Sometimes the world just comes and kicks us in the teeth – or so it seems. A lot of times we can compare it to a snowball rolling downhill; as it gathers speed, it gathers more snow and just grows BIGGER. Suddenly, as we are looking up, all we see is an avalanche bearing down on us. Our response isn’t necessarily to get out of the way, as we feel it is too late, instead we tuck and roll with it. Or try to dig a quick hole to jump in and hope it just slides past us. These are the times we have a prayer in our heart and on our lips when we feel overwhelmed by the enormity of what is happening in our lives.
We are battered and bruised, feel despondent, as if there is no way out for us. Yet, our hope isn’t in our circumstances or surroundings; it is in our hearts. We need to allow the spark to kindle and ignite the flame of hope. As we feed it, it grows stronger and bigger. Soon, we will have a bonfire! As we all know, fire can melt snow, turning it into the life-sustaining element of water. Water. Every living thing needs it to exist. Water. Life giving, life sustaining.
When people are stuck in the desert, what do they look for first? Shelter and water.
God is our Shelter! He is our Provider. When the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years, they lived with the hope of the promised land. They didn’t know when they would make it there. They held strong to their hope and their faith. How many of us could go a week – let alone a year, or heaven forbid, 40 years – and still hold on to that same hope and faith they had in their God? God provided for them – manna from heaven, even water from a rock. He is the same God yesterday, today and forever. If He provided for them, why wouldn’t He do the same for us? Our hope is in the SAME God.
We Change Daily, God Remains the Same
God doesn’t change from day to day. We know His qualities and characteristics. We know, as we have His Word, that tells us our God is never-changing. He is eternal. He is omnipotent. He is our Provider, our Healer, our Maker, our Creator, our Father. He is all this and more. We can put our hope in Him and it will always be well-placed.
What we need to remember is that His timetable isn’t ours. After all, when the Israelites left Egypt for the promised land, I am sure they didn’t think it would take that long to get there. They probably didn’t think they would be wandering for 40 years, going in circles in the harsh elements and challenges that the desert presented, before they would reach their promised land. When they left, they didn’t realize that not all of them would make it, or were meant to make it, to that destination. They weren’t prepared for a 40-year journey. They grumbled. They also realized that God was there with them. He didn’t leave them there alone. He reminded them of His presence. He took care of them.
We don’t know where our journey will take us. We can’t always see it. We hope for what we believe the journey’s end should be. Sometimes we focus too much on our present day circumstances instead of on what God’s will is for us. When we switch our attention to ourselves, our circumstances, the world around us – it can be overwhelming, depressing, and difficult to understand or figure out what the plan is. We see dimly. We don’t get to see the full picture. However, we are a vital part of the orchestra. It is our piece of music we need to focus on learning. We need to be willing to ‘add to’ life, not take away from it.
We can’t allow depression, unfortunate circumstances, difficulties, hard decisions, avalanches and things we simply just don’t understand to cloud our vision of who God is and who He wants us to be.
Facing Challenges Can Be Hard
I know it is hard. I face those challenges too. Sometimes life is just simply too much to take on. It would be easier, simpler, seemingly better just to curl up and hide. It is in these moments that the Lord reminds us that we can cast ALL our cares on Him. He makes our burden light by allowing us to GIVE It all to HIM. We don’t need to carry it alone. We don’t have to run and hide and let the waves of emotions and feelings cripple us. To allow the world to devastate us to the point we don’t feel we can function.
Yes, depression is more and more prevalent in our society. Depression leads to suicidal tendencies, which lead to the loss of beautiful souls and lives that can and have changed the world around them. We have lost TOO many things to the world. We are fighting to keep our moral compass. We fight to keep the beauty of the world around us alive. We are targets because of our hope in nothing less than our Lord. Our Hope and Faith – the things that keep us standing strong and moving forward – make us targets to the world around us. A world that wants to cripple us. That wants to force us to bend a knee and worship ‘things’ rather than keeping our focus on our Lord.
Use Your Talents
Where does our help come from? It comes from the Maker of Heaven and Earth. We need to remind ourselves and each other where our focus should be. Does this mean we need to be poor? No. Does this mean we need to separate ourselves from everyone else and keep to “ourselves”? No. I believe that, like Paul, we need to be vessels for the Lord to use.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (NIV)
19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
When you “become – as if” it doesn’t mean you ARE that thing or person. Sometimes we need to be who we are in order to be a light that points others toward our Father. This is a calling. Not for everyone, but for each of us as we are all parts of the body of Christ. Some are called to pastor, some are called to music, some, to write. Some are called to evangelism or other work. We are not all called or meant to respond in the same way. We are PARTS of the body. Each part is important yet serves a different function.
Perhaps you are the “heart”, the empathetic person who feels what others feel – who wants to make things better for others by offering a helping hand, giving of yourself. Perhaps you are the hands, helping to build shelters, homes, helping to build lives up. There are so many moving parts to the body, we need to accept that we all can’t and aren’t meant to be doing just “one” thing. We are all called to something that fits who we are individually.
If you aren’t sure where you belong, pray and let God open your heart and mind to show you where you fit in. You DO fit. You DO have a purpose. Sometimes it may seem hard to find or see, yet it is there. I promise, God created you for a reason. Don’t let the devil steal that from you.