40;42
It’s pretty much a guarantee that we all will go through rough waters in this life. Yet some seem to have a tougher time than others. Why is that? It doesn’t seem fair. Are our troubles given to us by God? Does He stick us into situations because He likes us better or worse than others?
‘Why is one man born in a place where all they know is war, and a guy like me has always been free? Why do I feel like you hear these prayers of mine, When so many oughta be ahead of me in line? When you look down on me, can you see the good through all the bad?’
A Few Questions - Clay Walker
I can’t believe that our troubles or blessings are handed out according to God’s favorites. His plan is about agency - so there must be some agency on our part, either before we came to earth or while we are here.
We have the idea that our life is calculated by our successes, or perhaps by things we have earned. But that’s an erroneous scale. It’s not what we ARE, but what we are BECOMING that is measured. And when do we imagine our crucial growth happens?
‘When all that’s left is a shell, when glory and accolades all fall away, when heartbreak steps in to take up their place, I still kneel down and say, I’ll find you in misery.. I trust what you’re doing, some things we must learn in the dark. ... Lord, I see you in the aching.’
Learn in the Dark - Carrie Yost
Is it possible that when we feel at our lowest, when we seem most broken, might just be when we’re at our peak:? The clay has been kneaded and kneaded, uniquely layered, at last sufficiently ready to be shaped and cured.
‘You see the scars from when you fell, but I see the stories that they tell... When you see nothing but damaged goods, I see something good in the making, I’m not finished yet.’
Matthew West - Mended
Let us not doubt the hands of our creator, for his vision far surpasses our own. He is mindful of the details, and mindful of what we are becoming, and in His infinite wisdom, experience and perspective He sees where to step in to help, and when to let us work it on our own.
Remembering Carol Lynn Pearson this week, I add these lines from her poem The Lesson. As God says to us ‘…I’ve already learned to walk, So I make you Come to me. …It’s you, Not I, Who needs to try Godhood.’
‘Where were you the day that I measured, sunk the banks and stretched the line over all the earth and carved out its cornerstone, the day that I spoke and told the sun to split the night open, called the morning dawn with its light to show?’
Where Were You? - Ghost Ship
We can trust His wisdom in our growth, for He’s been there all along. Is there, always.