shame the wise

“I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” -God through Isaiah; Romans 10:20 ESV

A person does not have to hear a specific message, say a specific prayer or go to a specific church to find God. You don’t have to ask the right questions or look in the right places. Longevity doesn’t give you an edge. Your parents can’t nurse you in. You can’t be sorry enough, be selfless enough or want it bad enough. You don’t have to want it at all. You don’t have to know anything to know the truth. God busts through people, convention and manners to get to you. People will give you criteria, God will reveal it’s uselessness. People will doubt your sincerity, God doesn’t wait for your sincerity.

You can’t do enough. You can’t want enough. You can’t be sincere enough. You can’t ask enough. There is nothing you can do.

That’s why He does it for you.

‘…not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…‘ -1 Corinthians 1:26-28 ESV

toy guns at a standoff

God is sovereign and you cannot successfully build anything in your life that He does not intend to be there. We usually only acknowledge this when our effort is over. If we succeeded, we give credit to God. If we failed, we say it wasn’t God’s will. It’s while we’re trying that we worry about making the wrong choice or building the wrong thing.

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. -Psalm 127:1 NIV

God has a plan and you can’t mess it up. Not even with bad choices. Your choices are more about you and your relationship with God than they are about the cosmos hinging on your perfect execution of the Creators plan. People make bad choices every single day. Lives are completely altered by, what looks like, horrible mistakes. Yet, given time, the Master Plan reveals itself and the darkness is found to be necessary.

I’ve said it, and I’ll most certainly do it. I’ve planned it, so it’s as good as done. -Isaiah 46:11

God’s purpose doesn’t depend on your obedience. Obedience has its reward, just like mistakes hurt. However, the fear of not measuring up is removed. The eternal sting is gone. We’re not made to sit on the sidelines. We’re made to take part. If you want to eat, you have to work. It’s not because it all goes to hell if you don’t do it right, it’s because you were made in His image and tapping into that is what makes you feel alive. It’s not about your salvation, it’s about the blood that runs through your veins.

What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative. -Romans 9:12

He creates people with specific purpose and they’re not always noble. His purposes are noble, but the people and their choices aren’t. It’s not about what a person does or doesn’t do that determines His purpose. It’s so much to the point that if you’re getting this, you should be feeling like all of your effort to get ahead and do it right is for nothing. You should be wondering how it is that a ‘bad person’ can be no worse than a ‘good person.’ If you were getting this, you would be wondering what the point of anything is. You would be concerned about God and wondering if He’s fair at all.

He doesn’t follow our rules. In our world, the fastest wins, the richest get and the fittest survive. In His Kingdom, offenses are forgiven like they never happened and, the most confusing part: hearts are hardened if He has a reason for it.

When God reveals something to you, is it because of something you did? Faith is from God, vision is from God, compassion is from God. There is nothing a person can do to manufacture these things in their lives. You’ve seen them try and it’s awkward and embarrassing. So, you have to consider the fact that if someone’s eyes are shut, their faith is weak and their hearts are hard, God has a purpose for it.

What does that do to your feelings about that person? The ‘deceived’ one. We get angry and blame people as though our lives depended on them not making any mistakes. Since when are you at the mercy of flesh and blood?

I have hurt people as a result of my own deception. I have altered lives with my hard and selfish heart. I know what it’s like to be horrible and I know what it’s like to have a complete transformation when my eyes were opened and my heart changed. God can shut you down for a purpose and then open you back up to a place where faith in grace is the only thing keeping you from sinking into the abyss of self-loathing and despair.

A person can hurt you horribly, even in the name of God, and not have any idea how wrong they are. If they did, it would probably crush them.

God raises people for His own purposes. He determines how they’re used and what is used. And just to one-up that, He chooses these things before you’re born.

Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please. God told Moses, “I’m in charge of mercy. I’m in charge of compassion.” Compassion doesn’t originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God’s mercy. The same point was made when God said to Pharaoh, “I picked you as a bit player in this drama of my salvation power.” All we’re saying is that God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for good or ill. -Romans 9:14-18

Do you remember what part Pharaoh played? He was the jerk. God picked him, hardened his heart and then drowned him with his army in the sea. God’s purpose is for us to know Him and He goes to extremes to make that possible.

