I know it's been longer than I made it sound it would be between when I last wrote and now. I could explain, or excuse, or... I could simply let you in on what my life has looked like since the last time I wrote... and maybe, just maybe, it will make sense all by itself. Have no fear, I'm not going to ramble about what I ate everyday, or how many times I took a trip to Sonic... no, those details seem mundane, and unimportant. What is important... is to see what the Lord is doing. Because after all, wasn't that the original goal? And as a Christian shouldn't that always be my goal?
Now I'm sure at this point you're thinking... the title and this blog... so far they don't go together. Oh, but they do. See life... that thing we all too frequently expect to be a bed of roses... it hasn't been a bed of roses, and I've been trying to find how to appropriately talk about that. Because I could write everything that's going wrong, I could point at people who have hurt me, I could say a lot of things that would be true... but if the truth isn't glorifying to the Lord... there's still a part of the truth that's missing. So yes, the good has been gone, life has been hard, and people have hurt me, but what you write about when the good is gone... is how God is never gone. In my weakness, in my pain, He is there. When the good is gone, you write of His faithfulness. How while things are not good, and it would be easiest to call it quits, to rationalize that going home at this point doesn't matter because the tour is over, THAT is the place where you find the sweet, intimate grace of the Lord that helps you carry on. In the love of the Father, in the love He shows through friends, in the love poured out from the body of Christ... In Christ nothing is impossible.
It may sound trivial, it may sound unbelievable, and in some ways I suppose it is. Because unless you experience it, it is unbelievable. But how beautiful that the grace and love I speak of is available to everyone.
One of my favorite bible characters has always been David, and probably because of the evidence of his humanity throughout his life, and yet, he was a man after God's heart, and was used in the lineage of Jesus. David understood the concept of praise in the storm. He was hunted time and time again, and always sought the Lord's will and the right thing to do. It's so evident throughout the Psalms. And so many times David commanded his soul to bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me. That's what you write about when the good is gone. you write about the one great and powerful, almighty, loving, caring, gracious, patient, forgiving, faithful constant in life. Jesus!