Are you going to object, “So how can God blame us for anything since he’s in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?” -Romans 9:19

David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) sings a song called ‘In Stitches’ and says, “When Job asked you a question, you responded ‘Who are you to challenge your Creator?’..it makes You sound defensive, like you had not thought it through.” Obviously David gets it and doesn’t like it. I’ve had a few conversations with him and I like him. I like him mainly because he is who he is. A church boy with questions that give him pause.

We all have a little god complex in us. It’s the nucleus of the sin nature. You’re the master of your own universe. So, do scriptures like this make you feel like a toddler with a toy gun and plastic spurs?

Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right? -Romans 9:20-23

The English Standard Version, same passage, says: ‘What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory…’

You don’t even have to know what God is doing in order to play your part. You’re not mindless robots, so don’t try to use that as a reason to object to the invasion on your ‘kingdom’. The closest example to a mindless robot I can think of is a person who credits their inhumane brutality as acting on God’s behalf and, of course, ‘in love’. No compassion, no mercy, no love. Just judgment. Even then, you can always trace that down to selfishness and vanity. When you try to fit the role, you miss it completely. People who are trying to attain righteousness don’t reach it. People who don’t seem to care, attain it. Smoke on that.

How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. -Romans 9:30-32

we need to know what you learned

When you make a mistake, part of the healing process is in being able to articulate what you learned. You aren’t alone in your weakness that made you fail. People are out there traveling down the same road you took. Hind sight is 20/20 and they need your vision. You can see where they are clearer than most. You know what they need because you needed it, too. Instead of staying private and sweeping the shame of failure deep into your past, use the power of grace that you’ve experienced and help people. We all make mistakes and we need you who have been there to speak up so that these people don’t feel alone. The beauty of grace is when you realize you have a gift because of your fall. Your life isn’t your own. Your failure is not unique. People need you. You still have a purpose and it’s so like God to use your failure to give your purpose life.

Justin Davis is over at Jenni Calyville’s blog today talking about his affair, what he learned and what he’s doing with his lessons. Maybe his willingness to have his most painful failure’s used will help you. Or, maybe his transparency will inspire you to come out and be used.

Go check it out HERE.

don’t you go dying on me

If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. -Proverbs 24:10

If you’re feeling tapped out, whose well have you been tapping? We say that our lives belong to God. That our time, money and talent are a gift from Him, but you can tell what you really believe when you actually have to use them for something that doesn’t benefit you.

Rescue the perishing; don’t hesitate to step in and help. If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,” will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know—Someone not impressed with weak excuses. -Proverbs 24:11-12

Don’t yell to a lamb in a ravine and call out the obvious. It does them no good to have you gathered on the bank talking about it. Secure a rope and meet them where they are, not where they should be. They are, after all, where they are.

What if they are trapped by a limb and the only way out is to cut it off? Give them a second to come to terms with that. What they have to do is just as traumatic. If you can’t be there for them when they’re stuck, you can’t be there for them when they’re maimed and free.

Spouting off scriptures about sin and right living doesn’t do anything but point out the obvious. They’re face to face with that reality before you speak it.

Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do:… -Matthew 5:29

They have to maim themselves to get out. They have to lose a part of themselves.

Don’t stand over them and talk about this with no gravity for their reality. Put yourself in their position, look at your own arm and picture it. If you have any bit of ‘I wouldn’t be in their position‘ in you, then please, get far, far away. You haven’t earned your degree in grace. Yet.

Don’t get mad at them when they snap at you. I am mean when I’m hurt. Everybody who knows me knows not to talk to me when I stub my toe or hit my head on my cabinet door. Are you a tart when you have a headache from hell? Don’t take their sharp tongue personally and don’t carve them and their sin in stone. They aren’t themselves.

Things don’t always end up the way you think they should. Put your hope and expectations in God, not in the person. They’ll get out of it the way God sees fit for them. His goal is not their veneer, it’s their vision of Him for the purpose He’s given them. Our experiences are orchestrated in a way that forms us to be who we are called to be. Don’t lose sight of hope when you’re in impossible. Sin never gets the last word.

‘You’re about to be given new grounds for believing.’ -John 11:14

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. -1 Peter 5:10 ESV

muddy water

Job answered God: “I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?’ I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’ I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor.” -Job 42:1-6

God doesn’t have to follow your rules. If you’re in the middle of it right now, don’t make the mistake of thinking He’s been tied up by poor choices. There’s a purpose for everything. Trying to figure it out is just ‘muddying the water.’

the beauty in losing your head

Integrity is usually explained as being that thing you do when nobody is looking. But that’s just one dimension of it. It’s just as much a decision to be exactly who you are no matter who is watching. I’m not talking about pushing the limits of selfishness. I suggesting a life in the scrutiny of honesty.

It’s a conscious decision to be undivided. An ever evolving, multi-dimensional sense of being both whole and open.

A person who lets someone think things that are untrue about them is lacking the other side, or dimension, of integrity. People can turn you into something you’re not. Better or worse is a matter of opinion and we nestle into the good opinions of others even if they’re not based on truth. There’s a payout in being approved. False pretenses aside, it feels good to not be questioned. A moral chameleon who can stand for nothing.

There is no right side when we’re all wrong. There is no reason to hide behind something for fear of disapproval. There is freedom in honesty. You can leave your doors unlocked and know that there are no surprises awaiting a dropper by. Not because you’re flawless, but because you’re honest.

Are you scrubbing the outside of your life when your inside is dirty? If not and you’re merely ‘different’ than the norm, then stop hiding who you are. We need more different. Life aches for authenticity in all its flawed glory.

Authentic lives serve as inspiration and the freedom to be wrong upgrades the whole system.

The freedom to be wrong gives opportunity to work out kinks that would never have the chance otherwise.

Terrified of being judged for falling on your face when you try out your wings. You live in chains and never work out your glitches. You’d rather stay in your package than risk living.

‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’ -Matthew 25:24-25

The One who holds you together never asked you to be safe, He asked you to trust Him. Playing it safe is worthless to Him.

The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least?’ -Matthew 25:26

Stop being so afraid. You have yourself so wound up that you don’t resemble anything near free and full of grace. You’re an unopened doll. Accessories fastened down with rubber bands and hair sewn to the inside of a box decorated with a fake version of fabulous. A promise never kept. A pioneer playing the role of settler.

In trying to appear whatever your immediate culture deems ‘right’, you’ve divided yourself and are living in a prison of public approval. If there is a point when all of our secrets are told, then go ahead and get it over with now. Pull your good intentions out and see how they hold up in the sun.

I’ll tell you from experience, a doll whose head has been pulled off a time or two is more useful than a doll who has never been through the hell of losing her head. We all go through trouble and in those times, we look for someone who has been there. Pristine and poised is worthless to the hand sticking up out of the swamp. How can you tell someone their life can be put back together if you don’t bare your own scars from the ripping?

Live out in the open. Go through the hell of it. It’s how you find out who you really are.

I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! -2 Corinthians 6:11-13

There is a safety net of grace under you at all times. It’s not for selfish living, it’s for honest living. If you’re honest, you’ll need it and we’ll see it. Try to get your head back on straight. Then crawl over to the edge and climb the ladder again.

just enough

Sometimes I feel like Elijah. Not in the ‘pull up my robe and chase after chariots’ kind of way but in the ‘crazies are after me and I’m tired of trying’ kind of way. Crazies aren’t really after me, but I can definitely identify with the fatigue of hanging on the end of life’s limb.

He came to a lone broom bush and collapsed in its shade, wanting in the worst way to be done with it all—to just die: “Enough of this,God! Take my life—I’m ready to join my ancestors in the grave!” -1 Kings 19:4-5

I heard or read something several years ago that stuck with me. “We’re supposed to be ‘fruit’. Fruit doesn’t hug the trunk of the tree, it hangs on the end of a limb.” I’m sure I butchered that quote, or maybe I made it better, but the mental picture is the same. When you picture a heavy piece of fruit hanging by a tiny stem on the end of a swaying branch, it’s easy to understand that wind, sun, rain and lack of water can all contribute to that piece of fruit wanting to just drop and rot in the shade.

Exhausted, he fell asleep under the lone broom bush. -1 Kings 19:5

So many scriptures come to mind when I think of the piece of fruit giving in to come-what-may under that tree. Giving in to death to find life. A valley of skeletons blooming with blood plumped flesh and rising to their feet. God’s strength in our weakness. There are lots of scriptural references like that. I think of those and wonder how long the bones had to lay in the valley.

Suddenly an angel shook him awake and said, “Get up and eat!” -1 Kings 19:5

God has your sustenance in His hands and He dishes it out in the portions you need. It’s not all at once and when you get it, it’s gone in moments. Then you’re left with an empty plate again. You spend more time with an empty plate, figuratively speaking, than you do eating.

He looked around and, to his surprise, right by his head were a loaf of bread baked on some coals and a jug of water. He ate the meal and went back to sleep. -1 Kings 19:6

Just enough. For well practiced people, ‘just enough’ is enough. But, who actually wants to be well practiced in that? Flesh vs. Spirit. Sustained for another day to practice some more.

The angel of God came back, shook him awake again, and said, “Get up and eat some more—you’ve got a long journey ahead of you.” -1 Kings 19:7

Doesn’t it make you want to sit there and cry when you see how much further you have to go? Sometimes you can’t even see the end. You’re tired and you’re upset. You have too far to go in any direction and it’s so normal to just curl up and wait for it to all be over. However, you’ve got what you need to get to sunset today, so get up and inch forward. You have nothing to lose by finding another tree a few miles down the road. You can die there tomorrow if you want.

He got up, ate and drank his fill, and set out. Nourished by that meal, he walked forty days and nights, all the way to the mountain of God, to Horeb. When he got there, he crawled into a cave and went to sleep. -1 Kings 19:8-9

Forty days and nights. Do you have to earn the right to give up the fight? Like a motor winding down to its last sputter? Maybe it’s not about the goal any more. Maybe it’s not even about survival, but about the home stretch. Earn the collapse.

But then,…

Then the word of God came to him: “So Elijah, what are you doing here?” -1 Kings 19:9

Seriously? You know that point when all your niceties are tapped? When your politeness has checked out?

“I’ve been working my heart out for the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,” said Elijah. -1 Kings 19:10

He did all He could do and he was running for his life, but now he just wanted it to be over. He failed, so he thought, so what’s the use?

“Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by.” -1 Kings 19:11

Where are you looking for God? Is it in a flash of lightning or a windfall of provision? He’s poured manna from the sky, what’s He going to do for you? How is God going to show up now?

A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn’t to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn’t in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.

When Elijah heard the quiet voice, he muffled his face with his great cloak, went to the mouth of the cave, and stood there. -1 Kings 19:12-13

The quiet, patient and piercing voice of the One we’re holding out for. It’s not the hurricane, it’s not the wind, it’s not the earthquake and it’s not the fire. It’s the gentle and quiet whisper of the One who’s going to ask you once again:

“..now tell me, what are you doing here?” -1 Kings 19:13

Elijah is the only person in the Bible who got picked up in a ‘chariot of fire’ that took him to heaven. So don’t beat yourself up too much. He had his pity party, too. Maybe it’s time to stop feeling sorry for yourself. Take a deep breath, grab your  bag of ‘just enough’ and get through it.

in it

God knows what He’s doing and you just happen to be in the middle of it.

do you love me

cont…

Peter’s feet found the sea bottom. His water logged pants made it hard to walk and he wanted to run.

There is a place far beyond human connection and if you can reach it, the games of social positioning and play acting are gone. There is mutual vulnerability and comfort. You can explore every facet of the human condition, the tricks and triggers of the mind and flesh, but you’re exploring these things from a distance and without fear. The differences and details of others are appreciated, not envied or looked down on. Life is understood and learned from. Silence is pregnant with thought. Thought is fresh and full of life that is otherwise completely missed.

When you spend most of your time in this place then the ‘regular’ life–the going to the mall life, the small talk life, the ‘be seen’ life–is an energy zapper, thought suppressor, …little fire ants nipping at your intellect. Jesus was a beckoning index finger through a heavy curtain between the layers. In all the pockets of thought and philosophy, Jesus added a much freer possibility. Freer because the potential for life entered the realm of eternity or infinity. Jesus was someone who didn’t have as much trouble forgetting the possibilities. Conversations with him send you hiking with backpacks and lanterns through territories your brain isn’t used to traveling. He can keep going, dying to show you more, but you need to rest. Bonfires crackle, bodies sleep on a bed of earth and minds continue to spin through the mysteries of life while you dream.

That’s what being His friend is like. Inspiring is too translucent a word, but He stirs something deep within, yet far, far outside. He uncovers buried treasure in your spirit, but takes you away from your natural self and lets you escape the heavy shoes of naturalism, the shoulder shrugging of agnosticism and the back patting of conformism.

People who live on that level are hard to find. There’s an immediate connection and bond when you do find one. Jesus was the ultimate find. He opened eyes people didn’t know they had. He’s yoga for the brain. If you could follow him in a conversation, his excitement grew until he brought you to your barrier of understanding, then he got quiet, went off on his own and thought by himself.

Seeing Him on the beach, tending a fire, grinning from knowing, was a brand new territory for Peter. Jesus brought thought into physical and acted like nothing while the men gathered around. Speechless.

Peter pulled his drooping pants up and pushed his soaked hair away from his eyes. Jesus was poking the fire with a stick while flames danced in His eyes. It’s almost like He thinks He’s funny, transcending levels of consciousness like this. Effortlessly moving from eternity to time, from time to eternity. This was the third time He’d done it so far. What would today be? Peter was so lost in life without Him. Being here seemed pointless after all he had learned and he didn’t know what to do with his life now that Jesus was gone. He just wanted to go with Him, wherever He was now, he wanted to go…now.

But, Jesus wanted to eat.

“Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” -John 21:10

Peter wanted to talk to him. His heart was on fire while he forced himself to wait until the right time. He didn’t feel like eating. He didn’t feel like talking. He didn’t feel like sitting there. He wanted out of this world. He wanted to eat the meal with Jesus wherever Jesus was eating these days. He wanted to sleep on a bed of dirt with a pillow of rock and talk about the mysteries again. He wanted to be able to shut both his eyes when Jesus was around, not afraid that He would slip away when he fell asleep. Then he could relax, then he could eat and sleep and feel secure. Peter was fidgety. Agitated. His spirit was on fire while his eyebrows furrowed.

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” -John 21:15

Simon, son of John… Peter’s heart ached. The phrase ’son of John’ tied him to earth. An uncut umbilical cord tying him down like a grounded kite.

Peter’s heart ached. Here he was with precious few moments with his friend and he couldn’t get himself together. Jesus must have noticed his distance and had to ask the most horrible question ever. ‘Do you love me?’

“Yes, Master, you know I love you.” -John 21:15

Take me with you. Please, get me out of here. That’s what he wanted to say, but he didn’t.

“Feed my lambs.” -John 21:15

No, don’t give me something to do here! Peter’s eyes stung. He swallowed hard. He didn’t speak because his heart was quaking and his voice would have shaken. He looked down and focused on Jesus’ feet. Feet he’s watched kick up dust on a road in the middle of nowhere. Feet he’s watched climb steps to houses He never should have been in. Feet he’s seen the bottom of when Jesus was kneeling across the room washing the feet of everyone else.

“Simon, son of John, do you love me?” -John 21:16

Peter drew in a long breath that shuddered in his chest. He blinked the tears away and looked Jesus square in the eye.

“Yes, Master, you know I love you.” -John 21:16

Peter knew that Jesus knew. What is this? Why is He doing this?

“Shepherd my sheep.” -John 21:16

Peter clenched his jaw and felt his abdomen tighten.

“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

“Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.”

“Feed my sheep.” -John 21:17

Peter brought his fist to his mouth to pinch his lips between his thumb and teeth, trying to squeeze the pain from watering his eyes. He raised his eyebrows, took a deep breath and nodded.

Jesus started something that Peter had to maintain. Jesus taught him how to live on that other level and sent His Spirit to draw him even further. Peter had to keep camping out, keep building fires, keep kicking up dust because that’s the way Jesus said he could show his love.

“I’m telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you’ll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don’t want to go.” -John 21:18

Following Jesus, really following, is the hardest thing to do. You have to learn to despise your own name. You have to trust while you go through the things that make it possible to despise your own name. You have to walk down paths you would never walk had you been given the choice.

We’re still travelers on the train and He’s gone to ‘prepare a place’ for us. We can sit and ache or we can try to find the others. Some of them don’t know who they are yet and they need to be found.

If you’re out there, do you get it? Are you found?

You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. -John 14:2-3

waiting for the sun to rise

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. -Psalm 127:1 ESV

You can do nothing on your own. Well thought plans fail. Well run races are lost. Sometimes doing your best isn’t good enough. God is sovereign and sometimes His sovereignty infringes. Like wheels stuck in the mud, like a car wanting to drive up hill on a sheet of ice, like a builder with rickety wood and jello nails, we’re helpless to the will of God.

Does this put you at ease or does this frustrate you?

Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. -Psalm 127:1 ESV

You can guard your treasure day and night and still lose it. You can take care, use caution and still watch it slip through your fingers. You can set up the best fail safe system and yet it collapses. God is sovereign and sometimes you and He have different plans.

Do you want your plan or do you want His?

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth. -Ecclesiastes 3:1

But, what the heck is He doing? He’s operating outside of time and conducting the orchestra of a life that we measure by time. We see what seems senseless and feel helpless to bring it to order. Blame, guilt, shame and frustration season our voices and sing our songs.

What song are you singing? If there is a right time for everything, then what time is it in your world?

A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace. -Ecclesiastes 3:2-8

A poetic homage to a sovereign God and we usually hear it at funerals to give us peace. Peace that what was taken from us was God’s timing. We use God’s sovereignty when it makes us feel better and we reject it when it makes us feel controlled. God does not contradict Himself. We do.

Things and people are given life and then life is taken. We know we can’t control that. You don’t get to choose when, where, to whom or how. You are powerless to God’s timing. This is an indisputable truth that everybody knows. You don’t get to pick and choose when what is true, true, and when what is true, a lie.

True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. -Ecclesiastes 3:11

You can’t mend a garden that God intends to rip up.  You can’t find what God purposed for you to lose. You can’t hold on to something that God wants you to release.

In the same way, you can’t rip up what God has planted. You can’t lose what God has given you to find. You can’t release what God has given you to hold.

You can’t do anything that God hasn’t already declared ‘done’.

I’ve also concluded that whatever God does, that’s the way it’s going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God’s done it and that’s it. That’s so we’ll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear. Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That’s how it always is with God. -Ecclesiastes 3:14-15

The sharp blade of truth cuts all the way to the bone and leaves you with a choice: Do you want to serve a God you can’t control? But, then, is it really a choice outside of ‘time’ or just at this ‘time’? We measure by the rising and setting of the sun, but God created the sun, so what does He use to make His measurements?

Unlike us, you’re not working against a deadline. You have all eternity to work things out. -Job to God; Job 10:5

Things might look bad for a time, you may have to stand and watch all your good memories go up in flames. I know that things seem senseless and the pain robs your sleep on nights that never end. I’ve been there, but I’m here to tell you that those nights do end. The sun does rise.

I create the blacksmith who fires up his forge and makes a weapon designed to kill. I also create the destroyer— but no weapon that can hurt you has ever been forged. Any accuser who takes you to court will be dismissed as a liar. This is what God’s servants can expect. I’ll see to it that everything works out for the best.” God’s Decree. -Isaiah 54:16-17

Maybe it’s time to ‘worship in holy fear.’ Holy fear because you’re worshipping a God you can’t control and resting in the fact that if it’s happening, then God has a purpose for it.

Last night I had a dream that all the mending I want so desperately to happen was already happening and I just didn’t know it yet. By the time I was made aware, it was done. It’s as involuntary as the sun rising. We can pray through the long hours of night and beg the sun to rise, but the sun rises in it’s own time and it does it without any help from us. We can rest and get a good nights sleep knowing that the night won’t last forever and enjoy the gift of the sun when it’s the sun’s time to rise.